“No,” he answered, still smiling; “how could I?  You see, I’m in love with mine.”

And he told proudly and with shining eyes how the clothes he wore had been spun into thread and woven into cloth and cut out and fitted and sewed together by his wife’s own hands; and it was no doubt Deborah he had in mind when he said:  “God bless all good women who help men to do their work.”

The young adventurer had no difficulty in finding employment as a printer, for printers were in demand in that Quaker city.  He prospered from the first, and at the age of twenty-four, had a little business of his own, and was editing the Pennsylvania Gazette.  Two years later, he began the publication of an almanac purporting to be written by one Richard Saunders, and which soon won an immense reputation as “Poor Richard’s Almanac.”  As an almanac, it did not differ much from others, but, in addition to the usual information about the tides and changes of the moon and seasons of the year, it contained a wealth of wise and witty sayings, many of which have passed into proverbs and are in common use to-day.  Here are a few of them: 

    Virtue and a trade are a child’s best portions.

    Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.

    The way to be safe is never to be secure.

    When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.

    Well done is better than well said.

    God helps them that help themselves.

    Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

    He that won’t be counselled can’t be helped.

That he was a philosopher in deed as well as in word was soon to be proved, for, at the age of forty-two, he did the wisest thing a man can do, but for which very few have courage.  He had won an established position in the world and as much wealth as he felt he needed, so he sold his business, intending to devote the remainder of his life to science, of which he had always been passionately fond.  Already he had founded the Philadelphia Library and the American Philosophical Society, had invented the Franklin stove, and served as postmaster of Philadelphia, and a few years later, he established the institution which is now the University of Pennsylvania.  It was at about this time that, by experimenting with a kite, he proved lightning to be a discharge of electricity, and suggested the use of lightning rods.

[Illustration:  Franklin]

But his scientific studies were destined to be interrupted, for his country called him, and the remainder of his life was passed in her service, first as agent in London for Pennsylvania, where he did everything possible to avert the Revolution; then as a member of the Continental Congress, and one of the committee of five which drew up the Declaration of Independence; then as ambassador to France, where, practically unaided, he succeeded in effecting the alliance between the two countries