to be
good to him. I like Ben better than _almost_ anybody."

"A beneficent purpose is at first ridiculed," said Uncle Benjamin.

Little Ben seemed to comprehend the meaning of this principle, but the
"big words" were lost on Jenny.

"He whose good purpose is laughed at," said Uncle Benjamin, "will be
likely to live to laugh at those who laughed at him if he so desired;
but, hark! a generous man does not laugh at any one's right intentions.
Ben, never stop to answer back when they laugh at you. Life is too
short. It robs the future to seek revenge."

Uncle Benjamin was right.

Did little Ben heed the admonition of his uncle on this bright day in
Boston, to follow beneficence with a ready step, and not to stop to
"answer back"? Was little Jenny's heart comforted in after years in
finding Ben, who was so good to her now, _commended_? We are to follow a
family history, and we shall see.

As the three went back to the Blue Ball, Ben, holding his uncle by the
one hand and Jane by the other, said:

"I do like to hear Jane speak well of me, and stand up for me. I care
more for that than _almost_ any other thing."

"Well, live that she may always speak well of you," said Uncle Benjamin;
"so that she may speak well of you when you two shall meet for the last
time."

"Uncle," said Jenny, "why do you always have something solemn to say?
Ben isn't solemn, is he?"

"No, my girl, your brother Ben is a very lively boy. You will have to
hold him back some day, I fear."

"No, no, uncle, I shall always push him on. He likes to go ahead. I like
to see him go--don't you?"

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ELDER FRANKLIN'S STORIES.

PETER FOLGER, Quaker, the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin, was one of
those noblemen of Nature whose heart beat for humanity. He had been
associated in the work of Thomas Mayhew, the Indian Apostle, who was the
son of Thomas Mayhew, Governor of Martha's Vineyard. The younger Mayhew
gathered an Indian church of some hundred or more members, and the
Indians so much loved him that they remained true to him and their
church during Philip's war.

What stories Abiah Franklin could have told, and doubtless did tell, of
her old home at Nantucket!--stories of the true hearts of the pioneers,
of people who loved others more than themselves, and not like the
sea-rovers who at this time were making material for the Pirate's Own
Book.

Josiah, too, had his stories of Old England and the conventicles, heroic