for a moment from his brother's game, "why, with God's blessing, it's sure to last, that it is. What I've told you all along, Josh, is that you hadn't faith in that boy's mind. He's as like our own brother Tom, I say again, as one grain of sand is to another; and as our Thomas came to be the foremost man of our family, why, mark my words, Josh, your Ben will grow up to be the greatest man in all yours, though I dare say none of us here will ever be spared to see the day. The boy has a fine common-sense mind of his own, and where there's a mind to work upon, you can do any thing, brother, within reason. With jackasses, of course you must give them the stick to make them go the way you want; but with rational creatures, it's only a fool that believes blows can do more than logic. What first set you and me thinking about our duties in life, Josh?" he asked, and gave the dice-box an extra rattle as he paused for a reply. "Was it kicks, eh? kicks and cuffs? No; but it was sitting under good old Luke Fuller at the Northampton Conventicle, and listening to his godly teachings-that it was, if I know any thing about it. And now I'll tell you what I mean to do with my godson Ben. I've made myself responsible for the errors of his youth, you know, and what I mean to do is this—"

The mother stopped her needles for the moment as she awaited anxiously the conclusion of the speech; but Benjamin, who by this time had got by far the best of the hit at backgammon, paused to watch the result of the throw he was about to make; and when the dice were cast upon the board, Josiah, who, like his brother, was divided between the discourse and the contest, inquired,

"Well, and what do you mean to do, Master Ben ?"

"Why, I mean to gammon you nicely this time, Master Josh," he replied with a chuckle as he "took up" the "blot" his antagonist had left on the board.

"Tut! tut! man alive," returned Josiah, in a huff at the ill luck which pursued him. But what do you mean to do with the boy, I want to know ?"

"Why, I mean," answered brother Benjamin, abstractedly, as the game drew to a close, and he kept gazing intently at the board, "I mean-" and then, as he took off his last man, and started up, rubbing his palms together as briskly as if it were a sharp frost, with exultation over his victory, he added, "But you shall see you shall see what I mean to do with him. Come, that's a hit to me, brother."

It was useless for Josiah or his wife to attempt to get even a clew to the method Uncle Benjamin intended to adopt with their son.

The godfather, on second thoughts, had judged it better to keep his mode of proceeding to himself; and so, finding he could hardly hold out against the lengthened siege of the father and mother, he deemed it prudent to beat a retreat; and accordingly, seizing his rush-light and the volume of manuscript sermons, that he never let out of his sight, he wished the couple good-night, and retired to his room.

CHAPTER IX.

THE WILL AND THE WAY.

A SMALL sailing vessel lay becalmed next morning far out in the offing of the Massachusetts Bay. The fresh breeze that had sprung up at

sunrise had gradually died away as the day advanced toward noon, and now the main-sail hung down from the yard as loose and straight as a curtain from a pole, while the boom kept swinging heavily from side to side as the boat rolled about in the long and lazy swell of the ocean. At the helm sat one of the smartest young cockswains out of Boston harbor-Young Benjamin Franklin; and near him was the uncle who had undertaken to shape the little fellow's course through life.

The lad was again at a loss to fathom the reason of the trip.

So long as the breeze had lasted he had been too deeply engrossed with the management of the craft-too pleased with watching the bows of the tiny vessel plow their way through the foaming water, like a sledge through so much. snow-to trouble his brains much about the object of an excursion so congenial to his heart. So long as the summer waves rushed swiftly as a mill-sluice past the gunwale of the boat, and the hull lay over almost on its side under the pressure of the pouting sail, the blood went dancing, almost as cheerily as the waves, through the veins of the excited boy, and his hand grasped the tiller with the same pride as a horseman holds the rein of a swift and well-trained steed. But when the wind flagged, and the sail began to beat backward and forward with each lull in the breeze, like the fluttering wing of a wounded gull, the little fellow could not keep from wondering why Uncle Benjamin had brought him out to sea. What could any one learn of the ways of the world in an open boat far away from land?

The boy, however, lacked the courage to inquire what it all meant.

Presently he turned his head to note the dis

tance they had run, and cried as he looked back toward Boston, "Why, I declare, uncle, we can hardly see the State House!"

"Yes, lad," was the answer, "the town has faded into a mere blot of haze; but how finely the long curving line of the crescent-shaped bay appears to rampart the ocean round, now that the entire sweep of the shore is brought within grasp of the eye! What a vast basin it looks; so vast, indeed, that the capes which form the horns of the crescent coast seem to be the very ends of the earth itself! And yet, vast as it looks to us, lad, this great tract of shore is but a mere span's length in comparison with the enormous American continent; that continent which is a third part of the entire earth-one of the three gigantic tongues of land that stretch down from the north pole,* and ridge the ocean as if they were so many mighty sea-walls raised to break the fury of the immense flood of water enveloping the globe. Now tell me, who was it that discovered the great continent before us, Benjamin ?"

"Cristofaro Colombo, the Genoese sailor, on the 11th of October, in the year 1492," quickly answered the nephew, proud of the opportunity of displaying his knowledge of the history of his native land.

"And that is but little more than two hundred years ago," the other added. "For thousands of years one third of the entire earth was not even known to exist by the civilized portion of the

*The three tongues of land spoken of are, 1. North and South America; 2. Europe and Africa; 3. Asia and Australasia. Each of these great tracts is more or less divided midway into two portions. Between the two Americas flow the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea; between Europe and Africa, on the other hand, runs the Mediterranean; while Asia and Australasia are separated by the Chinese Sea and Indian Archipelago.

globe; and had it not been for the will of that Genoese sailor, you and I, Ben, most likely, would not have been gazing at this same land at this same moment."

"The will of Columbus!" echoed the nephew, in wonderment at the speech.

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'Yes, boy. I have brought you out in this boat to-day to show you what the mere will of a man can compass," continued the uncle; "for I want to impress upon you, my little fellow, now that we are here, with the mighty American shore stretching miles away before our eyes, how the will of a simple mariner gave these mighty shores an existence to the rest of the habitable globe." "The will!" repeated the boy.

"Yes, Benjamin, the will!" the uncle iterated emphatically; "for the finding of this great country was not a mere accidental discovery-not a blind stumbling over a heap of earth in the dark -but the mature fruition of a purpose long conIceived and sustained in the mind. When did Columbus first form the design of reaching India by a westward course?" asked the old man, delighted to catechise his little godson concerning the chronicles of America.

Young Ben reflected for a moment, and then stammered out, as if half in doubt about the date, "As early as the-as the year 1474, I think the book says, uncle."

"Yes, boy, he formed the design nearly twenty years before he made the discovery. To reach India by sea," proceeded the mentor, "was the great problem of navigation in those days. Marco Polo had traveled overland as far even as China and Japan; but the boats of our forefathers, flatbottomed as they were, and impelled only by oars, were unable to venture far out of sight of land; for in those days sailors hadn't even the knowl