him no inkling of that fourth estate which was later to spring up in
the land. Arms he loved, but there was now no field for arms. There
were no family resources to tide him over the season of experiment,
and, indeed, but for a brother and a sister, who lived in an adjoining
farming community, he had no relatives to be considered in his plans.
Perforce, then, Franklin went into the law, facing it somewhat as he
had the silent abattis, as with a duty to perform. Certainly, of all
students, Judge Bradley had never had a handsomer, a more mature, or a
more reluctant candidate than this same Edward Franklin, late captain
in the United States Army, now getting well on into his twenties,
grave, silent, and preoccupied, perhaps a trine dreamy. He might or
might not be good material for a lawyer; as to that, Judge Bradley did
not concern himself. Young men came into his office upon their own
responsibility.

It was one of the unvarying rules of Judge Bradley's office, and indeed
this was almost the only rule which he imposed, that the law student
within his gates, no matter what his age or earlier servitude, should
each morning sweep out the office, and should, when so requested, copy
out any law papers needing to be executed in duplicate. So long as a
student did these things, he was welcome as long as he cared to stay.
The judge never troubled himself about the studies of his pupil, never
asked him a question, indeed never even told him what books it might be
best to read, unless this advice were asked voluntarily by the student
himself. He simply gave the candidate a broom, a chair, and the
freedom of the library, which latter was the best law library in the
town. What more could one ask who contemplated a career at law? It
was for him to work out his own salvation; and to sweep the stairs each
morning.