"You talk of sun-light, sir," said the foreman to Ben; "can you tell the cause of that wide difference between the light of the sun in England and America?"

Ben replied that he had never discovered that dif ference.

"What! not that the sun shines brighter in London than in America-the sky clearer-the air purer-and the light a thousand times more vivid-and luminousand cheering-and all that?"

Ben said that he could not understand how that could be, seeing it was the same sun that gave light to both. "The same sun, sir! the same sun!" replied the cockney, rather nettled, "I am not positive of that sir. But admitting that it is the same sun, it does not follow that it gives the same light in America as in England. Every thing, you know, suffers by going to the West, as the great French philosophers have proved, then why not

the sun?"

Ben said he wondered the gentleman should talk of the sun going to the west.

"What, the sun not go to the west!" retorted the cock, ney, quite angry, "a pretty story, indeed. You have eyes, sir; and don't these shew you that the sun rises in the east and travels on to the west?"

"I thought, sir," replied Ben, modestly, "that your own great countryman, sir Isaac Newton, had satisfied every body that it is the earth that is thus continually travelling, and not the sun, which is stationary, and gives the same light to England and America."

Palmer, who had much of the honest Englishman about him, equally surprised and pleased to see Ben thus chastise the pride and ignorance of his foreman, put a stop to the conversation by placing a composing stick in the hands of Ben, while the journeymen gathering around, marvelled hugely to see the young North American take a composing stick in his hand!

Having spent a moment or too in ruuning his eye over the letter cases, to see if they were fixed as in the printing offices in America; and glancing at his watch, Ben fell to work, and in less than four minutes finished the following

"And Nathaniel said, can there any thing good come out of Nazareth-Philip said, come and see.'

Palmer and his workmen were petrified. Near eighty letters set up in less than four minutes, and without a blunder! And then such a delicate stroke at their prejudice and nonsense! Ben was immediately employed.

This was a fine introduction of Ben to the printing office, every person in which seemed to give him a hearty welcome; he wore his rare talents so modestly.

It gave him also a noble opportunity to be useful, which he failed not to improve.

Passing by one of the presses at which a small man meagre and hollow eyed, was labouring with unequal force, as appeared by his paleness and big-dropping sweat, Ben touched with pity, offered to give him "a spell." As the pressman and compositor, like the parson and the clerk, or the coffin-maker and the grave-digger are of entirely distinct trades in London, the little pressman was surprised that Ben, who was a compositor should talk of giving him “a spell." However, Ben insisting, the little pressman gave way, when Ben seizedthe press, and possessing both a skill and spirit extraor dinary, he handled it in such a workman like style that the men all declared they should have concluded he had done nothing but press-work all his life. Palmer also, coming by at the time, mingled his applauses with the rest, saying that he had never seen a fairer impression; and, on Ben's requesting it, for exercise and health sake, he permitted him to work some hours every day at press.

On his entrance into Palmer's printing office, Ben paid the customary garnish or treat-money for the journeymen to drink. This was on the first floor, among the pressmen. Presently Palmer wanted him up stairs, among the compositors. There also the journeymen called on him for garnish. Ben refused, looking on it as altogether an unfair demand, and so Palmer himself, to whom it was referred, decided; insisting that Ben should not pay it. But neither justice nor patronage could bear Ben out against the spite of the journeymen. For the moment his back was turned they would play him an endless variety of mischievous tricks, such as mixing his letters, transposing his pages, breaking down his matter, &c. &c. It was in vain he remonstrated

against such injustice. They all with one accord excused themselves, laying all the blame on RALPH, for so they called a certain evil spirit who, they pretended, haunted the office and always tormented such as were not regularly admitted. Upon this Ben paid his garnish-being fully convinced of the folly of not keeping up a good understanding with those among whom we are destined to live.

