Pollyanna.............................................................................................................................................................1

Eleanor H. Porter.....................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I. MISS POLLY ....................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER II. OLD TOM AND NANCY ...............................................................................................4

CHAPTER III. THE COMING OF POLLYANNA ................................................................................6

CHAPTER IV. THE LITTLE ATTIC ROOM ......................................................................................10

CHAPTER V. THE GAME ...................................................................................................................15

CHAPTER VI. A QUESTION OF DUTY ............................................................................................18

CHAPTER VII. POLLYANNA AND PUNISHMENTS ......................................................................23

CHAPTER VIII. POLLYANNA PAYS A VISIT .................................................................................26

CHAPTER IX. WHICH TELLS OF THE MAN..................................................................................32

CHAPTER X. A SURPRISE FOR MRS. SNOW .................................................................................34

CHAPTER XI. INTRODUCING JIMMY............................................................................................40

CHAPTER XII. BEFORE THE LADIES' AID .....................................................................................46

CHAPTER XIII. IN PENDLETON WOODS .......................................................................................48

CHAPTER XIV. JUST A MATTER OF JELLY ..................................................................................51

CHAPTER XV. DR. CHILTON...........................................................................................................55

CHAPTER XVI. A RED ROSE AND A LACE SHAWL ....................................................................61

CHAPTER XVII. "JUST LIKE A BOOK"...........................................................................................65

CHAPTER XVIII. PRISMS..................................................................................................................69

CHAPTER XIX. WHICH IS SOMEWHAT SURPRISING .................................................................72

CHAPTER XX. WHICH IS MORE SURPRISING.............................................................................74

CHAPTER XXI. A QUESTION ANSWERED....................................................................................78

CHAPTER XXII. SERMONS AND WOODBOXES ...........................................................................82

CHAPTER XXIII. AN ACCIDENT ......................................................................................................86

CHAPTER XXIV. JOHN PENDLETON ..............................................................................................89

CHAPTER XXV. A WAITING GAME...............................................................................................94

CHAPTER XXVI. A DOOR AJAR......................................................................................................97

CHAPTER XXVII. TWO VISITS........................................................................................................99

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE GAME AND ITS PLAYERS ....................................................................103

CHAPTER XXIX. THROUGH AN OPEN WINDOW ......................................................................110

CHAPTER XXX. JIMMY TAKES THE HELM ................................................................................112

CHAPTER XXXI. A NEW UNCLE ...................................................................................................114

CHAPTER XXXII. WHICH IS A LETTER FROM POLLYANNA.................................................115

Miss Polly Harrington entered her kitchen a little hurriedly this June morning. Miss Polly did not usually

make hurried movements; she specially prided herself on her repose of manner. But today she was

Nancy, washing dishes at the sink, looked up in surprise. Nancy had been working in Miss Polly's kitchen

"Yes, ma'am." Nancy answered cheerfully, but she still continued wiping the pitcher in her hand.

"Nancy,"Miss Polly's voice was very stern now"when I'm talking to you, I wish you to stop your work

Nancy flushed miserably. She set the pitcher down at once, with the cloth still about it, thereby nearly tipping

"Yes, ma'am; I will, ma'am," she stammered, righting the pitcher, and turning hastily. "I was only keepin' on

with my work 'cause you specially told me this mornin' ter hurry with my dishes, ye know."

"That will do, Nancy. I did not ask for explanations. I asked for your attention."

"Yes, ma'am." Nancy stifled a sigh. She was wondering if ever in any way she could please this woman.

Nancy had never "worked out" before; but a sick mother suddenly widowed and left with three younger

children besides Nancy herself, had forced the girl into doing something toward their support, and she had

been so pleased when she found a place in the kitchen of the great house on the hillNancy had come from

"The Corners," six miles away, and she knew Miss Polly Harrington only as the mistress of the old

Harrington homestead, and one of the wealthiest residents of the town. That was two months before. She

knew Miss Polly now as a stern, severefaced woman who frowned if a knife clattered to the floor, or if a

door bangedbut who never thought to smile even when knives and doors were still.

"When you've finished your morning work, Nancy," Miss Polly was saying now, "you may clear the little

room at the head of the stairs in the attic, and make up the cot bed. Sweep the room and clean it, of course,

"In the front attic." Miss Polly hesitated, then went on: "I suppose I may as well tell you now, Nancy. My

niece, Miss Pollyanna Whittier, is coming to live with me. She is eleven years old, and will sleep in that

"A little girlcoming here, Miss Harrington? Oh, won't that be nice!" cried Nancy, thinking of the sunshine

"Nice? Well, that isn't exactly the word I should use," rejoined Miss Polly, stiffly. "However, I intend to

"Of course, ma'am; it was only that I thought a little girl here mightmight brighten things up for you," she

"Thank you," rejoined the lady, dryly. "I can't say, however, that I see any immediate need for that."

"But, of course, youyou'd want her, your sister's child," ventured Nancy, vaguely feeling that somehow she

"Well, really, Nancy, just because I happened to have a sister who was silly enough to marry and bring

unnecessary children into a world that was already quite full enough, I can't see how I should particularly

WANT to have the care of them myself. However, as I said before, I hope I know my duty. See that you

"Yes, ma'am," sighed Nancy, picking up the halfdried pitchernow so cold it must be rinsed again.

In her own room, Miss Polly took out once more the letter which she had received two days before from the

faraway Western town, and which had been so unpleasant a surprise to her. The letter was addressed to Miss

"Dear Madam:I regret to inform you that the Rev. John Whittier died two weeks ago, leaving one child, a

girl eleven years old. He left practically nothing else save a few books; for, as you doubtless know, he was

"I believe he was your deceased sister's husband, but he gave me to understand the families were not on the

best of terms. He thought, however, that for your sister's sake you might wish to take the child and bring her

"The little girl will be all ready to start by the time you get this letter; and if you can take her, we would

appreciate it very much if you would write that she might come at once, as there is a man and his wife here

who are going East very soon, and they would take her with them to Boston, and put her on the Beldingsville

train. Of course you would be notified what day and train to expect Pollyanna on. Pollyanna

"Hoping to hear favorably from you soon, I remain, "Respectfully yours, "Jeremiah O. White."

With a frown Miss Polly folded the letter and tucked it into its envelope. She had answered it the day before,

and she had said she would take the child, of course. She HOPED she knew her duty well enough for

As she sat now, with the letter in her hands, her thoughts went back to her sister, Jennie, who had been this

child's mother, and to the time when Jennie, as a girl of twenty, had insisted upon marrying the young

minister, in spite of her family's remonstrances. There had been a man of wealth who had wanted herand

the family had much preferred him to the minister; but Jennie had not. The man of wealth had more years, as

well as more money, to his credit, while the minister had only a young head full of youth's ideals and

enthusiasm, and a heart full of love. Jennie had preferred thesequite naturally, perhaps; so she had married

The break had come then. Miss Polly remembered it well, though she had been but a girl of fifteen, the

youngest, at the time. The family had had little more to do with the missionary's wife. To be sure, Jennie

herself had written, for a time, and had named her last baby "Pollyanna" for her two sisters, Polly and

Annathe other babies had all died. This had been the last time that Jennie had written; and in a few years

there had come the news of her death, told in a short, but heartbroken little note from the minister himself,

Meanwhile, time had not stood still for the occupants of the great house on the hill. Miss Polly, looking out at

the farreaching valley below, thought of the changes those twentyfive years had brought to her.

