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"Neighbors," continued Col. Anglesea, fully controlling himself, and falling into that confidential tone which he had always found so effectual--"neighbors, I call upon you, in common justice to me, to use your reason and judgment in this matter. You see this woman who has brought forward this most absurd, preposterous...
"Thank you, Le. Dear, kind fellow! It was very good and thoughtful of you. Come, love. Come, children. Le, give your arm to this lady. Mrs. Anglesea, let me introduce my relative, Mr. Leonidas Force.""Oh, Lord! I know the fellow. Knew him before I knew you," said the woman, very unceremoniously appropriating Le's arm.M...
"Oh, she will say you were so flambergasted by the rumpus--I mean confused and excited by the occasion--that you forgot to bid her good-by," said Wynnette."You will find new combs and hair brushes, and everything else you will require, on the dressing table, or on the washstand," Miss Meeke explained.While the governes...
"But Jake was not in reach. He was away down in the stable yard, talking to a crowd of grooms and other men and boys. I saw him through the back windows, and I knew he was telling them all about what happened in the church. Oh, Miss Meeke, do you think she will die? Oh, just hear how she snores! Will she wake up in fit...
"Well, I took passage on the _Blue Bird_, bound for Baltimore. There I made the acquaintance of young Roland Bayard, the third mate, who was very good to me. Well, we got to be such good friends that at last, one day, I up and told him all my troubles. And when he heard the name of my rascally husband:"'Anglesea,' says...
"Yes, mist'ess! It's a hab----" But a wide gape cut off her proverb."Luce! I want you to be so kind as to lend Mrs. Anglesea one of your best, new nightdresses," said the lady."Yes, mist'ess, nightgowns. It a hab----You!" with another yawn.It was full ten minutes before the lady could bring the half-sleeping woman to a...
"Werry sorry, ma'am, but de family will 'spect de breakfas' to be ready for 'em. It's--it's a habit dey gibs deirselbes, yer see, ma'am," pleaded Luce. And at the same moment Jake appeared, with a large waiter in his hands, on which were set the hot edibles to be arranged on the table.With the help of Luce, he put them...
"Thank Heaven!" she exclaimed, fervently, clasping her hands and sinking into the chair just vacated by Leonidas.The serious walks side by side with the farcical.The door opened unceremoniously, and Mrs. Anglesea entered, shaking her skirts to shake off ends of soft twine and scraps of lint or paper that stuck to her d...
There was a little bustle at the chamber door, which opened suddenly.Mrs. Force turned around, and exclaimed:"Here comes Wynnette, delighted to see you up! And now, dear, I will leave you with your sister, and return to our visitors. You will be down to dinner, you say?""Oh, yes, mamma--certainly," said Odalite.Mrs. Fo...
"Oh, you told me, in a mysterious, oracular sort of way, that something would be sure to happen to prevent the marriage; and, when I doubted, you pledged your honor that there would be an arrest of the proceedings. And then I almost believed you without further explanation; but, when that woman claimed the bridegroom a...
And, while the squire and the rector listened, with the most painful interest, Miss Sibby told of Leonidas Force's sudden visit of the previous afternoon, of her suspicions, and of her seizing an opportunity afforded and opening the envelope, taking out the sheet of note paper, tearing off the half containing the chall...
"Yes, indeed! It would have stopped the wedding days before it did if I had let on to you, or to any one else, that he had a wife living, and I was she! Why, the very hint of the thing would have stopped the wedding! But I wanted to put him to a public shame, and make an example of him! I wanted to give him rope enough...
"Why have you demanded this interview with me? Why have you come here to torment me?" demanded the lady, wringing her hands."First of all, to show you, and to prove to you, the true relations in which I stand to your daughter.""And of what avail will that be to you? You cannot claim our daughter as your wife without an...
