"You have started me upon one of my hobbies," said he; "but I must not ride it too far. Franklin says himself that De Foe's 'Essay on Projects' and Cotton Mather's 'Essay to do Good' were two books which perhaps gave him a turn of thinking which had an influence on some of the events in his after life. And you may notice how an 'Essay on Projects' might start his passion for having things done better than in the ways he saw. The books that he was brought up on and with were books of De Foe's own time,--none of them more popular among reading people of Boston than De Foe's own books, for De Foe was a great light among their friends in England. "If Robinson Crusoe, on his second voyage, which was in the year 1718, had run into Boston for supplies, as he thought of doing; and if old Judge Sewall had asked him to dinner,--as he would have been likely to do, for Robinson was a godly old gentleman then, of intelligence and fortune,--if there had been by accident a vacant place at the table at the last moment, Judge Sewall might have sent round to Franklin's father to ask him to come in. For the elder Franklin, though only a tallow-chandler,--and only Goodman Franklin, not _Mr._ Franklin,--was a member of the church, well esteemed. He led the singing at the Old South after Judge Sewall's voice broke down. "Nay, when one remembers how much Sewall had to do with printing, one might imagine that the boy Ben Franklin should wait at the door with a proof-sheet, and even take off his boy's hat as Robinson Crusoe came in." Here Bedford Long put in a remark:-- "There are things in Robinson Crusoe's accounts of his experiments in making his pipkins, which ought to bring him into any book of American inventors." "I never thought before," said Fergus, "that De Foe's experiences in making tiles and tobacco-pipes and drain-pipes fitted him for all that learned discussion of glazing, when Robinson Crusoe makes his pots and pans." "Good!" said Uncle Fritz; "that must be so.--Well, as you say, Alice, there are whole sentences in that narrative which you could suppose Franklin wrote, and in his works whole sentences which would fit in closely with De Foe's writing. The style of the younger man very closely resembles that of the older." "And Franklin would have been very much pleased to hear you say so." "He was forever inventing," said Uncle Fritz. "As I said, he was worried unless things could be better done. If he was in a storm, he wanted to still the waves. If the chimney smoked, he wanted to make a better fireplace. If he heard a girl play the musical-glasses, he must have and make a better set." "And if the house was struck by lightning, he went out and put up a lightning-rod." "He had a little book by which people should make themselves better; for he rightly considered that unless a man could do this, he could make no other improvement of much account." And when Uncle Fritz had said this, he found the passage, which he bade John read to them.