She was forty now, and quite alone in the world. Father, mother, sistersall were dead. For years, now, she

had been sole mistress of the house and of the thousands left her by her father. There were people who had

openly pitied her lonely life, and who had urged her to have some friend or companion to live with her; but

she had not welcomed either their sympathy or their advice. She was not lonely, she said. She liked being by

Miss Polly rose with frowning face and closelyshut lips. She was glad, of course, that she was a good

woman, and that she not only knew her duty, but had sufficient strength of character to perform it.

In the little attic room Nancy swept and scrubbed vigorously, paying particular attention to the corners. There

were times, indeed, when the vigor she put into her work was more of a relief to her feelings than it was an

ardor to efface dirtNancy, in spite of her frightened submission to her mistress, was no saint.

"IjustwishI coulddigout the cornersofhersoul!" she muttered jerkily, punctuating her

words with murderous jabs of her pointed cleaningstick. "There's plenty of 'em needs cleanin' all right, all

right! The idea of stickin' that blessed child 'way off up here in this hot little roomwith no fire in the

winter, too, and all this big house ter pick and choose from! Unnecessary children, indeed! Humph!" snapped

Nancy, wringing her rag so hard her fingers ached from the strain; "I guess it ain't CHILDREN what is

For some time she worked in silence; then, her task finished, she looked about the bare little room in plain

"Well, it's donemy part, anyhow," she sighed. "There ain't no dirt hereand there's mighty little else. Poor

little soul!a pretty place this is ter put a homesick, lonesome child into!" she finished, going out and

closing the door with a bang, "Oh!" she ejaculated, biting her lip. Then, doggedly: "Well, I don't care. I hope

In the garden that afternoon, Nancy found a few minutes in which to interview Old Tom, who had pulled the

"Mr. Tom," began Nancy, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure she was unobserved; "did

"Go on with yer jokin'," scoffed unbelieving Tom. "Why don't ye tell me the sun is agoin' ter set in the east

"But it's true. She told me so herself," maintained Nancy. "It's her niece; and she's eleven years old."

"Sho!I wonder, now," he muttered; then a tender light came into his faded eyes. "It ain'tbut it must

beMiss Jennie's little gal! There wasn't none of the rest of 'em married. Why, Nancy, it must be Miss

Jennie's little gal. Glory be ter praise! ter think of my old eyes aseein' this! "

"She was an angel straight out of Heaven," breathed the man, fervently; "but the old master and missus knew

her as their oldest daughter. She was twenty when she married and went away from here long years ago. Her

babies all died, I heard, except the last one; and that must be the one what's acomin'."

"And she's goin' ter sleep in the atticmore shame ter HER!" scolded Nancy, with another glance over her

"Humph! Well, I'm awonderin' what a child will do with Miss Polly in the house!" snapped Nancy.

"Oh, yes they did," nodded the old man. "And the feller's livin' terdayright in this town, too."

"I ain't atellin' that. It ain't fit that I should." The old man drew himself erect. In his dim blue eyes, as he

faced the house, there was the loyal servant's honest pride in the family he has served and loved for long

"You didn't know Miss Polly as I did," he argued. "She used ter be real handsomeand she would be now, if

"Yes. If she'd just let that tight hair of hern all out loose and carelesslike, as it used ter be, and wear the sort

of bunnits with posies in 'em, and the kind o' dresses all lace and white thingsyou'd see she'd be handsome!

"Ain't she, though? Well, then she's got an awfully good imitation of itshe has, she has!" sniffed Nancy.

"Yes, I know. It begun thenat the time of the trouble with her lover," nodded Old Tom; "and it seems as if

she'd been feedin' on wormwood an' thistles ever sinceshe's that bitter an' prickly ter deal with."

"I should say she was," declared Nancy, indignantly. "There's no pleasin' her, nohow, no matter how you try!

I wouldn't stay if 'twa'n't for the wages and the folks at home what's needin' 'em. But some daysome day I

shall jest b'ile over; and when I do, of course it'll be goodby Nancy for me. It will, it will."

"I know. I've felt it. It's nart'ralbut 'tain't best, child; 'tain't best. Take my word for it, 'tain't best." And

In due time came the telegram announcing that Pollyanna would arrive in Beldingsville the next day, the

twentyfifth of June, at four o'clock. Miss Polly read the telegram, frowned, then climbed the stairs to the

The room contained a small bed, neatly made, two straightbacked chairs, a washstand, a bureauwithout

any mirrorand a small table. There were no drapery curtains at the dormer windows, no pictures on the

wall. All day the sun had been pouring down upon the roof, and the little room was like an oven for heat. As

there were no screens, the windows had not been raised. A big fly was buzzing angrily at one of them now,

Miss Polly killed the fly, swept it through the window (raising the sash an inch for the purpose), straightened

"Nancy," she said a few minutes later, at the kitchen door, "I found a fly upstairs in Miss Pollyanna's room.

The window must have been raised at some time. I have ordered screens, but until they come I shall expect

you to see that the windows remain closed. My niece will arrive tomorrow at four o'clock. I desire you to

meet her at the station. Timothy will take the open buggy and drive you over. The telegram says 'light hair,

redchecked gingham dress, and straw hat.' That is all I know, but I think it is sufficient for your purpose."

"No, I shall not go. It is not necessary that I should, I think. That is all." And she turned awayMiss Polly's

In the kitchen, Nancy sent her flatiron with a vicious dig across the dishtowel she was ironing.

" 'Light hair, redchecked gingham dress, and straw hat'all she knows, indeed! Well, I'd be ashamed ter

own it up, that I would, I wouldand her my onliest niece what was acomin' from 'way across the

Promptly at twenty minutes to four the next afternoon Timothy and Nancy drove off in the open buggy to

meet the expected guest. Timothy was Old Tom's son. It was sometimes said in the town that if Old Tom was

Timothy was a goodnatured youth, and a goodlooking one, as well. Short as had been Nancy's stay at the

house, the two were already good friends. Today, however, Nancy was too full of her mission to be her

usual talkative self; and almost in silence she took the drive to the station and alighted to wait for the train.

Over and over in her mind she was saying it "light hair, redchecked dress, straw hat." Over and over again

"I hope for her sake she's quiet and sensible, and don't drop knives nor bang doors," she sighed to Timothy,

"Well, if she ain't, nobody knows what'll become of the rest of us," grinned Timothy. "Imagine Miss Polly

"Oh, Timothy, II think it was mean ter send me," chattered the suddenly frightened Nancy, as she turned

and hurried to a point where she could best watch the passengers alight at the little station.

It was not long before Nancy saw herthe slender little girl in the redchecked gingham with two fat braids

of flaxen hair hanging down her back. Beneath the straw hat, an eager, freckled little face turned to the right

Nancy knew the child at once, but not for some time could she control her shaking knees sufficiently to go to

her. The little girl was standing quite by herself when Nancy finally did approach her.

"Are you MissPollyanna?" she faltered. The next moment she found herself half smothered in the clasp of

"Oh, I'm so glad, GLAD, GLAD to see you," cried an eager voice in her ear. "Of course I'm Pollyanna, and

"Youyou did?" stammered Nancy, vaguely wondering how Pollyanna could possibly have known

"Oh, yes; and I've been wondering all the way here what you looked like," cried the little girl, dancing on her

toes, and sweeping the embarrassed Nancy from head to foot, with her eyes. "And now I know, and I'm glad

Nancy was relieved just then to have Timothy come up. Pollyanna's words had been most confusing.