"Fire? No, of course not; thank you, all the same," laughed Roland, as he followed the negro man upstairs to the room assigned him.Roland was wholesomely tired, for he had been traveling on horseback or on foot for nearly forty-eight hours; nevertheless, he waited up until he heard the house closed for the night. Then,...
Next he wrote farewell letters to his friends and relatives.All this work kept him up long after midnight. When it was finished, he gathered all the documents together and took them with him up to his bedroom, and locked them in the upper drawers of his bureau.Finally, with the guiltiest conscience, the darkest spirit ...
"But I never delivered the challenge," said Roland, laughing at what seemed to him to be a solemn farce. "I never got a chance to deliver it. It is in my pocket at this moment. But I reckon it better not stay there, to rise up in judgment against us," he added, _sotto voce_, as he arose, went to the fire, drew the whit...
Leonidas arose from his chair, and went and stood by the side of Roland, and while their accuser gave in her evidence they nudged each other and laughed to themselves like a couple of schoolboys."Well, squire, it was yesterday afternoon, and me and Roland was in the house together, for he had just come home from Port T...
"Nothing, except in some sort what my fellow prisoner there has said. In a word, I may be, as Darwin says, remotely descended from a monkey, but I certainly must decline identity, or even relationship, to the wild beasts with which my good aunt has confounded me. But I did undertake to deliver a challenge from my frien...
"Indeed! I am very glad to hear it, auntie! There is something about Odalite that I cannot understand. I came home finding her engaged to be married, of her own free will, and yet utterly wretched--wretched to the verge of madness! And now that the wedding has been publicly broken off in a manner reflecting the deepest...
"Uncle, I wish to make a full confession to you now--to open my soul to you, as if you were my father--as, in reality, you always have been in care and affection.""Go on, dear lad. You can say nothing, I am sure, that I shall not be glad to hear.""Well, then, Uncle Abel, I must tell you that after I had sent that chall...
"Good-morning, Le!" she said, in the old, natural tone that he had not heard for three years. "We are just talking about having in the fiddlers to-night for the children to dance, and sending for little Rosemary Hedge and the Grandiere girls and boys, and your particular friend, Roland Bayard. But, Le, we will have to ...
"Then I drove on to Grove Hill, where I found Miss Sibby spending the day. Roland had just brought her there in their mule wagon. I gave my message. There was a great meeting and great excitement between the Grandieres and the Elks. Rosemary and her little cousins, Erny and Melly, were wild to come. But the stately Mis...
"There's no help for it; there are not gentlemen enough in the company, so I must be one! Why, just see, here are fourteen ladies and only seven gentlemen. And always about the same proportion in this neighborhood, whether it be a ball, or a dinner party, or a tea-drinking, or a little dance like this. It is always the...
He put on a pair of the socks, because he loved to feel them next him. He put one of the handkerchiefs in his bosom, next his heart, for the same reason. But it would take up too much time and space to tell of all the Christmas offerings of that happy day.The children had passed the age of dolls and dolls' furniture, b...
"My darling," he said, as he caressed the hand he held, "when I asked you to take this walk with me to-night, it was because I knew that you were free in hand, at least, to receive the proposal that I came to make you; it was not that we should immediately renew the old engagement that bound our hearts and souls togeth...
"Maybe you know, Aunt Elfrida, that I am going to sea in a few days," he said, leaning over the table toward her."Yes, Le, I heard so from your uncle, and was very sorry to hear it, dear boy.""I suppose my uncle told you why--just as I had come into a rich inheritance--I applied for sailing orders?""Yes, Le.""And why, ...
"You can write to her as often as you please as a brother might write to a sister, and through me, always. Remember that, and wait for events, Le. Be sure of one thing--under no circumstances will Abel Force ever give his daughter to Angus Anglesea. If he--Anglesea--should ever be able to prove that the ceremony perfor...
"You will not be parted from them, dear," kindly suggested Mrs. Force. "You will be our neighbor, you know. You will come to see us very frequently, I hope. And as for the children, they will run after you so much that I expect you will wish them a thousand miles off.""Oh, no! Never! never! Dear, bright Wynnette and fo...
