Part 7 (1/2)

”He became an esquire,” said Aunt Prudence. ”Sit very still, and you shall hear.”

”This man liked to encourage people; he used to say good things of them so as to help them grow. If one encourage the good things which one finds in people it helps them. It is a good thing to say good words.”

”If you do not say too many,” said Josiah Franklin. ”I sometimes think we do to little Ben.”

”Well, this Esquire Palmer told Uncle Tom one day that he would make a good lawyer. Tom was very much surprised, and said, 'I am poor; if I had any one to help me I would study for the bar.' 'I will help you,' said Esquire Palmer. So Uncle Tom dropped the hammer and went to school.”

”And _you_ may one day leave the candle shop and go to school,” said Aunt Esther, moralizing.

”I hope so,” said little Ben humbly.

”Not but that the candle shop is a very useful place,” said the other aunt.

”Uncle Tom read law, and began to practice it in the town and county of Northampton. He was public-spirited, and he became a leader in all the enterprises of the county, and people looked up to him as a great man.

Everything that he touched improved.”

”Just think of that,” said Aunt Esther to Ben. ”Everything that he touched improved. That is the way to make success for yourself--help others.”

”May you profit by his example, Ben,” said Aunt Prudence, bobbing her cap border.

”He made everything better--the church, the town, the public ways, the societies, the homes. He was a just man, and he used to say that what the world wanted was _justice_. Everybody found him a friend, except he who was unjust. And at last Lord Halifax saw how useful he had become, and he honored him with his friends.h.i.+p. When he died, which was some fourteen years ago, all the people felt that they had lost a friend.”

The two aunts bowed over in reverence for such a character. Aunt Esther did more than this. She put her finger slowly and impressively on little Ben's arm, and said:

”It may be that you will grow up and be like him.”

”Or like Father Folger,” added Aunt Prudence, who wished to remind Uncle Benjamin that the Folgers too had a family history.

Little Ben was really impressed by the homely story which he now heard a second time. It presented a looking-gla.s.s to him, and he saw himself in it. He looked up to his Uncle Ben with an earnest face, and said:

”I would like to help folks, too; why can I not, if Uncle Tom did?”

”A very proper remark,” said Aunt Esther.

”Very,” said Aunt Prudence.

”Good intentions are all right,” said Josiah Franklin. ”They do to sail away with, but where will one land if he has not got the steering gear?

That is a good story, Brother Ben. Encourage little Ben here all you can; it may be that you might have become a man like Uncle Tom if you had had some esquire to encourage you.”

The aunts sat still and thought of this suggestion.

Then Josiah played on his violin, and the two aunts told tales of the work of _their_ good father among the Indians of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

A baby lay in Abiah Franklin's arms sleeping while these family stories were related. It was a girl, and they had named her Jane, and called her ”Jenny.”

Amid the story-telling Jenny awoke, and put out her arms to Ben.