"Yes, I have," nodded Pollyanna, importantly. "I've got a brandnew one. The Ladies' Aid bought it for

meand wasn't it lovely of them, when they wanted the carpet so? Of course I don't know how much red

carpet a trunk could buy, but it ought to buy some, anyhowmuch as half an aisle, don't you think? I've got

a little thing here in my bag that Mr. Gray said was a check, and that I must give it to you before I could get

my trunk. Mr. Gray is Mrs. Gray's husband. They're cousins of Deacon Carr's wife. I came East with them,

and they're lovely! Andthere, here 'tis," she finished, producing the check after much fumbling in the bag

Nancy drew a long breath. Instinctively she felt that some one had to draw oneafter that speech. Then she

The three were off at last, with Pollyanna's trunk in behind, and Pollyanna herself snugly ensconced between

Nancy and Timothy. During the whole process of getting started, the little girl had kept up an uninterrupted

stream of comments and questions, until the somewhat dazed Nancy found herself quite out of breath trying

"There! Isn't this lovely? Is it far? I hope 'tisI love to ride," sighed Pollyanna, as the wheels began to turn.

"Of course, if 'tisn't far, I sha'n't mind, though, 'cause I'll be glad to get there all the sooner, you know. What a

She stopped with a little choking breath. Nancy, looking at her apprehensively, saw that her small chin was

quivering, and that her eyes were full of tears. In a moment, however, she hurried on, with a brave lifting of

"Father told me all about it. He remembered. Andand I ought to have explained before. Mrs. Gray told me

to, at onceabout this red gingham dress, you know, and why I'm not in black. She said you'd think 'twas

queer. But there weren't any black things in the last missionary barrel, only a lady's velvet basque which

Deacon Carr's wife said wasn't suitable for me at all; besides, it had white spotsworn, you knowon both

elbows, and some other places. Part of the Ladies' Aid wanted to buy me a black dress and hat, but the other

part thought the money ought to go toward the red carpet they're trying to getfor the church, you know.

Mrs. White said maybe it was just as well, anyway, for she didn't like children in blackthat is, I mean, she

"I'm glad you feel that way. I do, too," nodded Pollyanna, again with that choking little breath. "Of course,

"Yesthat father's gone to Heaven to be with mother and the rest of us, you know. He said I must be glad.

But it's been pretty hard toto do it, even in red gingham, because II wanted him, so; and I couldn't help

feeling I OUGHT to have him, specially as mother and the rest have God and all the angels, while I didn't

have anybody but the Ladies' Aid. But now I'm sure it'll be easier because I've got you, Aunt Polly. I'm so

Nancy's aching sympathy for the poor little forlornness beside her turned suddenly into shocked terror.

"Oh, butbut you've made an awful mistake, ddear," she faltered. "I'm only Nancy. I ain't your Aunt Polly,

"No. I'm only Nancy. I never thought of your takin' me for her. Wewe ain't a bit alike we ain't, we ain't!"

Timothy chuckled softly; but Nancy was too disturbed to answer the merry flash from his eyes.

"But who ARE you?" questioned Pollyanna. "You don't look a bit like a Ladies' Aider!"

"I'm Nancy, the hired girl. I do all the work except the washin' an' hard ironin'. Mis' Durgin does that."

"Oh, that's all right, then." There was a moment's silence, then she went on brightly: "And do you know? I'm

glad, after all, that she didn't come to meet me; because now I've got HER still coming, and I've got you

"I call that a pretty slick compliment," he said. "Why don't you thank the little lady?"

"I was, too. I'm so interested in her. You know she's all the aunt I've got, and I didn't know I had her for ever

so long. Then father told me. He said she lived in a lovely great big house 'way on top of a hill."

"Oh, how pretty!and what a lot of trees and grass all around it! I never saw such a lot of green grass, seems

"I'm so glad. It must be perfectly lovely to have lots of money. I never knew any one that did have, only the

Whitesthey're some rich. They have carpets in every room and icecream Sundays. Does Aunt Polly have

Nancy shook her head. Her lips twitched. She threw a merry look into Timothy's eyes.

"No, Miss. Your aunt don't like icecream, I guess; leastways I never saw it on her table."

"Oh, doesn't she? I'm so sorry! I don't see how she can help liking icecream. Butanyhow, I can be kinder

glad about that, 'cause the icecream you don't eat can't make your stomach ache like Mrs. White's didthat

is, I ate hers, you know, lots of it. Maybe Aunt Polly has got the carpets, though."

"Well, in almost every room," answered Nancy, frowning suddenly at the thought of that bare little attic room

"Oh, I'm so glad," exulted Pollyanna. "I love carpets. We didn't have any, only two little rugs that came in a

missionary barrel, and one of those had ink spots on it. Mrs. White had pictures, too, perfectly beautiful ones

of roses and little girls kneeling and a kitty and some lambs and a lionnot together, you knowthe lambs

and the lion. Oh, of course the Bible says they will sometime, but they haven't yetthat is, I mean Mrs.

"I do. We didn't have any pictures. They don't come in the barrels much, you know. There did two come

once, though. But one was so good father sold it to get money to buy me some shoes with; and the other was

so bad it fell to pieces just as soon as we hung it up. Glassit broke, you know. And I cried. But I'm glad

now we didn't have any of those nice things, 'cause I shall like Aunt Polly's all the betternot being used to

'em, you see. Just as it is when the PRETTY hairribbons come in the barrels after a lot of fadedout brown

ones. My! but isn't this a perfectly beautiful house?" she broke off fervently, as they turned into the wide

It was when Timothy was unloading the trunk that Nancy found an opportunity to mutter low in his ear:

"Don't you never say nothin' ter me again about leavin', Timothy Durgin. You couldn't HIRE me ter leave!"

You couldn't drag me away. It'll be more fun here now, with that kid 'round, than movin'picture shows,

"Fun!fun!" repeated Nancy, indignantly, "I guess it'll be somethin' more than fun for that blessed

childwhen them two tries ter live tergether; and I guess she'll be aneedin' some rock ter fly to for refuge.

Well, I'm agoin' ter be that rock, Timothy; I am, I am!" she vowed, as she turned and led Pollyanna up the

Miss Polly Harrington did not rise to meet her niece. She looked up from her book, it is true, as Nancy and

the little girl appeared in the sittingroom doorway, and she held out a hand with "duty" written large on

"How do you do, Pollyanna? I" She had no chance to say more. Pollyanna, had fairly flown across the

"Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, I don't know how to be glad enough that you let me come to live with you," she

was sobbing. "You don't know how perfectly lovely it is to have you and Nancy and all this after you've had

"Very likelythough I've not had the pleasure of the Ladies' Aid's acquaintance," rejoined Miss Polly,

stiffly, trying to unclasp the small, clinging fingers, and turning frowning eyes on Nancy in the doorway.

"Nancy, that will do. You may go. Pollyanna, be good enough, please, to stand erect in a proper manner. I

"No, I suppose you don't; but you see I'm not very much to took at, anyway, on account of the freckles. Oh,

and I ought to explain about the red gingham and the black velvet basque with white spots on the elbows. I

"Yes; well, never mind now what your father said," interrupted Miss Polly, crisply. "You had a trunk, I

"Oh, yes, indeed, Aunt Polly. I've got a beautiful trunk that the Ladies' Aid gave me. I haven't got so very

much in itof my own, I mean. The barrels haven't had many clothes for little girls in them lately; but there

were all father's books, and Mrs. White said she thought I ought to have those. You see, father"

"Pollyanna," interrupted her aunt again, sharply, "there is one thing that might just as well be understood right

away at once; and that is, I do not care to have you keep talking of your father to me."

