There once was a boy who lived way out in the country. His family was poor and they had to use an outhouse, and the little boy hated it because it was blistering hot in the summer, frigid cold in the winter and it smelled awful all the time. Their outhouse was sitting on the bank of a creek and the boy decided one day that he would push that old outhouse into the creek.

So after a spring rain, the creek was swollen so the little boy decided that today was the day to push that outhouse into the creek. So he got a big stick and started poking and pushing at it. Finally, the outhouse toppled into the creek and floated away.

That night his dad told him they were going to the woodshed after supper. Knowing that he meant to deliver a spanking, the boy asked, “Why?”

The dad replied, “Son, someone pushed the outhouse into the creek today. It was you, wasn’t it?”

The boy admitted that yes, is was him. He thought a moment and said, “Dad, I read in school that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree but he didn’t get into trouble because he told the truth.”

The dad replied, “Son, George Washington’s father wasn’t in that cherry tree.”