TO • HIS HOME BY EZEKIAH-BUTTERWORTH ^^4 .. i* ^ !%** ' « \^A -^ /JTi LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Ohap.„..^ Copyright No.. Shelf; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ^ TRUE TO HIS HOME A TALE OF THE BOYHOOD OF FRANKLIN Books by Hezekiah Butterworth. Each, i2mo, cloth, $1.50. The Log SchooUHouse on the Columbia. With 13 full-page Illustrations by J. Carter Beard, E. J. Austen, and Others. " This book will charm all who turn its pages. There are few books of popular information concerning the pioneers of the t;reat Northwest, and this one is worthy of sincere praise." — Seattle Fcst- Inteliigencer. In the Boyhood of Lincoln. A Story of the Black Hawk War and the Tunker Schoolmaster. With 12 full-page Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. "The author presents facts in a most attractive framework of fic- tion, and imbues the whole with his peculiar humor. Ihe illustrations are numerous and of more than usual excellence." — New Haven PaUadiitm. The Boys of Greenway Court. A Story of the Early J 'ears of Washington. With 10 full-page Illustrations by H. Winthrop Peirce. " Ski'Ifully combining fact and fiction, he has given us a story historically instructive and at the same time entertaining." — Boston Transcript. The Patriot Schoolmaster ; Or, The Adventures of the Two Boston Cannon, the "Adams " and tlie " Hancock. " A Tale of the Minute Men and the Sons of Liberty. With Illustrations by H. Winthrop Peirce. The true soirit of the lenders in our War for Independence is pic- tured in this dramatic story. It includes the Boston Tea Party and Bunker Hill; and Adams, Hancock, Revere, and the boys who bearded General Gage, are living characters in this romance of American patriotism. The Knight of Liberty. A Tale of the Fortunes of Lafayette. With 6 full-page Illustrations. " No better reading for the young man can be imagined than this fascinating narrative of a noble figure on the canvas of time." — Boston Traveller. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 72 Fifth Avenue. Little Ben's adventure as a poet. (See page 113.) TRUE TO HIS HOME H Xlale ot tbe Bo^booD of jfranl^lin BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH It AUTHOR OF THE WAMPUM BELT, IN THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN, ETC. The noblest question in the world is, What good may I do in it ? Poor Richard ILLUSTRATED BY H. WINTHROP PEIRCE NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897 i/ ^f2)2- Copyright, 1897, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. /^-3//3^ PEEFACE This volume is an historical fiction, but the plan of it was suggested by biography, and is made to include the most in- teresting and picturesque episodes in the home side of the life of Benjamin Franklin, so as to form a connected narrative or picture of his public life. I have written no book with a deeper sympathy with my subject, for, although fiction, the story very truthfully shows that the good intentions of a life which has seemed to fail do not die, but live in others whom they inspire. Uncle Benja- min Franklin, "the poet," who was something .of a philoso- pher, and whose visions all seemed to end in disappointment, deeply influenced his nephew and godson, Benjamin Frank- lin, whom he morally educated to become what he himself had failed to be. The conduct of Josiah Franklin, the father of Benjamin Franklin, in comforting his poor old brother in England by naming his fifteenth child for him, and making him his god- father, is a touching instance of family affection, to the mem- ory of which the statesman was always true. Uncle Benjamin Franklin had a library of pamphlets that was very dear to him, for in the margins of the leaves he had placed the choicest thoughts of his life amid great political vi PREFACE. events. He was very poor, and he sold his library in his old age; we may reasonably suppose that he parted with it among other effects to get money to come to America, that he might give his influence to " Little Ben," after his brother had re- membered him in his desolation by giving his name to the boy. The finding of these pamphlets in London fifty years after the old man was compelled to sell them was regarded by Benjamin Franklin as one of the most singular events of his remarkable life. Mr. Parton, in his Life of Franklin, thus alludes to the circumstance: A strange occurrence brought to the mind of Franklin, in 1771, a vivid recollection of his childhood. A dealer in old books, whose shop he sometimes visited, called his attention one day to a collection of pamphlets, bound in thirty volumes, dating from the Eestoration to 1715. The dealer offered them to Franklin, as he said, because many of the subjects of the pamphlets were such as usually interested him. Upon ex- amining the collection, he found that one of the blank leaves of each volume contained a catalogue of its contents, and the price each pamphlet had cost; there were notes and comments also in the margin of several of the pieces. A closer scrutiny revealed that the handwriting was that of his Uncle Benjamin, the rhyming friend and counselor of his childhood. Other circumstances combined with this surprising