"We will go upstairs to your room. Your trunk is already there, I presume. I told Timothy to take it upif

Without speaking, Pollyanna turned and followed her aunt from the room. Her eyes were brimming with

"After all, II reckon I'm glad she doesn't want me to talk about father," Pollyanna was thinking. "It'll be

easier, maybeif I don't talk about him. Probably, anyhow, that is why she told me not to talk about him."

And Pollyanna, convinced anew of her aunt's "kindness," blinked off the tears and looked eagerly about her.

She was on the stairway now. just ahead, her aunt's black silk skirt rustled luxuriously. Behind her an open

door allowed a glimpse of softtinted rugs and satincovered chairs. Beneath her feet a marvellous carpet

was like green moss to the tread. On every side the gilt of picture frames or the glint of sunlight through the

"Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly," breathed the little girl, rapturously; "what a perfectly lovely, lovely house!

"PollyANNA!" ejaculated her aunt, turning sharply about as she reached the head of the stairs. "I'm surprised

"Certainly not, Pollyanna. I hope I could not so far forget myself as to be sinfully proud of any gift the Lord

Miss Polly turned and walked down the hall toward the attic stairway door. She was glad, now, that she had

put the child in the attic room. Her idea at first had been to get her niece as far away as possible from herself,

and at the same time place her where her childish heedlessness would not destroy valuable furnishings.

Nowwith this evident strain of vanity showing thus earlyit was all the more fortunate that the room

Eagerly Pollyanna's small feet pattered behind her aunt. Still more eagerly her big blue eyes tried to look in

all directions at once, that no thing of beauty or interest in this wonderful house might be passed unseen.

Most eagerly of all her mind turned to the wondrously exciting problem about to be solved: behind which of

all these fascinating doors was waiting now her roomthe dear, beautiful room full of curtains, rugs, and

pictures, that was to be her very own? Then, abruptly, her aunt opened a door and ascended another stairway.

There was little to be seen here. A bare wall rose on either side. At the top of the stairs, wide reaches of

shadowy space led to far corners where the roof came almost down to the floor, and where were stacked

innumerable trunks and boxes. It was hot and stifling, too. Unconsciously Pollyanna lifted her head

higherit seemed so hard to breathe. Then she saw that her aunt had thrown open a door at the right.

"There, Pollyanna, here is your room, and your trunk is here, I see. Have you your key?"

"When I ask a question, Pollyanna, I prefer that you should answer aloud not merely with your head."

"Thank you; that is better. I believe you have everything that you need here," she added, glancing at the

wellfilled towel rack and water pitcher. "I will send Nancy up to help you unpack. Supper is at six o'clock,"

For a moment after she had gone Pollyanna stood quite still, looking after her. Then she turned her wide eyes

to the bare wall, the bare floor, the bare windows. She turned them last to the little trunk that had stood not so

long before in her own little room in the faraway Western home. The next moment she stumbled blindly

"There, there, you poor lamb," she crooned, dropping to the floor and drawing the little girl into her arms. "I

"But I'm bad and wicked, Nancyawful wicked," she sobbed. "I just can't make myself understand that God

"There, there, child, I didn't mean it, of course," she cried briskly. "Come, let's have your key and we'll get

Nancy's capable hands made short work of unpacking the books, the patched undergarments, and the few

pitifully unattractive dresses. Pollyanna, smiling bravely now, flew about, hanging the dresses in the closet,

stacking the books on the table, and putting away the undergarments in the bureau drawers.

"I'm sure itit's going to be a very nice room. Don't you think so?" she stammered, after a while.

There was no answer. Nancy was very busy, apparently, with her head in the trunk. Pollyanna, standing at the

"And I can be glad there isn't any lookingglass here, too, 'cause where there ISN'T any glass I can't see my

Nancy made a sudden queer little sound with her mouthbut when Pollyanna turned, her head was in the

trunk again. At one of the windows, a few minutes later, Pollyanna gave a glad cry and clapped her hands

"Oh, Nancy, I hadn't seen this before," she breathed. "Look'way off there, with those trees and the houses

and that lovely church spire, and the river shining just like silver. Why, Nancy, there doesn't anybody need

any pictures with that to look at. Oh, I'm so glad now she let me have this room!"

To Pollyanna's surprise and dismay, Nancy burst into tears. Pollyanna hurriedly crossed to her side.

"Why, Nancy, Nancywhat is it?" she cried; then, fearfully: "This wasn'tYOUR room, was it?"

"My room!" stormed Nancy, hotly, choking back the tears. "If you ain't a little angel straight from Heaven,

and if some folks don't eat dirt beforeOh, land! there's her bell!" After which amazing speech, Nancy

sprang to her feet, dashed out of the room, and went clattering down the stairs.

Left alone, Pollyanna went back to her "picture," as she mentally designated the beautiful view from the

window. After a time she touched the sash tentatively. It seemed as if no longer could she endure the stifling

heat. To her joy the sash moved under her fingers. The next moment the window was wide open, and

She ran then to the other window. That, too, soon flew up under her eager hands. A big fly swept past her

nose, and buzzed noisily about the room. Then another came, and another; but Pollyanna paid no heed.

Pollyanna had made a wonderful discoveryagainst this window a huge tree flung great branches. To

Pollyanna they looked like arms outstretched, inviting her. Suddenly she laughed aloud.

"I believe I can do it," she chuckled. The next moment she had climbed nimbly to the window ledge. From

there it was an easy matter to step to the nearest treebranch. Then, clinging like a monkey, she swung

herself from limb to limb until the lowest branch was reached. The drop to the ground waseven for

Pollyanna, who was used to climbing treesa little fearsome. She took it, however, with bated breath,

swinging from her strong little arms, and landing on all fours in the soft grass. Then she picked herself up and

She was at the back of the house. Before her lay a garden in which a bent old man was working. Beyond the

garden a little path through an open field led up a steep hill, at the top of which a lone pine tree stood on

guard beside the huge rock. To Pollyanna, at the moment, there seemed to be just one place in the world

With a run and a skilful turn, Pollyanna skipped by the bent old man, threaded her way between the orderly

rows of green growing things, anda little out of breathreached the path that ran through the open field.

Then, determinedly, she began to climb. Already, however, she was thinking what a long, long way off that

Fifteen minutes later the great clock in the hallway of the Harrington homestead struck six. At precisely the

One, two, three minutes passed. Miss Polly frowned and tapped the floor with her slipper. A little jerkily she

rose to her feet, went into the hall, and looked upstairs, plainly impatient. For a minute she listened intently;

"Nancy," she said with decision, as soon as the little servingmaid appeared; "my niece is late. No, you need

not call her," she added severely, as Nancy made a move toward the hall door. "I told her what time supper

was, and now she will have to suffer the consequences. She may as well begin at once to learn to be punctual.

"Yes, ma'am." It was well, perhaps, that Miss Polly did not happen to be looking at Nancy's face just then.

At the earliest possible moment after supper, Nancy crept up the back stairs and thence to the attic room.

"Bread and milk, indeed!and when the poor lamb hain't only just cried herself to sleep," she was muttering

fiercely, as she softly pushed open the door. The next moment she gave a frightened cry. "Where are you?

Where've you gone? Where HAVE you gone?" she panted, looking in the closet, under the bed, and even in

the trunk and down the water pitcher. Then she flew downstairs and out to Old Tom in the garden.

