Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/23

13 "Here lie " and his wife: They lived together with reciprocal affection for fifty-nine years; and without private fortune, without lucrative employment, by aſſiduous labour and honeſt induſtry, decently ſupported a numerous family, and educated, with ſucceſs, thirteen children, and ſeven grand-children. Let this example, reader, encourage thee diligently to diſcharge the duties of thy calling, and to rely on the ſupport of Divine Providence.

"Their youngeſt ſon, from a ſentiment of filial duty, conſecrates this ſtone "To their memory."

I perceive, by my rambling digreſſions, that I am growing old. But we do not dreſs for a private company as for a formal ball. This deſerves perhaps the name of negligence.

To return. I thus continued employed in my father's trade for the ſpace of two years; that is to ſay, till I arrived at twelve years of age. About this time my brother John, who had ſerved his apprenticeſhip in London, having quitted my father, and being married and ſettled in buſineſs on his own account at Rhode Iſland, I was deſtined, to all appearance, to ſupply his place, and be a candle-maker all my life: but my diſlike of this occupation continuing, my father was apprehenſive, that, if a more agreeable one were not offered me, I might play the truant and eſcape to ſea; as, to his extreme mortification, my brother Joſias had done. He therefore took me ſometimes to ſee maſons, coopers, braziers, joiners, and other mechanics, employed at their