fact to prove that the collection had been made by his uncle, who had probably sold it when he emigrated to America, fifty-six years before. Franklin bought the volumes, and gave an account of the cir- cumstance to his Uncle Benjamin's son, who still lived and flourished in Boston. " The oddity is," he wrote, " that the bookseller, who could suspect nothing of any relation between PREFACE. vii me and the collector, should happen to make me the offer of them." It may please the reader to know that " Mr. Calamity " was suggested by a real character, and that the incidents in the life of ''" Jenny," Franklin's favorite sister, are true in spirit and largely in detail. It would have been more artistic to have had Franklin discover Uncle Benjamin's " pamphlets " later in life, but this would have been, while allowable, un- historic fiction. Says one of the greatest critics ever born in America, in speaking of the humble birth of Franklin: That little baby, humbly cradled, has turned out to be the greatest man that America ever bore in her bosom or set eyes upon. Beyond all question, as I think, Benjamin Franklin had the largest mind that has shone on this side of the sea, widest in its comprehension, most deep-looking, thoughtful, far-seeing, the most original and creative child of the New World. For the last four generations no man has shed such copious good influence on America, nor added so much new truth to popular knowledge; none has so skillfully organized its ideals into institutions; none has so powerfully and wisely directed the nation's conduct and advanced its welfare in so many re- spects. N"o man has so strong a hold on the habits or the manners of the people. " The principal question in life is. What good can I do in the world?" says Franklin. He learned to ask this ques- tion in his home in " beloved Boston." It was his purpose to answer this all-important question after the lessons that he Y2J2 PREFACE. had received in his early home, to which his heart remained true through all his marvelous career. This is the seventh volume of the Creators of Liberty Series of books of historical fiction, based for the most part on real events, in the purpose of presenting biography in picture. The former volumes of this series of books have been very kindly received by the public, and none of them more gen- erously than the last volume. The Wampum Belt. For this the writer is very grateful, for he is a thorough believer in story-telling education, on the Pestalozzi and Froebel principle that " life must be taught from life," or from the highest ideals of beneficent character. H. B. 28 Worcester Street, Boston, Mass., June, 1897. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. — The first day 1 II. — Uncle Benjamin, the poet 10 III. — Benjamin and Benjamin 18 IV. — Franklin's story of a holiday in childhood . , .24 V. — The boy Franklin's kite 28 VI. — Little Ben's guinea pig 34 VII. — Uncle Tom, who rose in the world 39 VIII.— Little Ben shows his handwriting to the family . . 46 IX. — Uncle Benjamin's secret 50 X. — The stone wharf, and Lady Wiggleworth, who fell ASLEEP IN church 56 XI.— Jenny 70 XII. — A chime of BELLS IN NOTTINGHAM 74 XIII. — The ELDER Franklin's stories 78 XIV. — The treasure-finder 83 XV.— "Have I a chance?" 92 XVI. — " A BOOK THAT INFLUENCED THE CHARACTER OP A MAN WHO LED HIS AGE " 99 XVII. — Benjamin looks for a place wherein to start in life . 102 XVIII. — Little Ben's adventure as a poet Ill XIX. — Leaves Boston 132 XX. — Laughed at again 138 XXI. — London and a long swim 148 XXII. — A PENNY roll with HONOR. — JeNNY's, SPINNING-WHEEL . 160 Ix X CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XXIII.— Mr. Calamity 168 XXIV. — Franklin's struggles with Franklin . . . . 174 XXV. — The magical bottle 179 XXVI. — The electrifield vial and the questions it eaised . 186 XXVII. — The great discovery 193 XXVIII. — Home-coming in disguise 200 XXIX.— "Those pamphlets" 209 XXX. — A strange discovery 213 XXXI. — Old Humphrey's strange story 220 XXXII. — The eagle that caught the cat. — Dr. Franklin's English fable. — The doctor's squirrels . . 225 XXXIII.— Old Mr. Calamity again 230 XXXIV. — Old Mr. Calamity and the tearing down of the King's Arms 242 XXXV.— Jenny again 250 XXXVI.— The Declaration of Independence.— A mystery . . 257 XXXVII. — Another signature. — The story of Auvergne sans tache 267 XXXVIII. — Franklin signs the treaty of peace.— How George III receives the news 281 XXXIX.— The tale of an old velvet coat 287 XL. — In service again 293 XLI. — Jane's last visit 299 XLII.— For the last time 307 « XLIII. — A lesson after school 311 APPENDIX.— Franklin's famous proverb story of the old auc- tioneer 314 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FACING PAGE 'Little Ben's adventure as a poet .... Frontispiece I Uncle Benjamin's secret 520 " Are you going t'o swim back to London ? " 156 A strange discovery 215 V The destruction of the royal arms 247 7 Franklin's last days 295 •J » TRUE TO HIS HOME. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST DAY. It was the Sunday morning of the, 6th of January, 1706 (January 17th, old style), when a baby first saw the light in a poor tallow chandler's house on Milk Street, nearly oppo- site the Old South Church, Boston. The little stranger came into a large and growing family, of whom at a later period he might sometimes have seen thirteen children sit down at the table to very hard and simple fare. " A baby is nothing new in this family," said Josiah Frank- lin, the father. " This is the fifteenth. Let me take it over to the church and have it christened this very day. There should be no time lost in christening. What say you, friends all? It is a likely boy, and it is best to start him right in life at once." " People do not often have their children christened in church on the day of birth," said a lusty neighbor, " though if a child seems likely to die it might be christened on the day of its birth at home." " This child does not seem likely to die," said the happy tallow chandler. " I will go and see the parson, and if he does not object I will give the child to the Lord on this January 2 TRUE TO HIS HOME. day, and if he should come to an3'thing he will have occasion to remember that I thought of the highest duty that I owed him when he first opened his eyes to the light." The smiling and enthusiastic tallow chandler went to see the parson, and then returned to his home. " Abiah," he said to his wife, " I am going to have the child christened. What shall his name be?" Josiah Franklin, the chandler, who had emigrated to Bos- ton town that he might enjoy religious freedom, had left a brother in England, who was an honest, kindly, large-hearted man, and " a poet." "How would Benjamin do?" he continued; "brother's name. Benjamin is a family name, and a good one. Benja- min of old, into whose sack Joseph put the silver cup, was a right kind of a man. What do you say, Abiah Folger? " " Benjamin is a good name, and a name lasts for life. But your brother Benjamin has not succeeded very well in his many undertakings." " No, but in all his losses he has never lost his good name. His honor has shown over all. ' A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver or gold.' A man may get riches and yet be poor. It is he that seeks the welfare of others more than wealth for him- self that lives for the things that are best." " Josiah, this is no common boy — look at his head. We can not do for him as our neighbors do for their children. But we can give him a name to honor, and that will be an example to him. How would Folger do — Folger Franklin? Father Folger was a poet like your brother Benjamin, and he THE FIRST DAY. 3 did well in life. That would unite the names of the two families." John Folger, of Norwich, England, with his son Peter, came to this country in the year 1635 on the same shi]) that bore the family of Eev. Hugh Peters. This clergyman, who is known as a " regicide," or king murderer, and who suffered a most terrible death in London on the accession of Charles II, succeeded Eoger Williams in the church at Salem. He flourished during the times of Cromwell, but was sen- tenced to be hanged, cut down alive, and tortured, his body to be quartered, and his head exposed among the male- factors, on account of having consented to the execution of Charles I. Among Hugh Peters's household was one Mary Morrell, a white slave, or purchased serving maid. She was a very bright and beautiful girl. The passengers had small comforts on board the ship. The passage was a long one, and the time passed heavily. Now the passengers who were most interesting to each other became intimate, and young Peter Folger and beautiful Mary Morrell of the Peterses became very interesting to each other and very social. Peter Folger began to ask himself the question, " If the fair maid would marry me, could I not purchase her freedom ? " He seems somehow to have found out that the latter could be done, and so Peter ofi'ered him- self to the attractive servant of the Peterses. The two were be- trothed amid the Atlantic winds and the rolling seas, and the roaring ocean could have little troubled them then, so happy were their anticipations of their life in the New World. 4, TRUE TO HIS HOME. Peter purchased Marj^'s freedom of the Peterses, and so he bought the grandmother of that Benjamin Franklin who was to " snatch the thunderbolts from heaven and the scepter from tjTants," to sign the Declaration of Independence which brought forth a new order of government for mankind, and to form a treaty of peace with England which was to make America free. Peter Folger and his bride first settled in Watertown, Mass., where the young immigrant became a very useful citi- zen. He studied the Indian tongue. About 1660 the familv removed to Martha's Vineyard with Thomas Mayhew, of colonial fame, where Peter was employed as a school teacher and a land surveyor, and he assisted Mr. May- hew in his work among the Indians. He went to Nantucket as a surveyor about 1662, and was induced to remove there as an interpreter and as land surveyor. He was assigned by the proprietors a place known as Roger's Field, and later as Jethro Folger's Lane, now a portion of the ]\Iaddequet Road. Their tenth child was Abiah, born August 15, 1667. She was the second wife of Josiah Franklin, tallow chand- ler, of the sign of the