long dead and gone to the
violets and primroses. Do you suppose the dead know? I sometimes think
they do, and that it makes them happy to see things like these. I will
talk with the parson about these things some day."

The younger brother smiled through his tears and straightened himself
up, as though he felt that he had yielded to weakness, for he was a
plain, hard-working man. Suddenly he said:

"Brother, you remember Uncle Tom?"

"Yes, yes; he set the chimes of Nottingham ringing in the air. I can
hear them ringing now in my memory. Brother, I think little Ben favors
Uncle Tom."

"Who was Uncle Tom?" asked the boy.

"They used to say that he was a wizard. I will tell you all about him
some day. Let us listen now to your father's violin."

The house was still, save that the sea winds stirred the crisp autumn
leaves in the great trees near and the nine o'clock bell fell solemnly
on the air. A watchman went by, saying, "All is well!"

Yes, all is well in hearts like these--hearts that can pity, love,
forbear, and feel.

CHAPTER IV.

FRANKLIN'S STORY OF A HOLIDAY IN CHILDHOOD.

AS barren as was the early Puritan town in things that please the fancy
of the child, Josiah Franklin's home was a cheerful one. It kept
holidays, when the violin was played, and some pennies were bestowed
upon the many children.

Let us enter the house by the candle-room door. The opening of the door
rings a bell. There is an odor of tallow everywhere. One side is hung
with wickings, to be cut and trimmed.

When the tallow is boiling the room is very hot, close, and the
atmosphere oily.

There is a soap kettle in the room. The odor of the lye is more
agreeable than that of the melted tallow.

Little Ben is here, short, stout, rosy-faced, with a great head. Where
he goes the other children go; what he does, they do. Already a little
world has begun to follow him.

Look at him as he runs around among the candle molds, talking like a
philosopher. Does he seem likely to stand in the French court amid the
splendors of the palace of Versailles, the most popular and conspicuous
person among all the jeweled multitude who fill the mirrored, the
golden, the blazing halls except the king himself? Does he look as
though he would one day ask the French king for an army to help
establish the independence of his country, and that the throne would bow
to him?

Homely as was that home, the fancy of Franklin after he became great
a