horse and started, though his escort had not put in an appearance. A
few minutes later, however, they arrived, and were greatly mortified
to find that Washington had gone. Putting spurs to their horses, they
galloped forward, and overtook him at Charles river bridge. When they
came up, Washington said: "Major, I thought you had been in my family
too long not to know when it was eight o'clock."

The habit of punctuality which Franklin formed in his youth,
distinguished him in his manhood as much as the same habit did
Washington. There is no doubt that it exerted a large influence in
placing him next to Washington among the founders of our republic. One
of the maxims that he wrote in mature life was: "He that riseth late
must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night."




IX.


TABLE-TALK EDUCATION.

We delay the narrative, at this point, to introduce a subject that
Franklin often referred to as influencing his early life. In his
"Autobiography," he said:

"At his table he [his father] liked to have, as often as he could,
some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with; and always took
care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which
might tend to improve the minds of his children. By this means he