Stories of Great Americans for Little AmericansEggleston, Edward
History
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans
Eggleston, Edward
United States -- Biography -- Juvenile literature
Another way that he had of learning was by seeing things with his own
eyes. His father took him to see car-pen-ters at work with their saws
and planes. He also saw masons laying bricks. And he went to see men
making brass and copper kettles. And he saw a man with a turning lathe
making the round legs of chairs. Other men were at work making knives.
Some things people learn out of books, and some things they have to see
for them-selves.
As he was fond of books, Ben’s father thought that it would be a good
plan to send him to learn to print them. So the boy went to work in his
brother’s printing office. Here he passed his spare time in reading. He
borrowed some books out of the stores where books were sold. He would
sit up a great part of the night sometimes to read one of these books.
He wished to return it when the book-store opened in the morning. One
man who had many books lent to Ben such of his books as he wanted.
It was part of the bargain that Ben’s brother should pay his board. The
boy offered to board himself if his brother would give him half what it
cost to pay for his board.
[Illustration: Franklin at Study.]
His brother was glad to do this, and Ben saved part of the money and
bought books with it. He was a healthy boy, and it did not hurt him to
live mostly on bread and butter. Sometimes he bought a little pie or a
handful of raisins.
Long before he was a man, people said, “How much the boy knows!” This
was because—
He did not waste his time.
He read good books.
He saw things for himself.
HOW FRANKLIN FOUND OUT THINGS.
Frank-lin thought that ants know how to tell things to one another. He
thought that they talk by some kind of signs. When an ant has found a
dead fly too big for him to drag away, he will run off and get some
other ant to help him. Frank-lin thought that ants have some way of
telling other ants that there is work to do.
One day he found some ants eating mo-las-ses out of a little jar in a
closet. He shook them out. Then he tied a string to the jar, and hung
it on a nail in the ceiling. But he had not got all the ants out of the
jar. One little ant liked sweet things so well that he staid in the
jar, and kept on eating like a greedy boy.
[Illustration: Ants talking (magnified)]
At last when this greedy ant had eaten all that he could, he started to
go home. Frank-lin saw him climb over the rim of the jar. Then the ant
ran down the outside of the jar. But when he got to the bottom, he did
not find any shelf there. He went all round the jar. There was no way
to get down to the floor. The ant ran this way and that way, but he
could not get down.
[Illustration: An Ants Feeler (magnified)]
At last the greedy ant thought he would see if he could go up. He
climbed up the string to the ceiling. Then he went down the wall. He
came to his own hole at last, no doubt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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