'It is very wrong to break a promise to any body,' said Frank.
'So it is,' replied William; 'I don't like to make a promise, and so I seldom make one, for I hate to be tied down to any thing. But I must make haste, and tell you, or it will strike ten, and then we must all be mum.'
'Now when we get up into the woods, we want to have a little fun, as well as work; and after we have got our trees, and some wild flowers, we are going to send up a balloon.'
'A balloon!' exclaimed Frank, 'can boys manage a balloon?'
'Hush, don't speak so loud—you promise not to tell, and I will inform you all about it. A man in Boston makes paper balloons to send up on election days, Independence, and such days; some of us boys have clubbed together, and got money enough to buy a small one, and the materials for filling it with gas. I want to send up a cat in it; but James Alcott is such a chicken-hearted fellow, he will not consent, and I suppose we must give that up.'
'Where is the balloon,' said Frank.
'Where you would never guess—in this room, folded up very snug, in a box in my trunk. Now you know we must have some fire, to make the gas, and that we could not get in the woods.'
'Why, yes you could,' said Frank, 'with a tinder box. Sam Brown, and I have made many a fire in the woods, in that way.'
'This is too much trouble, besides we have not any tinder box. But I have bought a box of phosphoric matches, which take fire spontaneously, as it is called; that is, right off, as soon as they come to the air. I was afraid to bring them into the house, for Mrs. Reed has told us never to bring any here; she had the bed-clothes set on fire by a box, a boy once had in his room. I have put them under a stone in one corner of the play ground. When we get to the wood, we shall make a halt, and choose a captain who is to command the rest; then the captain will say, we have a plan for some fun, all those who join, come on my right, and those who do not, on my left. There is the clock striking ten, so I can't tell any more; you will see the rest to-morrow, but not a word of it to any one. Good night.'