to teach his sons, but Franklin had stayed in England long enough,
and he now decided to go back to Philadelphia.

[Footnote 14: Thames (Tems). London is on the river Thames.]


116. Franklin sets up his newspaper; "sawdust pudding."--After his
return to America, Franklin labored so diligently that he was soon
able to set up a newspaper of his own. He tried to make it a good
one. But some people thought that he spoke his mind too freely. They
complained of this to him, and gave him to understand that if he did
not make his paper to please them, they would stop taking it or
advertising in it.

Franklin heard what they had to say, and then invited them all to
come and have supper with him. They went, expecting a feast, but they
found nothing on the table but two dishes of corn-meal mush and a
big pitcher of cold water. That kind of mush was then eaten only by
very poor people; and because it was yellow and coarse, it was
nicknamed "sawdust pudding."

[Illustration: FRANKLIN EATING "SAWDUST PUDDING."]

Franklin gave everybody a heaping plateful, and then, filling his
own, he made a hearty supper of it. The others tried to eat, but could
not. After Franklin had finished his supper, he looked up, and said
quietly, "My friends, any one who can live on 'sawdust pudding' and
cold water, as I can, does not need much help from others." After
that, no one went to the young printer with complaints about his paper.
Franklin, as we have seen,[15] had learned to stoop; but he certainly