LOOKING OUT ON THE WORLD




It was not until evening that Harry had a chance to look at his
prize. It was a cheap book, costing probably not over a dollar;
but except his schoolbooks, and a ragged copy of "Robinson Crusoe,"
it was the only book that our hero possessed. His father found it
difficult enough to buy him the necessary books for use in school,
and could not afford to buy any less necessary. So our young hero,
who was found of reading, though seldom able to gratify his taste,
looked forward with great joy to the pleasure of reading his new
book. He did not know much about Benjamin Franklin, but had a
vague idea that he was a great man.

After his evening "chores" were done, he sat down by the table
on which was burning a solitary tallow candle, and began to read.
His mother was darning stockings, and his father had gone to the
village store on an errand.

So he began the story, and the more he read the more interesting
he found it. Great as he afterwards became, he was surprised to
find that Franklin was a poor boy, and had to work for a living.
He started out in life on his own account, and through industry,
frugality, perseverance, and a fixed determination to rise in life,
he became a distinguished an in the end, and a wise man also, though
his early opportunities were very limited. It seemed to Harry that
there was a great similarity between his own circumstances and