[19] In Franklin's time the grammar school was a school for teaching Latin, which was begun by committing the grammar to memory.
[20] Characters, or method of writing shorthand.
[21] Candles were made by dipping wicks in the fat a number of times, and also by setting the wicks in a mold and pouring the fat round them.
[22] Ants.
[23] The marble having crumbled, a larger stone was placed over the grave in 1827, and Franklin's inscription repeated. It stands in the Granary Burying Ground.
[24] Aged.
[25] A joiner is a mechanic who does the woodwork of houses, etc.; a turner, one who works with a lathe; a brasier, a worker in brass.
[26] A chapman was a peddler.
[27] Agreements written upon sheets, the edges of which were cut or indented to match each other, for security and identification.
[28] A street in London in which many writers of small ability or reputation, or of unhappy fortune, had lodgings. "Grub Street style," therefore, means poor or worthless in literary value. The term, which always implied a sneer, was made current by Pope and Swift and their coterie.