"Do you mean you are going to lie to him?" asked Gordon.
"Oh, you are sappy! All fellows lie to their governors," declared Ferdy, easily. "Why, I wouldn't have any fun at all if I did not lie. You stay with me a bit, my son, and I'll teach you a few useful things."
"Thank you. I have no doubt you are a capable teacher," sniffed Gordon; "but I think I won't trouble you."
That evening, as Keith was coming from his work, he took a cross-cut through the fields and orchard, and under an overshadowing tree he came on Ferdy and Euphronia. They were so deeply engaged that Keith hastily withdrew and, making a detour, passed around the orchard to the house.
At supper Mrs. Tripper casually inquired of her daughter where she had been, a remark which might have escaped Keith's observation had not Ferdy Wickersham answered it in some haste.
"She went after the cows," he said, with a quick look at her, "and I went fishing, but I did not catch anything."
"I thought, Phrony, I saw you in the orchard," said her mother.
Wickersham looked at her quickly again.
"No, she wasn't in the orchard," he said, "for I was there."
"No, I wasn't in the orchard this evening," said Euphronia. "I went after the cows." She looked down in her plate.