ted. Let us give
you some of them:

"Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?"

"Fly pleasures, and they will follow thee."

"Let thy child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what
thou wilt."

"Industry need not wish."

"In things of moment, on thyself depend,
Nor trust too far thy servant or thy friend;
With private views, thy friend may promise fair,
And servants very seldom prove sincere."

Besides these quaint sayings, which became a part of the proverbial
wisdom of the world, Franklin had a comical remark for every occasion,
as, when a boy, he advised his father to say grace over the whole pork
barrel, and so save time at the table. He once admonished Jenny in
regard to her spelling, and that after she was advanced in life, by
telling her that the true way to spell wife was _yf_. After the treaty
of peace with England, he thought it only a courtesy that America should
return deported people to their native shores. Once in Paris, on
receiving a cake labeled _Le digne Franklin_, which excited the jealousy
of Lee and Dean, he said that the present was meant for
Lee-Dean-Franklin, that being the pronunciation of the French label.
Every event had a comical side for him.

Let us bring prosperous Benjamin Franklin back to Boston to see his
widowed mother again, after the old story-book manner. She is nearly
blind now, and we may suppose Jamie the Scotchman to be halting and old.

He comes into the town in the stagecoach at night. Boston has grown. The
grand old Province House rises above it, the Indian vane turning hither
and thither in the wind. The old town pump gleams under a lantern, as
does the spring in Spring Lane, which fountain may have led to the
settlement of the town. On a hill a beacon gleams over the sea. He
passes the stocks and the whipping-post in the shadows.

There is a light in the window of the Blue Ball. He sees it. It is very
bright. Is his mother at work now that she is nearly blind?

He dismounts. He passes close to the old window. His father is not in
the room; he never will be there again. But an aged man is there. Who is
he?

The man is reading--what? The most popular pamphlet or little book that
ever appeared in the colonies; a droll story.

He knocks at the door. The old man rises and opens the door; the bell is
gone.

"Abiah, there's a stranger here."

"Ask him who he is."

"Say that he used to work here many ye