een a comfortable inn, and the next morning, having
dressed as neatly as he could, set out to find employment. Andrew
Bradford had no place for him; but another printer named Keimer, who
had recently set up in business, was willing to give him work. It was a
queer house and a queer printer. There was an old damaged press, on
which Franklin exercised his skill in repairing, and a small worn-out
font of type. Keimer himself, who seems to have been a grotesque
compound of knave and crank, was engaged at once in composing and
setting up in type an elegy on the death of a prominent young man. He
is the only poet to my knowledge who ever used the composition-stick
instead of a pen for the vehicle of inspiration. The elegy may still be
read in Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia, and on perusing it we may well repeat
the first line:--

"What mournful accents thus accost mine ear!"

Now began a period of growing prosperity for our philosopher. The two
printers of Philadelphia were poorly qualified for their business, and
Franklin by his industry and intelligence soon rendered himself
indispensable to Keimer. He was making money, had discovered a few
agreeable persons to pass his evenings with, and was contented. He took
lodging with Mr. Read, and now, as he says, "made rather a more
respectable appearance in the eyes of Miss Read."

He was even in a fair way to forget Boston when an incident occurred of
some importance in his life. Robert Holmes, who had married his sister,
being at Newcastle, forty miles below Philadelphia, heard of him and
wrote entreating him to return home. To this appeal Franklin replied
giving his reasons for leaving Boston. Now Sir William Keith, governor
of Pennsylvania, chanced at this time to be at Newcastle, and, being
shown the letter by Holmes, was so much impressed with it that he
determined to offer encouragement to the writer. Great, then, was the
surprise of Benjamin and his master when one day the governor and
another gentleman in their fine clothes called at the printing-house
and inquired for the young man. They took him to a tavern at the corner
of Third Street, and there over the Madeira the governor proposed that
Benjamin should start an independent shop, promising in this case to
give him the government printing. Benjamin was skeptical, but at last
it was decided that he should go to Boston and seek help of his father;
and in April, 1724, with a flattering letter from the governor, he set
out