, I am sure. Now run
out and play, while I read my letters."

Clematis went out, rather slowly. The letter made her think again of
the end of her stay, and she was sad.

But the sun was bright, the breeze was cool, and the birds sang
merrily.

She saw Mr. Alder down in the garden, and ran to him.

"Can I help you, Mr. Alder?"

"I think not. I am weeding late carrots, and I think you would not
know them from weeds."

"I should know them, honestly. Just let me try a little bit."

"Well, then, take this little trowel. Make the earth loose around
them, and then pull the weeds out with your fingers."

Clematis kneeled in the soft earth, and began to work with the
trowel.

She weeded the row across from Mr. Alder, where he could see what
she was doing.

"Well, I declare! You are a real gardener." Mr. Alder patted her
shoulder, and praised her well when she had done several feet of her
row.

The little green tops of the carrots all stood straight and clean.
Every weed was gone, but no carrots were hurt.

"I told you I could do it. You did not believe me, did you?"

Clematis smiled happily.

"Well, I do now. I never saw any one do better."

So the man and the little girl worked side by side beneath the
August sun.

The smell of the warm earth, and the fresh growing things all around
her, made Clematis breathe deeply.

She could hear the birds singing, and see the mountains, across the
lakes.

While she was hard at work, she almost forgot to be sad because she
was going back on the Saturday train.

"Just look at that child," said Mrs. Alder, when they went in to
wash for dinner. "Has she been weeding in her good clothes?"

"She has weeded two whole rows of carrots, I know that much. I'll
get her some new clothes when those wear out. She is as much help at
weeding as a man."

Clematis was as proud of that, as Deborah was with her first rat. In
the afternoon Mrs. Alder found her a pair of small overalls. These
covered her dress and kept her clean.

It was a happy child that came in at evening. She had worked
steadily, in the hot sun and the breeze, and had finished all the
carrots.

"You don't know how much help that has been, Clematis," said Mr.
Alder. "It tires my back to weed carrots, and now they are all
done."

"I will weed tomorrow, too," she said, happy with her praise.

There was plenty to do, as there always is on a farm, and Clematis
was busy all day.

"I don't see how she learns so