Odalite and Leonidas, standing at the front window of the drawing room, watched their departure until the carriage passed through the west gate and rolled out of sight into the woods beyond.Then they turned toward the fireplace, around, or near, which their father, mother and guest were seated.And then it was that Mrs....
"To Mrs. Angus Anglesea: My wife--for wife you are, despite all the false testimony brought forward to separate us--I was forced by circumstances to depart from you without a last farewell; yet I cannot deny myself the privilege of writing to you a last letter before I leave the country--to assure you that I am...
"We shall be all snowed up, and there's an end to our New Year's dance at Oldfield," said Wynnette, as she stood at the front window of the little parlor, on the third day of the snowfall, looking drearily out over the white earth and powdering sky."It can't snow forever!" exclaimed Elva, who was seated at the center t...
The negro boy, Dan, no longer ragged, as when we first made his acquaintance at Grove Hill, but dressed neatly in his new Christmas suit, came to the horses' heads, while Mr. Force and Leonidas got out to assist the ladies and children to alight."Marse Abul," said Dan, apologetically, "I can take dese horses to de stab...
But the mere hypothesis that the venerable and reverend Dr. Peters could ever by any possibility have been guilty of such misdemeanors was so overwhelming, not to say paralyzing, that the minister's wife could only drop her jaw, open her mouth, and stare."I'll forgive that devil after he is well hanged, and not a half ...
The next day was the last that Leonidas Force would spend at Mondreer for three years, at least.All that day Mr. Force was closeted with his overseer, in his office, looking over the farm books and making up the accounts for the year just closed.Mrs. Force was merciful, and told Leonidas and Odalite to spend this last ...
Mrs. Force took Odalite in her arms and kissed her in silent sympathy, while Mrs. Anglesea occupied herself with the congenial task of pouring out the hot, spiced wine into glass goblets for the party.They all sat around the table--those who had gone abroad and those who had stayed at home--and every one partook of the...
The subsequent developments of Anglesea's machinations will be related in the sequel to this volume, entitled "Love's Bitterest Cup." This is published in uniform style and price with this volume.THE ENDBURT'S SERIES of STANDARD FICTION.RICHELIEU. A tale of France in the reign of King Louis XIII. By G. P. R. James. Clo...
THE SPIRIT OF THE BORDER. A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley. By Zane Grey. Cloth, 12mo. with four illustrations by J. Watson Davis. Price, $1.00.A book rather out of the ordinary is this "Spirit of the Border." The main thread of the story has to do with the work of the Moravian missionaries in the Ohi...
Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Jana Srna and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain works in the International Children's Digital Library.)[ Transcriber's Note:Inconsistent hyphenation and spacing of abbreviations have been retained ...
"Then," he goes on, as if he'd been accustomed to do this sort of thing every day, "you say how much you want. Then they ask you" (it's becoming quite dramatic), "where's your house? You say .... wherever it is, you know." Cazell puts it in this way, as impressing upon me that before the Building Society I _must_ tell ...
Cazell suddenly exclaims, "I tell you what we ought to do!" We listen. He goes on. "We ought to take a house for the Winter Season, the lot of us together, and then ask our own friends."Boodels observes, that, if we agree to this, he will supply some servants, as _his_ are doing nothing. Chilvern can tell us where ther...
The crone wags her head and replies "that it was afore her time."Mentioning the word Crone to Boodels, I ask him what relation it bears to 'Cronie.' "'Cronie,' almost obsolete now, means 'a familiar friend,'" I explain to him. He says thank you, and supposes that the two words have nothing in common except sound.The no...
No. Up--up--up. Excelsior. I seem to be climbing double the number of steps, in going up, to what I did in coming down. My eyes too, after the keyhole, have not yet become re-accustomed to the light. I pause. I could almost swear that somebody, two steps lower down behind me, stopped at the same instant.Is there anyone...
