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and enabled him to carry, against all opposition, several very sensible reforms in the laws of the chapel. His practice, with the results, which, daily and hourly, it placed directly before their eyes, and with especial emphasis on every weekly pay-day, induced numbers of his fellow-workmen to change their habits and follow his example. Leaving their "muddling breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese," they procured, with him, at a house near by, "a large porringer of hot water-gruel," not the meager drink prepared for invalids, but well thickened with crumbled bread, and savored and enriched with a sprinkle of pepper and " a bit of butter," all for a penny and a half, which was the price their pint of beer alone cost them. This was unquestionably comfortable as well as a cheaper breakfast," than they had been accustomed to take, and it "kept their heads clearer."

66 a more

The other workmen, who "continued sotting it with their beer all day," he found to be, pretty generally, either in doubtful credit, or with none at all, at the alehouse; and they became for the most part dependent on the water-drinker for money, or for his responsibility, to enable them to procure beer; their own cash being exhausted, or, as they termed it, "their light being out." By keeping a vigilant eye on the pay-table, when paytime came round, every Saturday, he secured himself, in the main, against loss on the sums of beer-money, for which he had agreed to become responsible, and which, at times, as he states, amounted to near thirty shillings in a single week. His willingness to confer favors of this sort, his uniform cheerfulness of spirit, his good temper, playful humor, and ready wit, with a turn for occasional jocular satire, or being what was called among them a good riggist, gave him a high rank among his associates of the printing-office; while, at the same time,

his steady attendance at the office, without regard to St. Monday, or other holyday excuses for absence and idleness, secured the countenance and favor of his employer; and being a remarkably rapid compositor, such work as required despatch as well as accuracy, and therefore brought the highest pay, was put into his hands. "So I went on," says he, "very agreeably."

How soon the conduct and character of this young man, his ways of life, his usefulness to others not less than to himself, and his value as a man, began to improve to rise on the scale of moral and social worth-when he had become relieved from the burden of Ralph, and had escaped from the misguiding and depraving influences of his companionship! Such benefits were no doubt cheaply purchased by the loss of the mere money paid on his account. In this connection it may also be mentioned that next door to his lodgings dwelt a man named Wilcox, a bookseller, who had a very large collection of second-hand books. He seems to have been a well-disposed and obliging man, and with him, for a trifling compensation, Benjamin made an arrangement, by which he was allowed to take, read, and return, any books in the collection; and of this privilege, to him a precious one, he availed himself as fully as his regular employment would permit.

About this time, however, Benjamin left his quarters in Little Britain, for others in Duke street, much nearer to his present place of daily labor. His new room was a back chamber, in the fourth story of a warehouse belonging to his new hostess, in which were deposited various wares of Italian manufacture, in which she was a dealer.

This lady was a widow, and had a daughter living with her. She also kept a maid-servant to do her housework, and a hired man to wait upon customers, in the

HIS NEW HOSTESS.

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ware-room, during the business hours of the day, but at night he slept elsewhere. Upon obtaining from the people with whom Benjamin had been boarding in Little Britain, an account of his character and habits, she consented to receive him at the same price he had been paying, at the house he was about leaving, and that was three shillings and sixpence a week; saying that she accepted such small pay, for the sake of the increased security, which she felt would follow from having such a lodger in the house.

This worthy and kind-hearted widow, now far advanced in years, was the daughter of a Protestant clergyman of the Church of England as by law established, and her father had reared and educated her in his own faith. But having married a gentleman of the Roman Catholic persuasion, he had converted her to his own creed and church, in which she still remained steadfast; and she appeared, according to Franklin's estimate of her, to cherish her husband's memory with a deep and sincere feeling of affectionate respect.

This

She had, moreover, as it is stated, been long and intimately conversant with many families of high rank, some of which were distinguished for character and public services, as well as birth; and concerning them she possessed, it is related, a rich and varied store of anecdotes, reaching back as far, in many instances, as the days of Charles II.; thus covering, with interesting recollections, a period of more than forty years. excellent and respectable woman had suffered long and much from gout in her knees, which had now become so weak that she was rarely able to leave her room, or, at times, even her chair. Company, therefore, especially cheerful and quiet company, was very acceptable to her; and "hers was so highly amusing to me," says Franklin, “that I was sure to spend an evening with

her, whenever she desired it." Their supper, on these pleasant occasions, consisted of "half an anchovy for each, on a very little slice of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale for both; but the entertainment was in her conversation."

Benjamin was now so regular in his hours, gave so little trouble, and was in all respects so quiet and pleasant a boarder, that his hostess became solicitous to retain him; and when he mentioned that he had heard of lodgings still nearer to his place of labor, to be had for only two shillings a week, and that such a saving, in his circumstances, was important to him, she at once told him not to think of going, for she would thenceforward keep him for eighteen pence per week: and he continued with her, at that price, for the rest of his stay in London.

The same house held another lodger, a female, whose history and way of life were not a little singular. She was a maiden lady of three-score and ten years, and she occupied a room in the garret, living in almost utter seclusion from society. She was a Roman Catholic, and when very young had been placed in a convent on the continent, with the design of making her a nun. The situation of the establishment, as it appears, however, proving unfavorable to her health, she left it and came back to England. But in England there were no nunneries, nor convents of any kind; and she was unable, therefore, to pursue the way of life to which she had vowed herself, according to the literal strictness of her vow and the rigor of conventual rule; and so she was doing the best she could, by living the life of a nun, with as much exactness as circumstances would allow, in the garret of the warehouse, in which Benjamin now had his lodgings.

There had this aged and simple-minded woman dwelt,