which was that of a tallow-chandler and sope-boiler, a
business he was not bred to, but had assumed on his
arrival in New England, and on finding his dying trade
would not maintain his family, being in little request.
Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the
candles, filling the dipping mold and the molds for cast
candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc."
The lad did not take kindly to the work, and "had a
strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared
against it"; so Benjamin worked on for two years,
"destined," he feared, to become a tallow-chandler.
"But my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was
under apprehension that if he did not find one more
agreeable I should break away and get to sea, as his
son Josiah had done, to his great vexation." The desire
for a sailor's life was short-lived, for when, at sixteen,
he ran off, he states that "my inclinations for the sea
were by this time worn out, or I might now have grati-
fy'd them." Nor did a longing for it ever recur. On
his first visit to England he found, so he chronicles, the
voyage "not a pleasant one, as we had a good deal of
bad weather," and on the return trip he saw cause for
congratulation at "having happily completed so tedious
and dangerous a voyage."

Once convinced that his son would not contentedly
accept his own handicraft, Josiah Franklin set to work
to find out one more suited to his predilection.

"He therefore sometimes took me to walk with him, and see
joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that
he might observe my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on
some trade or other on land. . . . My father at last fixed

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