Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/96

86 any thing, came to me ſeparately, without the knowledge of each other, and without my having applied to either of them. Each offered me whatever money might be neceſſary, to take the buſineſs into my own hands, if the thing was practicable, as they did not like I ſhould continue in partnerſhip with Meredith, who, they ſaid, was frequently ſeen drunk in the ſtreets, and gambling at ale-houſes, which very much Injured our credit. Theſe friends were William Coleman and Robert Grace. I told them, that while there remained any probability that the Merediths would fulfil their part of the compact, I could not propoſe a ſeparation; as I conceived myſelf to be under obligations to them for what they had done already, and were ſtill diſpoſed to do if they had the power: but in the end ſhould they fail in their engagement, and our partnerſhip be diſſolved, I ſhould then think myſelf at liberty to accept the kindneſs of my friends. Things remained for ſome time in this ſtate. At laſt I ſaid one day to my partner, "Your father is perhaps diſſatisfied with your having a ſhare only in the buſineſs, and is unwilling to do for two, what he would do for you alone. Tell me frankly if that be the caſe, and I will reſign the whole to you, and do for myſelf as well as I can."—"No (ſaid he) my father has really been diſappointed in his hopes; he is not able to pay, and I wiſh to put him to no farther inconvenience. I ſee that I am not at all calculated for a printer; I was educated as a farmer, and it was abſurd in me to come here, at thirty years of age, and bind myſelf apprentice to a new trade. Many of my countrymen are going to ſettle in North Carolina, where the ſoil is exceedingly favourable. I am tempted to go with them, and to reſume my former occupation.