soft and pinky as rose-leaves. He's a nice clean little tiggy, too, and not like those filthy white mice that some boys keep, and which have such a nasty ratty smell with them-no! Toby smells of nice new hay instead. There! there's a fine fellow for you," cried the lad, as he rubbed up the tiny animal's coat the wrong way. "Why, he looks like a little baby hog with a mane of bristles up his neck. But Toby's no hog, that he isn't, for he wouldn't bite me even with my finger at his mouth-no! he only nibbles at it, to have a game at play, that's all. But come, Master Anderson, you must go back to your nest, and make the best supper you can off your bed-clothes; for you can't sleep with the cat to-night, so you'll have to keep yourself warm, old fellow, for I couldn't for the life of me go down stairs to get Pussy for you to cuddle just now."

The pet was at length returned to its cage, and Benjamin once more left to brood over his troubles; so he flung himself on the bed again, and began thinking how he could best avoid the punishment that he felt sure awaited him on the

morrow.

Yet it was strange, he mused, his father had not called him down even to put the shutters up. Who had closed the shop? he wondered. They must have done supper by this time. Yes, that was the clatter of the things being taken away. Why didn't Deborah come to him? he always did to her when she was in disgrace. Who had asked a blessing on the food now he was away? Still he could not make out why he wasn't called down. Had mother begged him off as usual? No, that couldn't be, for father had threatened last time that he would listen to no more entreaties. Perhaps one of the deacons had come in

to talk with father about the affairs of the chapel in South Street,* or else Uncle Ben was reading to them his short-hand notes of the sermon he had gone to hear that evening.†

Soon, however, the sounds of his father's violin below stairs put an end to the boy's conjectures as to the occupation of the family, and as he crept outside the door to listen, he could hear them all joining in a hymn.‡

Still Benjamin could not make out why his punishment should be deferred. However, he made his mind up to one thing, and that was to be off to his brother-in-law, Captain Holmes, at daybreak on the morrow, and get him to promise to take him as a cabin-boy on his next voyage-for that would put an end to all the noises between his father and him.

The plan was no sooner framed than the lad was away in spirit again, sailing far over the sea, while he listened to the drone of the sacred tune below; until at last, tired out with his troubles, he fell asleep as he lay outside the bed, and woke

* "I remember well," Franklin writes in the description he gives of his father's character in his Autobiography, "his being frequently visited by leading men, who consulted him for his opinion on public affairs, and those of the church he belonged to, and who showed a great respect for his judgment and advice."

"He had invented a short hand of his own," says Franklin in his life, speaking of his Uncle Benjamin, "which he taught me; but, not having practiced it, I have now forgotten it. He was very pious, and an assiduous attendant at the sermons of the best preachers, which he reduced to writing according to his method, and had thus collected several volumes of them."

"My father was skilled a little in music. His voice was sonorous and agreeable, so that when he played on his violin, and sang withal, as he was accustomed to do after the business of the day was over, it was extremely agreeable to hear." -Franklin's Autobiography.

only when the air was blue with the faint light of the coming day.

His first thoughts, on opening his eyes, were of the chastisement that he felt assured was in store for him if he staid till his father was stirring. So, without waiting to tidy himself, he crept, with his shoes in his hand, as silently as possible down stairs, and then slipping them on his feet, he was off, like a frightened deer, to the water-side.

Come what might, little Ben was determined to be a sailor.

CHAPTER II.

MISSING: A YOUNG GENTLEMAN-"

"If Benjamin Franklin will return to his home, all will be for-"

"No, no, I won't have 'forgiven' put down,' doggedly exclaimed the father, seizing hold of Uncle Benjamin's arm to stop his pen, as the latter read out, word by word, the announcement he was busy writing for the town-crier; while, in one corner of the room, that important civic functionary stood waiting for the bit of paper, with his big bell inverted, so that it looked like an enormous brass tulip in his hand.

"I ask your pardon, Master Frankling, but we general says 'forgiven' in all sitch cases," meekly observed the bellman, with a slight pull of his forelock.

Oh, Josiah, remember the words of your morning prayer!" interposed the broken-hearted mother, as for a moment she raised her face from out her hands: "forgive us as we' you know

the rest.'

"Ay, come, Josh," said Uncle Benjamin, "don't

be stubborn-hearted! Think of the young 'never-do-well' you were yourself when you were 'prentice to brother John at Banbury.'

"That's all very well!" murmured the Puritan tallow-chandler, turning away to hide the smiles begotten by the youthful recollection, and still struggling with the innate kindness of his nature; "but I've got a duty to perform to my boy, and do it I will, even if it breaks my heart."

"Yes, but, Josh," remonstrated Uncle Ben, as he laid his hand on his brother's shoulder, "think of the times and times you and I have stolen away on the sly to Northampton, to see the mummers there, unbeknown to father. Ah! you were a sad young jackanapes for the play-house, that you were, Master Josh, at Ben's age," he added, nudging the father playfully in the side.

"I don't mean to deny it, Benjamin"—and the would-be Brutus chuckled faintly as his brother reminded him of his boyish peccadilloes-" but,' he added immediately afterward, screwing up as good a frown as he could manage under the circumstances, "that's no reason why I should allow my boy to be guilty of the same sins. There, go along with you-do," he exclaimed, good-humoredly, as he endeavored to shake off both the mother and the uncle, who, seeing that the ice of paternal propriety was fast thawing under the warmth of his better nature, had planted themselves one on either side of him. "I tell you it's my bounden duty not to overlook the boy's dis

*

*

* "John, my next uncle, was bred a dyer, I believe, of wool," says Benjamin Franklin himself in his life. * "My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he was too old to continue his business, when he retired to Banbury in Oxfordshire, to the house of his son John, with whom my father served an apprenticeship.”—See Autobiography, p. 3 and 4.

C

obedience any longer;" and, so saying, he beat the air with his fist, as if anxious to hammer the notion into his own mind as well as theirs.

"Verily, Josiah, justice says all should be punished, 'for there are none perfect, no, not one,' whispered the religious wife impressively in his ear; "but love and mercy, husband, cry Forgive."

"To be sure they do," chimed in the goodnatured uncle; "for, as the mummers used to say in the play, Josh, 'If all have their deserts, who shall 'scape whipping?" So, come, I may put down forgiven, eh?" added the peacemaker, as he shook his brother by the hand, while Josiah turned away as if ashamed of his weakness. "Ah! I knew it 'ud be so," and quickly inditing the word, Uncle Benjamin handed the paper to the crier, saying, "There, my man, you'd better first go round the harbor with it; and if you bring the prodigal back with you in an hour or two, why, you shall have a mug of cider over and above your pay."

The crier, having nodded his head, and scraped his foot back along the sanded floor by way of obeisance, took his departure, when in a minute or two the family heard his bell jangling away at the end of the street, and immediately afterward caught the distant cry of "Oyez, oyez, oyez! hif Benjamin Frankling will return to his 'ome"

66

"Do you hear, sister ?" said Uncle Benjamin, consolingly, as he approached the weeping mother; your boy will be heard of all over the town, and you'll soon have your little pet bird back again in his cage, rest assured."

"Heaven grant it may be So, and bless you for your loving kindness, brother," faltered out the dame, half hysteric, through her tears, with delight at the thought of regaining her lost son.