Chapter D: H. Montgomery (3)

[Footnote 6: Colonel (kur'nel): the chief officer of a regiment of soldiers.]

[Footnote 7: Goffe (Gof): and see List of Books at the end of this book.]

[Footnote 8: War-whoop (war-hoop): a very loud, shrill cry made by the Indians when engaged in war, or as a shout of alarm.]

92. How a woman drove off an Indian.--In this dreadful war with the savages there were times when even the women had to fight for their lives. In one case, a woman had been left in a house with two young children. She heard a noise at the window, and looking up, saw an Indian trying to raise the sash. Quick as thought, she clapped the two little children under two large brass kettles which stood near. Then, seizing a shovel-full of red-hot coals from the open fire, she stood ready, and just as the Indian thrust his head into the room, she dashed the coals right into his face and eyes. With a yell of agony the Indian let go his hold, dropped to the ground as though he had been shot, and ran howling to the woods.

93. The great swamp fight; burning the Indian wigwams; what the Chief Canonchet[9] said.--During the summer and autumn of 1675 the Indians on the west side of Narragansett Bay[10]took no open part in King Philip's War. But the next winter the white people found that these Indians were secretly receiving and sheltering the savages who had been wounded in fighting for that noted chief. For that reason, the settlers determined to raise a large force and attack them. The Indians had gathered in a fort on an island in a swamp. This fort was a very difficult place to reach. It was built of the trunks of trees set upright in the ground. It was so strong that the savages felt quite safe.

Starting very early in the morning, the attacking party waded fifteen miles through deep snow. Many of them had their hands and feet badly frozen. One of the chief men in leading the attack was Captain Benjamin Church of Plymouth; he was a very brave soldier, and knew all about Indian life and Indian fighting. In the battle, he was struck by two bullets, and so badly wounded that he could not move a step further; but he made one of his men hold him up, and he shouted to his soldiers to go ahead. The fight was a desperate one, but at length the fort was taken. The attacking party lost more than two hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded; the Indians lost as many as a thousand.

After the battle was over, Captain Church begged the men not to burn the wigwams inside the fort, for there were a great number of old men and women and little Indian children in the wigwams. But the men were very mad against the savages, and would not listen to him. They set the wigwams on fire, and burned many of these poor creatures to death.

Canonchet, the chief of the tribe, was taken prisoner. The settlers told him they would spare his life if he would try to make peace. "No," said he, "we will all fight to the last man rather than become slaves to the white men." He was then told that he must be shot. "I like it well," said he. "I wish to die before my heart becomes soft, or I say anything unworthy of myself."

[Footnote 9: Canonchet (Ka-non'chet).]

[Footnote 10: See map in paragraph 90.]

94. Philip's wife and son are taken prisoners; Philip is shot; end of the war.--The next summer Captain Church, with a lot of "brisk Bridgewater lads" chased King Philip and his men, and took many of the Indians prisoners. Among those then taken captive were King Philip's wife and his little boy. When Philip heard of it, he cried out, "My heart breaks; now I am ready to die." He had good reason for saying so. It was the custom in England to sell such prisoners of war as slaves. Following this custom, the settlers here took this boy, the grandson of that Massasoit[11] who had helped them when they were poor and weak, and sold him with his mother. They were sent to the Bermuda Islands,[12] and there worked to death under the hot sun and the lash of the slave-driver's whip.

Not long after that, King Philip himself was shot. He had been hunted like a wild beast from place to place. At last he had come back to see his old home at Mount Hope[13] once more. There Captain Church found him; there the Indian warrior was shot. His head and hands were cut off,--as was then done in England in such cases,--and his head was carried to Plymouth and set up on a pole. It stood there twenty years.

King Philip's death brought the war to an end. It had lasted a little over a year; that is, from the early summer of 1675 to the latter part of the summer of 1676. In that short time the Indians had killed between five and six hundred white settlers, and had burned thirteen villages to ashes, besides partly burning a great many more. The war cost so much money that many people were made poor by it; but the strength of the Indians was broken, and they never dared to trouble the people of Southern New England again.

[Footnote 11: See paragraph 68.]

[Footnote 12: Bermuda (Ber-mu'dah): the Bermuda Islands are in the Atlantic, north of the West India Islands and east of South Carolina; they belong to Great Britain.]

[Footnote 13: See map in paragraph 84.]

95. Summary.--In 1675 King Philip began a great Indian war against the people of Southeastern New England. His object was to kill off the white settlers, and get back the land for the Indians. He did kill a large number, and he destroyed many villages, but in the end the white men gained the victory. Philip's wife and child were sold as slaves, and he was shot. The Indians never attempted another war in this part of the country.

Who was Wamsutta? What happened to him? Who was "King Philip"? Why did he hate the white men? What did he say to himself? What is said about the "Praying Indians"? What happened to one of them? What was done with three of Philip's men? Where and how did the war begin? To what part of the country did it spread? Tell about the Indian attack on Brookfield. What happened at Hadley? Tell how a woman drove off an Indian. Tell all you can about the Great Swamp Fight. What is said about Canonchet? What is said of King Philip's wife and son? What happened to King Philip himself? What is said about the war?

