tomary, but which he thought unfairly demanded. When he first went to this establishment, he began working, as we have seen, at press-work, and then paid his bienvenu, as it was called; that is, his welcome fee. After a few weeks, however, Mr. Watts, needing more help at case-work, requested Benjamin to transfer himself to the composing-room. On doing so, the compositors demanded of him another bien-venu. This he refused, and Mr. Watts also forbade his paying it.

For this refusal, however, the compositors, of course, excommunicated him from all the privileges of their fellowship; and while he thus lay under interdict, he was subjected to all manner of annoyance by vexatious tricks and practical jokes. His sorts of type were mixed in his cases; his matter was broken and transposed, as it stood on the galleys; or was thrown into pi, whenever he was for a moment absent. No remedy could be had, because all these naughty things were done by "the ghost of the chapel" (as the rooms of a printing-office are termed by the craft), which always haunt every one, whose entrance is not according to the chapel canons, and nobody can be held responsible for what is done by a ghost.

In short, there was no protection for the refractory compositor, as long as he continued recusant; and after persisting for two or three weeks in recusancy, he saw that the best thing he could do, was to pay the welcome money; having, in the exercise of his good sense, come to the conclusion, that it is always foolish to be voluntarily on "ill terms with those you are to live with continually."

Being once placed on good terms and a fair footing with the whole body of his fellow-workmen, his shrewdness, good temper, ingenuity, and obliging disposition, soon gave him, as usual, a leading influence with them,

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and enabled him to carry, against all opposition, several very sensible reforms in the laws of the chapel. His practice, with the results, which, daily and hourly, it placed directly before their eyes, and with especial emphasis on every weekly pay-day, induced numbers of his fellow-workmen to change their habits and follow his example. Leaving their "muddling breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese," they procured, with him, at a house near by, "a large porringer of hot water-gruel," not the meager drink prepared for invalids, but well thickened with crumbled bread, and savored and enriched with a sprinkle of pepper and "a bit of butter," all for a penny and a half, which was the price their pint of beer alone cost them. This was unquestionably "a more comfortable as well as a cheaper breakfast," than they had been accustomed to take, and it "kept their heads clearer."

The other workmen, who "continued sotting it with their beer all day," he found to be, pretty generally, either in doubtful credit, or with none at all, at the alehouse; and they became for the most part dependent on the water-drinker for money, or for his responsibility, to enable them to procure beer; their own cash being exhausted, or, as they termed it, "their light being out." By keeping a vigilant eye on the pay-table, when paytime came round, every Saturday, he secured himself, in the main, against loss on the sums of beer-money, for which he had agreed to become responsible, and which, at times, as he states, amounted to near thirty shillings in a single week. His willingness to confer favors of this sort, his uniform cheerfulness of spirit, his good temper, playful humor, and ready wit, with a turn for occasional jocular satire, or being what was called among them a good riggist, gave him a high rank among his associates of the printing-office; while, at the same time,

his steady attendance at the office, without regard to St. Monday, or other holyday excuses for absence and idleness, secured the countenance and favor of his employer; and being a remarkably rapid compositor, such work as required despatch as well as accuracy, and therefore brought the highest pay, was put into his hands. "So I went on," says he, "very agreeably."

How soon the conduct and character of this young man, his ways of life, his usefulness to others not less than to himself, and his value as a man, began to improve to rise on the scale of moral and social worth-when he had become relieved from the burden of Ralph, and had escaped from the misguiding and depraving influences of his companionship! Such benefits were no doubt cheaply purchased by the loss of the mere money paid on his account. In this connection it may also be mentioned that next door to his lodgings dwelt a man named Wilcox, a bookseller, who had a very large collection of second-hand books. He seems to have been a well-disposed and obliging man, and with him, for a trifling compensation, Benjamin made an arrangement, by which he was allowed to take, read, and return, any books in the collection; and of this privilege, to him a precious one, he availed himself as fully as his regular employment would permit.

About this time, however, Benjamin left his quarters in Little Britain, for others in Duke street, much nearer to his present place of daily labor. His new room was a back chamber, in the fourth story of a warehouse belonging to his new hostess, in which were deposited various wares of Italian manufacture, in which she was a dealer.

This lady was a widow, and had a daughter living with her. She also kept a maid-servant to do her housework, and a hired man to wait upon customers, in the