tell you a secret will you promise not to tell
anybody else?"

"Sure, I'll promise," said Jane. "What is it?"

Clematis looked around. The other children were playing games.

"Come over here," she said.

She led Jane to the big board fence which stood at the back of the
yard.

Then she got down on her knees and took hold of one of the boards.
It was loose, and she could pull it out.

"See, look through there," said Clematis, in a low voice.

Her face shone with pleasure as she peeped through.

Jane knelt down, and peeped through too. Beyond the fence she could
see into another yard.

In this yard there was grass growing, and flower-beds, where the
flowers were beginning to grow up in green shoots.

But this was not all. Not far from the fence, by a corner of the
garden, stood a low bush. She could smell its sweet fragrance from
where she knelt.

"Do you see it?" whispered Clematis.

"Of course I see it. I can smell it too. It's great."

Jane took in a long breath of the fragrance, and smiled at
Clematis.

"Oh, I wish I had some of those blossoms." Clematis looked eagerly
at the blossoms. "Do you know what they are, Jane?"

"Oh, yes; those are lilacs."

The two girls had just time to take one more deep breath, full of
the fragrance from the lilac blossoms, before the bell rang.

Jane kept her promise, and while the lilacs lasted, they used to go
often to their secret place and smell the fragrance of the
blossoms.

The first of July, some of the girls began to start for their
vacations in the country.

Now it was harder than ever for Clematis to stick to her work. She
kept thinking of the beautiful fields, when she should have been
thinking of numbers.

"I don't know what we are going to do with you, Clematis," said Miss
Rose one day.

"You do try hard sometimes. You have learned to make beds well. You
are a good girl about your clothes, morning and night. But you are
dreaming of other things, I fear. What is it you dream about so
much?"

Clematis thought a moment.

"Do you think I will have a chance to go to the country?"

She looked up at Miss Rose. Her face was white and anxious.

"Why Clematis. I don't know. You wouldn't be very much help I am
afraid. You quarrel with the other children, and you are very slow
to learn."

"Yes'm," said Clematis, and hung her head.

"Still," said Miss Rose, "you might have a chance later. If you try
hard I will not forget you."

Clematis tried t