WILLIAM PENN (1644-1718).

96. King Charles the Second gives William Penn a great piece of land, and names it Pennsylvania.--King Charles the Second of England owed a large sum of money to a young Englishman named William Penn. The king was fond of pleasure, and he spent so much money on himself and his friends that he had none left to pay his just debts. Penn knew this; so he told His Majesty that if he would give him a piece of wild land in America, he would ask nothing more.

Charles was very glad to settle the account so easily. He therefore gave Penn a great territory[1] north of Maryland[2] and west of the Delaware River. This territory was nearly as large as England. The king named it Pennsylvania, a word which means Penn's Woods. At that time the land was not thought to be worth much. No one then had discovered the fact that beneath Penn's Woods there were immense mines of coal and iron, which would one day be of greater value than all the riches of the king of England.

[Footnote 1: Territory: any very large extent of land.]

[Footnote 2: See map in paragraph 97.]

97. William Penn's religion; what he wanted to do with his American land.--Penn belonged to a religious society called the Society of Friends; to-day they are generally spoken of as Quakers. They are a people who try to find out what is right by asking their own hearts. They believe in showing no more signs of respect to one man than to another, and at that time they would not take off their hats even to the king himself.

Penn wanted the land which had been given him here as a place where the Friends or Quakers might go and settle. A little later the whole of what is now the state of New Jersey was bought by Penn and other Quakers for the same purpose. We have seen[3] that neither the Pilgrims nor the Catholics had any real peace in England. The Quakers suffered even more still; for oftentimes they were cruelly whipped, thrown into dark and dirty prisons where many died of the bad treatment they received. William Penn himself had been shut up in jail four times on account of his religion; and though he was no longer in such danger, because the king was his friend, yet he wanted to provide a safe place for others who were not so well off as he was.

[Footnote 3: See paragraphs 62 and 76.]

98. Penn sends out emigrants to Pennsylvania; he gets ready to go himself; his conversation with the king.--Penn accordingly sent out a number of people who were anxious to settle in Pennsylvania. The next year, 1682, he made ready to sail, himself with a hundred more emigrants. Just before he started, he called on the king in his palace in London. The king was fond of joking, and he said to him that he should never expect to see him again, for he thought that the Indians would be sure to catch such a good-looking young man as Penn was and eat him. 'But, Friend Charles,' said Penn, 'I mean to buy the land of the Indians, so they will rather keep on good terms with me than eat me.' 'Buy their lands!' exclaimed the king. 'Why, is not the whole of America mine?' 'Certainly not,' answered Penn. 'What!' replied the king; 'didn't my people discover it?[4] and so haven't I the right to it?' 'Well, Friend Charles,' said Penn, 'suppose a canoe full of Indians should cross the sea and should discover England, would that make it theirs? Would you give up the country to them?' The king did not know what to say to this; it was a new way of looking at the matter. He probably said to himself, These Quakers are a strange people; they seem to think that even American savages have rights which should be respected.

[Footnote 4: Referring to the discovery of the American continent by the Cabots, sent out by Henry the Seventh of England, see paragraph 22.]

99. Penn founds[5] the city of Philadelphia; his treaty[6] with the Indians; his visit to them; how the Indians and the Quakers got on together.--When William Penn reached America, in 1682, he sailed up the broad and beautiful Delaware River for nearly twenty miles. There he stopped, and resolved to build a city on its banks. He gave the place the Bible name of Philadelphia,[7] or the City of Brotherly Love, because he hoped that all of its citizens would live together like brothers. The streets were named from the trees then growing on the land, and so to-day many are still called Walnut, Pine, Cedar, Vine, and so on.

Penn said, "We intend to sit down lovingly among the Indians." On that account, he held a great meeting with them under a wide-spreading elm. The tree stood in what is now a part of Philadelphia. Here Penn and the red men made a treaty or agreement by which they promised each other that they would live together as friends as long as the water should run in the rivers, or the sun shine in the sky.

Nearly a hundred years later, while the Revolutionary War was going on, the British army took possession of the city. It was cold, winter weather, and the men wanted fire-wood; but the English general thought so much of William Penn that he set a guard of soldiers round the great elm, to prevent any one from chopping it down.

Not long after the great meeting under the elm, Penn visited some of the savages in their wigwams. They treated him to a dinner--or shall we say a lunch?--of roasted acorns. After their feast, some of the young savages began to run and leap about, to show the Englishman what they could do. When Penn was in college at Oxford he had been fond of doing such things himself. The sight of the Indian boys made him feel like a boy again; so he sprang up from the ground, and beat them all at hop, skip, and jump. This completely won the hearts of the red men.

From that time, for sixty years, the Pennsylvania settlers and the Indians were fast friends. The Indians said, "The Quakers are honest men; they do no harm; they are welcome to come here." In New England there had been, as we have seen,[8] a terrible war with the savages, but in Pennsylvania, no Indian ever shed a drop of Quaker blood.

