"He has violated a solemn contract," said he to one, "and he will violate any contract he will make with you. Besides, if you refuse to hire him, he will be obliged to return and labour for me." The printers all sympathized with James, and accordingly refused to give Benjamin work. He found himself in a very unpleasant situation on that account, without the means of earning his bread, and, in one sense, without a home, since he had disregarded his father's counsel in not returning to his brother. He learned, also, that some good people considered him no better than an infidel. "Nothing less than the loosest sceptic," said one good man. "He hates the truth with all his heart, as much that he writes plainly shows. His influence in the community is very bad, and it is growing worse and worse." Good people thus misjudged Benjamin. Some went so far as to call him an "atheist." His attacks upon the clergy and government, in his paper, created so much excitement, that he was understood to mean worse than he did. All these things served to wean Benjamin from Boston, and he decided on seeking his fortune elsewhere. He embraced the first opportunity to confer with his old friend, John Collins, on the subject. "John, I am going to New York," he said. "To New York?" exclaimed John. "What has started you off there?" "Enough to start anybody. I have been banged about long enough, and now can get no work at all; so I must go or starve." "How so?" inquired John, "I don't understand you?" "The case is just this," said Benjamin. "James has treated me very harshly for a long time, and I have submitted. But I had a good opportunity to make myself free, and I have improved it. When James was put into prison for libel, he returned me my indenture with a discharge written on the back, to show in case the government interfered with my publishing the paper. He did not mean, of course, that I should be released from my obligations to him; but he has treated me so unmercifully lately that I have taken advantage of the paper, and broken my engagement with him." "You have got round him this time, certainly," said John. "How does he feel about it?" "He has appealed to father, and father has decided against me, and advised me to go back; but I am not at all disposed to do it." "I would work in some other printing-office," added John, "before I would go to New York." "But I can get work nowhere else. I have been to every office, and they all refuse to employ me, because my brother went to them before me, and told his story, and made them promise not to hire me." "I suppose he thought by so doing to compel you to come back to him," suggested John. "I suppose so; but he will find himself mistaken. I shall go to New York as soon as I can get away." "What does your father say about your going off so far?" "I have said nothing to him about it, and do not intend to do so. He would stop my going at once if he knew it."