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Article THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES or PETER PORCUPINE; ← Page 2 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Or Peter Porcupine;
whence he has the conscience to insist on our concluding , that in tbr old Engl sh language , a Franklin meant a man of good reputatkn and of comejitence . According to Dr . Johnson , a Franklin was what we now call a gentleman ' s steward , or land-baiiiff , a personage one degiee above a bum-luiliff , ai . d that is all . Every one will , I hope , have the goodness to believe , that my grand * father was no philos pher . Indeed he was not . Pie never made a
lightning rod , nor bottled up a single quart of sun-shine in the whole course of his life . He was no almanack-maker , nor quack , nor chimney-doctor , nor soap-boiler , nor ambassador , nor printer ' s devil ; neither was he a deist ; and all his children were born in wedlock . The legacies he left were his scythe , his reap-hook , and his flail : he bequeathed no old and irrecoverable debts to an hospital : he never
cheated the poor during his life , uu' mocked them in his death . He has , it is true , been suffered to sleep cjuietlv beneath the green-sward "; but if his descendants cannot point to his statue over the door of ajjbrary , they have not the mortification to hear him daily accus & $ |? G > having been a whoremaster , a hypocrite , and an infidel . My father , when 1 was born , was a farmer . The reader will easily believe , from the poverty of his ' parents , that he had received no very brilliant education : he was , however , learned for a man in his rank in life . When a little bov , he drove the plough for two-pence a dav , and
these his earnings were appropriated to the expellees of an evening school . What a village school-master could he expected to teach , he had learnt , and had besides considerably improved himself in several branches of the mathematics . He understood land-surveying well , and was often chosen to draw the plans of disputed territory : in short , he had the reputation of possessing experience and understanding , which never fails in England to ive a manin a-country lacesome
g , p , little wei ght with his neighbours . He was honest , industrious , and frugal ; it was not , therefore , wonderful that he should be situated in a good farm , and happy in a wife of his own rank , like him beloved and respected . So much for my ancestors , from whom , if I derive no honour , I derive no shame .
I had ( and 1 hope I yet have ) three brothers : the eldest is a shopkeeper , the second a farmer , and the youngest , if alive , is in the service of the Honourable East India Company , a private soldier , perhaps , as I have been in the service of the King . 1 was born the 9 th of March , 1766 : the exact age of my brothers I have forgotten , but I remember having heaid my mother saythat there were but three
, years and three quarters difference between the age of the eldest and that of the youngest . A farther like ours , it will be readily supposed , did not suffer us to eat the bread of idleness . I do not remember ' the time when I did
not earn my living . My first occupation was , driving the small birds from the turnip seed , and the rooks from the peas . When 1 first trudged a field , with my wooden bottle and my satchel swung over my shoulders , I was hardly able to climb the gates and styles , and , at the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Or Peter Porcupine;
whence he has the conscience to insist on our concluding , that in tbr old Engl sh language , a Franklin meant a man of good reputatkn and of comejitence . According to Dr . Johnson , a Franklin was what we now call a gentleman ' s steward , or land-baiiiff , a personage one degiee above a bum-luiliff , ai . d that is all . Every one will , I hope , have the goodness to believe , that my grand * father was no philos pher . Indeed he was not . Pie never made a
lightning rod , nor bottled up a single quart of sun-shine in the whole course of his life . He was no almanack-maker , nor quack , nor chimney-doctor , nor soap-boiler , nor ambassador , nor printer ' s devil ; neither was he a deist ; and all his children were born in wedlock . The legacies he left were his scythe , his reap-hook , and his flail : he bequeathed no old and irrecoverable debts to an hospital : he never
cheated the poor during his life , uu' mocked them in his death . He has , it is true , been suffered to sleep cjuietlv beneath the green-sward "; but if his descendants cannot point to his statue over the door of ajjbrary , they have not the mortification to hear him daily accus & $ |? G > having been a whoremaster , a hypocrite , and an infidel . My father , when 1 was born , was a farmer . The reader will easily believe , from the poverty of his ' parents , that he had received no very brilliant education : he was , however , learned for a man in his rank in life . When a little bov , he drove the plough for two-pence a dav , and
these his earnings were appropriated to the expellees of an evening school . What a village school-master could he expected to teach , he had learnt , and had besides considerably improved himself in several branches of the mathematics . He understood land-surveying well , and was often chosen to draw the plans of disputed territory : in short , he had the reputation of possessing experience and understanding , which never fails in England to ive a manin a-country lacesome
g , p , little wei ght with his neighbours . He was honest , industrious , and frugal ; it was not , therefore , wonderful that he should be situated in a good farm , and happy in a wife of his own rank , like him beloved and respected . So much for my ancestors , from whom , if I derive no honour , I derive no shame .
I had ( and 1 hope I yet have ) three brothers : the eldest is a shopkeeper , the second a farmer , and the youngest , if alive , is in the service of the Honourable East India Company , a private soldier , perhaps , as I have been in the service of the King . 1 was born the 9 th of March , 1766 : the exact age of my brothers I have forgotten , but I remember having heaid my mother saythat there were but three
, years and three quarters difference between the age of the eldest and that of the youngest . A farther like ours , it will be readily supposed , did not suffer us to eat the bread of idleness . I do not remember ' the time when I did
not earn my living . My first occupation was , driving the small birds from the turnip seed , and the rooks from the peas . When 1 first trudged a field , with my wooden bottle and my satchel swung over my shoulders , I was hardly able to climb the gates and styles , and , at the