[Footnote 5: Founds: begins to build.]

[Footnote 6: Treaty: an agreement; and see paragraph 69.]

[Footnote 7: See Rev. i. 11 and iii. 7.]

[Footnote 8: See paragraph 90.]

100. How Philadelphia grew; what was done there in the Revolution; William Penn's last years and death.--Philadelphia grew quite fast. William Penn let the people have land very cheap, and he said to them, "You shall be governed by laws of your own making." Even after Philadelphia became quite a good-sized town, it had no poor-house, for none was needed; everybody seemed to be able to take care of himself.

When the Revolution began, the people of Pennsylvania and of the country north and south of it sent men to Philadelphia to decide what should be done. This meeting was called the Congress. It was held in the old State House, a building which is still standing, and in 1776 Congress declared the United States of America independent of England. In the war, the people of Delaware and New Jersey fought side by side with those of Pennsylvania.

William Penn spent a great deal of money in helping Philadelphia and other settlements. After he returned to England he was put in prison for debt by a rascally fellow he had employed. He did not owe the money, and proved that the man who said that he did was no better than a thief. Penn was released from prison; but his long confinement in jail had broken his health down. When he died, the Indians of Pennsylvania sent his widow some beautiful furs, in remembrance of their "Brother Penn," as they called him. They said that the furs were to make her a cloak, "to protect her while passing through this thorny wilderness without her guide."

About twenty-five miles west of London, on a country road within sight of the towers of Windsor Castle,[9] there stands a Friends' meeting-house, or Quaker church. In the yard back of the meeting-house William Penn lies buried. For a hundred years or more there was no mark of any kind to show where he rests; but now a small stone bearing his name points out the grave of the founder of the great state of Pennsylvania.

[Footnote 9: Windsor Castle: see paragraph 77.]

101. Summary.--Charles the Second, king of England, owed William Penn, a young English Quaker, a large sum of money. In order to settle the debt, the king gave him a great piece of land in America, and named it Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods. Penn wished to make a home for Quakers in America; and in 1682 he came over, and began building the city of Philadelphia. When the Revolution broke out, men were sent from all parts of the country to Philadelphia, to hold a meeting called the Congress. In 1776, Congress declared the United States independent.

To whom did King Charles the Second owe a large sum of money? How did he pay his debt? What did the king name the country? What does the name mean? What has been found there? What is said about the Friends or Quakers? What did Penn want the land here for? How were the Quakers then treated in England? What did Penn do in 1682? Tell what the king said to Penn and what Penn replied. What city did Penn begin to build here? What does Philadelphia mean? What did Penn and the Indians do? What did the English general do about the great elm in the Revolution? Tell about Penn's dinner with the Indians. Did the Indians trouble the Quakers? What is said of the growth of Philadelphia? What was done there in the Revolution? Tell what you can about Penn's last days. Where is he buried?

GENERAL JAMES OGLETHORPE[1] (1696-1785).

102. The twelve English colonies in America; General Oglethorpe makes a settlement in Georgia.--We have seen[2] that the first real colony or settlement made in America by the English was in Virginia in 1607. By the beginning of 1733, or in about a hundred and twenty-five years, eleven more had been made, or twelve in all. They stretched along the seacoast, from the farthest coast of Maine to the northern boundary of Florida, which was then owned by the Spaniards.[3]

The two colonies farthest south were North Carolina and South Carolina. In 1733 James Oglethorpe, a brave English soldier, who afterward became General Oglethorpe, came over here to make a new settlement. This new one, which made just thirteen[4] in all, was called Georgia in honor of King George the Second, who gave a piece of land for it, on the seacoast, below South Carolina.

[Footnote 1: Oglethorpe (O'gel-thorp).]

[Footnote 2: See paragraph 37.]

[Footnote 3: Because the Spaniards had settled it in 1565; see paragraph 30.]

[Footnote 4: These thirteen colonies or settlements were: First, the four New England colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode island; Maine was then part of Massachusetts, and Vermont was claimed by both New Hampshire and New York). Secondly, four middle colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, with Delaware). Thirdly, five southern colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia).]

103. What it was that led General Oglethorpe to make this new settlement.--General Oglethorpe had a friend in England who was cast into prison for debt. There the unfortunate man was so cruelly treated that he fell sick and died, leaving his family in great distress.

The General felt the death of his friend so much that he set to work to find out how other poor debtors lived in the London prisons. He soon saw that great numbers of them suffered terribly. The prisons were crowded and filthy. The men shut up in them were ragged and dirty; some of them were fastened with heavy chains, and a good many actually died of starvation.

General Oglethorpe could not bear to see strong men killed off in this manner. He thought that if the best of them--those who were honest and willing to work--could have the chance given them of earning their living, that they would soon do as well as any men. It was to help them that he persuaded the king to give the land of Georgia.

