"I _do_ know, and I'm going to keep the secret, but it's the hardest one I ever tried to keep."
At recess they walked arm-in-arm, talking of the party instead of playing games. They were chattering so gaily that they heard no one approach, and when suddenly Patricia Lavine peeped over the wall, they were startled, and wondered how she could have appeared without any one having seen her coming.
"Why, Patricia! Where'd you come from?" said Mollie.
"Oh, I was walking along and came over because I heard you talking. Whose party is it going to be?" she asked.
"Dorothy is to have the party," said Jeanette, "but why aren't you in school?"
"Why aren't _you_?" Patricia asked with a saucy laugh.
"It's recess time at _our_ school," said Nina.
"Well, it's recess time at _ours_, too," Patricia replied.
"But you're a long way from your school," Reginald said.
"Am I?" queried Patricia, "well, I don't have to go to school every single day, as _some_ folks do," she retorted.
"I know 'most all the tables now, and I know a little geog-er-fry, and 'most half of the history, 'cause some of it I learned when I was in N' York. We had a el'gant school there, and ma says I learned so much that I needn't go to school every day now."
Little Flossie looked quite impressed, but the older girls were not so sure that Patricia had gained so much knowledge.
No one spoke, and Patricia thought that they were all much surprised at what she had said.
"There's to be visitors at our school to-day, and teacher said she was going to let them ask questions," she continued.
"Guess you stayed away so as not to tell all you know," said Reginald. Katie nudged him sharply, but he only twitched away, laughing because Patricia looked angry.
The little silver bell tinkled, and they turned to enter the cottage.
"Good-by," they called to Patricia, who stood at the gate.
"Good-by," she replied, then looking over her shoulder, she said:
"I'm glad I don't have to go to private school; it's too stupid."
"The horrid, rude girl," whispered Nina Earl, but Arabella surprised them all by saying:
"I think I'd like that Patricia What's-her-name; she isn't like everybody else."
Reginald heard what Arabella said, and in a loud whisper informed her that he wouldn't go to school if _all_ the girls were like Patricia.