True to His Home: A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin — John Shaqi
True to His Home: A Tale of the Boyhood of FranklinButterworth, Hezekiah
General
True to His Home: A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin
Butterworth, Hezekiah
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 -- Fiction
"I have not much time for educating my children," said the younger
brother. "I am going to give over the training of the boy to you. True
education begins with the heart first, so as to make right ideas fixed
in the mind and right habits, in the conduct. It may be little that I
can send him to school, but it is what you can do for him that will give
him a start in life. I want you to see that he starts right in life. I
leave his training to you. I have a dozen mouths to feed, and small time
for anything but toil."
He tuned his violin and played an old English air. There were candle
molds in the room, long rows of candle wicks, great kettles, a gun, a
Bible, some old books, and a fireplace with a great crane, hooks, and
andirons.
Little Benjamin looked up into the old man's face and laid his hand on
his shoulder.
"I am glad father did not forget you," said he.
The old man's lip quivered.
"He has been a true brother to me. Always remember that, boy, as long as
you live. It is such memories as that that teach. His heart is true to
me now as when we used to leave the forge and roam the woods of Banbury
together in springtime, when the skylark rose out of the meadows and the
hedgerows bloomed. It is good for families to be so true to each other.
If one member of a family lacks anything, it is good for another to
make up for it. Yes, boy, your father has a good heart, else you would
not now be in my arms."
"Why do you cry, papa?" said the boy, for his father's eyes were filled
with tears which coursed down his cheeks. Something that aged Benjamin
had said about the forge, the nightingale, or the thorn had touched his
heart.
"We can never be young again, brother," said Josiah Franklin. "I shall
never see the thorn bloom or hear the nightingale sing as I once did.
No, no, no; but I am glad that I have brought you and Ben together. That
would have pleased our old mother's heart, long dead and gone to the
violets and primroses. Do you suppose the dead know? I sometimes think
they do, and that it makes them happy to see things like these. I will
talk with the parson about these things some day."
The younger brother smiled through his tears and straightened himself
up, as though he felt that he had yielded to weakness, for he was a
plain, hard-working man. Suddenly he said:
"Brother, you remember Uncle Tom?"
"Yes, yes; he set the chimes of Nottingham ringing in the air. I can
hear them ringing now in my memory. Brother, I think little Ben favors
Uncle Tom."
"Who was Uncle Tom?" asked the boy.
"They used to say that he was a wizard. I will tell you all about him
some day. Let us listen now to your father's violin."
The house was still, save that the sea winds stirred the crisp autumn
leaves in the great trees near and the nine o'clock bell fell solemnly
on the air. A watchman went by, saying, "All is well!"
Yes, all is well in hearts like these--hearts that can pity, love,
forbear, and feel.
CHAPTER IV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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