PHILADELPHIA

We sail'd from Gravesend on the 23rd of July, 1726. For the incidents
of the voyage, I refer you to my Journal, where you will find them all
minutely related. Perhaps the most important part of that journal is
the _plan_[50] to be found in it, which I formed at sea, for
regulating my future conduct in life. It is the more remarkable, as
being formed when I was so young, and yet being pretty faithfully
adhered to quite thro' to old age.

[50] "Not found in the manuscript journal, which was left
among Franklin's papers."--Bigelow.

We landed in Philadelphia on the 11th of October, where I found sundry
alterations. Keith was no longer governor, being superseded by Major
Gordon. I met him walking the streets as a common citizen. He seem'd a
little asham'd at seeing me, but pass'd without saying anything. I
should have been as much asham'd at seeing Miss Read, had not her
friends, despairing with reason of my return after the receipt of my
letter, persuaded her to marry another, one Rogers, a potter, which
was done in my absence. With him, however, she was never happy, and
soon parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him or bear his name,
it being now said that he had another wife. He was a worthless fellow,
tho' an excellent workman, which was the temptation to her friends. He
got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went to the West Indies, and
died there. Keimer had got a better house, a shop well supply'd with
stationery, plenty of new types, a number of hands, tho' none good,
and seem'd to have a great deal of business.

Mr. Denham took a store in Water-street, where we open'd our goods; I
attended the business diligently, studied accounts, and grew, in a
little time, expert at selling. We lodg'd and boarded together; he
counsell'd me as a father, having a sincere regard for me. I respected
and loved him, and we might have gone on together very happy; but, in
the beginning of February, 1726/7, when I had just pass'd my
twenty-first year, we both were taken ill. My distemper was a
pleurisy, which very nearly carried me off. I suffered a good deal,
gave up the point in my own mind, and was rather disappointed when I
found myself recovering, regretting, in some degree, that I must now,
some time or other, have all that disagreeable work to do over again.
I forget what his distemper was; it held him a long time, and at
length carried him off. He left me a small legacy in a nuncupative
will,