104. Building the city of Savannah; what the people of Charleston, South Carolina, did; a busy settlement; the alligators.--General Oglethorpe took over thirty-five families to America in 1733. They settled on a high bank of the Savannah[5] River, about twenty miles from the sea. The general laid out a town with broad, straight, handsome streets, and with many small squares or parks. He called the settlement Savannah from the Indian name of the river on which it stands.

The people of Charleston, South Carolina, were glad to have some English neighbors south of them that would help them fight the Spaniards of Florida, who hated the English, and wanted to drive them out. They gave the newcomers a hundred head of cattle, a drove of hogs, and twenty barrels of rice.

The emigrants set to work with a will, cutting down the forest trees, building houses, and planting gardens. There were no idlers to be seen at Savannah: even the children found something to do that was helpful.

Nothing disturbed the people but the alligators. They climbed up the bank from the river to see what was going on. But the boys soon taught them not to be too curious. When one monster was found impudently prowling round the town, they thumped him with sticks till they fairly beat the life out of him. After that, the alligators paid no more visits to the settlers.

[Footnote 5: Savannah (Sa-van'ah).]

105. Arrival of some German emigrants; "Ebenezer";[6] "blazing" trees.--After a time, some German Protestants, who had been cruelly driven out of their native land on account of their religion, came to Georgia. General Oglethorpe gave them a hearty welcome. He had bought land of the Indians, and so there was plenty of room for all. The Germans went up the river, and then went back a number of miles into the woods; there they picked out a place for a town. They called their settlement by the Bible name of Ebenezer,[7] which means "The Lord hath helped us."

There were no roads through the forests, so the new settlers "blazed" the trees; that is, they chopped a piece of bark off, so that they could find their way through the thick woods when they wanted to go to Savannah. Every tree so marked stood like a guide-post; it showed the traveller which way to go until he came in sight of the next one.

[Footnote 6: Ebenezer (Eb-e-ne'zer).]

[Footnote 7: See I Sam. vii. 12.]

106. Trying to make silk; the queen's American dress.--The settlers hoped to be able to get large quantities of silk to send to England, because the mulberry-tree grows wild in Georgia, and its leaves are the favorite food of the silkworm.[8] At first it seemed as if the plan would be successful, and General Oglethorpe took over some Georgia silk as a present to the queen of England. She had a handsome dress made of it for her birthday; it was the first American silk dress ever worn by an English queen. But after a while it was found that silk could not be produced in Georgia as well as it could in Italy and France, and so in time cotton came to be raised instead.

[Footnote 8: Silkworm: a kind of caterpillar which spins a fine, soft thread of which silk is made.]

107. Keeping out the Spaniards; Georgia powder at Bunker Hill; General Oglethorpe in his old age.--The people of Georgia did a good work in keeping out the Spaniards, who were trying to get possession of the part of the country north of Florida. Later, like the settlers in North Carolina and South Carolina, they did their part in helping to make America independent of the rule of the king of England. When the war of the Revolution began, the king had a lot of powder stored in Savannah. The people broke into the building, rolled out the kegs, and carried them off. Part of the powder they kept for themselves, and part they seem to have sent to Massachusetts; so that it is quite likely that the men who fought at Bunker Hill may have loaded their guns with some of the powder given them by their friends in Savannah. In that case the king got it back, but in a somewhat different way from what he expected.

General Oglethorpe spent the last of his life in England. He lived to a very great age. Up to the last he had eyes as bright and keen as a boy's. After the Revolution was over, the king made a treaty or agreement, by which he promised to let the United States of America live in peace. General Oglethorpe was able to read that treaty without spectacles. He had lived to see the colony of Georgia which he had settled become a free and independent state.

108. Summary.--In 1733 General James Oglethorpe brought over a number of emigrants from England, and settled Savannah, Georgia. Georgia was the thirteenth English colony; it was the last one established in this country. General Oglethorpe lived to see it become one of the United States of America.

At the beginning of 1733 how many English colonies were there in America? Who was General Oglethorpe? What did he do? Why was the new settlement called Georgia? Tell what happened to a friend of General Oglethorpe's. What did he wish to do for the poor debtors? What is said about the settlement of Savannah? What about the German emigrants and Ebenezer? What about raising silk? What good work did the people of Georgia do? What about Georgia powder in the Revolution? What is said of General Oglethorpe in old age?

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790).

109. Growth of Philadelphia; what a young printer was doing for it.--By the year 1733, when the people of Savannah[1] were building their first log cabins, Philadelphia[2] had grown to be the largest city in this country,--though it would take more than seventy such cities to make one as great as Philadelphia now is.

Next to William Penn,[3] the person who did the most for Philadelphia was a young man who had gone from Boston to make his home among the Quakers. He lived in a small house near the market. On a board over the door he had painted his name and business; here it is:

[Footnote 1: See paragraph 104.]

[Footnote 2: See paragraph 99.]

[Footnote 3: See paragraph 96.]

