Benjamin Franklin was a proud
citizen of America all his life.
And a proud subject of the British Empire.
Until he wasn’t.
It took nearly seventy years and seven
not-so-easy steps to turn Benjamin Franklin from
a loyal British subject to a British traitor—and a
fired-up American revolutionary.
Here’s how it happened.
“Being ignorant is
not so much a Shame,
as being unwilling to learn.”
’Twas a special day!
Seven-year-old Benjamin Franklin had a pocket full of pennies, so he strolled down the streets of Boston to the toy store. On his way, he met a boy playing a shiny tin whistle.
He stopped to listen. The boy played on.
Benjamin loved that shiny whistle!
He wanted that whistle!
He wanted that whistle so much he emptied his pocket and gave the boy all his pennies—every single one.
Benjamin wasn’t shy about getting what he wanted.
Home he went, tooting his whistle all the way. He tooted
in the kitchen . . . in the bedrooms . . . in the workshop where his father stirred smelly vats of soap . . . in the shop where his mother sold the soap, made from a secret family recipe . . .
“STOP!” cried his mother and father and brothers and sisters and cousins.
Benjamin stopped long enough to tell them how he spent all his pennies for his wonderful whistle. Everyone laughed.
“You paid four times more than it was worth,” they told him.
They kept on laughing, but Benjamin cried with vexation.
His shiny whistle wasn’t fun anymore.
Step #1
Benjamin Franklin learned early, “Do not give too much for the Whistle.”
Copyright © 2023 by Gretchen Woelfle; Illustrated by John O'Brien. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
