nd, and on
finding his dyeing trade would not maintain his family, being in little
request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles,
filling the dipping mold and the molds for cast candles, attending the
shop, going of errands, etc.

I continued thus employed in my father's business for two years, that
is, till I was twelve years old; and my brother John, who was bred to
that business, having left my father, married, and set up for himself at
Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I was destined to supply his
place, and become a tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the trade
continuing, my father was under apprehensions that if he did not find
one for me more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as his
son Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He therefore sometimes took
me to walk with him, and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers,
etc., at their work, that he might observe my inclination, and endeavor
to fix it on some trade or other on land. It has ever since been a
pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools; and it has been
useful to me, having learned so much by it as to be able to do little
jobs myself in my house when a workman could not readily be got, and to
construct little machines for my experiments, while the intention of
making the experiment was fresh and warm in my mind. My father at last
fixed upon the cutler's trade, and my uncle Benjamin's son Samuel, who
was bred to that business in London, being about that time established
in Boston, I was sent to be with him some time on liking. But his
expectations of a fee with me displeasing my father, I was taken home
again.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came
into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the _Pilgrim's
Progress_, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate
little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's
_Historical Collections_. They were small chapmen's books, and cheap, 40
or 50 in all. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books in
polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted
that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper
books had not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved I should not
be a clergyman. Plutarch's _Lives_ there was in which I read abundantly,
and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a
book of De Foe's,