ill suffer him to speak for himself.

[Illustration: PRINTING-PRESS AT WHICH FRANKLIN WORKED WHEN
A BOY.]

"Philadelphia was one hundred miles farther; I set out,
however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving my chest and things to
follow me round by sea. In crossing the bay, we met with a
squall that tore our rotten sail to pieces, prevented our
getting into the Kill, and drove us upon Long Island. In our
way a drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger too, fell
overboard; when he was sinking, I reached through the water
to his shock pate and drew him up, so that we got him in
again. His ducking sobered him a little, and he went to
sleep, taking first out of his pocket a book, which he
desired I would dry for him."

The book proved to be the "Pilgrim's Progress," in Dutch,
well printed, and with copper-plate illustrations, a fact
which greatly interested the book-loving traveller.

"On approaching the island, we found it was a place where
there could be no landing, there being a great surge on the
stony beach. So we dropped anchor, and swung out our cable
towards the shore. Some people came down to the shore, and
hallooed to us, as we did to them; but the wind was so high,
and the surge so loud, that we could not understand each
other. There were some small boats near the shore, and we
made signs, and called to them to fetch us; but they either
did not comprehend us, or it was impracticable, so they went
off.

"Night approaching, we had no remedy but to have patience
till the wind abated, and in the mean time the boatman and
myself concluded to sleep, if we could; and so we crowded
into the hatches, where we joined the Dutchman, who was
still wet, and the spray, breaking over the head of our
boat, leaked through to us, so that we were soon almost as
wet as he. In this manner we lay all night, with very little
rest; but the wind abating the next day, we made a shift to
reach Amboy before night, having been thirty hours on the
water, without victuals, or any drink but a bottle of filthy
rum, the water we sailed on being salt."

The story seems hard to credit. The travellers had already
spent fifteen times the period it now takes to make the
complete journey, and were but fairly started; while they
had experienced almost as much hardship as though they were
wrecked mariners, cast upon a desolate coast. The remainder
of the journey was no less wearisome. The traveller thus
continues his narrative:

"In the evening I fou