"Mr. Tom, Mr. Tom, that blessed child's gone," she wailed. "She's vanished right up into Heaven where she

come from, poor lamband me told ter give her bread and milk in the kitchenher what's eatin' angel food

"Gone? Heaven?" he repeated stupidly, unconsciously sweeping the brilliant sunset sky with his gaze. He

stopped, stared a moment intently, then turned with a slow grin. "Well, Nancy, it do look like as if she'd tried

ter get as nigh Heaven as she could, and that's a fact," he agreed, pointing with a crooked finger to where,

sharply outlined against the reddening sky, a slender, windblown figure was poised on top of a huge rock.

"Well, she ain't goin' ter Heaven that way ternightnot if I has my say," declared Nancy, doggedly. "If the

mistress asks, tell her I ain't furgettin' the dishes, but I gone on a stroll," she flung back over her shoulder, as

"For the land's sake, Miss Pollyanna, what a scare you did give me," panted Nancy, hurrying up to the big

"Scare? Oh, I'm so sorry; but you mustn't, really, ever get scared about me, Nancy. Father and the Ladies' Aid

"But I didn't even know you'd went," cried Nancy, tucking the little girl's hand under her arm and hurrying

her down the hill. "I didn't see you go, and nobody didn't. I guess you flew right up through the roof; I do, I

"My stars and stockings!" gasped Nancy, hurrying on again. "I'd like ter know what yer aunt would say ter

"Would you? Well, I'll tell her, then, so you can find out," promised the little girl, cheerfully.

"Noeryeswell, never mind. II ain't so very particular about knowin' what she'd say, truly,"

stammered Nancy, determined to keep one scolding from Pollyanna, if nothing more. "But, say, we better

For a moment there was silence. The sky was darkening fast. Pollyanna took a firmer hold of her friend's arm.

"I reckon I'm glad, after all, that you DID get scareda little, 'cause then you came after me," she shivered.

"Poor little lamb! And you must be hungry, too. II'm afraid you'll have ter have bread and milk in the

kitchen with me. Yer aunt didn't like itbecause you didn't come down ter supper, ye know."

"Yes; butshe didn't know that, you see!" observed Nancy, dryly, stifling a chuckle. "I'm sorry about the

"Why, I like bread and milk, and I'd like to eat with you. I don't see any trouble about being glad about that."

"You don't seem ter see any trouble bein' glad about everythin'," retorted Nancy, choking a little over her

"Why, it's a game. Father told it to me, and it's lovely," rejoined Pollyanna. "We've played it always, ever

since I was a little, little girl. I told the Ladies' Aid, and they played itsome of them."

Pollyanna laughed again, but she sighed, too; and in the gathering twilight her face looked thin and wistful.

"Yes. You see I'd wanted a doll, and father had written them so; but when the barrel came the lady wrote that

there hadn't any dolls come in, but the little crutches had. So she sent 'em along as they might come in handy

"Well, I must say I can't see any game about that, about that," declared Nancy, almost irritably.

"Oh, yes; the game was to just find something about everything to be glad aboutno matter what 'twas,"

"Well, goodness me! I can't see anythin' ter be glad aboutgettin' a pair of crutches when you wanted a

"There isthere is," she crowed. "But _I_ couldn't see it, either, Nancy, at first," she added, with quick

"Goosey! Why, just be glad because you don'tNEED'EM!" exulted Pollyanna, triumphantly. "You see

"Well, of all the queer doin's!" breathed Nancy, regarding Pollyanna with almost fearful eyes.

"Oh, but it isn't queerit's lovely," maintained Pollyanna enthusiastically. "And we've played it ever since.

And the harder 'tis, the more fun 'tis to get 'em out; onlyonly sometimes it's almost too hardlike when

"Yes, or when you're put in a snippy little room 'way at the top of the house with nothin' in it," growled

"That was a hard one, at first," she admitted, "specially when I was so kind of lonesome. I just didn't feel like

playing the game, anyway, and I HAD been wanting pretty things, so! Then I happened to think how I hated

to see my freckles in the lookingglass, and I saw that lovely picture out the window, too; so then I knew I'd

found the things to be glad about. You see, when you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the

"Most generally it doesn't take so long," sighed Pollyanna; "and lots of times now I just think of them

WITHOUT thinking, you know. I've got so used to playing it. It's a lovely game. Ffather and I used to like it

so much," she faltered. "I suppose, though, itit'll be a little harder now, as long as I haven't anybody to play

"My stars and stockings!HER!" breathed Nancy, behind her teeth. Then, aloud, she said doggedly: "See

here, Miss Pollyanna, I ain't sayin' that I'll play it very well, and I ain't sayin' that I know how, anyway; but

"Oh, Nancy!" exulted Pollyanna, giving her a rapturous hug. "That'll be splendid! Won't we have fun?"

"Ermaybe," conceded Nancy, in open doubt. "But you mustn't count too much on me, ye know. I never

was no case fur games. but I'm agoin' ter make a most awful old try on this one. You're goin' ter have some

one ter play it with, anyhow," she finished, as they entered the kitchen together.

Pollyanna ate her bread and milk with good appetite; then, at Nancy's suggestion, she went into the sitting

"I'm very sorry, Pollyanna, to have been obliged so soon to send you into the kitchen to eat bread and milk."

"But I was real glad you did it, Aunt Polly. I like bread and milk, and Nancy, too. You mustn't feel bad about

"Pollyanna, it's quite time you were in bed. You have had a hard day, and tomorrow we must plan your

hours and go over your clothing to see what it is necessary to get for you. Nancy will give you a candle. Be

careful how you handle it. Breakfast will be at halfpast seven. See that you are down to that. Goodnight."

Quite as a matter of course, Pollyanna came straight to her aunt's side and gave her an affectionate hug.

"I've had such a beautiful time, so far," she sighed happily. I know I'm going to just love living with you but

then, I knew I should before I came. Goodnight," she called cheerfully, as she ran from the room.

"Well, upon my soul!" ejaculated Miss Polly, half aloud. "What a most extraordinary child!" Then she

frowned. "She's 'glad' I punished her, and I 'mustn't feel bad one bit,' and she's going to 'love to live' with me!

Fifteen minutes later, in the attic room, a lonely little girl sobbed into the tightlyclutched sheet:

"I know, fatheramongtheangels, I'm not playing the game one bit nownot one bit; but I don't believe

even you could find anything to be glad about sleeping all alone 'way off up here in the darklike this. If

only I was near Nancy or Aunt Polly, or even a Ladies' Aider, it would be easier!"

Downstairs in the kitchen, Nancy, hurrying with her belated work, jabbed her dishmop into the milk

"If playin' a sillyfool gameabout bein' glad you've got crutches when you want dollsis got ter bemy

It was nearly seven o'clock when Pollyanna awoke that first day after her arrival. Her windows faced the

south and the west, so she could not see the sun yet; but she could see the hazy blue of the morning sky, and

The little room was cooler now, and the air blew in fresh and sweet. Outside, the birds were twittering

joyously, and Pollyanna flew to the window to talk to them. She saw then that down in the garden her aunt

was already out among the rosebushes. With rapid fingers, therefore, she made herself ready to join her.

Down the attic stairs sped Pollyanna, leaving both doors wide open. Through the hall, down the next flight,

Aunt Polly, with the bent old man, was leaning over a rosebush when Pollyanna, gurgling with delight,

"PollyANNA!" remonstrated the lady, sternly, pulling herself as erect as she could with a dragging weight of

ninety pounds hanging about her neck. "Is this the usual way you say good morning?"

"No, only when I love folks so I just can't help it! I saw you from my window, Aunt Polly, and I got to

thinking how you WEREN'T a Ladies' Aider, and you were my really truly aunt; and you looked so good I

The bent old man turned his back suddenly. Miss Polly attempted a frownwith not her usual success.

