At  his  house  I  lay  that  night,  and  the  next  morn-
ing reach'd  Burlington,  but  had  the  mortification  to
find  that  the  regular  boats  were  gone  a  little  before
my  coming,  and  no  other  expected  to  go  before
Tuesday,  this  being  Saturday  ;  wherefore  I  returned
to  an  old  woman  in  the  town,  of  whom  I  had  bought
gingerbread  to  eat  on  the  water,  and  ask'd  her
advice.  She  invited  me  to  lodge  at  her  house  till  a
passage  by  water  should  offer  ;  and  being  tired  with
my  foot  travelling,  I  accepted  the  invitation.  She
understanding  I  was  a  printer,  would  have  had  me
stay  at  that  town  and  follow  my  business,  being
ignorant  of  the  stock  necessary  to  begin  with.  She
was  very  hospitable,  gave  me  a  dinner  of  ox-cheek
with  great  good  will,  accepting  only  of  a  pot  of  ale
in  return ;  and  I  thought  myself  fixed  till   Tuesday


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.  I  25

should  come.  However,  walking  in  the  evening  by
the  side  of  the  river,  a  boat  came  by,  which  I  found
was  going  towards  Philadelphia,  with  several  people
in  her.  They  took  me  in,  and,  as  there  was  no
wind,  we  row'd  all  the  way  ;  and  about  midnight,
not  having  yet  seen  the  city,  some  of  the  compan}
were  confident  we  must  have  passed  it,  and  w^ould
row  no  farther  ;  the  others  knew  not  where  we  were  ;
so  we  put  toward  the  shore,  got  into  a  creek,  landed
near  an  old  fence,  with  the  rails  of  which  we  made
a  fire,  the  night  being  cold,  in  October,  and  there
we  remained  till  daylight.  Then  one  of  the  com-
pany knew  the  place  to  be  Cooper's  Creek,  a  little
above  Philadelphia,  which  we  saw  as  soon  as  we
got  out  of  the  creek,  and  arriv'd  there  about  eight
or  nine  o'clock  on  the  Sunday  morning,  and  landed
at  the  Market-street  wharf.
