The three days of Ben's promised stay with his father being expired,
the next morning he embraced his parents and embarked a second time for
Philadelphia, but with a much lighter heart than before, because he now
left home with his parents' blessing, which they gave him the more
willingly as from the dark _sanctified_ frown on poor James' brow
they saw in him no disposition towards reconciliation.
The vessel happening to touch at Newport, Ben gladly took that
opportunity to visit his favourite brother John, who received him with
great joy. John was always of the mind that Ben would one day or other
become a great man; "_he was so vastly fond_," he said, "_of his
book_."
And when he saw the elegant size that Ben's person had now attained,
and also his fine mind-illuminated face and manly wit, he was so proud
of him that he could not rest until he had introduced him to all his
friends. Among the rest was a gentleman of the name of Vernon, who was
so pleased with Ben during an evening's visit at his brother's, that he
gave him an order on a man in Pennsylvania for thirty pounds, which he
begged he would collect for him. Ben readily accepted the order, not
without being secretly pleased that nature had given him a face which
this stranger had so readily credited with thirty pounds.
Caressed by his brother John and by his brother John's friends, Ben
often thought that if he were called on to point out the time in his
whole life that had been spent more pleasantly than the rest, he would,
without hesitation, pitch on this his three days' visit to Newport.
But alas! he has soon brought to cry out with the poet,
"The brightest things beneath the sky,
Yield but a glimmering light;
We should _suspect some danger nigh_,
Where we possess _delight_."
His thirty pound order from Vernon, was at first ranked among his dear
honied delights enjoyed at Newport; but it soon presented, as we shall
see, a roughsting. This however, was but a flea bite in comparison of
that mortal wound he was within an ace of receiving from this same
Newport trip. The story is this: Among a considerable cargo of live
lumber which they took on board for Philadelphia, were three females,
a couple of gay young damsels, and a grave old Quaker lady. Following
the natural bent of his disposition, Ben paid great attention to the
old Quaker. Fortunate was it for him that he did; for in consequence
of it she took a motherly interest in his welfare that saved him from
a very ugly scrape. Perceiving that he was getting rather too fond of
the two young women above, she drew him aside one day, and with the
looks and speech of a mother, said, "Young man, I am in pain for thee:
thou hast no parent to watch over thy conduct, and thou seemest to be
quite ignorant of the world and the snares to which youth is exposed.
I pray thee rely upon what I tell thee.--These are women of bad
character; I perceive it in all their actions. If thou dost not take
care they will lead thee into danger!!"
As he appeared at first not to think so ill of them as she did, the
old lady related of them many things she had seen and heard, and which
had escaped his attention, but which convinced him she was in the
right. He thanked her for such good advice, and promised to follow it.
On their arrival at New-York the girls told him where they lived, and
invited him to come and see them. Their eyes kindled such a glow along
his youthful veins that he was on the point of melting into consent.
But the motherly advice of his old quaker friend happily coming to his
aid, revived his wavering virtue, and fixed him in the resolution,
though much against the grain, _not to go_. It was a most blessed
thing for him that he did not; for the captain missing a silver spoon
and some other things from the cabin, and knowing these women to be
prostitutes, procured a search warrant, and finding his goods in their
possession, had them brought to the whipping-post.
As God would have it, Ben happened to fall in with the constable and
crowd who were taking them to whip. He would fain have run off. But
there was a drawing of sympathy towards them which he could not
resist: so on he went with the rest. He said afterwards that it was
well he did: for when he beheld these poor devils tied up to the
stake, and also their sweet faces distorted with terror and pain, and
heard their piteous screams under the strokes of the cowhide on their
bleeding backs, he could not help melting into tears, at the same time
saying to himself--"now had I but _yielded to the allurements of these
poor creatures, and made myself an accessary to their crimes and
sufferings, what would now be my feelings_!"
From the happy escape which he had thus made through the seasonable
advice of the good old quaker lady he learned that acts of this sort
hold the first place on the list of charities: and entered it as a
resolution on his journal that he would imitate it and do all in his
power to open the eyes of all, but especially of the young, to a
timely sense of the follies and dangers that beset them. How well he
kept his promise, will, 'tis likely, gentle reader, be remembered by
thousands when you and I are forgotten.