"Pollyanna, youI Thomas, that will do for this morning. I think you understandabout those

The man turned. His lips were twitching, but his eyes looked blurred as if with tears.

"Yes, Miss. I'm Old Tom, the gardener," he answered. Timidly, but as if impelled by an irresistible force, he

reached out a shaking hand and let it rest for a moment on her bright hair. "You are so like your mother. little

Miss! I used ter know her when she was even littler than you be. You see, I used ter work in the

"You did? And you knew my mother, reallywhen she was just a little earth angel, and not a Heaven one?

Oh, please tell me about her!" And down plumped Pollyanna in the middle of the dirt path by the old man's

A bell sounded from the house. The next moment Nancy was seen flying out the back door.

"Miss Pollyanna, that bell means breakfastmornin's," she panted, pulling the little girl to her feet and

hurrying her back to the house; "and other times it means other meals. But it always means that you're ter run

like time when ye hear it, no matter where ye be. If ye don'twell, it'll take somethin' smarter'n we be ter

find ANYTHIN' ter be glad about in that!" she finished, shooing Pollyanna into the house as she would shoo

Breakfast, for the first five minutes, was a silent meal; then Miss Polly, her disapproving eyes following the

"I don't know, ma'am. There wasn't one in the kitchen." Nancy had been too excited to notice Pollyanna's

"I reckon maybe they're my flies, Aunt Polly," observed Pollyanna, amiably. "There were lots of them this

Nancy left the room precipitately, though to do so she had to carry out the hot muffins she had just brought

"Why, Aunt Polly, they came from out of doors of course, through the windows. I SAW some of them come

Nancy, at this moment, came in again with the muffins. Her face was grave, but very red.

"Nancy," directed her mistress, sharply, "you may set the muffins down and go at once to Miss Pollyanna's

room and shut the windows. Shut the doors, also. Later, when your morning work is done, go through every

"Pollyanna, I have ordered screens for those windows. I knew, of course, that it was my duty to do that. But it

"Certainly. I know it is warm, but I consider it your duty to keep your windows closed till those screens

come. Flies, Pollyanna, are not only unclean and annoying, but very dangerous to health. After breakfast I

Miss Polly drew in her breath audibly, then she shut her lips together hard. Pollyanna, seeing her stern face,

"Of course I'm sorry about the duty I forgot, Aunt Polly," she apologized timidly. "I won't raise the windows

Her aunt made no reply. She did not speak, indeed, until the meal was over. Then she rose, went to the

bookcase in the sitting room, took out a small paper booklet, and crossed the room to her niece's side.

"This is the article I spoke of, Pollyanna. I desire you to go to your room at once and read it. I will be up in

Pollyanna, her eyes on the illustration of a fly's head, many times magnified, cried joyously:

"Oh, thank you, Aunt Polly!" The next moment she skipped merrily from the room, banging the door behind

Miss Polly frowned, hesitated, then crossed the room majestically and opened the door; but Pollyanna was

Half an hour later when Miss Polly, her face expressing stern duty in every line, climbed those stairs and

"Oh, Aunt Polly, I never saw anything so perfectly lovely and interesting in my life. I'm so glad you gave me

that book to read! Why, I didn't suppose flies could carry such a lot of things on their feet, and"

"That will do," observed Aunt Polly, with dignity. "Pollyanna, you may bring out your clothes now, and I

will look them over. What are not suitable for you I shall give to the Sullivans, of course."

With visible reluctance Pollyanna laid down the pamphlet and turned toward the closet.

"I'm afraid you'll think they're worse than the Ladies' Aid didand THEY said they were shameful," she

sighed. "But there were mostly things for boys and older folks in the last two or three barrels; anddid you

"Why, no, of course you didn't, Aunt Polly!" she hurried on, with a hot blush. "I forgot; rich folks never have

to have them. But you see sometimes I kind of forget that you are richup here in this room, you know."

Miss Polly's lips parted indignantly, but no words came. Pollyanna, plainly unaware that she had said

"Well, as I was going to say, you can't tell a thing about missionary barrelsexcept that you won't find in

'em what you think you're going toeven when you think you won't. It was the barrels every time, too, that

Just in time Pollyanna remembered that she was not to talk of her father to her aunt. She dived into her closet

"They aren't nice, at all," she choked, "and they'd been black if it hadn't been for the red carpet for the church;

With the tips of her fingers Miss Polly turned over the conglomerate garments, so obviously made for

anybody but Pollyanna. Next she bestowed frowning attention on the patched undergarments in the bureau

"I've got the best ones on," confessed Pollyanna, anxiously. "The Ladies' Aid bought me one set straight

through all whole. Mrs. Jonesshe's the presidenttold 'em I should have that if they had to clatter down

bare aisles themselves the rest of their days. But they won't. Mr. White doesn't like the noise. He's got nerves,

his wife says; but he's got money, too, and they expect he'll give a lot toward the carpeton account of the

nerves, you know. I should think he'd be glad that if he did have the nerves he'd got money, too; shouldn't

Miss Polly did not seem to hear. Her scrutiny of the undergarments finished, she turned to Pollyanna

"Very good. In the fall you will enter school here, of course. Mr. Hall, the principal, will doubtless settle in

which grade you belong. Meanwhile, I suppose I ought to hear you read aloud half an hour each day."

"I love to read; but if you don't want to hear me I'd be just glad to read to myselftruly, Aunt Polly. And I

wouldn't have to half try to be glad, either, for I like best to read to myselfon account of the big words, you

"Not much. I don't like my musicI like other people's, though. I learned to play on the piano a little. Miss

Grayshe plays for churchshe taught me. But I'd just as soon let that go as not, Aunt Polly. I'd rather,

"Very likely," observed Aunt Polly, with slightly uplifted eyebrows. "Nevertheless I think it is my duty to see

that you are properly instructed in at least the rudiments of music. You sew, of course."

"Yes, ma'am." Pollyanna sighed. The Ladies' Aid taught me that. But I had an awful time. Mrs. Jones didn't

believe in holding your needle like the rest of 'em did on buttonholing, and Mrs. White thought backstitching

ought to be taught you before hemming (or else the other way), and Mrs. Harriman didn't believe in putting

"Well, there will be no difficulty of that kind any longer, Pollyanna. I shall teach you sewing myself, of

"They were just beginning to teach me that this summer, but I hadn't got far. They were more divided up on

that than they were on the sewing. They were GOING to begin on bread; but there wasn't two of 'em that

made it alike, so after arguing it all one sewingmeeting, they decided to take turns at me one forenoon a

weekin their own kitchens, you know. I'd only learned chocolate fudge and fig cake, though, whenwhen

"Chocolate fudge and fig cake, indeed!" scorned Miss Polly. "I think we can remedy that very soon. "She

paused in thought for a minute, then went on slowly: "At nine o'clock every morning you will read aloud one

halfhour to me. Before that you will use the time to put this room in order. Wednesday and Saturday

forenoons, after halfpast nine, you will spend with Nancy in the kitchen, learning to cook. Other mornings

you will sew with me. That will leave the afternoons for your music. I shall, of course, procure a teacher at

"Oh, but Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, you haven't left me any time at all just toto live."

"Oh, of course I'd be BREATHING all the time I was doing those things, Aunt Polly, but I wouldn't be living.

You breathe all the time you're asleep, but you aren't living. I mean livingdoing the things you want to do:

playing outdoors, reading (to myself, of course), climbing hills, talking to Mr. Tom in the garden, and Nancy,

and finding out all about the houses and the people and everything everywhere all through the perfectly

lovely streets I came through yesterday. That's what I call living, Aunt Polly. Just breathing isn't living!"

