e Knight of Liberty.=

_A Tale of the Fortunes of Lafayette._ With 6 full-page Illustrations.

"No better reading for the young man can be imagined than this
fascinating narrative of a noble figure on the canvas of time."--_Boston
Traveller._

* * * * *

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.

[Illustration: LITTLE BEN'S ADVENTURE AS A POET.

(See page 113.)]

TRUE TO HIS HOME

A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin

BY

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH

AUTHOR OF THE WAMPUM BELT, IN THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN, ETC.

The noblest question in the world is, What good may I do in it?
POOR RICHARD

_ILLUSTRATED BY H. WINTHROP PEIRCE_

[Illustration]

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1897

COPYRIGHT, 1897,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

PREFACE.

THIS volume is an historical fiction, but the plan of it was suggested
by biography, and is made to include the most interesting and
picturesque episodes in the home side of the life of Benjamin Franklin,
so as to form a connected narrative or picture of his public life.

I have written no book with a deeper sympathy with my subject, for,
although fiction, the story very truthfully shows that the good
intentions of a life which has seemed to fail do not die, but live in
others whom they inspire. Uncle Benjamin Franklin, "the poet," who was
something of a philosopher, and whose visions all seemed to end in
disappointment, deeply influenced his nephew and godson, Benjamin
Franklin, whom he morally educated to become what he himself had failed
to be.

The conduct of Josiah Franklin, the father of Benjamin Franklin, in
comforting his poor old brother in England by naming his fifteenth child
for him, and making him his godfather, is a touching instance of family
affection, to the memory of which the statesman was always true.

Uncle Benjamin Franklin had a library of pamphlets that was very dear to
him, for in the margins of the leaves he had placed the choicest
thoughts of his life amid great political events. He was very poor, and
he sold his library in his old age; we may reasonably suppose that he
parted with it among other effects to get money to come to America, that
he might give his influence to "Little Ben," after his brother had
remembered him in his desolation by giving his name to the boy. The
finding of thes