a hearty drink of river water to settle his breakfast, and then gave
away the two rolls he had under his arm to a poor woman with a child.
On his way back from the river he followed a number of people to a
Quaker meeting-house. At the meeting no one spoke. Franklin was tired
out, and, not having any preacher to keep him awake, he soon fell
asleep, and slept till the meeting was over. He says, "This was the
first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia."

[Footnote 11: Penny: an English coin worth two cents.]

[Footnote 12: Deborah (Deb'o-rah).]


114. Franklin finds work; he goes back to Boston on a visit; he learns
to stoop.--The next day the young man found some work in a
printing-office. Six months afterward he decided to go back to Boston
to see his friends. He started on his journey with a good suit of
clothes, a silver watch, and a well-filled purse.

While in Boston, Franklin went to call on a minister who had written
a little book[13] which he had been very fond of reading. As he was
coming away from the minister's house, he had to go through a low
passage-way under a large beam. "Stoop! Stoop!" cried out the
gentleman; but Franklin did not understand him, and so hit his head
a sharp knock against the beam. "Ah," said his friend, as he saw him
rubbing his head, "you are young, and have the world before you;
_stoop_ as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps."
Franklin says that this sensible advice, which was thus beat into
his head, was of great use afterward; in fact, he learned then how
to stoop to conquer.