Ben had been at Palmer's office but a short time before he discovered that all his workmen, to the number of fifty, were terrible drinkers of porter, insomuch that they kept a stout boy all day long on the trot to serve them alone. Every man among them must have, viz. 1 A pint of porter before breakfast,-cost d.14

1 A pint, with his bread and cheese, for breakfast, 1 A pint betwixt his breakfast and dinner,

1 A pint at his dinner,

1 A pint betwixt his dinner and night,
1 A pint after his day's work was done,

6 Total, three quarts!-equal to nine pence sterling per day!!

1

1층

1층

14

14

9

A practice so fatal to the health and subsistence of those poor people and their families, pained Ben to the soul, and he instantly set himself to break it up. But they laughed him to scorn, boasting of their beloved porter, that it was "meat and drink too," and the only thing to give them strength to work. Ben was not to be put out of heart by such an argument as this.

He offered to prove to them that the strength they derived from the beer could only be in proportion to the barley dissolved in the water of which the beer was madethat there was a larger portion of our in a penny loaf; and that if they ate this loaf and drank a pint of water with it, they would get more strength than from a pint of beer. But still they would not hearken to any thing said against their darling beer. Beer, they said, was "the liquor of life," and beer they must have, or farewell strength.

"Why, gentlemen," replied Ben, "don't you see me with great ease carry up and down stairs, a large form of letters in each hand; while you, with both hands, have much ado to carry one? And don't you perceive that

these heavy weights which I bear produce no manner of change in my breathing, while you, with only half the weight, cannot mount the stairs without puffing and blowing most distressingly? Now is not this sufficient to prove that water, though apparently the weakest, is yet in reality the strongest liquor in nature, especially for the young and healthy?"

But alas! on most of them, this excellent logic was all thrown away.

"The ruling passion be it what it will,

The ruling passion governs reason still."

Though they could not deny a syllable of Ben's reasoning, being often heard to say that "THE AMERICAN AQUATIC (or water drinker) as they called him, was much stronger than any of the beer drinkers," still they. would drink.

"But suppose," asked some of them, "we were to quit our beer with bread and cheese for breakfast, what substitute should we have?"

"Why, use," said Ben, "the substitute that I do; which is a pint of nice oat-meal gruel brought to me from your beer-house, with a little butter, sugar and nutmeg, and a slice of dry toast. This, which is more palatable and still less costly than a pint of beer, makes a much better breakfast and keeps the head clearer to boot. At dinner I take a cup of cold water, which is the wholesomest of all beverages, and requires nothing but a little use to render it as pleasant. In this way, gentlemen, I save nine pence sterling every day, making in the year nearly three thousand pence! An enormous sum, let me tell you, my friends, to a small family; and which would not only save parents the disgrace of being dunned for trifling debts, but also procure a thousand comforts for the children.”

Ben did not entirely lose his reward, several of his hearers affording him the unspeakable satisfaction of following his counsel. But the major part, "poor devils,' as he emphatically styled them, "went on to drink-thus continuing all their lives in a state of voluntary poverty and wretchedness!!”

Many of them, for lack of punctuality to pay the pub

lican, would often have their porter stopped.-They would then apply to Ben to become security for them; their light, as they called it, being out. I never heard that he upbraided them with their folly; but readily gave his word to the publican, though it cost him the trouble of attending at the pay-table, every Saturday night, to take up the sums he had made himself accoun table for.

Thus, by virtue of the right education, i. e. a good trade and early fondness for labour and books, did Ben rise, like a young swan of heaven, above the dark billows of adversity; and cover himself with glory in the eyes of these young Englishmen, who had at first been so prejudiced against him. And, better still, when night came, instead of sauntering with them to the filthy yet costly ale-houses and porter cellars, he hastened to his little chamber at his frugal boarding-house, (only 1s. 6d. per week) there to enjoy the divine society of his books, which he obtained on hire from a neighbouring bookstore. And commanding, as he always did, through his steadiness and rapidity at work, all the quick off-hand jobs, generally the best paid, he might have made money and enjoyed great peace, but alas! there was a moth in his purse which kept him constantly poor; a canker in his peace which filled his life with vexation.

That can

ker and that moth was his young friend Ralph, whom, as we have seen, he had made an infidel of in Philadelphia; and for which good office, Ralph, as we shall presently see, requitted him as might have been expected.

CHAPTER XXVI.

"Who reasons wisely, is not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting, lies."

SOME years ago a certain empiric whispered in the ear of a noble lord, in the British parliament, that he had made a wonderful discovery.