He went out at once to look for work.  He found employment in a printing-office, and there he stayed for nearly a year.

Franklin made many acquaintances with literary people while he was in London.

He proved himself to be a young man of talent and ingenuity.  He was never idle.

His companions in the printing-office were beer-drinkers and sots.  He often told them how foolish they were to spend their money and ruin themselves for drink.

He drank nothing but water.  He was strong and active.  He could carry more, and do more work, than any of them.

He persuaded many of them to leave off drinking, and to lead better lives.

Franklin was also a fine swimmer.  There was no one in London who could swim as well.  He wrote two essays on swimming, and made some plans for opening a swimming school.

When he had been in London about a year, he met a Mr. Denham, a merchant of Philadelphia, and a strong friendship sprang up between them.

Mr. Denham at last persuaded Franklin to return to Philadelphia, and be a clerk in his dry-goods store.

And so, on the 23rd of the next July, he set sail for home.  The ship was nearly three months in making the voyage, and it was not until October that he again set foot in Philadelphia.

* * * * *

XI.—­A LEADING MAN IN PHILADELPHIA.

When Franklin was twenty-four years old he was married to Miss Deborah Read, the young lady who had laughed at him when he was walking the street with his three rolls.

They lived together very happily for a great many years.

Some time before this marriage, Franklin’s friend and employer, Mr.
Denham, had died.

The dry-goods store, of which he was the owner, had been sold, and Franklin’s occupation as a salesman, or clerk, was gone.  But the young man had shown himself to be a person of great industry and ability.  He had the confidence of everybody that knew him.

A friend of his, who had money, offered to take him as a partner in the newspaper business.  And so he again became a printer, and the editor of a paper called the Pennsylvania Gazette.

It was not long until Franklin was recognized as one of the leading men in Philadelphia.  His name was known, not only in Pennsylvania, but in all the colonies.

He was all the time thinking of plans for making the people about him wiser and better and happier.

He established a subscription and circulating library, the first in America.  This library was the beginning of the present Philadelphia Public Library.

He wrote papers on education.  He founded the University of Pennsylvania.  He organized the American Philosophical Society.

He established the first fire company in Philadelphia, which was also the first in America.

He invented a copper-plate press, and printed the first paper money of New Jersey.