Among the friends of James Franklin, and the patrons of his paper, were several men who possessed considerable talent for writing, and they were accustomed to assemble at the printing-office, and discuss questions connected with the circulation of the paper. Benjamin's ears were usually open to their conversation,--and he heard the merits of different articles set forth, and learned that certain ones were quite popular, and elicited favourable remarks from readers generally. This excited his ambition, and he earnestly desired to try his own ability in writing for the paper. He feared, however, that his composition would not be regarded favourably, if it were known who was the author; so he hit upon this expedient. He resolved to write an anonymous article, in his very best style, and get it into his brother's hand so as not to awaken his suspicion. Accordingly, the article was prepared, and at night it was tucked under the printing-office door, where James found it in the morning. As usual, several of his writers came in about their usual time, and Benjamin had the happiness of hearing the following discussion:-- "Here is a good article, that I found under the door this morning," said James, at the same time holding it up. "Who is the author of it?" inquired one. "It is anonymous," replied James, "and I have not the least idea who wrote it." "What is the subject?" asked another; and the subject was announced. "Let us hear it read," proposed a third. "You read it aloud to us, James." So James proceeded to read the article aloud, while all listened with deep interest. All the while Benjamin was busily employed at his work, though his ears were never more willing to hear. You may be sure that he felt rather queerly while his composition was undergoing this test, and a close observer might have observed a sly, comical twinkle of his eye. The reading went on without one of the company dreaming that the author stood at their elbow. "Capital!" exclaimed one, as the last line was read. "Who can the author be?" "As a general thing," said James, "I shall not insert articles from persons unknown to me, but this is so good that I shall publish it." "By all means," said one of the company. "We shall soon find out the author; it is a difficult matter to keep such things secret for a long time." "The author is evidently a person of ability," added another; "every sentence in that article is charged with thought. I should judge that he wanted only culture to make him a writer of the first class." "Publishing the article will be as likely as anything to bring out the author," said James.