"I declare, Frank, it is time we were off. It is almost nine o'clock. I wish to goodness there were no such things as school-houses and school-books in the world."
"I am not going to school to-day."
"You're not?"
"No, sir. I'm going to take French leave."
"Do you mean that you are going to run away?"
"I suppose that is what you country fellows call it."
"Well, now, you had better take a friend's advice, and think twice before you do that. You'll get yourself into trouble, sure. The rule of our school is that you must bring a written excuse every time you are absent."
"That was the rule of our school in Boston, too; but it didn't keep the fellows from staying away whenever they felt like it."
"Where did you get your excuses?"
"We wrote them ourselves, and signed our father's name to them; that's the way we got them."