of the term, which were to be kept private. A very flimsy scheme it was. However, it was immediately executed, and the paper went on accordingly under my name for several months."

The next number of the Courant announced that "the late Publisher of this Paper, finding so many Inconveniences would arise by his carrying the Manuscripts and publick News to be supervis'd by the Secretary as to render his carrying it on unprofitable, has intirely dropt the Undertaking.

Possibly the display of his own name in big type as publisher of a newspaper bred in Benjamin something more of self-importance than he had hitherto had. In any case, he and his brother got on very badly after this. There were knocks and cuffs and general unbrotherly treatment, which Benjamin, as a high-spirited lad, soon found unendurable. These blows had the effect, too, of inspiring in the younger Franklin a determination to be tricky, - just as his brother had been with the authorities. So "a fresh difference arising between us two I took upon me to assert my freedom, presuming that he would not venture to produce the new indentures. It was not fair in me to take this advantage, and this I therefore reckon one

of the first errata of my life; but the unfairness of it weighed little with me when under the impressions of resentment for the blows his passion too often urged him to bestow upon me, though he was otherwise not an ill-natured man. Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.

"When he found I would leave him, he took care to prevent my getting employment in any other printing-house of the town, by going round and speaking to every master, who accordingly refused to give me work. I then thought of going to New York as the nearest place where there was a printer. . . . My friend Collins, therefore, undertook to manage a little for me. He agreed with the captain of a New York sloop for my passage. So I sold some of my books to raise a little money, was taken on board privately, and, as we had a fair wind, in three days I found myself in New York, near three hundred miles from home, a boy of but seventeen, without the least recommendation to or knowledge of any person in the place, and with very little money in my pocket.'

Franklin had now left for ever the Boston of his boyhood. Not many times in his life, indeed, did he return there. But, when a famous man, he wrote, to be placed over the graves of

his parents in the old Granary burying ground, this epitaph which touchingly connects, for all time, his talents with the city of his birth:

Josiah Franklin
and

Abiah, his wife,

Lie here interred.

They lived lovingly together in wedlock
Fifty-five years.

And without an estate or any gainful employ-
ment,

By constant labour and honest industry,
Maintained a large family comfortably,
And brought up thirteen children and seven
grandchildren reputably.

From this instance, reader,

Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling,
And distrust not Providence.

He was a pious and prudent man;
She a discreet and virtuous woman.
Their youngest son,

In filial regard to their memory,
Places this stone.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS