"Into the woods, for chestnuts."

"Ain't you going to school, to-day?"

"No, indeed. There was a sharp frost last night, and Uncle John says the
wind will rattle down the chestnuts like hail."

"Did your father say you might go?"

"No, indeed. I asked him, but he said I couldn't go until Saturday. But the
hogs are in the woods, and will eat the chestnuts all up, before Saturday.
So I am going to-day. Come, go along, won't you? It is such a fine day, and
the ground will be covered with chestnuts. We can get home at the usual
time, and no one will suspect that we were not at school."

"I should like to go, very well," said Charley; "but I know father will be
greatly displeased, if he finds it out, and I am afraid he will get to know
it, in some way."

"How could he get to know it? Isn't he at his store all the time?"

"But he might think to ask me if I was at school. And I never will tell a
lie."

"You could say yes, and not tell a lie, either," returned Archy. "You were
at school yesterday."

"No, I couldn't. A lie, father says, is in the intent to deceive. He would,
of course, mean to ask whether I was at school to-day, and if I said yes, I