I long to hear whether you have continued ever since in that monastery;* or have broke into the world again, doing pretty mischief; how the lady Wards do, and how many of them are married, or about it; what is become of Mr. B and Mr. L, and what the state of your heart is at this instant? But that, perhaps, I ought not to know; and, therefore, I will not conjure, as you sometimes say I do. If I could conjure, it should be to know what was that oddest question about me that ever was thought of, which you tell me a lady had just sent to ask you. I commend your prudent resolutions, in the article of granting favors to lovers. But, if I were courting you, I could not hardly approve such conduct. I should even be malicious enough to say you were too knowing, and tell you the old story of the Girl and the Miller. I enclose you the songs you write for, and with them your Spanish letter with a translation. I honor that honest Spaniard for loving you. It showed the goodness of his taste and judgment. But you must forget him, and bless some worthy young Englishman. You have spun a long thread, five thousand and twenty-two yards. It will reach almost from Rhode Island hither. I wish I had hold of one end of it, to pull you to me. But you would break it rather than come. The cords of love and friendship are longer and stronger, and in times past have drawn me farther; even back from England to Philadelphia. I guess that some of the same kind will one day draw you out of that Island. me. I was extremely pleased with the you sent The Irish people, who have seen it, say it is Block Island. the right sort; but I cannot learn that we have any thing like it here. The cheeses, particularly one of them, were excellent. All our friends have tasted it, and all agree that it exceeds any English cheese they ever tasted. Mrs. Franklin was very proud, that a young lady should have so much regard for her old husband, as to send him such a present. We talk of you every time it comes to table. She is sure you are a sensible girl, and a notable housewife, and talks of bequeathing me to you as a legacy; but I ought to wish you a better, and hope she will live these hundred years; for we are grown old together, and if she has any faults, I am so used to them that I don't perceive them; as the song says, "Some faults we have all, and so has my Joan, But then they're exceedingly small; And, now I'm grown used to them, so like my own, My dear friends, I scarcely can see them at all.”* Indeed, I begin to think she has none, as I think of you. And since she is willing I should love you, as much as you are willing to be loved by me, let us join in wishing the old lady a long life and a happy. The author here quotes a stanza from one of his own "Songs," written for the JUNTO. The objects of the JUNTO seem to have been as various as the characters of its members. It was originally formed for mutual improvement in knowledge and intellectual culture, by conversations and discussions suited to that design. See Vol. II. pp. 9, 551. But the members sometimes relaxed themselves with less grave entertainments. The following song was composed by Franklin for one of their meetings. It has been printed in Professor McVickar's Life of Dr. Samuel Bard. MY PLAIN COUNTRY JOAN; A SONG. "Of their Chloes and Phyllises poets may prate, I sing my plain country Joan, These twelve years my wife, still the joy of my life, Blest day that I made her my own. With her respectful compliments to you, to your good mother and sisters, present mine, though unknown; and believe me to be, dear girl, your affectionate friend and humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. P. S. Sally says, "Papa, my love to Miss Katy."If it was not quite unreasonable, I should desire you to write to me every post, whether you hear from me "Not a word of her face, of her shape, or her air, Or of flames, or of darts, you shall hear; I beauty admire, but virtue I prize, That fades not in seventy year. "Am I loaded with care, she takes off a large share, Does good fortune arrive, the joy of my wife "She defends my good name, even when I'm to blame, Her compassionate breast feels for all the distressed, "In health a companion delightful and dear, Still easy, engaging, and free; In sickness no less than the carefulest nurse, "In peace and good order my household she guides, Yet cheerfully spends, and smiles on the friends "Some faults have we all, and so has my Joan, But then they're exceedingly small, And, now I'm grown used to them, so like my own "Were the finest young princess, with millions in purse, I could not get better wife, might get a worse, or not. As to your spelling, don't let those laughing girls put you out of conceit with it. It is the best in the world, for every letter of it stands for something. FROM WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO B. FRANKLIN. Applauds his Service to the Public in aiding Braddock's Expedition. SIR, Oswego, 17 September, 1755. I have just received your two favors of the 1st and 4th of September. In answer to the former, I enclose to you a copy of a paragraph in my letter to Colonel Dunbar upon that subject. As to the affair of the wagons and horses, which you engaged for the use of the late General Braddock's army, I think it of the utmost consequence that all such engagements or contracts for the public service should be most punctually complied with; and, had I known the circumstances of this, I should before now have enabled you to make good those you entered into, by the late General's order, for the expedition to the Ohio; not only because common justice demands it, but that such public spirited services deserve the highest encouragement. I now write to Governor Morris to appoint three good men to liquidate and adjust those accounts, and shall direct Mr. Johnson, the paymaster, immediately to pay what they report to be due for that service, according to the enclosed warrant. Though I am at present engaged in a great hurry of business, being to move from hence in a very few days for Niagara, I cannot conclude without assuring you, that I have the highest sense of your public ser vices in general, and particularly that of engaging those wagons, without which General Braddock could not have proceeded. I am, with great esteem, &c.* W. SHIRLEY. SIR, TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY. Thanks, and Proffers of Service. Philadelphia, 23 October, 1755. I beg leave to return your Excellency my most sincere and hearty thanks for your letter of the 17th of September, with the orders for the payment of wagon owners, and an extract of your orders to Colonel Dunbar, forbidding the enlistment of servants and apprentices. Acts of justice so readily done become great favors, which I hope will be ever gratefully acknowledged by this people in actions as well as words. I have also your favor of the 5th instant. Governor Morris is gone to Newcastle, to meet the Assembly of * At this time General Shirley was Governor of Massachusetts. He was with the army at Oswege, as commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces in America. It appears, that he never entirely fulfilled the good intentions expressed in this letter. In his autobiography, Dr. Franklin gives a particular account of the services he rendered to General Braddock, in procuring horses and wagons for his expedition. He expended, of his own money, upwards of a thousand pounds sterling. This sum was in part returned by General Braddock, but the remainder was never paid. When Lord Loudoun succeeded General Shirley, the accounts were examined and compared with the vouchers by the proper officer, and certified to be right; but Lord Loudoun declined giving an order on the paymaster for the balance, stating as a reason, that he preferred not to mix up his accounts with those of his predecessors; and, as Franklin was then on the point of departing for England, he referred him to the treasury in London, where, he said, payment would immediately be made. The application to the treasury, however, was unsuc cessful. |