Blue Ball, Boston, and the mother of the boy whom she would like to have inherit so inspiring a name. Peter Folger, the Quaker poet of the island of Nantucket, was a most worthy man. He lived at the beginning of the dark times of persecution, when Baptists and Quakers were in dan- ger of being publicly whipped, branded, and deported or ban- ished into the wilderness. Stories of the cruelty that followed these people filled the colonies, and caused the Quaker's heart THE FIRST DAY. 5 to bleed and burn. He wrote a poem entitled A Looking- glass for the Times, in which he called upon New England to pause in her sins of intoleration and persecution, and threat- ened the judgments foretold in the Bible upon those who do injustice to God's children. " Abiah," said the proud father, " I admire the charac- ter of your father. It stood for justice and human rights. But, wife, listen: " Brother Benjamin has lost all of his ten children but one. I pity him. Wife, listen: Brother Benjamin is poor through no fault of his, but because he gave himself and all that he was to his family. "Listen: It would touch his heart to learn that I had named this boy for him. It would show the old man that I had not forgotten him, but still thought of him. " I can not do much for the boy, but I can give Brother Benjamin a home with me, and, as he is a great reader, he can instruct the boy by wise precept and a good example. If the boy will only follow brother's principles, he may make the name of Benjamin live. "And once more: if we name the boy Benjamin, it will make Brother Benjamin feel that he has not lost all, but that he will have another chance in the world. How glad that would make the poor old man! I would like to name him as the boy's godfather. I do pity him, don't you? You have the heart of Peter Folger." There was a silence. "Abiah, what now shall the boy's name be?" " Benjamin." 6 TRUE TO HIS HOME. " You have chosjen that name out of your heart. May that name bring you joy! It ought to do so, since you have given up your own wish and breathed it out of your heart and con- science. To give up is to gain." He took up the child. " Then we will give that name to him now, and I will take the child and go to the church, and I will name Brother Ben- jamin as his godfather." " It is a very cold day for the little one." " And a healthy one on which to start out in the world. There is nothing like starting right and with a good name, which may the Lord help this cliild to honor! And, Abiah, that He will." He wrapped the babe up warmly, and looked him full in the face. Josiah Franklin was a genial, provident, hard-sensed man. He probably had no prophetic visions; no thought that the little one given him on this frosty January morning in the breezy town of Boston by the sea would command senates, lead courts, and sign a declaration of peace that would make possible a new order of government in the world, could have entered his mind. If the boy should become a good man, with a little poetic imagination like his Uncle Benjamin, the home poet, he would be content. He opened the door of his one room on the lower floor of his house and went out into the cold with the child in his arms. In a short time he returned and laid little Benjamin in the arms of his mother. " I hope the child's life will hold out as it has begun," THE FIRST DAY. Y he added. "Benjamin FranJcUn, day one; started right. May Heaven help him to get used to the world!'' As poor as the tallow chandler was, he was hospitable on that day. He did not hold the birth of the little one — which really was an event of greater importance to the world than the birth of a king — as anything more than the simple growth of an honest family, who had left the crowded towns and a smithy in old England to enjoy freedom of faith and con- science and the opportunities of the Xew World. He wished to live where he might be free to enjoy his own opinions and to promote a colony where all men should have these privi- leges. The honse in which Franklin was born is described as follows : Its front npon the street was rudely clapboarded, and the sides and rear were protected from the inclemencies of a New England climate by large, rough shingles. In height the house was about three stories; in front, the second story and attic projected somewhat into the street, over the princiiDal story on the ground floor. On the lower floor of the main house there was one room only. This, which probably served the Franklins as a parlor and sitting-room, and also for the family eating-room, was about twenty feet square, and had two win- dows on the street; and it had also one on the passageway, so as to give the inmates a good view of Washington Street. In the center of the southerly side of the room was one of those noted large fireplaces, situated in a most capacious chimney; on the left of this was a spacious closet. On the ground floor, connected with the sitting-room through the entry, was the kitchen. The second story originally contained but one cham- ber, and in this the windows, door, fireplace, and closet were 8 TRUE TO HIS HOME. similar in number and position to those in the parlor beneath it. The attic was also originally one