"I can repair that one well enough; I see what is wanted. You can't do good work with it as it is," Benjamin answered. "Then I can employ you at once, and you may go right about putting it in order if you please." "I will do it," Benjamin replied in his emphatic way. "It is not a long job, by any means." "Perhaps you will have it done by the time I get the Elegy set up, and then you may print it." Keimer's interest was deepening since he found that the Boston printer-boy could repair a printing press. He was getting more than he bargained for. Benjamin went to work upon the old press, saying "I may as well go about it at once, and work till dinner time. Mr. Bradford will expect me back then; but I will keep at it until it is done." "Well, I hope you will not expose any secrets as I did," remarked Mr. Keimer, humorously. "Old Bradford will be on the lookout for capital, no doubt. See that he don't make as much out of you as he did out of me." Benjamin met the Bradfords, senior and junior, at the dinner table, where they gave him a cordial welcome. "How does Philadelphia compare with Boston?" inquired the senior Bradford of him. "It is smaller, and I can't tell yet whether it is duller or not. When I have been here a week I can tell more about it." "And what are your prospects at Keimer's?" inquired the junior Bradford. "Well, I have begun to repair his old press. It is a dilapidated affair, and I told him that I could improve it very much." "Do you understand that part of the business?" "I understand it sufficiently to make what repairs that machine requires just now." "Then you can probably do some repairs for me," said the junior Bradford "My press needs some tutoring." "I shall be happy to be its tutor," replied Benjamin, with a smile. "I shall finish Keimer's to-morrow, and then I will take yours in hand. I shall be glad to do something to repay you for your kindness." "You must have had good school advantages in Boston," remarked the elder Bradford to him. "Your conversation indicates that you are well-read and well-informed." "But I am not indebted to the schools for it; I never went to school but two years in my life. But I have studied and read as much as any body of my age, in leisure hours and nights; and I have written more for the press, probably, than any one of my age in Boston." This last remark caused the Bradfords to look at each other with wonder for a moment. But the senior broke the silence by saying: "You write for the press? How is that?" His astonishment charged his questions with peculiar emphasis. "Yes, sir; I wrote much for nearly a year for the _New England Courant_, one of the newspapers in Boston." "And only seventeen years old now?" "I was only sixteen when I wrote the most."