ballad about Black Beard? A penny a piece! a penny a piece! who'll buy my
ballads?"

If one of those roughly composed and rudely printed ballads could be
discovered now, it would be worth more than its weight in gold.

In this way our friend Benjamin spent his boyhood and youth, until, on
account of some disagreement with his brother, he left his native town and
went to Philadelphia. He landed in the latter city, a homeless and hungry
young man, and bought three-pence worth of bread to satisfy his appetite.
Not knowing where else to go, he entered a Quaker meeting-house, sat down,
and fell fast asleep. He has not told us whether his slumbers were visited
by any dreams. But it would have been a strange dream, indeed, and an
incredible one, that should have foretold how great a man he was destined
to become, and how much he would be honored in that very city, where he
was now friendless, and unknown.

So here we finish our story of the childhood of Benjamin Franklin. One of
these days, if you would know what he was in his manhood, you must read
his own works, and the history of American Independence.

"Do let us hear a little more of him!" said Edward; "not that I admire him
so much as many other characters; but he interests me, because he was a
Yankee boy."

"My dear son," replied Mr. Temple, "it would require a whole volume of
talk, to tell you all that is worth knowing about Benjamin Franklin. There
is a very pretty anecdote of his flying a kite in the midst of a
thunder-storm, and thus drawing down the lightning from the clouds, and
proving that it was the same thing as electricity. His whole life would be
an interesting story, if we had time to tell it."

"But, pray, dear father, tell us what made him so famous," said George. "I
have seen his portrait a great many times. There is a wooden bust of him
in one of our streets, and marble ones, I suppose, in some other places.
And towns, and ships of war, and steamboats, and banks, and academies, and
children, are often named after Franklin. Why should he have grown so very
famous?"

"Your question is a reasonable one, George," answered his father. "I doubt
whether Franklin's philosophical discoveries, important as they were, or
even his vast political services, would have given him all the fame which
he acquired. It appears to me that Poor Richard's Almanac did more than
any thing else towards making him familiarly known to the public. As the
writer of those