In this way our friend Benjamin spent his boyhood and youth, until, on account of some disagreement with his brother, he left his native town and went to Philadelphia.  He landed in the latter city, a homeless and hungry young man, and bought three-pence worth of bread to satisfy his appetite.  Not knowing where else to go, he entered a Quaker meeting-house, sat down, and fell fast asleep.  He has not told us whether his slumbers were visited by any dreams.  But it would have been a strange dream, indeed, and an incredible one, that should have foretold how great a man he was destined to become, and how much he would be honored in that very city, where he was now friendless, and unknown.

So here we finish our story of the childhood of Benjamin Franklin.  One of these days, if you would know what he was in his manhood, you must read his own works, and the history of American Independence.

“Do let us hear a little more of him!” said Edward; “not that I admire him so much as many other characters; but he interests me, because he was a Yankee boy.”

“My dear son,” replied Mr. Temple, “it would require a whole volume of talk, to tell you all that is worth knowing about Benjamin Franklin.  There is a very pretty anecdote of his flying a kite in the midst of a thunder-storm, and thus drawing down the lightning from the clouds, and proving that it was the same thing as electricity.  His whole life would be an interesting story, if we had time to tell it.”

“But, pray, dear father, tell us what made him so famous,” said George.  “I have seen his portrait a great many times.  There is a wooden bust of him in one of our streets, and marble ones, I suppose, in some other places.  And towns, and ships of war, and steamboats, and banks, and academies, and children, are often named after Franklin.  Why should he have grown so very famous?”

“Your question is a reasonable one, George,” answered his father.  “I doubt whether Franklin’s philosophical discoveries, important as they were, or even his vast political services, would have given him all the fame which he acquired.  It appears to me that Poor Richard’s Almanac did more than any thing else towards making him familiarly known to the public.  As the writer of those proverbs, which Poor Richard was supposed to utter, Franklin became the counsellor and household friend of almost every family in America.  Thus, it was the humblest of all his labors that has done the most for his fame.”

“I have read some of those proverbs,” remarked Edward; “but I do not like them.  They are all about getting money, or saving it.”

“Well,” said his father, “they were suited to the condition of the country; and their effect, upon the whole, has doubtless been good,—­although they teach men but a very small portion of their duties.”

Chapter IX