WHAT CLEMATIS FOUND
School began with music, and Miss Rose went to the piano. The minute
she began to play, Clematis stood up, and stared at her.
"Sit down. Don't stand up now." Jane pulled her sleeve.
But Clematis paid no attention. She kept her eyes on the piano, and
seemed to hear nothing else.
The song was of Spring; of birds, and brooks, and flowers. Clematis
listened to every word, and when it was finished she sat down with a
sigh.
After the singing, they had a class in reading.
Clematis stared at the words on the blackboard, but could not tell
any of them.
"Have you learned any of your letters?" asked Miss Rose.
"No'm," said Clematis.
The other children giggled, for Clematis was as large as Jane. Jane
was eight, and could read very well.
"Tomorrow you must go into the special class, and you must work
hard, and catch up as fast as you can."
"Yes'm."
Clematis was angry. She didn't like to be laughed at.
At recess, all the children ran out into the yard to play. It was a
large yard, with a high wooden fence around it.
Glad to be free, Jane ran off to find some chums, and left Clematis
to play by herself.
So Clematis wandered round by the fence till she came to a sunny
spot, near the big maple tree with the red buds.
Here she picked up a dead twig and sat down, turning over the dried
leaves with the twig, and throwing them in the air.
As she picked up the leaves, she saw some blades of grass beneath
them.
Then she picked up more leaves, and found many blades of grass
growing beneath their warm shelter.
Clematis got up and walked near the fence, where the leaves were
thicker. There she poked them away, and found longer blades of
grass, and new leaves, green and shiny.
"Oh," she said to herself, "I hope I can come out here every day."
Then she stopped. She pushed away some more leaves. She looked
around at the other children.
None of them were looking at her.
She stooped, and took something from under the pile of leaves.
Again she looked about, but nobody was paying attention to her. All
the children were playing games.
Then a sound made her look up. It was the bell. Recess was over, and
all the children were going in.
Clematis put her hand into her apron pocket quickly, and followed
the other children back to school.
"How has the new girl done today?" asked Mrs. Snow, just before they
sat down to dinner.
"She seems to feel more at home," replied Miss Rose. "She doesn't
know her letters yet. I guess she has grown up all by herself."
"That is too bad. I will give her a test this afternoon, about
three. If she would like to play with her kitten in the playroom for
an hour, after dinner, she may do so."
"Oh, I am sure she would be glad to see her kitten. She is a queer
child. At recess she stole away all by herself, to play by the
fence."
The children were coming in now, and Mrs. Snow nodded to Miss Rose,
as she went to her chair.
Little Sally had been just behind Miss Rose as she said the last
words to Mrs. Snow. She heard part of the words she said, and began
to whisper to her neighbor.
"She said somebody stole something. It must be that new girl. See
how queer she looks."
Then of course the neighbor had to whisper to the girl next to her.
"Do you know what it was the new girl stole? See how funny she
looks. She'd better not steal anything of mine."
In a minute Clematis knew they were talking about her. She didn't
know what it was, but she knew it was unkind.
They were looking at her, and talking to each other. Her face turned
red. She could not eat. One hand went deep into her apron pocket.
Miss Rose quickly saw that something was wrong. She knew that little
girls often made fun of the strangers, and it vexed her.
"Any little girl who is not polite," she said, "may leave the table
at once."
The girls stopped talking, but they poked each other with their feet
under the table. They were sure Clematis had stolen something, for
she looked just as if she had.
"Come, Clematis, eat your dinner now."
"Yes'm," said Clematis. But it was hard to swallow the bread.
She drank the soup, and left most of the bread by her bowl.
As soon as the bell rang, Miss Rose beckoned to her.
"Would you like to take Deborah to the playroom for a while, and
play with her there?"
Clematis looked very much surprised. She had expected some new
trouble.
"Oh, yes'm," she gasped, and started down to the kitchen, glad to
get away from the other girls, who had been watching.
Then Miss Rose beckoned to Jane.
"Jane, what were the girls saying about Clematis at the table?"
Jane hung her head. She did not like to repeat such awful things
about Clematis, for she really liked her, though it was hard to
teach her to work.
"Tell me, Jane. Miss Rose wants to know."
"The girls were saying she stole something."
"Stole something? Why, what did she steal, Jane?"
"I don't know. I just heard them saying she had stolen something.
She looked just as if she had."
"Very well. Thank you, Jane."
Jane went down to the school room, where all the girls were eager to
know what Clematis had stolen. But Jane could tell them nothing.
"She just asked me what you said," Jane declared.
"That's just like Jane," cried Sally. "She knows all the time, only
she won't tell."
While they were talking, Clematis was finding a cosy corner in the
playroom, and smoothing out every hair on Deborah's smooth back.
Deborah seemed very happy, and purred all the time.
"I don't care if they do say mean things, and make noses at me. You
won't ever, will you, Debby?"
"Purr, purr, purr," said Deborah. No indeed, she never would.
Time went fast, and it was three o'clock before Clematis had got
Deborah settled down for sleep in a little bed she made for her
beneath the window.
"Take her downstairs now, Clematis," said Miss Rose, coming in.
"Then come up to Mrs. Snow's room. We want to ask you some
questions."
Again Clematis turned red. She went slowly downstairs, with Deborah
under one arm. The other hand deep in her apron pocket.
"She surely looks as if something were wrong," thought Miss Rose, as
Clematis disappeared.
Clematis looked very unhappy when she went to Mrs. Snow's room.
"Come in, little girl," said Mrs. Snow, kindly. "There are some
things I want to ask you about."
"Yes'm," replied Clematis, her lips quivering.
"First, I want to know what all this talk is about. Some of the
girls were saying that you took something which did not belong to
you. Can that be true?"
Clematis hung her head. The tears came into her eyes.
"Don't cry, Clematis," said Miss Rose. "Just tell Mrs. Snow what it
is, and perhaps we can make it all right again."
"What was it, little girl?" asked Mrs. Snow, as she drew her
nearer.
"It was mine, I found it first," sobbed Clematis.
"Yes, but you must remember that if we find a thing, that does not
make it ours. We must find the true owner, and give it back. That is
the only honest thing to do."
"What was it you found?" asked Miss Rose.
"I don't kn-ow."
"Where did you find it?"
"Do-wn by the fe-ence."
"Where is it now, Clematis?" Mrs. Snow spoke kindly, as she wiped
the child's face with her handkerchief.
"It's in my pocket," answered Clematis.
She drew out her closed hand, held it before the two ladies, and
slowly opened it.
Within lay a limp, withered dandelion blossom.