WHEN Benjamin Franklin had been about two years in the factory, Mr. Franklin said to his wife, "I cannot feel that we are doing right in forcing our son to continue in a business he so thoroughly dislikes. Not that I have much to complain of. Benjamin is on the whole a good boy, obedient and punctual. I have never known him to be late at his work, but his heart is not in it. He seems to dread it, and a boy will never succeed in what he really dislikes. I will talk to him, and we will try if we cannot find some employment for which he is really better suited.”
Mrs. Franklin replied that no decision of her husband's could have given her greater pleasure. She too had noticed how sad and spiritless the boy often appeared, and though she had done all she could to encourage him to go quietly on, she felt sure that a change would be good for him.
A few evenings later Mr. Franklin said to his son, "Benjamin, what kind of work would you really like to do?”
“Oh, father, I should like anything better than melting tallow, and boiling soap! But what I think I should like best of all would be to go to sea.”
“I will never give my consent to that, Benjamin. When my eldest son, Josiah, went to sea, it nearly broke my heart, and I feel I could not go through the strain a second time. There are plenty of honorable, useful occupations on land. I will take you round to some of the workshops, and let you choose for yourself.”
Benjamin was delighted. "Thank you, father, it is good of you. When shall we begin?”
“To-morrow morning," was Mr. Franklin's reply.
As Mr. Franklin had a nephew Samuel in Boston, who about a year before had opened business as a cutler, with every prospect of being able to work up a good trade, it was decided that his workshop should be the first visited. He gave a cordial welcome to father and son, and was quite willing to show his cousin his tools and tell him, in answer to his bright, intelligent questions, about the business. Benjamin said he thought he should like to be a cutler, but his father said, "Do not decide so hastily, wait till we have visited other trades." Their visits were to the shops of a silversmith and a brazier. It was quite a new interest to Benjamin to see any one working in metals, and he was greatly interested. It took the best part of several days to visit all the workshops in Boston. At the end Benjamin said he thought he should like to be a cutler, so another visit was paid to Samuel's workshop, when Mr. Franklin suggested that before settling the terms of apprenticeship it might be well for Benjamin to go for a few weeks, or months, into his cousin's shop, as it would not only give him an opportunity of learning more about the business, but give him time to decide if he liked it well enough to make it his life work.
The arrangement seemed to give satisfaction to all parties concerned, and though Benjamin did not become a cutler, he said in later years that during the time he spent in his cousin's shop, he learned not only many things about the uses of various tools, but other things that were of use to him in his manhood. He put his whole heart into the business, as he did into other things. He did not do anything by halves, and that was, I think, with the blessing of God, the secret of his success.
But when the time came to prepare the indentures that, as was then the custom, would bind him apprentice to his cousin until he was twenty-one years of age, Samuel Franklin asked a larger fee than Benjamin's father could afford to pay, so to the disappointment of both father and son, the twelve-year old boy had to return to the candle-factory till some really suitable opening could be found for him.
He was good at rowing, and all the boys of Boston seemed to look up to him as a leader, for he was almost as much at home in the water as on land. He could swim, dive and float better than any of his companions. He told them one day that he had invented something that would, he believed, enable him to swim with much greater speed, and shortly afterward made his appearance among them with wooden paddles strapped upon his hands, and something not unlike the webbed feet of a duck fastened to his feet. He gained in speed, but was forced to own that the weight of the paddles made him so tired that he could not use them for long distances.
On another occasion he surprised them all by going among them carrying a large new kite; holding the string firmly in his hand, he threw himself into the water, and allowed himself to float, without any effort on his part, across a large pond, a distance of nearly a mile.
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." (Eccl. 9:1010Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10).) I do not know if Benjamin took the words I have just quoted as his life motto, but it is one that is good for us all to remember. There is no blessing upon careless, half-hearted work.