I made so
miserable a figure, too, that I found, by the questions asked me, I
was suspected to be some runaway indentured servant, and in danger of
being taken up on that suspicion."
"Where are you from, young man?"
"From Boston, sir."
"Ah! you are a long way from home for such a youngster. What is your
name?"
"My name is Benjamin Franklin, and I am going to Philadelphia after
work."
"No work in Boston, I s'pose, hey? How long since you left?"
"About a week. I did not expect to come further this way than New
York, but I could find no work there."
"No work in New York, hey? What sort of work do you do, that you find
it so scarce?"
"I am a printer by trade, and I hope to get into a printing office in
Philadelphia."
"Wall, you are a pretty young one to take such a trip; I should hardly
be willing my son should go so far from home, printer or no printer."
"I can afford to make such a trip, and even a longer one, if I can
find steady work," suggested Benjamin.
"Your father and mother living?"
"Yes, sir."
"How did they feel about your going so far from home?"
"A father who loves to work as well as my father does always wants his
sons to have enough to do," Benjamin replied, shrewdly evading the
close question. "Nothing my father hates so much as idleness."
"We all ought to hate it; but many men do not.
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