Rose took a white nightdress from the bureau, and laid it on the bed.

“Now, Clematis, I shall give you just ten minutes to undress. When I come back I want you to be all ready for me.”

Miss Rose went out, and Clematis started on her shoes.

“I guess she don’t know how fast I can undress,” she said to herself.

When Miss Rose came back, in ten minutes, she found Clematis already in bed, and half asleep.

“Why Clematis, this will never do!” Miss Rose pulled back the sheet and made Clematis sit up.

There, beside the bed, was a pile of clothes. There were the stockings, just as she had pulled them off.

The boots were thrown down on the clean gingham dress, and the fresh apron was sadly crushed.

“I am sorry, little girl,” said Miss Rose, “but you will have to get right up.”

“Why?” asked Clematis.

“No little girl can go to bed without washing her face and hands. No little girl can leave her clothes like this.”

“Isn’t this my room?” said Clematis, slowly getting out of bed.

“It is for tonight. We always let a new child sleep alone the first night.”

“Wasn’t I quick in getting into bed? Why must I get up?”

“Look, dear. Look at that pile of clothes.”

“Oh, I always leave them there,” replied Clematis. “Then I know just where to find them in the morning.”

“We don’t do so here, Clematis. Now please pick up the clothes, fold them, and put them on the chair.

“Then put your boots under the chair, and take off your pretty hair ribbon.”

Clematis gathered the clothes together, but she was not happy.

“I know you are tired, dear, but I am tired too, and we must do things right, even if we are tired.

“Now I must show you how to wash, and brush your teeth, and then have you say your prayers, before I can leave you.”

“Oh bother!” sighed Clematis.

“No, we mustn’t say words like that. Come now, we will get washed.”

Miss Rose poured some water from the pitcher, and made Clematis wash her hands, and arms, and face, carefully. Then she took a toothbrush from a box and gave it to her.

“What is this for?” asked Clematis.

“Why dear,” answered Miss Rose in surprise, “that is a tooth brush.”

“A tooth brush! Why, there is no hair on my teeth.”

Miss Rose laughed. “No dear, perhaps not, but we must brush them carefully each night with water, or they will soon be aching.”

“Will that stop teeth from aching?”

“Yes indeed, it will help very much to keep them from aching.”

“All right, then.” Clematis began to brush her teeth. “My teeth ached last week. I nearly died,” she answered.

The teeth were cleaned, and Clematis was ready for bed.

“Now dear, let us say our prayers.”

“I don’t know any prayers.”

Miss Rose looked at Clematis in pity. “Don’t you really know any prayers at all?”

“Would you know any prayers if you had never learned any?”

Miss Rose smiled sadly.

“Well, then,” she said, “we will learn the Lord’s Prayer, and then you will know the most beautiful prayer of all.”

They knelt down together, and Clematis said over the words after Miss Rose.

“Now good night, dear, and pleasant dreams,” said Miss Rose, as she tucked her in.

“Good night,” said Clematis.

The door closed, and all was dark.

The maple trees swayed gently outside the window.

They nodded to Clematis, as she watched them with sleepy eyes.

One little star peeped in at her through the maple tree.

The bright sun was shining on the red buds of the maple tree when Clematis woke the next morning.

It was early. The rising bell had not rung. Clematis got up and looked out of the open window.

She could see nothing but houses across the street, but the buds of the maple were beautiful in the sun.

“I wish I had some of those buds to put in my room,” said Clematis to herself.

She took her clothes, and began to dress. While she was dressing, she looked again at the maple buds, and wanted them more than ever.

“If I reached out a little way, I could get some of those, I just know I could,” she thought.

As soon as she got her shoes on she pushed the window wide open.

She leaned out. Some beautiful buds were very near, but she could not quite reach them.

She leaned out a little farther. Then she climbed upon the window sill.

They were still out of her reach.

For a minute she stopped. Then she put one foot out in the gutter. With one hand she held the blind, and reached out to the nearest branch.

At last she had it. She drew it nearer, and broke off a piece with many buds.

As the piece broke off, the branch flew back again to its place, and Clematis almost fell back through the window to the floor.

She patted the red buds and made a little bunch of them. She filled her cup with water and put the buds in it; then she put it on the bureau.

Clematis was looking proudly at them, when the door opened, and Miss Rose came in.

She looked at Clematis, and then at the buds.

“Why, Clematis!” she said.

Then she looked out the window. There, several feet beyond the window, was the broken end. Drops of sap were running from the white wood.

“How did you get those buds?” asked Miss Rose.

“I reached out of the window,” said Clematis, “why, was that stealing?”

Miss Rose gasped.

“Clematis, do you mean to tell me that you climbed out of the window and reached for that branch?”

Clematis nodded. Tears came into her eyes. She must have done something very wrong, but she did not know just what was so wicked about taking a small branch from a maple tree.

“I didn’t know it was stealing,” she sobbed.

“It isn’t that, Clematis. It is not wrong to take a twig, but think of the danger. Don’t you know you might have fallen and killed yourself?”

Clematis wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” she said, “I had hold of the blind all the time. I couldn’t fall.”

“Now, Clematis, no child ever did such a thing before, and you must never, never, do it again. Do you understand?”

“Yes’m.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes’m.”

“Well then, let’s get ready for breakfast.”

Clematis washed her face and hands, brushed her hair, and cleaned her teeth carefully.

Soon she was ready to go down stairs, and took one of the maple buds to put in her dress.

As they went out, Miss Rose saw that she wanted to say something.

“Do you want something?” she said.

“Can I help Katie this morning?”

“After breakfast I will ask Mrs. Snow, but breakfast is almost ready now.”

Just then the breakfast bell rang, and Clematis marched in with the other children. She was thinking about Deborah, and wondering if she had caught any rats.

For breakfast they had baked apples, oatmeal with milk, and rye gems.