We drive back to Station. Thoughtful and sleepy journey.Chilvern is to arrange all details as to fitting up and furnishing. This, he says, he can do, inexpensively and artistically, in a couple of weeks' time.Milburd points out clearly to us that the old woman in charge evidently doesn't want to be turned out, and so i...
Down she goes to the Home. Rings. Enters. Sees the Brother Superior, or Manager."What sort of young men do you want?""Well, specially for dancing, and generally effective."[Illustration: THE EFFECTIVE "LITTLE BROTHER."][Illustration: THE INTELLECTUAL "LITTLE BROTHER."]Good. Here is the very thing to suit you. "We've go...
"To a certain extent," continues the Professor, who has Milburd, now, as it were, in his grasp. "Boodels, although putting it lightly, was right. Sense is uncommon--""'Specially common sense," I observe. Being my first remark for some time. But I like the Professor; and his philosophic views have an interest for me tha...
It appears that he's going to have a lively time of it.Milburd re-enters; he has arranged the library, and begs us to "Walk up!" as if it were a show.Medford observes that there will be time before the lecture begins to show his conjuring trick with the shilling.Cazell interrupts him with the gong from the hall, and Ch...
_Byrton's Opinion._ Hot coffee over your new cords on a "show-meet" day.It strikes me that to come on shore after taking a swim in the river, and not to be able to find your clothes, is a circumstance quite justifying loss of patience.Apropos of this, Chilvern says he recollects a fellow--Smith, a friend of his--bathin...
_Happy Thought._--If you want to be revenged on somebody, and don't mind expense, have his portrait painted with all his defects glaringly rendered, and present it, as a mark of esteem, to his family.On his fiftieth birthday give him a bust of himself to be placed in his hall. Depend upon it you've punished him.Jenkyns...
"Of course not," returns Boodels; "so I said to her .... She was rather huffed at the idea of my calling them 'nursery hours,' and wanted to know if I meant that she was in her second childhood. In fact," says Boodels, blurting it all out, "there's been a row, and the old girl threatened to take away the Chertons.""Poo...
"Oh!" exclaimed the Signor, lighting up, and evidently intensely delighted. "I _am_ so glad. I come avays to see _'er_. Tell me," he continued, becoming suddenly serious, "'ave she 'ad 'er bart?" [The Signor almost sings his sentences. He went up the scale to the verb "'ad," and took a turn down again three notes to th...
Under the heading of "Operanda," or Works to be done, I find:--(a) _Continuation of Typical Developments. Vol. III._(b) _A Guide to Hertfordshire._(c) _A Lesser Dictionary of French words not generally found in other Lexicographical compilations._(d) Theories on Dew. Practical utilitarian results.(e) A Commenta...
_Happy Thought for Sunday._--Write down meditations. Like Marcus Aurelius did. Why not go in for _Sunday Books_? Telegraph to Popgood and Groolly (my publishers, who have been in treaty with me for two years about _Typ. Developments_), and say,FROM ME, | Messrs. POPGOOD & GROOLLY, HAPPY THOUGHT H...
_Miss Bella._ Oh, horrid! I'd rather stop at home than hear that. Why at S. Phillips at home we have vestments, and incense, and everything is done so well._Miss Medford_ (_quietly_). Well, I'd just as soon go to one as another. May I trouble you for the salt, Signor Regniati?_Signor._ My Jo! If zey do not preach I vou...
(This is more like what I wanted. Only in the last three instances, there has been no moral.)_A propos_ of a moral._Eleventhly._--A moral in a fable is like the hook in the bait._Moral_.--Take the bait ... and leave the hook._Twelfthly._--"The Devil," said Voltaire, "is at the bottom of Christianity. Without the Devil ...
Phew! I'm only gradually cooling. This is the sixth day I've taken the waters of Aix-la-Chapelle ... and I'm beginning to be so sulphurous all over, that, if anybody was to rub against me suddenly, I should ignite and go off with a bang. I've written to my friend Box an account of it. I haven't seen Box for some years;...
