ugh he stood before
queens and kings, dressed in velvet and laces, before he died, he was
the son of a poor couple who had to work very hard to find food and
clothes for their large family--for there were more than a dozen little
Franklins!

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, one bright Sunday morning more
than two hundred years ago. That same afternoon his father took the baby
boy across the street to the Old South Church, to be baptized. He was
named for his uncle Benjamin, who lived in England.

As Benjamin grew up, he made friends easily. People liked his eager face
and merry ways. He was never quiet but darted about like a kitten. The
questions he asked--and the mischief he got into! But the neighbors
loved him. The women made little cakes for him, and the men were apt to
toss him pennies.

One day when Benjamin was about seven, some one gave him all the pennies
he could squeeze into one hand. Off he ran to the toy shop, but on his
way he overtook a boy blowing a whistle. Ben thought that whistle was
the nicest thing he had ever seen and offered his handful of pennies for
it. The boy took them, and Ben rushed home with his prize. Well, he
tooted that whistle all over the house until the family wished there had
never been a whistle in the world. Then an older brother told him he had
paid the other boy altogether too much for it, and when Ben found that
if he had waited and bought it at a store, he would have had some of the
pennies left for something else, he burst out crying. He did not forget
about this, either. When he was a grown man and was going to buy
something, he would wait a little and say to himself: "Careful,
now--don't pay too much for your whistle!" An Italian sculptor who had
heard this story made a lovely statue called "Franklin and his Whistle."
If you happen to be in the beautiful Public Library in Newark, New
Jersey, you must ask to see it.

Ben always loved the water and was a wonderful swimmer as a little
fellow. He could manage a boat, too, and spent half his play hours down
at the wharves. One day he had been flying kites, as he often did, and
thought he would see what would happen if he went in swimming with a
kite tied to his waist. He tried it and the kite pulled him along
finely. If he wanted to go slowly, he let out a little bit of string. If
he wanted to move through the water fast, he sent the kite up higher in
the air.

But it was in school that Ben did his best. He studied so