=Suggested Readings.= WASHINGTON: Cooke, _Stories of the Old Dominion_, 94-139; Blaisdell and Ball, _Hero Stories from American History_, 62-76, 123-155; Hart, _Camps and Firesides of the Revolution_, 239-255, 261-266, 307-309; Glascock, _Stories of Columbia_, 101-113; Baldwin, _Four Great Americans_, 9-68; Hart, _How our Grandfathers Lived_, 45-47; Mabie, _Heroes Every Child Should Know_, 274-288; Hawthorne, _Grandfather's Chair_, 186-191; Magell, _Stories from Virginia History_, 56-78, 79-94; Brooks, _True Story of Lafayette_; Wister, _The Seven Ages of Washington_; Mace, _George Washington: A Virginia Cavalier_. THE MAN WHO HELPED WIN INDEPENDENCE BY WINNING THE HEARTS OF FRENCHMEN FOR AMERICA BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, THE WISEST AMERICAN OF HIS TIME [Sidenote: =Born in colonial times=] =77. Benjamin Franklin, the Boy Printer.= When Franklin was born in Boston (1706) there were men still living who had seen John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, and Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. [Sidenote: =The scholar of the family=] Franklin's father was a poor but hard-working man. He made soap and candles. Benjamin's nine brothers had learned trades, but his parents had decided that he should be the "scholar of the family." At eight he went to school to prepare for college and was soon at the head of his class. [Sidenote: =Put to work=] But it was hard to feed and clothe a family of seventeen, and Benjamin was sent to another school where he could fit himself for business. But he did poorly in arithmetic, and at ten was taken out of school and put to work with his father. [Sidenote: =Longs for the sea=] In the port of Boston Franklin saw the ships and sailors of all nations, and longed to go to sea, but his father took him to visit the shops, where he saw men busy at work with all kinds of tools. Although Benjamin liked to work with tools, he liked to read better, and spent all his little earnings in buying books. He borrowed books when he could not buy them. [Sidenote: =How he improved his language=] Finally Franklin's parents decided that since he loved books so well he might be a printer, and put him to learn the trade with an older brother. Benjamin was to serve his brother for his board and clothes until he was twenty-one. He worked hard at his trade, and read more books than before. He improved his own language by writing out in his own words what he had read, and then comparing his account with the author's. [Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN _From the original portrait by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston_] He now offered to take half the money that his board cost, and board himself. His brother agreed to this plan, and Benjamin saved money and bought more books. [Sidenote: =Writes for his brother's paper=]