Ah! ah! (_laughing_). You are him I zee (_pointing to coat_). Dat vas you dere. Zo ist goot.BOX.Oh, I see. Yes, that's me, I mean that was me, only now I've come out like the butterfly out of a grub. (_Aside._) I forgot that this is Germany. (_Aloud._) Ja.WAITER.Ach! der Herr sprech Deutsch?(_Great applause._)BOX.Yah. ...
On the contrary, I interrupted you--COX.No, you speak first. _Seniores priores._BOX.In that case you have the preference. Why, I'm quite a chicken by the side of you.COX.Pooh, sir.BOX.Well, if you don't like "chicken" I'll say gosling.COX.Don't be absurd, sir. At what age were you born?BOX.What's that to you? I'm six y...
COX.She means _me_. I knew it. Angel--[_PENELOPE repeats the slap on HIS face._BOX.You _did_ say "Husband?" Surely you can't be blind to the fascination of Don Boxos de Regalias Salamanca--COX.When you said "Husband" you must have been dreaming of Count Cornelius Cox, Landgrave.PENELOPE.Gentlemen. Mr. Cox ... Mr. Box--...
_Mrs. Orby Frimmely_ (_thinks that _his_ opinion, at all events, is worth having, and says_) I'm so glad you liked it._Mr. Muntson_ (_sees that he has created a most favourable impression and continues_). It was delightful. All the vivacity of the French stage--of course you know the French stage well?--(_Mrs. Frimmely...
Now this young man called Jim, He took a holiday whim; Says he, to Molly, "Oh, let's be jolly, While _he's_ in Tartary Crim." (_Jovially._) "While he's in Tartary Crim."[Illustration]One day, said Jovial Jim, ...
_Happy Thought._--Well, I dare say it's all the better for me that I've overslept myself a little this morning. If Nature sleeps, depend upon it Nature knows what she's about.* * * * *This is in fact how it has happened that all the others, except the three mentioned, are out of doors. They've b...
_Happy Thought._--To speak to him quietly, alone. He listens. He owns that his exuberance of animal spirits often leads him away. [Happy Thought.--Wish they'd take him away altogether.] He says he thinks it's owing to the bracing air; adding, that I take a joke so well, he is sure I shan't be angry. I tell him that I d...
"There's no sort of danger," he says; "the jar won't burst. I dropped an explosive pellet into it some time ago, and it hasn't been taken out, that's all. The explosive pellets," he adds, modestly, "are my own invention, and chemically prepared, only to burn in water."The cracking has ceased. Layder goes out, ostensibl...
"Yes," says she, "that's very probable." But when Mr. Jenkyns _went "Yes," says she, "that's very probable. But when Mr. Jenkyns _wentAgain the Signor was in esctasies. Again the Signor was in ecstasies.Cox must go. I don't think I feel as well as I did Cox must go. I don't think I feel as well as I did.immensely pleas...
Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.netHINTSONEXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.BY HENRY WARE, JR. MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH IN BOSTON.Maximus vero studiorum fructus est, et velut præmium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris, ex tempor...
But still, these difficulties, and others which I shall have occasion to mention in another place, are by no means such as to raise that insuperable obstacle which many suppose. They may all be overcome by resolution and perseverance. As regards merely the use of unpremeditated language, it is far from being a difficul...
The truth is, indeed, that it is not the weight of the thought, the profoundness of the argument, the exactness of the arrangement, the choiceness of the language, which interest and chain the attention of even those educated hearers, who are able to appreciate them all. They are as likely to sleep through the whole as...
It is no unimportant consideration to a minister of the gospel, that this is a talent held in high estimation among men, and that it gives additional influence to him who possesses it. It is thought to argue capacity and greatness of mind. Fluency of language passes with many, and those not always the vulgar, for afflu...
