ve deceived you! Don't you know that this show of prosperity is all
delusion; that people of level heads are calling in their bills, and
that this is a hard time for creditors? The age of finery has gone, and
the age of rags has come. Rags, sir, rags!"

"No, sir, no. I thought the people were getting out of debt. See how
many people are building."

"They are building to be ready for the crash--they do not know what else
to do with their money; calamity is coming."

"But how do you know, sir?"

"Know? It requires but little wit to know. I can feel it in my head. The
times are not what they used to be. William Penn is dead, and none of
his descendants are equal to him. Look at the Quakers, see how worldly
they are becoming! Most people are living beyond their means! Property,"
he added, "is all on the decline. In a few years you will see people
moving away from here. You will hear that the Proprietors have failed.
Young man, don't go into business here. Let me tell you a secret, though
I hate to do it, as your heart is bent upon setting up the printing
business here; listen to me now--the whole province is going to fail.
Before us is bankruptcy. Do you hear it--that awful, awful word
_bankruptcy_? The Governor himself, in my opinion, is on the way to
bankruptcy now. The town will have to all go out of business, and then
there will be bats and owls in the garrets, and the wharves will rot. I
sometimes think that I will have to quit my country."

"Do other folks think as you do?"

"Ay, ay, don't they? All that have any heads with eyes. Some folks have
eyes for the present, some for the past, and some for the future. I am
one of those that have eyes for the future. I expect to see grass
growing in the streets before I die, and I shall not have to live long
to pluck buttercups under the King's Arms. I pity young chickens like
you that will have no place to run to."

"But, sir," said young Franklin, "suppose things do take another turn.
The young settlers are all building; the old people are enlarging their
estates. It is easy to borrow money, and it looks to me that we will
have here twice as many people in another generation as we have now. If
the city should grow, what an opening there is for a printer! I shall
take the risk."

"Risk--risk? Jump off a ship on the high sea with an iron ball on your
feet! Go down, and stick there. Business, I tell you, is going to die
here, and who would want to read what a stripling