"Pollyanna, you ARE the most extraordinary child! You will be allowed a proper amount of playtime, of

course. But, surely, it seems to me if I am willing to do my duty in seeing that you have proper care and

instruction, YOU ought to be willing to do yours by seeing that that care and instruction are not ungratefully

"Oh, Aunt Polly, as if I ever could be ungratefulto YOU! Why, I LOVE YOUand you aren't even a

"Very well; then see that you don't act ungrateful," vouchsafed Miss Polly, as she turned toward the door.

She had gone halfway down the stairs when a small, unsteady voice called after her:

"Please, Aunt Polly, you didn't tell me which of my things you wanted toto give away."

Aunt Polly emitted a tired sigha sigh that ascended straight to Pollyanna's ears.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Pollyanna. Timothy will drive us into town at halfpast one this afternoon. Not one

of your garments is fit for my niece to wear. Certainly I should be very far from doing my duty by you if I

"Aunt Polly, please," she called wistfully, "isn't there ANY way you can be glad about all thatduty

"What?" Miss Polly looked up in dazed surprise; then, suddenly, with very red cheeks, she turned and swept

In the hot little attic room Pollyanna dropped herself on to one of the straightbacked chairs. To her,

"I don't see, really, what there was impertinent about that," she sighed. "I was only asking her if she couldn't

For several minutes Pollyanna sat in silence, her rueful eyes fixed on the forlorn heap of garments on the bed.

"There just isn't anything to be glad about, that I can see," she said aloud; "unlessit's to be glad when the

At halfpast one o'clock Timothy drove Miss Polly and her niece to the four or five principal dry goods

Fitting Pollyanna with a new wardrobe proved to be more or less of an exciting experience for all concerned.

Miss Polly came out of it with the feeling of limp relaxation that one might have at finding oneself at last on

solid earth after a perilous walk across the very thin crust of a volcano. The various clerks who had waited

upon the pair came out of it with very red faces, and enough amusing stories of Pollyanna to keep their

friends in gales of laughter the rest of the week. Pollyanna herself came out of it with radiant smiles and a

heart content; for, as she expressed it to one of the clerks: "When you haven't had anybody but missionary

barrels and Ladies' Aiders to dress you, it IS perfectly lovely to just walk right in and buy clothes that are

brandnew, and that don't have to be tucked up or let down because they don't fit!"

The shopping expedition consumed the entire afternoon; then came supper and a delightful talk with Old

Tom in the garden, and another with Nancy on the back porch, after the dishes were done, and while Aunt

Old Tom told Pollyanna wonderful things of her mother, that made her very happy indeed; and Nancy told

her all about the little farm six miles away at "The Corners," where lived her own dear mother, and her

equally dear brother and sisters. She promised, too, that sometime, if Miss Polly were willing, Pollyanna

"And THEY'VE got lovely names, too. You'll like THEIR names," sighed Nancy. "They're 'Algernon,' and

"Because it isn't pretty like the others. You see, I was the first baby, and mother hadn't begun ter read so

"Humph! Well, I guess you could love 'Clarissa Mabelle' just as well," retorted Nancy, and it would be a heap

"Yes. Mrs. White's name is that. Her husband calls her 'Hep,' and she doesn't like it. She says when he calls

out 'HepHep!' she feels just as if the next minute he was going to yell 'Hurrah!' And she doesn't like to be

"Well, if you don't beat the Dutch! Say, do you know?I sha'n't never hear 'Nancy' now that I don't think o'

that 'HepHep!' and giggle. My, I guess I AM glad" She stopped short and turned amazed eyes on the

little girl. "Say, Miss Pollyanna, do you meanwas you playin' that 'ere game THENabout my bein' glad I

"Why, Nancy, that's so! I WAS playing the gamebut that's one of the times I just did it without thinking, I

reckon. You see, you DO, lots of times; you get so used to itlooking for something to be glad about, you

know. And most generally there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep

At halfpast eight Pollyanna went up to bed. The screens had not yet come, and the close little room was like

an oven. With longing eyes Pollyanna looked at the two fastclosed windowsbut she did not raise them.

She undressed, folded her clothes neatly, said her prayers, blew out her candle and climbed into bed.

Just how long she lay in sleepless misery, tossing from side to side of the hot little cot, she did not know; but

it seemed to her that it must have been hours before she finally slipped out of bed, felt her way across the

Out in the main attic all was velvet blackness save where the moon flung a path of silver halfway across the

floor from the east dormer window. With a resolute ignoring of that fearsome darkness to the right and to the

left, Pollyanna drew a quick breath and pattered straight into that silvery path, and on to the window.

She had hoped, vaguely, that this window might have a screen, but it did not. Outside, however, there was a

wide world of fairylike beauty, and there was, too, she knew, fresh, sweet air that would feel so good to hot

As she stepped nearer and peered longingly out, she saw something else: she saw, only a little way below the

window, the wide, flat tin roof of Miss Polly's sun parlor built over the portecochere. The sight filled her

Fearfully she looked behind her. Back there, somewhere, were her hot little room and her still hotter bed; but

between her and them lay a horrid desert of blackness across which one must feel one's way with

outstretched, shrinking arms; while before her, out on the sunparlor roof, were the moonlight and the cool,

If only her bed were out there! And folks did sleep out of doors. Joel Hartley at home, who was so sick with

Suddenly Pollyanna remembered that she had seen near this attic window a row of long white bags hanging

from nails. Nancy had said that they contained the winter clothing, put away for the summer. A little fearfully

now, Pollyanna felt her way to these bags, selected a nice fat soft one (it contained Miss Polly's sealskin coat)

for a bed; and a thinner one to be doubled up for a pillow, and still another (which was so thin it seemed

almost empty) for a covering. Thus equipped, Pollyanna in high glee pattered to the moonlit window again,

raised the sash, stuffed her burden through to the roof below, then let herself down after it, closing the

window carefully behind herPollyanna had not forgotten those flies with the marvellous feet that carried

How deliciously cool it was! Pollyanna quite danced up and down with delight, drawing in long, full breaths

of the refreshing air. The tin roof under her feet crackled with little resounding snaps that Pollyanna rather

liked. She walked, indeed, two or three times back and forth from end to endit gave her such a pleasant

sensation of airy space after her hot little room; and the roof was so broad and flat that she had no fear of

falling off. Finally, with a sigh of content, she curled herself up on the sealskincoat mattress, arranged one

"I'm so glad now that the screens didn't come," she murmured, blinking up at the stars; "else I couldn't have

Downstairs in Miss Polly's room next the sun parlor, Miss Polly herself was hurrying into dressing gown

and slippers, her face white and frightened. A minute before she had been telephoning in a shaking voice to

"Come up quick!you and your father. Bring lanterns. Somebody is on the roof of the sun parlor. He must

have climbed up the rosetrellis or somewhere, and of course he can get right into the house through the east

Some time later, Pollyanna, just dropping off to sleep, was startled by a lantern flash, and a trio of amazed

ejaculations. She opened her eyes to find Timothy at the top of a ladder near her, Old Tom just getting

"Why, Mr. TomAunt Polly!" she stammered. "Don't look so scared! It isn't that I've got the consumption,

you know, like Joel Hartley. It's only that I was so hotin there. But I shut the window, Aunt Polly, so the

Timothy disappeared suddenly down the ladder. Old Tom, with almost equal precipitation, handed his lantern

to Miss Polly, and followed his son. Miss Polly bit her lip harduntil the men were gone; then she said

"Pollyanna, hand those things to me at once and come in here. Of all the extraordinary children!" she

ejaculated a little later, as, with Pollyanna by her side, and the lantern in her hand, she turned back into the

To Pollyanna the air was all the more stifling after that cool breath of the out of doors; but she did not

"For the rest of the night, Pollyanna, you are to sleep in my bed with me. The screens will be here

tomorrow, but until then I consider it my duty to keep you where I know where you are."

