first sat in the high chair. But the Franklins were not superstitious, and
if little Ben ever prayed that another would be born, just for luck, we
know nothing of it. His mother loved him very much and indulged him in
many ways, for he was always her baby boy, but the father thought that
because he was good-natured he was also lazy and should be disciplined.

Once upon a time the father was packing a barrel of beef in the cellar,
and Ben was helping him, and as the father always said grace at table, the
boy suggested he ask a blessing, once for all, on the barrel of beef and
thus economize breath. But economics along that line did not appeal to
Josiah Franklin, for this was early in Seventeen Hundred Eighteen, and
Josiah was a Presbyterian and lived in Boston.

The boy was not religious, for he never "went forward," and only went to
church because he had to, and read "Plutarch's Lives" with much more
relish than he did "Saints' Rest." But he had great curiosity and asked
questions until his mother would say, "Goodness gracious, go and play!"

And as the boy wasn't very religious or very fond of work, his father and
mother decided that there were only two careers open for him: the mother
proposed that he be made a preacher, but his father said, send him to sea.

To go to sea under a good strict captain would discipline him, and to send
him off and put him under the care of the Reverend Doctor Thirdly would
answer the same purpose--which course should be pursued? But Pallas
Athene, who was to watch over this lad's destinies all through life,
preserved him from either.

His parents' aspirations extended even to his becoming captain of a
schooner or pastor of the First Church at Roxbury. And no doubt he could