New York and practised fencing with the well-known Master
Brissac. He also took a course in geometry and trigonometry at the
Academy and wrote an article describing his trip to Boston for _The
Gazette_. The latter was warmly praised by the editor and reprinted in
New York and Boston journals. He joined the company for home defense
and excelled in the games, on training day, especially at the running,
wrestling, boxing and target shooting. There were many shooting
galleries in Philadelphia wherein Jack had shown a knack of shooting
with the rifle and pistol, which had won for him the Franklin medal for
marksmanship. In the back country the favorite amusement of himself
and father had been shooting at a mark.

Somehow the boy managed to do a great deal of work and to find time for
tramping in the woods along the Schuylkill and for skating and swimming
with the other boys. Mrs. Franklin and Mrs. Bache grew fond of Jack
and before the new year came had begun to treat him with a kind of
motherly affection.

William, the Doctor's son, who was the governor of the province of New
Jersey, came to the house at Christmas time. He was a silent, morose,
dignified, self-seeking man, who astonished Jack with his rabid
Toryism. He nettled the boy by treating the opinions of the latter
with smiling toleration and by calling his own father--the great
Doctor--"a misguided man."

Jack forged ahead, not only in the printer's art, but on toward the
fulness of his strength. Under the stimulation of city life and
continuous study, his talents grew like wheat in black soil. In the
summer of seventy-three he began to contribute to the columns of _The
Gazette_. Certain of his articles brought him compliments from the
best people for their wit, penetration and good humor. He had entered
upon a career of great promise when the current of his life quickened
like that of a river come to a steeper grade. It began with a letter
from Margaret Hare, dated July 14, 1773. In it she writes:

"When you get this please sit down and count up the years that have
passed since we parted. Then think how our plans have gone awry. You
must also think of me waiting here for you in the midst of a marrying
world. All my friends have taken their mates and passed on. I went to
Doctor Franklin to-day and told him that I was an old lady well past
nineteen and accused him of having a heart of stone. He said that he
had not sent for you because you wer