massachusetts-bay-colony

The mysterious Enoch Root meets 8-year-old Benjamin Franklin, Boston, 1713: "Do I look like a schoolmaster to you?" "No, but you talk like one." "You know something of schoolmasters, do you?""Yes, sir," the boy says, faltering a bit as he sees the jaws of the trap swinging toward his leg. "Yet here it is the middle of Monday_" "The place was empty 'cause of the Hanging. I didn't want to stay and_" "And what?" "Get more ahead of the others than I was already." "If you are ahead, the correct thing is to get used to it__ot to make yourself into an imbecile. Come, you belong in school.