ung tradesman:"--

"The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be
regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or
nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months
longer; but if he sees you at a billiard-table, or hears your
voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his
money the next day; demands it, before he can receive it, in a
lump."

He also wrote: "He that idly loses five shillings' worth of time loses
five shillings, and might as prudently throw five shillings into the
sea."

One fine morning, after Meredith and Franklin opened a stationer's
shop and bookstore, a lounger stepped in, and, after looking over the
articles, inquired of the boy in attendance the price of a certain
book.

"One dollar," was the answer.

"One dollar," said the lounger, "can't you take less than that?"

"No indeed; one dollar is the price."

After waiting some time he asked: "Is Mr. Franklin at home?"

"Yes, he is in the printing-office."

"I want to see him," said the lounger.

The shop-boy soon informed Franklin (as we will henceforth call him)
that a gentleman was waiting to see him in the shop.

"Mr. Franklin, what is the lowest you can take for this book?" he
asked, as Franklin came in. At the same time he held up the book at
which he had been looking.

"One dollar and a quarter," was the reply.

"One dollar and a quarter! Why, your young man asked but a dollar."

"True," said Franklin, "and I could have better afforded to take a
dollar then, than to have been taken out of the office."

The lounger looked surprised, and rather concluded that Franklin was
jesting, he said, "Come, now, tell me the lowest you can take for it."

"One dollar and a half."

"A dollar and a half? Why, you offered it yourself for one dollar and
a quarter?"

"Yes," answered Franklin, "and I had better have taken that price
then, than a dollar and a half now."

The lounger paid the price, and went out of the shop, feeling the
severity of the rebuke. Such was the value he attached to his time.

Franklin always ascribed his industrious habits to the frequent
counsels of his father on the subject, which were generally closed by
repeating the text of Scripture, "Seest thou a man diligent in his
calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean
men,"--a prophecy that was singularly fulfilled in his own case, as we
shall see