"Yes," added his cousin, "peppermints, candy, cakes, and more perhaps;
but it is the first time he ever went a shopping on a holiday."

"I must confess you are a smart fellow, Ben" (as he was familiarly
called by the boys), "to be taken in like that," continued his
brother, rather deridingly. "All your money for that worthless thing,
that is enough to make us crazy! You ought to have known better.
Suppose you had had twice as much money, you would have given it all
for the whistle, I suppose, if this is the way you trade."

"Perhaps he would have bought two or three of them in that case," said
his cousin, at the same time looking very much as if he intended to
make sport of the young whistler.

By this time Benjamin, who had said nothing in reply to their taunts
and reproofs, was running over with feeling, and he could hold in no
longer. He burst into tears, and made even more noise by crying than
he had done with his whistle. Both their ridicule and the thought of
having paid so much more than he ought for the article, overcame him,
and he found relief in tears. His mother came to the rescue, by
saying--

"Never mind, Benjamin, you will understand better next time. We must
all live and learn. Perhaps you did about as well as most boys of your
age would."

"I think so, too," said his cousin; "but we wanted to have a little
sport, seeing it is a holiday. So wipe up, 'Ben,' and we will have a
good time yet."

On the whole, it was really a benefit that Benjamin paid too much for
his whistle. For he learned a lesson thereby which he never forgot. It
destroyed his happiness on that holiday, but it saved him from much
unhappiness in years to come. More than sixty years afterwards, when
he was in France, he wrote to a friend, rehearsing this incident of
his childhood, and said--

"This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing
on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary
thing, I said to myself, _Don't give too much for the whistle_; and I
saved my money.

"As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I
thought I met with many, very many who _gave too much for the
whistle_.

"When I saw one too ambitious of court favour, sacrificing his time in
attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and,
perhaps, his friends, to attain it, I have said to myself, _This man
gives too much for his whistle_.

"When I saw another fond of popular