[114. Franklin finds work; he goes back to Boston on a visit; he learns to stoop.]—The next day the young man found some work in a printing-office. Six months afterward he decided to go back to Boston to see his friends. He started on his journey with a good suit of clothes, a silver watch, and a well-filled purse.
While in Boston, Franklin went to call on a minister who had written a little book[13] which he had been very fond of reading. As he was coming away from the minister's house, he had to go through a low passage-way under a large beam. "Stoop! Stoop!" cried out the gentleman; but Franklin did not understand him, and so hit his head a sharp knock against the beam. "Ah," said his friend, as he saw him rubbing his head, "you are young, and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." Franklin says that this sensible advice, which was thus beat into his head, was of great use afterward; in fact, he learned then how to stoop to conquer.
13 The name of this book, written by the Rev. Cotton Mather, was Essays to do Good.
[115. Franklin returns to Philadelphia; he goes to London; water against beer.]—Franklin soon went back to Philadelphia. The governor of Pennsylvania then persuaded him to go to London, telling him that he would help him to get a printing-press and type to start a newspaper in Philadelphia.
When Franklin reached London, he found that the governor was one of those men who promise great things, but do nothing. Instead of buying a press, he had to go to work in a printing-office to earn his bread. He stayed in London more than a year. At the office where he worked the men were great beer-drinkers. One of his companions bought six pints a day. He began with a pint before breakfast, then took another pint at breakfast, then a pint between breakfast and dinner, then a pint at dinner, then a pint in the afternoon, and, last of all, a pint after he had done work. Franklin drank nothing but water. The others laughed at him, and nicknamed him the "Water-American"; but after a while they had to confess that he was stronger than they were who drank so much strong beer.
The fact was that Franklin could beat them both at work and at play. When they went out for a bath in the Thames,[14] they found that their "Water-American" could swim like a fish; and he so astonished them that a rich Londoner tried to persuade him to start a swimming-school to teach his sons, but Franklin had stayed in England long enough, and he now decided to go back to Philadelphia.
14 Thames (Tems). London is on the river Thames.
[116. Franklin sets up his newspaper; "sawdust pudding."]—After his return to America, Franklin labored so diligently that he was soon able to set up a newspaper of his own. He tried to make it a good one. But some people thought that he spoke his mind too freely. They complained of this to him, and gave him to understand that if he did not make his paper to please them, they would stop taking it or advertising in it.