110. Franklin's newspaper and almanac;[4] how he worked; standing before kings.--Franklin was then publishing a small newspaper, called the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.[5] To-day we print newspapers by steam at the rate of two or three hundred a minute; but Franklin, standing in his shirtsleeves at a little press, printed his with his own hands. It was hard work, as you could see by the drops of sweat that stood on his forehead; and it was slow as well as hard. The young man not only wrote himself most of what he printed in his paper, but he often made his own ink; sometimes he even made his own type.[6] When he got out of paper he would take a wheelbarrow, go out and buy a load, and wheel it home. To-day there are more than three hundred newspapers printed in Philadelphia; then there were only two, and Franklin's was the better of those two.

Besides this paper he published an almanac, which thousands of people bought. In it he printed such sayings as these: "_He who would thrive[7] must rise at five_," and "_If you want a thing well done, do it yourself._" But Franklin was not contented with simply printing these sayings, for he practised them as well.

Sometimes his friends would ask him why he began work so early in the morning, and kept at it so many hours. He would laugh, and tell them that his father used to repeat to him this saying of Solomon's: "_Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men._"[8]

At that time the young printer never actually expected to stand in the presence of a king, but years later he met with five; and one of them, his friend the king of France, gave him his picture set round with diamonds.

[Footnote 4: Almanac (al'ma-nak).]

[Footnote 5: Gazette (ga-zet'): a newspaper.]

[Footnote 6: Type: the raised metal letters used in printing are made by melting lead and some other metals together and pouring the mixture into molds.]

[Footnote 7: Thrive: to get on in business, to prosper.]

[Footnote 8: See Prov. xxii. 29.]

111. Franklin's boyhood; making tallow candles; he is apprenticed[9] to his brother; how he managed to save money to buy books.--Franklin's father was a poor man with a large family. He lived in Boston, and made soap and candles. Benjamin went to school two years; then, when he was ten years old, his father set him to work in his factory, and he never went to school again. He was now kept busy filling the candle-molds with melted grease, cutting off the ends of the wicks, and running errands. But the boy did not like this kind of work; and, as he was very fond of books, his father put him in a printing-office. This office was carried on by James Franklin, one of Benjamin's brothers. James Franklin paid a small sum of money each week for Benjamin's board; but the boy told him that if he would let him have half the money to use as he liked, he would board himself. James was glad to do this. Benjamin then gave up eating meat, and, while the others went out to dinner, he would stay in the printing-office and eat a boiled potato, or perhaps a handful of raisins. In this way, he saved up a number of coppers every week; and when he got enough laid by, he would buy a book.

But James Franklin was not only a mean man, but a hot-tempered one; and when he got angry with his young apprentice,[10] he would beat and knock him about. At length the lad, who was now seventeen, made up his mind that he would run away, and go to New York.

[Footnote 9: Apprenticed: bound by a written agreement to learn a trade of a master, who is bound by the same agreement to teach the trade.]

[Footnote 10: Apprentice: one who is apprenticed to a master to learn a trade. See footnote 9.]

112. Young Franklin runs away; he goes to New York, and then to Philadelphia.--Young Franklin sold some of his books, and with the money paid his passage to New York by a sailing-vessel--for in those days there were no steamboats or railroads in America. When he got to New York, he could not find work, so he decided to go on to Philadelphia.

He started to walk across New Jersey to Burlington, on the Delaware River, a distance of about fifty miles; there he hoped to get a sail-boat going down the river to Philadelphia. Shortly after he set out, it began to rain hard, and the lad was soon wet to the skin and splashed all over with red mud; but he kept on until noon, then took a rest, and on the third day he reached Burlington and got passage down the river.

113. Franklin's Sunday walk in Philadelphia; the rolls; Miss Read; the Quaker meeting-house.--Franklin landed in Philadelphia on Sunday morning (1723). He was tired and hungry; he had but a single dollar in the world. As he walked along, he saw a bake-shop open. He went in and bought three great, puffy rolls for a penny[11] each. Then he started up Market Street, where he was one day to have his newspaper office. He had a roll like a small loaf of bread tucked under each arm, and he was eating the other as though it tasted good to him. As he passed a house, he noticed a nice-looking young woman at the door. She seemed to want to laugh; and well she might, for Franklin appeared like a youthful tramp who had been robbing a baker's shop. The young woman was Miss Deborah[12] Read. A number of years later Franklin married her. He always said that he could not have got a better wife.

Franklin kept on in his walk until he came to the Delaware. He took a hearty drink of river water to settle his breakfast, and then gave away the two rolls he had under his arm to a poor woman with a child. On his way back from the river he followed a number of people to a Quaker meeting-house. At the meeting no one spoke. Franklin was tired out, and, not having any preacher to keep him awake, he soon fell asleep, and slept till the meeting was over. He says, "This was the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia."

[Footnote 11: Penny: an English coin worth two cents.]

[Footnote 12: Deborah (Deb'o-rah).]

114. Franklin finds work; he goes back to Boston on a visit; he learns to stoop.--The next day the young man found some work in a printing-office. Six months afterward he decided to go back to Boston to see his friends. He started on his journey with a good suit of clothes, a silver watch, and a well-filled purse.

