ty of bread and bacon put into a man's stomach is equal to merely a definite quantity of labor. But, since we can only get food by working, why work itself, of course, becomes the supreme necessity of our lives. Our blood, our heart, our lungs are, as I said, forever at work, and we must therefore work, if it be only to keep them working. It is impossible for such as us to stand still without destroying some portion of our substance, and hence one of three things becomes inevitable." "And what are they, uncle?"

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Why, work, beggary, or death!" was the overwhelming reply. "You may choose which of the three you will adopt, but one or other of them there is no escaping from. You must either live by your own labor, lad, or by that of others, or else you must starve-such is the lot of all."

"Work, beggary, or death!" echoed the boy, as he chewed the cud of his first lesson in life. "Work, beggary, or death!"

Then suddenly turning to his uncle, the little fellow exclaimed, "You have given me thoughts I never knew before. Let me go home and tell my father and mother how different a boy you have made me, and my future life shall show you how much I owe to this day's lesson."

The journey home was soon performed, for young Benjamin was too full of what he had heard to feel the distance they journeyed.

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Well, Ben, my boy," exclaimed the father, as the little fellow entered the candle-store, "what sport have you had? What have you brought home?"

"I have brought one fish," answered his son, demurely.

"Is that all ?" asked the old man.

"No," replied the altered youth. "I have come

back with one fish and one strong determination, father."

"Eh, indeed! A strong determination to do what, my lad?" said the parent.

"To lead a new life for the future," was the grave response of the little man.

CHAPTER VIII.

"A HIT! A HIT!"

THAT night, after the evening hymn had been chanted by the family, to the accompaniment of the father's violin as usual, and young Benjamin had retired to rest, the conversation of the brothers and the wife turned upon the marked change that had occurred in the little fellow's behavior.

"He certainly seems a different lad," observed the father, as he arranged the table for the hit at backgammon that he and his brother Benjamin occasionally indulged in after the day's work; "quite a different lad. I really don't think he uttered a word beyond 'asking the blessing' all supper-time."

"And when I went up to his room to take his light," chimed in the mother, who had now settled down to her knitting, and was busy refooting a pair of the young carpenter's worsted stockings, "the dear child was praying to God to give him grace and strength to carry out his new purpose.'

"Well! well! that looks healthy enough, mother," exclaimed Josiah, rattling away at the dice-box, "if it'll only last. You see the flesh is weak with all of us, and children are but reeds in the wind- -poor little reeds, mother.”

"Last!" echoed Benjamin, as he raised his eye

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,

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

A SMALL sailing vessel lay becalmed next morning far out in the offing of the Massachusetts Rav The fresh breeze that had sprung un 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