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.”