Readings in the text include an excerpt from The Autobiography, which recounts Franklin's regimen of self-improvement as expressed for the benefit of his son William; the preface to the 1733 edition of Poor Richard's Almanac in which Franklin depicts the motives of Richard Saunders, the fictional editor, for publishing the almanac (his wife Bridget's unhappiness with their poverty and the predicted demise of a competing almanac's publisher); "The Way to Wealth," the preface to the 1758 edition of Poor Richard's Almanac, in which Franklin puts the pearls of prudence that had appeared in the almanac over its previous twenty-five years into the mouth of Father Abraham; and "The Speech of Polly Baker," a satirical piece in which Polly, an unwed mother, pleads for sympathy from a male-dominated justice system.