In his account of his life he gives us a vivid picture of himself, a friendless, homeless boy, walking hungry up the streets of the strange city. He met a boy with some bread and asked where he could buy food. Being directed to the baker’s, he asked for “three pennyworth” of bread and received “three great puffy rolls.” Then he says, he “having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm and eating the other.” Thus he passed the home of a Mr. Read, and at the door stood his daughter Deborah, who laughed at the “awkward, ridiculous appearance” of the strange lad. This Deborah Reed a few years later became Franklin’s wife. Being satisfied with one roll, the youth gave the other two to a woman and child who had come on the boat with him. He soon got work with a printer in the town, but gave it up because the governor offered to set him up in business for himself. He went to London, to buy the outfit needed for his trade. On arriving there, he found that the governor had failed to send the promised letters of credit,--had, indeed, no credit himself--and the youth, penniless, in a foreign land, was thrown on his own resources. He sought and secured work as a printer, and remained in London about a year. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he worked awhile as salesman in a shop and afterwards at his trade. Soon after his return, he married Deborah Read, who made him a good and helpful wife, managing his home and aiding him in the shop. Franklin had the “prospering virtues” of economy, industry, and temperance, and he increased in worldly goods and in the esteem of his townspeople. Despite some serious personal failings, he was a good citizen and in public questions people came more and more to respect his judgment. In the American colonies in the eighteenth century, there were few newspapers and those had a small circulation. Nearly every printer, however, published an almanac which contained weather forecasts, advice, jokes, and miscellaneous information. These almanacs had a large sale and in many homes the only books to be found were an almanac and a Bible. In 1733 Franklin published an almanac which he announced was prepared by one Richard Saunders, called for short “Poor Richard,” a character which Franklin created and represented as overflowing with quaint humor and wise and witty sayings. “Poor Richard’s Almanac” became the most popular of all publications of the kind. Franklin kept up the yearly issue till 1758, when he turned it over to his partner.