At his table he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible
friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start
some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend
to improve the minds of his children. By this means he turned
our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct
of life; and little or no notice was ever taken of what related
to the victuals on the table, whether it was well or ill dressed,
in or out of season, of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior
to this or that other thing of the kind, so that I was bro't up
in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be quite
indifferent what kind of food was set before me, and so unobservant
of it, that to this day if I am asked I can scarce tell a few hours
after dinner what I dined upon. This has been a convenience to me
in travelling, where my companions have been sometimes very unhappy
for want of a suitable gratification of their more delicate,
because better instructed, tastes and appetites.
My mother had likewise an excellent constitution: she suckled
all her ten children. I never knew either my father or mother
to have any sickness but that of which they dy'd, he at 89,
and she at 85 years of age. They lie buried together at Boston,
where I some years since placed a marble over their grave,
with this inscription:
JOSIAH FRANKLIN,
and
ABIAH his Wife,
lie here interred.
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