FRANKLIN HIS OWN TEACHER.


Few people ever knew so many things as Franklin. Men said, "How did he
ever learn so many things?" For he had been a poor boy who had to work
for a living. He could not go to school at all after he was ten
years old.

His father made soap and candles. Little Ben Frank-lin had to cut
wicks for the candles. He also filled the candle molds. And he sold
soap and candles, and ran on errands. But when he was not at work he
spent his time in reading good books. What little money he got he used
to buy books with.

He read the old story of "Pil-grim's Prog-ress," and liked it so well
that he bought all the other stories by the same man. But as he wanted
more books, and had not money to buy them, he sold all of these
books. The next he bought were some little his-to-ry books. These were
made to sell very cheap, and they were sold by peddlers. He managed to
buy forty or fifty of these little books of his-to-ry.

Another way that he had of learning was by seeing things with his own
eyes. His father took him to see car-pen-ters at work with their saws
and planes. He also saw masons laying bricks. And he went to see men
making brass and copper kettles. And he saw a man with a turning lathe
making the round legs of chairs. Other men were at work making knives.
Some things people learn out of books, and some things they have to
see for them-selves.

As he was fond of books, Ben's father thought that it would be a good