While in Boston, Franklin went to call on a minister who had written a little book[13] which he had been very fond of reading. As he was coming away from the minister's house, he had to go through a low passage-way under a large beam. "Stoop! Stoop!" cried out the gentleman; but Franklin did not understand him, and so hit his head a sharp knock against the beam. "Ah," said his friend, as he saw him rubbing his head, "you are young, and have the world before you; _stoop_ as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." Franklin says that this sensible advice, which was thus beat into his head, was of great use afterward; in fact, he learned then how to stoop to conquer.

[Footnote 13: The name of this book, written by the Rev. Cotton Mather, was _Essays to do Good_.]

115. Franklin returns to Philadelphia; he goes to London; water against beer.--Franklin soon went back to Philadelphia. The governor of Pennsylvania then persuaded him to go to London, telling him that he would help him to get a printing-press and type to start a newspaper in Philadelphia.

When Franklin reached London, he found that the governor was one of those men who promise great things, but do nothing. Instead of buying a press, he had to go to work in a printing-office to earn his bread. He stayed in London more than a year. At the office where he worked the men were great beer-drinkers. One of his companions bought six pints a day. He began with a pint before breakfast, then took another pint at breakfast, then a pint between breakfast and dinner, then a pint at dinner, then a pint in the afternoon, and, last of all, a pint after he had done work. Franklin drank nothing but water. The others laughed at him, and nicknamed him the "Water-American"; but after a while they had to confess that he was stronger than they were who drank so much strong beer.

The fact was that Franklin could beat them both at work and at play. When they went out for a bath in the Thames,[14] they found that their "Water-American" could swim like a fish; and he so astonished them that a rich Londoner tried to persuade him to start a swimming-school to teach his sons, but Franklin had stayed in England long enough, and he now decided to go back to Philadelphia.

[Footnote 14: Thames (Tems). London is on the river Thames.]

116. Franklin sets up his newspaper; "sawdust pudding."--After his return to America, Franklin labored so diligently that he was soon able to set up a newspaper of his own. He tried to make it a good one. But some people thought that he spoke his mind too freely. They complained of this to him, and gave him to understand that if he did not make his paper to please them, they would stop taking it or advertising in it.

Franklin heard what they had to say, and then invited them all to come and have supper with him. They went, expecting a feast, but they found nothing on the table but two dishes of corn-meal mush and a big pitcher of cold water. That kind of mush was then eaten only by very poor people; and because it was yellow and coarse, it was nicknamed "sawdust pudding."

Franklin gave everybody a heaping plateful, and then, filling his own, he made a hearty supper of it. The others tried to eat, but could not. After Franklin had finished his supper, he looked up, and said quietly, "My friends, any one who can live on 'sawdust pudding' and cold water, as I can, does not need much help from others." After that, no one went to the young printer with complaints about his paper. Franklin, as we have seen,[15] had learned to stoop; but he certainly did not mean to go stooping through life.

[Footnote 15: See paragraph 114.]

117. Franklin's plan of life; what he did for Philadelphia.--Not many young men can see their own faults, but Franklin could. More than that, he tried hard to get rid of them. He kept a little book in which he wrote down his faults. If he wasted half an hour of time or a shilling of money, or said anything that he had better not have said, he wrote it down in his book. He carried that book in his pocket all his life, and he studied it as a boy at school studies a hard lesson. By it he learned three things,--first, to do the right thing; next, to do it at the right time; last of all, to do it in the right way.

As he was never tired of helping himself to get upward and onward, so, too, he was never tired of helping others. He started the first public library in Philadelphia, which was also the first in America. He set on foot the first fire-engine company and the first military company in that city. He got the people to pave the muddy streets with stone; he helped to build the first academy,--now called the University of Pennsylvania,--and he also helped to build the first hospital.

118. Franklin's experiments[16] with electricity; the wonderful bottle; the picture of the king of England.--While doing these things and publishing his paper besides, Franklin found time to make experiments with electricity. Very little was then known about this wonderful power, but a Dutchman, living in the city of Leyden[17] in Holland, had discovered a way of bottling it up in what is called a Leyden Jar. Franklin had one of these jars, and he was never tired of seeing what new and strange thing he could do with it.

He contrived a picture of the king of England with a movable gilt crown on his head. Then he connected the crown by a long wire with the Leyden Jar. When he wanted some fun he would dare any one to go up to the picture and take off the king's crown. Why that's easy enough, a man would say, and would walk up and seize the crown. But no sooner had he touched it than he would get an electric shock which would make his fingers tingle as they never tingled before. With a loud Oh! Oh! he would let go of the crown, and start back in utter astonishment, not knowing what had hurt him.

[Footnote 16: Experiments: here an experiment is a trial made to discover something unknown. Franklin made these experiments or trials with electricity and with thunder clouds in order to find out what he could about them.]

[Footnote 17: Leyden: see map in paragraph 62.]

