forth a number, to the amazement of his little customer.

"I will give you all the money I have for one," said Benjamin, without
waiting to inquire the price, so enthusiastic was he to become the
possessor of such a prize.

"Ah! all you have?" responded the merchant. "Perhaps you have not so
much as I ask for them. You see these are very nice whistles."

"I know it," added Benjamin, "and I will give you all the money I have
for one," still more afraid that he should not be able to obtain one.

"How much money have you?"

Benjamin told him honestly just how much he had, and the merchant
agreed to give him a whistle in exchange for it.

Never was a child more delighted than he, when the bargain was made.
He tried every whistle, that he might select the one having the most
music in it; and when his choice was settled, he turned his steps
towards home. He thought no more of other sights and scenes, and cared
not for sweetmeats and knick-knacks, now that he owned this wonderful
thing. He reached home and hurried into the house, blowing his
whistle lustily as he went, as if he expected to astonish the whole
race of Franklins by the shrillness, if not by the sweetness, of his
music.

"What have you there, Benjamin?" inquired his mother.

"A whistle," he answered, hardly stopping his blowing long enough to
give a reverent reply.

"You got back quick, it seems to me," she continued. "Have you seen
all that is to be seen?"

"All I want to see," he answered; which was very true. He was so
completely carried away with his whistle that he had lost all his
interest in everything else belonging to the holiday. His cup of
delight was running over now that he could march about the house with
musical sounds of his own making.

"How much did you give for your whistle?" asked one of his cousins,
who was present.

"All the money I had," he replied.

"What!" exclaimed his brother, "did you give all your money for that
little concern?"

"Yes, every cent of it."

"You are not half so bright as I thought you were," continued his
brother. "It is four times as much as the whistle is worth."

"You should have asked the price of it, in the first place," said his
mother. "Some men will take all the money they can get for an
article. Perhaps he did not ask so much as you gave for it."

"If you had given a reasonable price for it," said his brother, "you
might have had enough left to have bought a pocketful of good things."