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YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Little Ben looked with inordinate wonder at the individual as he heard him speak of the immense value of his projects one after another, and marveled how, if he was the possessor of such extraordinary wealth, there should be so povertystricken an air about his dwelling.

Nor was the boy's astonishment in any way decreased when he heard the man, as he stood on the door-steps assuring them that he wouldn't take a hundred thousand guineas, if any one would lay the money down on the stones before him, for even a half share in his flying machine, whisper immediately afterward in his uncle's ear, just before leaving, that he'd consider it a great favor if he would let him have half a dollar for a day or two.

RATIONAL ANIMAL No. 9.

From the inventor the couple wended their way to the chief astronomer of the town, and this man they found scarcely able to speak to them, for he was busy sweeping the heavens for a new planet, which, after years of laborious calculation, he had ascertained should exist somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. He had been engaged in making observations upon this matter almost night and day, he said, for the last twelvemonth, and had laid out hundreds upon a new reflecting telescope, the speculum of which alone had cost more than half the money, for he was determined to make the discovery all his own. To him there was no pleasure but in watching the stars-no use for money but in the purchase of equatorials, astronomical clocks, transit instruments, artificial horizons, mural circles, and micrometer glasses, etc., etc.

RATIONAL ANIMAL No. 10.

The visit to the astronomer was followed by a peep into the household of an entomologist, where the boy found the study of the stars replaced by that of insects.

It was no longer distant worlds, but the tiniest things on earth that absorbed the entire time and means of this individual. Here cases of spitted butterflies and cockchafers delighted the big baby, christened "philosopher." Here the telescope was laid aside for the microscope, and the everyday world of human passion ignored for the hidden one of animalcular life and habits. The inhabitants of a drop of water were, to the magnified vision of this particular sage, creatures of the liveliest interest, whereas those of the next street were hardly worth a moment's thought. To see the blood circulate in the web of a frog's foot, this worthy spent pounds and pounds upon an "eighth," but to know how the heart of man was stirred he would not give a doit. What an exquisite charm there was to him in enlarging the dust of a butterfly's wing to the magnitude of an ostrich's feathers, or in looking at the proboscis of a blue-bottle under a "high power!" but how "stale, flat, and unprofitable" to bring even a "low power" to bear upon the parasites of society, or to scrutinize the economy of the human bloodsucker! In a word, to brother man not the slightest heed, nor even a penny was given, whereas to brother tadpole an entire life and a small fortune were devoted.

Even little Ben, as he was whirled, so to speak, from one house to another by his uncle, and introduced to the most opposite characters in rapid succession (for the old man strove to bring out

the "high lights" of the picture of human life in all the black and white of strong contrast), could hardly help philosophizing, in his own simple way, upon the puzzling problem that had been brought under his notice.

"How strange!" mused the lad to himself, as he jogged along; "one man finds no pleasure but in studying the stars, another no delight but in contemplating insects; one in perpetually spying through magnifying glasses at little specks of light which are 'millions of miles away,' the other forever looking through the same kind of glasses at tiny creatures that are almost as far removed from himself! One declares there is no happiness in the world like that of sporting; another vows the only true joy is to be found in books; a third that it lies in show and dress. One sacrifices every thing to get drink, another to get money; this one to collect weeds and wild-flowers, and that man to collect bits of old pavement, old tiles, and vases. How odd it is! and one and all, too, are ready to give up their lives and fortunes to their particular pursuit."

The view of life seemed as inconsistent to the little fellow as the jumble of scenes in a dream. "Ha! my man," smiled Uncle Benjamin, delighted to listen to the boy's reflections, "I dare say the riddle of human nature does puzzle you a good bit; and, to tell the truth, it occasionally puts me to my wit's end to comprehend it, even old stager as I am, and up to most of the antics of the mummers too. To run the round of one's acquaintances in this way, lad, and see the different characters one meets with in his journeys from house to house, is to my mind very much like going over a large lunatic asylum, and learning, as you pass from cell to cell, the various queer manias with which the several inmates are possessed."

But there was no time just then to reason on the matter: the first object was to see and observe; to draw conclusions was an after consideration. So on the old man and boy hurried to inspect some more of the shows in the great "Vanity Fair."

"Walk up! walk up!" cried Uncle Ben to the lad as they approached the next human curiosity, "and see now the most celebrated epicure in all the town."

RATIONAL ANIMAL No. 11.

They met the worthy, hobbling along with a punnet of tomatoes in his hand (with one elephantine foot done up in flannel, and incased in a huge list slipper), on his way to the fishmonger's at the end of the street where he lived; and there, as he stood picking out a prime bit of salmon- -"just a pound or two from the thick part of the fish"-he told them how he had been suffering from his "old friend the gout," though he was happy to say his dyspepsia was a leetle better, for he had been dieting himself a good bit of late. He had cut off his "night-cap" of Maraschino punch after supper, he said, for he had found out at last that that had been doing him a deal of harm, though it was delicious tipple, to be sure. Then he had given up his toast and caviar in the middle of the day; for his medical man had told him caviar was too rich for him, and that really his stomach was so weak that he must be most careful about what he ate-most careful.

"You see, Franklin," continued the gourmand, as he jerked at his acre of waistcoat, that was dappled with gravy-spots all down the front, and tried to force it over the huge wen of a stomach that bulged out like the distended crop of an enormous pouter pigeon, "you see, Franklin, I

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make flesh so fast that, do what I will, I can't prevent myself running into corpulency. Why, I've even reduced my quantum of Madeira, I give you my word, to half a pint per diem; and if there's one thing I like more than another," he added, by way of parenthesis, "it certainly is a glass of good Madeira; but it must be good, you know, Franklin-good, or it's apt to turn acid with me; for my medical man assures me all fermented liquors make fat. But, though I with my dinner-pills (and my doctor, I must say, has given me one of the best pills of that kind Í ever met with), and take more exercise than I used, still, the deuce is in it, I can't keep the bulk down-can't keep it under, Franklin, anyhow ;" and again the worthy gave another twitch at the waistcoat, that would keep rucking up over the rolls of his abdomen.

go on

Then, having at length settled about the fish, he slipped one arm into that of the elder Benjamin, and resting the hand of the other on the shoulder of the younger one (for he had given the boy the little basket of love-apples to carry), he began hobbling back to his house between the two, stopping every now and then to writhe with the agony of some passing twinge.

"Why I should be plagued with this infernal gout as I am," he exclaimed, as he stood still in the street, and screwed his face up till it assumed the expression of a compressed gutta-percha head, "I'm sure I can't tell. My doctor says it's all stomach; and heaven knows no man can be more particular about his feeding than I am. Indeed, I never could bear coarse food, Franklin-never. I think every one of my friends will allow that. But the misfortune is, you see, I have such delicate nerves, though few persons would think it,