119. The electrical kite.--But Franklin's greatest experiment was made one day in sober earnest with a kite. He believed that the electricity in the bottle, or Leyden Jar, was the same thing as the lightning we see in a thunder-storm. He knew well enough how to get an electric spark from the jar, for he had once killed a turkey with it for dinner; but how could he get a spark from a cloud in the sky?

He thought about it for a long time; then he made a kite out of a silk handkerchief, and fastened a sharp iron point to the upright stick of the kite. One day, when a thunder-storm was seen coming up, Franklin and his son went out to the fields. The kite was raised; then Franklin tied an iron key to the lower end of the string. After waiting some time, he saw the little hair-like threads of the string begin to stand up like the bristles of a brush. He felt certain that the electricity was coming down the string. He put his knuckle close to the key, and a spark flew out. Next, he took his Leyden Jar and collected the electricity in that. He had made two great discoveries, for he had found out that electricity and lightning are the same thing and he had also found how to fill his bottle directly from the clouds: that was something that no one had ever done before.

120. Franklin invents the lightning-rod; _Doctor_ Franklin.--But Franklin did not stop at that. He said, If I can draw down electricity from the sky with a kite-string, I can draw it still better with a tall, sharp-pointed iron rod. He put up such a rod on his house in Philadelphia; it was the first lightning-rod in the world. Soon other people began to put them up: so this was another gift of his to the city which he loved. Every good lightning-rod which has since been erected to protect buildings has been a copy of that invented by Franklin.

People now began to talk, not only in this country but in Europe, about his electrical experiments and discoveries. The oldest college in Scotland[18] gave him a title of honor and called him Doctor--a word which means a learned man. From this time, Franklin the printer was no longer plain Mr. Franklin, but Dr. Franklin.

Dr. Franklin did not think that he had found out all that could be found out about electricity; he believed that he had simply made a beginning, and that other men would discover still greater things that could be done with it. Do you think he was mistaken about that?

[Footnote 18: The University of St. Andrews.]

121. Franklin in the Revolutionary War; Franklin and the map of the United States.--When the war of the Revolution broke out, Dr. Franklin did a great work for his country. He did not fight battles like Washington, but he did something just as useful. First, he helped write the Declaration of Independence, by which we declared ourselves free from the rule of the king of England; next, he went to France to get aid for us. We were then too poor to pay our soldiers; he got the king of France to let us have money to give them.

Franklin lived to see the Revolution ended and America free. When he died, full of years and of honors, he was buried in Philadelphia. Twenty thousand people went to his funeral.

If you wish to see what the country thinks of him, you have only to look at a large map of the United States, and count up how many times you find his name on it. You will find that more than two hundred counties and towns are called FRANKLIN.

122. Summary.--Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston nearly two hundred years ago. He went to Philadelphia when he was seventeen. He started a newspaper there, opened the first public library, and did many other things to help the city. He discovered that lightning and electricity are the same thing, and he invented the lightning-rod to protect buildings. In the Revolution, he got large sums of money from the king of France to pay our soldiers and to help Washington fight the battles which ended in making America free.

What had Philadelphia grown to be by 1733? Who did a great deal for Philadelphia? Tell what you can about Franklin's newspaper. What else did he publish? What sayings did he print in his almanac? What saying of Solomon's did Franklin's father use to repeat to him? Did he ever stand in the presence of any kings? Tell what you can about Franklin as a boy. Where did he live? What did he do? How did he save money to buy books? Why did he run away? Where did he go? Tell what you can about Franklin's landing in Philadelphia? How did Franklin look to Miss Read? Where did Franklin find work? What happened to him when he went back to Boston on a visit? Why did Franklin go to London? What did he do there? What did they nickname him in the printing-office? What did Franklin do after he returned to Philadelphia? Tell the story of the "sawdust pudding." Tell about Franklin's plan of life. What did he do for Philadelphia? What experiments did Franklin make? What about the picture of the king? Tell the story of the kite. What two things did he find out by means of this kite? What did he invent? What title did a college in Scotland now give him? Did Franklin think that anything more would be discovered about electricity? What two things did Franklin do in the Revolution? What is said of his funeral? How many counties and towns in the United States are now called by his name?

GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799).

123. A Virginia boy; what he became; what he learned at school; his writing-books.--In 1732, when Franklin was at work on his newspaper, a boy was born on a plantation[1] in Virginia who was one day to stand higher even than the Philadelphia printer.

That boy when he grew up was to be chosen leader of the armies of the Revolution; he was to be elected the first president of the United States; and before he died he was to be known and honored all over the world. The name of that boy was George Washington.

Washington's father died when George was only eleven years old, leaving him, with his brothers and sisters, to the care of a most excellent and sensible mother. It was that mother's influence more than anything else which made George the man he became.

George went to a little country school, where he learned to read, write, and cipher. By the time he was twelve, he could write a clear, bold hand. In one of his writing-books he copied many good rules or sayings. Here is one:--

]

[Footnote 1: Plantation: George Washington was born on a plantation (or large estate cultivated by slaves) on Bridges Creek, a small stream emptying into the Potomac. See map in paragraph 127. Not long after George's birth (February 22, 1732), his father moved to an estate on the Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg. See map in paragraph 127 for this place and Mount Vernon.]