unplastered room, and had a window in front on the street, and two common attic windows, one on each side of the roof, near the back part of it. Soon after this unprophetic event Josiah Franklin and Abiah his wife went to live at the sign of the Blue Ball, on what was then the southeast corner of Hanover and Union Streets. The site of the birth of Franklin was long made notable as the office of the Boston Post, a political paper whose humor was once proverbial. The site is still visited by strangers, and bears the record of the event which was to con- tribute so powerful an influence to the scientific and political history of the world. Wendell Phillips used to say that there were two kinds of people in the world — one wh© went ahead and did some- thing, and another, who showed how that thing ought to have been done in some other way. The boy belonged to the former class. But I doubt if any reader of this volume was ever born to so hard an estate as this boy. Let us follow him into the story land of childhood. In Germany every child passes through fairyland, but there was no such land in Josiah Franklin's tallow shop, except when the busy man sometimes played the violin in the inner room and sang psalms to the music, usually in a very solemn tone. There were not many homes in Boston at this period that had even so near an approach to fairyland as a violin. Those were hard times for children, and especially for those with lively THE FIRST DAY. 9 imaginations, which gift little Benjamin had in no common degree. There were Indians in those times, and supposed ghosts and witches, but no passing clouds bore angels' chariots; there were no brownies among the wild rose bushes and the ferns. There was one good children's story in every home — that of " Joseph " in the Bible, still, as always, the best family story in all the world. CHAPTER II. UNCLE BENJAMIN, THE POET. Mrs. Franklin has said that she coukl hardly remember the time in her son's childhood when he could not read. He emerged almost from babyhood a reader, and soon began to " devour " — to use the word then applied to his habit — all the books that fell within his reach. When about four years old he became much interested in stories told him by his father of his Uncle Benjamin, the poet, who lived in England, and for whom he had been named, and who, it was hoped, would come to the new country and be his godfather. The family at the Blue Ball was quick to notice the tend- encies of their children in early life. Little Benjamin Frank- lin developed a curious liking for a trumpet and a gun. He liked to march about to noise, and this noise he was pleased to make himself — to blow his own trumpet. The family wrote to Uncle Benjamin, the poet, then in England, in regard to this unpromising trait, and the good man returned the follow- ing letter in reply: 10 UNCLE BENJAMIN, THE POET. H To my Namesal'e, on hearing of his Inclination to Martial Affairs. July 7, 1710. " Believe me, Ben, it is a dangerous trade; The sword has many marred as well as made; By it do many fall, not many rise — Makes many poor, few rich, not many wise; Fills towns with ruin, fields with blood beside; 'Tis sloth's maintainer, and the shield of pride; Fair cities, rich to-day in plenty flow. War fills with want to-morrow, and with woe; Euined estates, victims of vice, broken limbs, and scars Are the effects of desolatina; wars." ^to One evening, as the tallow chandler was hurrying hither and thither in his apron and paper cap, the door opened with a sharp ring of the bell fastened by a string upon it. The paper cap bobbed up. "Hoi, what now?" said the tallow chandler. " A letter from England, sirrah. The Lively Nancy has come in. There it is." The tallow chandler held the letter up to the fire, for it had been a melting day, as certain days on which the melting of tallow for the molds were called. He read " Benjamin Franklin," and said: " That's curious — that's Brother Ben's writing. I would know that the world over." He put the letter in his pocket. He saw Dame Franklin looking through the transom over the door, and shook his head. He sat down with his large family to a meal of bread and 12 TRUE TO HIS HOME. milk, and then took the letter from his pocket and read it over to himself. " Ben/' said he, " this is for you. I am going to read it. As I do so, you repeat after me the first letter of the first and of every line. Are you ready? Now. " ' Be to thy parents an obedient son.' " " B," said little Ben. " ' Each day let duty constantly he done.' " " E," the boy continued. " ' Never give way to sloth, or lust, or pride.' " " N, father." " ' Just free to he from thousand ills beside.' " " J, father." " ' Above all ills be sure avoid the shelf.' " " A, father." "'Man's danger lies in Satan, sin, and self."' " M, father." " ' In virtue, learning, wisdom, progress mal:e.' " "I, father." " ' Ne'er shrink at suffering for thy Saviour's sahe.' " " N, father. I know what that spells." "What?" " Benjamin." " ' Fraud and all falsehood in thy dealings flee.' " " F," said the boy. " ' Beligious always in thy station be.' " " E, father." "'Adore the Malcer of thy inward heart.'" " A, father." UNCLE BENJAMIN, THE POET. . 13