What were they like? Did his listeners give good attention? What conversation did they have with him? Did they buy? What did the peddler say when he went away? The Mysterious Disappearance: - Can you write a little story on this subject, drawing either upon what you have heard, or what you have imagined? Try to make the story very simple and straightforward. Tell who the person was that disappeared, and describe him sufficiently so that we can judge of his looks, his habits, and his character. Tell what this person was doing when he was last seen. When did his friends first realize that he had disappeared? In order to gain suspense, tell how his friends felt, what they said, and what they did. Give some varying opinions that his friends expressed, as to his whereabouts. Will it be better in these passages to use direct or indirect quotations? Was the person ever found? Tell under what circumstances. Can you make the finding of the person the climax of your story? Do think it well to add anything after the climax is reached? you THE WHISTLE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (To Madame Brillon) PASSY, November 10, 1779. WHEN I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. 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, sac rificing 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. If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle. If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in a prison, Alas! say I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle. In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles. B. FRANKLIN. FRANKLIN'S BOYHOOD BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (From Chapter I of the Autobiography) My elder brothers were all put to apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar school at eight years of age; my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church. My early readiness in learning to read, which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read, and the opinion of all his friends that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and proposed to give me his short-hand volumes of sermons, to set up with, if I would learn his shorthand. I continued, however, at the grammar school rather less than a year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be at the head of the same class, and was removed into the next class, whence I was to be placed in the third at the end of the year. But my father, burdened with a numerous family, was unable, without inconvenience, to support the expense of a college education. Considering, moreover, as he said to one of his friends, in my presence, the little encouragement that line of life afforded to those educated for it, he gave up his first intentions, took me from the grammar school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownwell. He was a skilful master, and successful in his profession, employing the mildest and |