[Footnote 2: Celestial: heavenly, divine.]

124. Washington's sports and games; playing at war; "Captain George."--But young Washington was not always copying good sayings; for he was a tall, strong boy, fond of all out-door sports and games. He was a well-meaning boy, but he had a hot temper, and at times his blue eyes flashed fire. In all trials of strength and in all deeds of daring, George took the lead; he could run faster, jump further, and throw a stone higher than any one in the school.

When the boys played "soldier," they liked to have "Captain George" as commander. When he drew his wooden sword, and shouted Come on! they would all rush into battle with a wild hurrah. Years afterward, when the real war came, and George Washington drew his sword in earnest, some of his school companions may have fought under their old leader.

125. The great battle with the colt, and what came of it.--Once, however, Washington had a battle of a different kind. It was with a high-spirited colt which belonged to his mother. Nobody had ever been able to do anything with that colt, and most people were afraid of him. Early one morning, George and some of his brothers were out in the pasture. George looked at the colt prancing about and kicking up his heels. Then he said: "Boys, if you'll help me put a bridle on him, I'll ride him." The boys managed to get the colt into a corner and to slip on the bridle. With a leap, George seated himself firmly on his back. Then the fun began. The colt, wild with rage, ran, jumped, plunged, and reared straight up on his hind legs, hoping to throw his rider off. It was all useless; he might as well have tried to throw off his own skin, for the boy stuck to his back as though he had grown there. Then, making a last desperate bound into the air, the animal burst a blood-vessel and fell dead. The battle was over, George was victor, but it had cost the life of Mrs. Washington's favorite colt.

When the boys went in to breakfast, their mother, knowing that they had just come from the pasture, asked how the colt was getting on. "He is dead, madam," said George; "I killed him." "Dead!" exclaimed his mother. "Yes, madam, dead," replied her son. Then he told her just how it happened. When Mrs. Washington heard the story, her face flushed with anger. Then, waiting a moment, she looked steadily at George, and said quietly, "While I regret the loss of my favorite, I rejoice in my son, who always speaks the truth."

126. Washington goes on a visit to Mount Vernon; he makes the acquaintance of Lord Fairfax.--George's eldest brother, Lawrence Washington, had married the daughter of a gentleman named Fairfax,[3] who lived on the banks of the Potomac. Lawrence had a fine estate a few miles above, on the same river; he called his place Mount Vernon. When he was fourteen, George went to Mount Vernon to visit his brother.

Lawrence Washington took George down the river to call on the Fairfaxes. There the lad made the acquaintance of Lord Fairfax, an English nobleman who had come over from London. He owned an immense piece of land in Virginia. Lord Fairfax and George soon became great friends. He was a gray-haired man nearly sixty, but he enjoyed having this boy of fourteen as a companion. They spent weeks together on horseback in the fields and woods, hunting deer and foxes.

[Footnote 3: Fairfax. This was the Hon. William Fairfax; he was cousin to Lord Fairfax, and he had the care of Lord Fairfax's land.]

127. Lord Fairfax hires Washington to survey[4] his land; how Washington lived in the woods; the Indian war-dance.--Lord Fairfax's land extended westward more than a hundred miles. It had never been very carefully surveyed; and he was told that settlers were moving in beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains,[5] and were building log-cabins on his property without asking leave. By the time Washington was sixteen, he had learned surveying; and so Lord Fairfax hired him to measure his land for him. Washington was glad to undertake the work; for he needed the money, and he could earn in this way from five to ten dollars a day.

Early in the spring, Washington, in company with another young man, started off on foot to do this business. They crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, and entered the Valley of Virginia, one of the most beautiful valleys in America.

The two young men would work all day in the woods with a long chain, measuring the land. When evening came, Washington would make a map of what they had measured. Then they would wrap themselves up in their blankets, stretch themselves on the ground at the foot of a tree, and go to sleep under the stars.

Every day they shot some game--squirrels or wild turkeys, or perhaps a deer. They kindled a fire with flint and steel,[6] and roasted the meat on sticks held over the coals. For plates they had clean chips; and as clean chips could always be got by a few blows with an axe, they never washed any dishes, but just threw them away, and had a new set for each meal.

While in the Valley they met a band of Indians, who stopped and danced a war-dance for them. The music was not remarkable,--for most of it was made by drumming on a deer-skin stretched across the top of an old iron pot,--but the dancing itself could not be beat. The savages leaped into the air, swung their hatchets, gashed the trees, and yelled till the woods rang.

When Washington returned from his surveying trip, Lord Fairfax was greatly pleased with his work; and the governor of Virginia made him one of the public surveyors. By this means he was able to get work which paid him handsomely.

[Footnote 4: Survey: to find out the form, size, and position of a piece of land by measuring it in certain ways.]

[Footnote 5: See map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 6: Flint and steel: see picture in paragraph 84.]