child, whom he had meanly deserted, and Franklin, in his turn, forgot his engagement with Miss Read, writing but one letter, and that to let her know that he was not likely to soon return. But he lived to confess his great wrong, and to do what he could to repair it.

Ralph, meanwhile, indulged in gross immorality, which soon involved Franklin in heavier expenses, and brought a stain upon his character. With reference to his course at this period he afterwards wrote, " Another erratum." But Ralph broke friendship with Franklin, who was fortunate to get rid of a companion that had been only a burden and a snare.

CHAPTER X.

Relieved of a Burden. - A New Printing-Office. -The Water-American. - Becr-Drinkers. — Initiation-Fee. - Frugal Living.- New Lodg ings. A Catholic Lady. Wygate. - Denham. - His Proposal to Franklin.

Relieved of his burden, Franklin now began to think of doing something more than living from hand to mouth, and, in the hope of obtaining better pay, he sought employment in a larger office, with Mr. Watts, near Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here he continued as long as he was in London.

In America he had combined composing and press-work, but now, for the sake of exercise, he worked entirely at the press. He drank water only, while the rest of the workmen, fifty in number, were all great beer-drinkers. They were astonished to see how easily the water-American, as they called him, could carry up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, while none of them could carry more than one in both hands. He was stronger than the drinkers of strong beer! There was an ale-house boy always on hand to answer calls for drink.

"My companion at the press," says Franklin, “drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with

his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom, but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain, or flour, of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore if he could eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under."

After some weeks, Franklin was transferred to the composing-room. Here an initiation fee of five shillings was demanded, to be expended in drink. Having already paid one to the pressmen, he refused to comply, the master approving of his course. He stood his ground for two or three weeks, but was so much annoyed by a variety of tricks practiced upon him, such as mixing his type, transposing and breaking his matter, when he was out of sight, the work, they told him, of the chapel-ghost,* which ever haunted those not regularly admitted to their fraternity, -that at last he paid the score, persuaded of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with continually.

"I was now," he adds, "on a fair footing with them, and soon acquired considerable influence. I proposed some reasonable changes in their chapel-laws, and carried them • A printing-house is called a chapel by the workmen.

against all opposition.

From my example a great many of them left their muddling breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, finding they could with me be supplied from a neighboring house with a large porringer of hot water-gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbled with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer, viz. three half-pence. This was a more comfortable, as well as a cheaper breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. Those who continued sotting with their beer all day, were often, by not paying, out of credit at the ale-house, and used to make interest with me to get beer; their light, as they phrased it, being out. I watched the pay-table on Saturday night, and collected what I stood engaged for them, having to pay sometimes thirty shillings a week on their accounts."

He was thus in high favor with the workmen, and, from his uncommon quickness in composing, he was much thought of by the master, and received for special work, now and then, extra pay.

He afterwards found nearer lodgings in Duke Street, up three pairs of back stairs, where he was to pay the widow lady who kept the house three shillings and sixpence a week, which, afterwards, from her liking his company, was reduced to one shilling and sixpence. The hostess, who was a Catholic, a convert from Protestantism, was confined to her room by lameness. She was full of interesting anecdotes of people of distinction as far back as the time of Charles the Second, and Franklin found it very agreeable to spend an evening, when she desired it, in her company, their supper consisting of half an an

chovy each, a small slice of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between them.

"In the garret of her house," says Franklin, "there lived a maiden lady of seventy, in the most retired manner, of whom my landlady gave me this account: that she was a Roman Catholic, had been sent abroad when young, and lodged in a nunnery with the intent of becoming a nun ; but, the country not agreeing with her, she returned to England, where, there being no nunnery, she had vowed to lead the life of a nun, as near as might be done in those circumstances. Accordingly she had given all her estate to charitable purposes, reserving only twelve pounds a year to live on, and out of this sum she still gave a part in charity, living herself on water-gruel only, and using no fire but to boil it. She had lived many years in that garret, being permitted to remain there gratis by successive Catholic tenants of the house below, as they deemed it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her, to confess her, every day. 'From this I asked her,' said my landlady, 'how she, as she lived, could possibly find so much employment for a confessor ?' 'Oh,' said she, it is impossible to avoid vain thoughts.'

"I was permitted once to visit her. She was cheerful and polite, and conversed pleasantly. The room was clean, but had no other furniture than a mattress, a table with a crucifix, and a book, a stool which she gave me to sit on, and a picture over the chimney of St. Veronica displaying her handkerchief, with the miraculous figure of Christ's bleeding face on it, which she explained to me with great seriousness. She looked pale, but was never sick; and I give it as another instance, on how small an income life and health may be supported."

At Watts', Franklin made the acquaintance of a young printer, named Wygate, who was fond