It is upon no different principle that we explain, what all scholars have experienced, that they write best when they write rapidly, from a full and excited mind. One of Pope's precepts is, "to write with fury and correct with phlegm." The author of Waverley tells us, "that the works and passages in which he has succee...
"You are accustomed," says Dinouart,[7] "to the careful study and imitation of nature. You have used yourself to writing and speaking with care on different subjects, and have well stored your memory by reading. You thus have provided resources for speaking, which are always at hand. The best authors and the best thoug...
It is apparent that objectors of this sort are guilty of a double mistake; first, in laying too great stress upon mere defects of style, and then in taking for granted, that these are unavoidable. They might as well insist that defects of written style are unavoidable. Whereas they are the consequence of the negligent ...
In regard to that ready flow of words, which seems to be the natural gift of some men, it is of little consequence whether it be really such, or be owing to the education and habits of early life, and vain self-confidence. It is certain that the want of habit, and diffidence are great hindrances to fluency of speech; a...
The inference to be drawn from these observations, is, that if so many of those who received an accomplished education became accomplished orators, because to become so was one purpose of their study; then it is in the power of a much larger proportion amongst us, to form themselves into creditable and accurate speaker...
1. The first thing to be observed is, that the student who would acquire facility in this art, should bear it constantly in mind, and have regard to it in all his studies, and in his whole mode of study. The reason is very obvious. He that would become eminent in any pursuit, must make it the primary and almost exclusi...
There are some persons, however, who would be embarrassed by an effort to change the operation of the mind from reading to inventing. Such persons may find it best to make their beginning with a whole discourse.4. In this case, there will be a great advantage in selecting for first efforts expository subjects. To say n...
The extemporaneous speaker should therefore trust himself to the moment for all his language. This is the safe way for his comfort, and the only sure way to make all of a uniform piece. The general rule is certain, though there may be some exceptions. It may be well for example, to consider what synonymous terms may be...
10. Another important item in the discipline to be passed through, consists in attaining the habit of self-command. I have already adverted to this point, and noticed the power which the mind possesses of carrying on the premeditated operation, even while the speaker is considerably embarrassed. This is, however, only ...
But who does not know how much easier it is to declare what has come to our knowledge from our own experience, than what we have gathered coldly at second hand from that of others;--how much easier it is to describe feelings we have ourselves had, and pleasures we have ourselves enjoyed, than to fashion a description o...
Produced by D.R. ThompsonMR. GLADSTONE AND GENESISESSAY #5 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"By Thomas Henry HuxleyIn controversy, as in courtship, the good old rule to be off with the old before one is on with the new, greatly commends itself to my sense of expediency. And, therefore, it appears to me desirable that ...
And these are they which are unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard after its kind, and the gecko, and the land crocodile, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon. These are they which are unclean to you among all that creep (v. 2...
I am really grieved to be obliged to say that this third (or is it fourth?) modification of the foundation of the "plea for revelation" originally set forth, satisfies me as little as any of its predecessors.For, in the first place, I cannot accept the assertion that this order is to be found in Genesis. With respect t...
With respect to the second suggestion, it would be presumptuous in me to pretend to instruct Mr. Gladstone in matters which lie as much within the province of Literature and History as in that of Science; but if any one desirous of further knowledge will be so good as to turn to that most excellent and by no means reco...
"Waste" is too vague a term to be worth consideration. "Without form," intelligible enough as a metaphor, if taken literally is absurd; for a material thing existing in space must have a superficies, and if it has a superficies it has a form. The wildest streaks of marestail clouds in the sky, or the most irregular hea...
It has been objected to my argument from Leviticus (_suprà_ p. 170) that the Hebrew words translated by "creeping things" in Genesis i. 24 and Leviticus xi. 29, are different; namely, "reh-mes" in the former, "sheh-retz" in the latter. The obvious reply to this objection is that the question is not one of words but of ...
