umbler decorations.
How strange it looked to her as she saw it! Then must have arisen before
her the boy from the Maine woods, one of twenty-six school-denied
children; the ungainly young sailor with his hot temper and scars; the
dreamer of golden dreams; the captain, the fortune-finder, the knight.
Another link was soon added to this marvelous chain of events. The house
of gables in the green lane was offered for sale. Sir William purchased
it, and the Albemarle Cup was taken into it, amid furnishings worthy of
a knight and lady.

"The two looked out of the upper window over Boston town.--He was an
honest man.

"After this many-time repeated declaration that Sir William was an
honest man," he added: "A man must get a living somehow--he must get a
living somehow; either he must save or be a slave."

Little Ben thought that he would like to earn a living in some such way
as that. The brick house in the "Faire Green Lane" meant much to him
after stories like those. He surely was almost as poor as Sir William
was at his age. Could he turn his own dreams into gold, or into that
which is better than gold?

"Jenny," he said, "I would like to be able to give a brick house in the
Faire Green Lane to father and mother, and to you. Maybe I will some
day. I will be true to my home!"

CHAPTER XV.

"HAVE I A CHANCE?"

BLESSED is he who lends good books to young people. There was such a man
in Boston town named Adams, one hundred and ninety years ago. His
influence still lives, for he lent such books to young Benjamin
Franklin.

The boy was slowly learning what noble minds had done in the world; how
they became immortal by leaving their thought and works behind them. His
constant question was, What have I the chance or the opportunity to do?
What can I do that will benefit others?

It was a November evening. The days were short; the night came on at six
o'clock. These were the dark days of the year.

"There is to be a candle-light meeting in the South Church, and I must
go," said Uncle Benjamin. "It will be pretty cold there to-night, Ben;
you had better get the foot stove."

The foot stove was a tin or brass box in a wooden frame with a handle.
It was filled with live coals, and was carried to the church by a
handle, as one would carry a dinner pail.

Little Benjamin brought the stove out of a cupboard to the hearth, took
out of it a pan, which he filled with hard coals and replaced it.

"Ben," said Uncle B