In the crowded household, where thirteen children grew to manhood and womanhood, there were no luxuries.

Benjamin's period of formal schooling was less than two years, though he could never remember the time when he could not read, and at the age of ten he was put to work in his father's shop.
Benjamin was restless and unhappy in the shop.

He appeared to have no aptitude at all for the business of soap making.

His parents debated whether they might not educate him for the ministry, and his father took him into various shops in Boston, where he might see artisans at work, in the hope that he would be attracted to some trade.

But Benjamin saw nothing there that he wished to engage in.