RAISED 186 XXVII.--THE GREAT DISCOVERY 192 XXVIII.--HOME-COMING IN DISGUISE 200 XXIX.--"THOSE PAMPHLETS" 209 XXX.--A STRANGE DISCOVERY 213 XXXI.--OLD HUMPHREY'S STRANGE STORY 220 XXXII.--THE EAGLE THAT CAUGHT THE CAT.--DR. FRANKLIN'S ENGLISH FABLE.--THE DOCTOR'S SQUIRRELS 225 XXXIII.--OLD MR. CALAMITY AGAIN 230 XXXIV.--OLD MR. CALAMITY AND THE TEARING DOWN OF THE KING'S ARMS 242 XXXV.--JENNY AGAIN 250 XXXVI.--THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.--A MYSTERY 257 XXXVII.--ANOTHER SIGNATURE.--THE STORY OF AUVERGNE SANS TACHE 267 XXXVIII.--FRANKLIN SIGNS THE TREATY OF PEACE.--HOW GEORGE III RECEIVES THE NEWS 281 XXXIX.--THE TALE OF AN OLD VELVET COAT 287 XL.--IN SERVICE AGAIN 293 XLI.--JANE'S LAST VISIT 299 XLII.--FOR THE LAST TIME 307 XLIII.--A LESSON AFTER SCHOOL 311 APPENDIX.--FRANKLIN'S FAMOUS PROVERB STORY OF THE OLD AUCTIONEER 314 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FACING PAGE Little Ben's adventure as a poet _Frontispiece_ Uncle Benjamin's secret 52 "Are you going to swim back to London?" 156 A strange discovery 215 The destruction of the royal arms 247 Franklin's last days 295 TRUE TO HIS HOME. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST DAY. IT was the Sunday morning of the 6th of January, 1706 (January 17th, old style), when a baby first saw the light in a poor tallow chandler's house on Milk Street, nearly opposite the Old South Church, Boston. The little stranger came into a large and growing family, of whom at a later period he might sometimes have seen thirteen children sit down at the table to very hard and simple fare. "A baby is nothing new in this family," said Josiah Franklin, the father. "This is the fifteenth. Let me take it over to the church and have it christened this very day. There should be no time lost in christening. What say you, friends all? It is a likely boy, and it is best to start him right in life at once." "People do not often have their children christened in church on the day of birth," said a lusty neighbor, "though if a child seems likely to die it might be christened on the day of its birth at home."