Mr. Wilbur drew his watch from his pocket, and looked at it thoughtfully, as he replied,—
“You may go if you think it best, Frank; but I rather advise you not to do so. There is but one hour of daylight left, and a large part of this would be spent in going to and from the woods. You have had a good play since you came from school; and now is the time to look over your lessons for to-morrow.”
“Oh, no, father!” urged Frank. “This evening or to-morrow morning will do for the lessons.”
“There is no time like the present, Frank. Better learn your lessons now, and put off the nutting expedition until Saturday afternoon. That will soon be here,—only day after to-morrow.”
But Frank felt unwilling to follow this advice; and, as his father gave him leave to do as he pleased, he hastened to get a basket and join his school-fellows.
“My father says there is no time like the present for learning my lessons, and I think there is no time like the present for gathering nuts,” he said to himself as he ran merrily along.
But Frank had forgotten another of his father’s mottoes, “Duty first, and pleasure afterwards.”
It must be confessed that he was rather in the habit of delaying the performance of duties until the last moment, although he had many times experienced the bad results of so doing.
It was indeed a long walk to the chestnut-trees; and, after the boys had entered the wood, it seemed much darker than it did before, and the nuts were by no means “rattling down” very fast. The frost had opened the burs a little, but the nuts were still safely enclosed in their prickly nests.
“It is too late to get nuts to-night,” said Sam Roberts, the eldest of the three boys, looking somewhat fearfully around him; for Sam was not remarkable for his bravery.