4. On the next day, however, he continued his journey, and arrived that night at an inn, within eight or ten miles of Burlington. The next morning he reached Burlington, where he expected to find boats to sail immediately for Philadelphia. It was Saturday, and he had the mortification to find that the regular boats had just gone, and that no others were expected to sail before Tuesday.
5. Franklin returned to the shop of an old woman, of whom he had bought some gingerbread to eat on his passage, and asked her where he had better go to find lodgings. She proposed to lodge him in her own house, till a passage, by some other boat, offered itself. He accepted the invitation, and dined with the old woman that day on ox-cheek. All that she would take in return was a pot of ale.
6. Franklin had supposed himself fixed till the next Tuesday, but as he was walking, in the evening, by the side of the river, a boat passed by, with several people, going to Philadelphia. They took him in, and proceeded on their voyage. The weather was very calm, without a breath of wind stirring. They were obliged to row all the way. Reaching Philadelphia about eight or nine o'clock on Sunday morning, they landed at Market street wharf.
7. Our young traveller had sent his best clothes by another conveyance from New York, and he was in his old working dress. His pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and he knew not where to look for lodgings. He was tired with walking, rowing, and want of sleep, and was, besides, very hungry. His whole stock of cash was a single silver dollar and about a shilling in copper coin. The copper he gave to the boatmen for his passage.
8. As he walked along the street, gazing at the new things he saw, and wondering what would be the end of his trouble, he met a boy with some bread. Inquiring where he had bought it, Franklin went immediately to the place where he was directed, and asked for three-pence worth of bread. He received three large puffy rolls, and, having no room in his pockets, walked off, with a roll under each arm, and eating the third.
Franklin walking in the streets of Philadelphia.
9. In this manner he walked up Market street, as far as Fourth street, passing by the house of Mr. Read, whose daughter he afterwards married. This young lady was standing at the door as he went by, and probably thought he made rather an awkward appearance. After walking about the streets some time, eating his roll, he found himself again in the neighborhood of the wharf where he had landed. He went on board of the boat, and gave his two remaining rolls to a woman and child that had been his fellow-passengers down the river.
10. He again walked up the street, which was, by that time, filled with a large number of neat, well-dressed people, who were all walking the same way. He joined them, and was led into the great meeting house of the Quakers, near the market. Sitting down among them, he looked round awhile, and, as nothing was said, fell fast asleep from drowsiness. His nap continued till the meeting broke up, when some one was kind enough to awake him.
11. He then walked down towards the river, and meeting a young Quaker, whose countenance pleased him, he asked where a stranger could get lodgings. They were then near a house with the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," said the Quaker, "is a house where they receive strangers, but it is not a reputable one; if thou wilt walk with me, I'll show thee a better." He conducted Franklin to the Crooked Billet, in Water street.