"A whistle, mother," stopping its noise just long enough for a decent reply, and then continuing the concert as before.
"How much did you give for the whistle?" asked his older brother, John.
"All the money I had." Benjamin was too much elated with his bargain to conceal any thing.
"What!" exclaimed John with surprise, "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. It is four times as much as the whistle is worth."
"Did you ask the price of it?" inquired his mother.
"No, I told the man I would give him all the money I had for one, and he took it."
"Of course he did," interjected John, "and if you had had four times as much he would have taken it for the whistle. You are a poor trader, Ben."
"You should have asked the price of it in the first place," remarked his mother to him, "and then, if there was not enough, you could have offered all the money you had for the whistle. That would have been proper."