out it. Why should he?"

"I don't know. But whenever I have been doing any thing wrong, he is sure
to begin to question me, and lead me on until I betray the secret of my
fault."

"Never mind. Come and go with me. It is such a fine day. We shan't have
another like it. It will rain on Saturday, I'll bet any thing. So come
along, now, and let us have a day in the woods, while we can."

Charles was very strongly tempted. When he thought of the confinement of
school, and then of the freedom of a day in the woods, he felt much
inclined to go with Archy.

"Come along," said Archy, as Charles stood balancing the matter in his
mind. And he took hold of his arm, and drew him in a direction opposite
from the school. "Come! you are just the boy I want. I was thinking about
you the moment before I saw you."

The temptation to Charles was very strong. "I don't believe I will be found
out," he said to himself; "and it is such a pleasant day to go into the
woods!"

Still he held back, and thought of his father's displeasure if he should
discover that he had played the truant. The word "truant," that he repeated
mentally, decided the matter in his mind, and he exclaimed, in a loud and
decided voice, as he dragged away from the hand of Archy, that had still
retained its hold on his arm, "I've never played truant yet, and I don't
think I ever will. Father says he never played truant when he was a boy;
and I'd like to say the same thing when I get to be a man."

"Nonsense, Charley! come, go with me," urged Archy.

But Charles Murray's mind was made up not to play the truant. So he started
off for school, saying, as he did so--

"No, I can't go, Archy; and if I were you, I would wait until Saturday. You
will enjoy it so much better when you have your fathers consent. It always
takes away more than half the pleasure of any enjoyment to think that it is
obtained at the cost of disobedience. Come! go to school with me now, and I
will go into the woods with you on Saturday."

"No, I can't wait until Saturday. I'm sure it will rain by that time; and
if it don't, the hogs will eat up every nut that has fallen before that
time."

"There'll be plenty left on the trees, if they do. It's as fine sport to
knock them down as to pick them up."

But Archy's purpose was settled, and nothing that Charles Murray could say
had any influence with him. So the boys parted, the one for his school, and
the other for a stolen holiday in the woods.