several young people in the town who loved books.

In a little while he began to lay up money, and he tried to forget his
old home in Boston as much as he could.

One day a letter came to Philadelphia for Benjamin Franklin.

It was from Captain Robert Holmes, a brother-in-law of Franklin's.

Captain Holmes was the master of a trading sloop that sailed between
Boston and Delaware Bay. While he was loading his vessel at Newcastle,
forty miles below Philadelphia, he had happened to hear about the young
man Franklin who had lately come from Boston.

He sat down at once and wrote a letter to the young man. He told him how
his parents and friends were grieving for him in Boston. He begged him
to go back home, and said that everything would be made right if he
would do so.

When Franklin read this letter he felt very sad to think of the pain and
distress which he had caused.

But he did not want to return to Boston. He felt that he had been badly
treated by his brother, and, therefore, that he was not the only one to
be blamed. He believed that he could do much better in Philadelphia than
anywhere else.

So he sat down and wrote an answer to Captain Holmes. He wrote it with
great care, and sent it off to Newcastle by the first boat that was
going that way.