"Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when I consider that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are certain things in the world so tempting,--for example, the apples of King John, which happily are not to be bought; for, if they were put to sale by auction, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the purchase, and find that I had once more given too much for the _whistle_." Thus Benjamin made good use of one of the foolish acts of his boyhood, which tells well both for his head and heart. Many boys are far less wise, and do the same foolish thing over and over again. They never learn wisdom from the past. When a boy equivocates, or deceives, to conceal some act of disobedience from his parents or teachers, and thereby lays the foundation of habitual untruthfulness, he pays too dear for the whistle, and he will learn the truth of it when he becomes older, and can not command the confidence of his friends and neighbors, but is branded by them as an unreliable, dishonest man. In like manner the boy who thinks it is manly to smoke and drink beer, will find that he has a very expensive whistle, when he becomes "a hale fellow well met" among a miserable class of young men, and is discarded by the virtuous and good. So, in general, the young person who is fascinated by mere pleasure, and supposes that wealth and honor are real apples of gold to the possessor, thinking less of a good character than he does of show and glitter, will find that he has been blowing a costly whistle when it is too late to recall his mistake. IV. IN SCHOOL. Uncle Benjamin was so deeply interested in his namesake that he wrote many letters about him. Nearly every ship that sailed for Boston brought a letter from him to the Franklin family, and almost every letter contained a piece of poetry from his pen. One of his letters about that time contained the following acrostic on Benjamin's name: "Be to thy parents an obedient son; Each day let duty constantly be done; Never give way to sloth, or lust, or pride, If free you'd be from thousand ills beside. Above all ills be sure avoid the shelf, Man's danger lies in Satan, sin and self. In virtue, learning, wisdom, progress make; Ne'er shrink at suffering for thy Savior's sake. "Fraud and all falsehood in thy dealings flee; Religious always in thy station be; Adore the maker of thy inward part; Now's the accepted time; give him thine heart; Keep a good conscience, 'tis a constant friend, Like judge and witness this thy acts attend, In heart, with bended knee, alone, adore None but the Three in One for evermore."