, the enchanting forests of the Schuylkill
resounded with the songs and the shouts of the merry bacchanals,
led by Franklin, who was ever recognized as their chief.

There probably never was a young man more skillful than Benjamin
Franklin in plucking the rose and avoiding the thorn. In all his
festivities he was the thoughtful philosopher. Never did he drink to
excess; no money was squandered at the gaming table. Carefully he
avoided all views which he deemed vulgar and degrading; and he made it
the general rule of his life, to avoid everything which would bring
pain to his body, or remorse to his soul.

Still man is born to mourn. Even Franklin could not escape the general
lot. The drunken Collins became his constant scourge. Franklin felt
constrained to lend his old friend money. He had been entrusted by a
family friend, a Mr. Vernon, to collect a debt of about fifty dollars.
This money he was to retain till called for. But to meet his own
expenses and those of his spendthrift companion, he began to draw
upon it, until it all disappeared. He was then troubled with the
apprehension that the money might be demanded. Bitter were the
quarrels which arose between him and John Collins. His standard of
morality which was perhaps not less elevated than that which the
majority of imperfect professing Christians practice, was certainly
below that which the religion of Jesus Christ enjoins. Had he been a
true Christian according to the doctrines and precepts of Jesus, he
would have escaped these accumulating sorrows.

[Illustration]

This breaking in upon his friend Vernon's money, and spending it,
he pronounces in his autobiography, to have been the _first great
error_ of his life. Though it so chanced that the money was not
required until Franklin was able to pay it, yet for several months
he was in the endurance of intense mental anxiety and constant
self-reproach.

At length, Collins and Franklin became so antagonistic to each other
as to proceed to violence. They were on a pleasure party in a boat
down the river. Collins, as usual, was intoxicated. The wrath of the
muscular Benjamin was so aroused, by some act of abuse, that he seized
the fellow by the collar and pitched him overboard. Collins was a good
swimmer. They therefore kept him in the water till he was nearly
drowned. When pretty thoroughly humbled, and upon his most solemn
promise of good behavior, he was again taken on board. Seldom after
this was a word