The creation of man is announced as a separate act, resulting from a particular resolution of Elohim to "make man in our image, after our likeness." To learn what this remarkable phrase means we must turn to the fifth chapter of Genesis, the work of the same writer. "In the day that Elohim created man, in the likeness ...
Produced by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an ...
A Piece of Poetry--Pronounced Good--Proposition to Print his Articles--"The Lighthouse Tragedy"--A Sailor's Song--Printing them--Selling them in the Streets--A Successful Enterprise--His Father opposes--Condemns Poetry in general and Benjamin's in particular--A severe Rebuke--Crestfallen--Conference with James-...
Interview with Governor Keith--Arrangements to go to England in the Annis--Only one vessel a year to sail--Still works for Keimer--The latter a singular Man--Experiment of a Vegetable Diet--Keimer's Abhorrence of it--Eats the whole of a Pig at last--How Benjamin came to relinquish a Vegetable Diet--Courting Mis...
Never was a child more delighted than he, when the bargain was made. He tried every whistle, that he might select the one having the most music in it; and when his choice was settled, he turned his steps towards home. He thought no more of other sights and scenes, and cared not for sweetmeats and knick-knacks, now that...
"It won't be a severe trial, either," said Uncle Benjamin. "The thing can be accomplished more easily than at first appears. I tell you what it is, Benjamin," addressing himself to the boy, "when you are qualified for the office, I will give you my large volume of short-hand sermons, and the reading of these will impro...
Within a few months after Benjamin entered school, he had advanced from the middle to the head of his class. He was so apt to learn, and gave so close attention to his lessons, that his teacher spoke of him as a boy of uncommon promise. He did not stand at the head of his class long, however, before he was transferred ...
Benjamin was reared under such family regulations. He was expected to regard them with becoming filial respect. Nor did he grow restless and impatient under them, nor cherish less affection for his father in consequence. We have no reason to believe that he sought to evade them; and there is no doubt that the influence...
Mr. Franklin was a dyer by trade, in England, and designed to continue it when he removed to America, about the year 1685. But he found, on arriving at Boston, that it would be quite impossible for him to support his family at this trade. The country was new, and the habits of the people were different from those of th...
"I don't like it at all, mother,--no better than I thought I should," he said. "I wish I could do something else.""What else is there for you to do, Benjamin?" replied his mother. "What would you like to do?""I would like to go to sea.""Go to see what?" she inquired, as if she did not understand him at first."Go on a v...
The reader should not make use of the fact that Franklin, and other eminent men, enjoyed small opportunities to acquire knowledge, as a plea that he himself need not be kept in school for a series of years. It is true that a little mental improvement may work wonders for a person in some circumstances, and it should le...
"Why, then, did you take them in the evening, after the workmen had gone home? Why did you not go after them when the workmen were all there?"Benjamin saw that he was fairly caught, and that, bright as he was, he could not get out of so bad a scrape unblamed. So he hung his head, and did not answer his father's last qu...
"I can relate to you one interesting fact," interrupted Uncle Benjamin, addressing himself to the guest. "Our ancestors possessed an English Bible, which they valued highly, of course; but there was danger of losing it, through the craftiness and hostility of the Papal powers. They held the Protestant Bible in absolute...
"I shan't eat what I don't like, at any rate," continues Henry, "I shall go hungry first.""There, now," added his father, "let me hear no more complaint about your food. You are scarcely ever suited with your victuals.""May I have some ----?" calling for some article not on the table."If you will hold your tongue, and ...
Benjamin was delighted with the prospect of being delivered soon from the tallow-chandler's shop, and he anticipated the morrow with considerable impatience. He rejoiced when the light of the next morning came in at his chamber window, and brighter and earlier he was up to await his father's bidding. Suitable preparati...
The father of John Smeaton pursued a like censurable course in the discipline of his son. He frowned upon those early developments of genius that foreshadowed the renowned engineer that he became. When only four or five years of age, he was often seen dividing circles and squares. He rejected the toys that other childr...