o Miss Betsy and Gracie.
I am your _loving_ husband.

"P. S. I have _scratched out the loving words_, being writ
in haste by mistake, when I forgot I was angry."

Gov. Denny, unable to accomplish his purposes with the Assembly,
resolved to make a final appeal to the king. The House promptly
decided to imitate his example. Its Speaker, Mr. Norris, and Benjamin
Franklin, were appointed commissioners. The Speaker declined the
office, and Franklin was left as sole commissioner. He probably was
not at all reluctant to be introduced to the statesmen, the
philosophers, and the fashionable circles of the Old World. To defray
his expenses the Assembly voted a sum of nearly eight thousand
dollars. He had also wealth of his own. By correspondence, he was
quite intimately acquainted with very many of the scientific men of
England and France. It was very certain that he would have the
_entree_ to any circle which he might wish to honor with his presence.

It was at that time a very serious affair to cross the Atlantic. The
ocean swarmed with pirates, privateers, and men-of-war. On the fourth
of April, 1757, Franklin, with his son William, set out from
Philadelphia. His cheerfulness of spirits did not forsake him as he
left a home where he had been remarkably happy for twenty-six years.
The family he left behind him consisted of his wife, his wife's aged
mother, his daughter Sarah, a beautiful child of twelve years, one or
two nieces, and an old nurse of the family.

Franklin had written to the governor to ascertain the precise time
when the packet would sail. The reply he received from him was,

"I have given out that the ship is to sail on Saturday next.
But I may let you know _entre nous_ that if you are there by
Monday morning you will be in time; but do not delay any
longer."

Franklin was accompanied by a number of his friends as far as Trenton,
where they spent a very joyful evening together. At one of the ferries
on this road, they were delayed by obstructions so that they could not
reach the Hudson River until noon of Monday. Franklin feared that the
ship might sail without him; but upon reaching the river he was
relieved by seeing the vessel still in the stream.

Eleven weeks passed before Lord Loudoun would issue his permission for
the ship to sail. Every day this most dilatory and incompetent of men
announced that the packet would sail to-morrow. And thus the weeks
rolled on whi