"With you?in your bed?" she cried rapturously. "Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, how perfectly lovely of you!

And when I've so wanted to sleep with some one sometimesome one that belonged to me, you know; not a

Ladies' Aider. I've HAD them. My! I reckon I am glad now those screens didn't come! Wouldn't you be?"

There was no reply. Miss Polly was stalking on ahead. Miss Polly, to tell the truth, was feeling curiously

helpless. For the third time since Pollyanna's arrival, Miss Polly was punishing Pollyannaand for the third

time she was being confronted with the amazing fact that her punishment was being taken as a special reward

It was not long before life at the Harrington homestead settled into something like orderthough not exactly

the order that Miss Polly had at first prescribed. Pollyanna sewed, practised, read aloud, and studied cooking

in the kitchen, it is true; but she did not give to any of these things quite so much time as had first been

planned. She had more time, also, to "just live," as she expressed it, for almost all of every afternoon from

two until six o'clock was hers to do with as she likedprovided she did not "like" to do certain things

It is a question, perhaps, whether all this leisure time was given to the child as a relief to Pollyanna from

workor as a relief to Aunt Polly from Pollyanna. Certainly, as those first July days passed, Miss Polly

found occasion many times to ejaculate "What an extraordinary child!" and certainly the reading and sewing

lessons found her at their conclusion each day somewhat dazed and wholly exhausted.

Nancy, in the kitchen, fared better. She was not dazed nor exhausted. Wednesdays and Saturdays came to be,

There were no children in the immediate neighborhood of the Harrington homestead for Pollyanna to play

with. The house itself was on the outskirts of the village, and though there were other houses not far away,

they did not chance to contain any boys or girls near Pollyanna's age. This, however, did not seem to disturb

"Oh, no, I don't mind it at all," she explained to Nancy. "I'm happy just to walk around and see the streets and

Almost every pleasant afternoon found Pollyanna begging for "an errand to run," so that she might be off for

a walk in one direction or another; and it was on these walks that frequently she met the Man. To herself

Pollyanna always called him "the Man," no matter if she met a dozen other men the same day.

The Man often wore a long black coat and a high silk hattwo things that the "just men" never wore. His

face was clean shaven and rather pale, and his hair, showing below his hat, was somewhat gray. He walked

erect, and rather rapidly, and he was always alone, which made Pollyanna vaguely sorry for him. Perhaps it

"How do you do, sir? Isn't this a nice day?" she called cheerily, as she approached him.

" 'Tisn't quite so nice as yesterday, but it's pretty nice," she called out cheerfully.

"Eh? Oh! Humph!" grunted the man as before; and once again Pollyanna laughed happily.

When for the third time Pollyanna accosted him in much the same manner, the man stopped abruptly.

"I'm Pollyanna Whittier, and I thought you looked lonesome. I'm so glad you stopped. Now we're

"Well, of all the" The man did not finish his sentence, but strode on faster than ever.

Pollyanna looked after him with a disappointed droop to her usually smiling lips.

"Maybe he didn't understandbut that was only half an introduction. I don't know HIS name, yet," she

Pollyanna was carrying calf'sfoot jelly to Mrs. Snow today. Miss Polly Harrington always sent something

to Mrs. Snow once a week. She said she thought that it was her duty, inasmuch as Mrs. Snow was poor, sick,

and a member of her churchit was the duty of all the church members to look out for her, of course. Miss

Polly did her duty by Mrs. Snow usually on Thursday afternoonsnot personally, but through Nancy.

Today Pollyanna had begged the privilege, and Nancy had promptly given it to her in accordance with Miss

"And it's glad that I am ter get rid of it," Nancy had declared in private afterwards to Pollyanna; "though it's a

"Because nobody does. If folks wa'n't sorry for her there wouldn't a soul go near her from mornin' till night,

she's that cantankerous. All is, I pity her daughter what HAS ter take care of her."

"Well, in plain words, it's just that nothin' what ever has happened, has happened right in Mis' Snow's eyes.

Even the days of the week ain't run ter her mind. If it's Monday she's bound ter say she wished 'twas Sunday;

and if you take her jelly you're pretty sure ter hear she wanted chickenbut if you DID bring her chicken,

"Why, what a funny woman," laughed Pollyanna. "I think I shall like to go to see her. She must be so

"Humph! Well, Mis' Snow's 'different,' all rightI hope, for the sake of the rest of us!" Nancy had finished

Pollyanna was thinking of these remarks today as she turned in at the gate of the shabby little cottage. Her

eyes were quite sparkling, indeed, at the prospect of meeting this "different" Mrs. Snow.

"How do you do?" began Pollyanna politely. "I'm from Miss Polly Harrington, and I'd like to see Mrs. Snow,

"Well, if you would, you're the first one that ever 'liked' to see her," muttered the girl under her breath; but

Pollyanna did not hear this. The girl had turned and was leading the way through the hall to a door at the end

In the sickroom, after the girl had ushered her in and closed the door, Pollyanna blinked a little before she

could accustom her eyes to the gloom. Then she saw, dimly outlined, a woman halfsitting up in the bed

"How do you do, Mrs. Snow? Aunt Polly says she hopes you are comfortable today, and she's sent you

"Of course I'm very much obliged, but I was hoping 'twould be lamb broth today."

"Why, I thought it was CHICKEN you wanted when folks brought you jelly," she said.

"Why, nothing, much," apologized Pollyanna, hurriedly; "and of course it doesn't really make any difference.

It's only that Nancy said it was chicken you wanted when we brought jelly, and lamb broth when we brought

The sick woman pulled herself up till she sat erect in the beda most unusual thing for her to do, though

"Oh, THAT isn't my name, Mrs. Snowand I'm so glad 'tisn't, too! That would be worse than 'Hephzibah,'

wouldn't it? I'm Pollyanna Whittier, Miss Polly Harrington's niece, and I've come to live with her. That's why

All through the first part of this sentence, the sick woman had sat interestedly erect; but at the reference to the

"Very well; thank you. Your aunt is very kind, of course, but my appetite isn't very good this morning, and I

was wanting lamb" She stopped suddenly, then went on with an abrupt change of subject. "I never slept a

"O dear, I wish _I_ didn't," sighed Pollyanna, placing the jelly on the little stand and seating herself

comfortably in the nearest chair. "You lose such a lot of time just sleeping! Don't you think so?"

"Yes, when you might be just living, you know. It seems such a pity we can't live nights, too."

"Well, if you ain't the amazing young one!" she cried. "Here! do you go to that window and pull up the

"O dear! then you'll see my freckles, won't you?" she sighed, as she went to the window; "and just when I

was being so glad it was dark and you couldn't see 'em. There! Now you canoh!" she broke off excitedly,

as she turned back to the bed; "I'm so glad you wanted to see me, because now I can see you! They didn't tell

"Well, no, I didn't," retorted Mrs. Snow, dryly. Mrs. Snow had lived forty years, and for fifteen of those years

she had been too busy wishing things were different to find much time to enjoy things as they were.

"Oh, but your eyes are so big and dark, and your hair's all dark, too, and curly," cooed Pollyanna. "I love

black curls. (That's one of the things I'm going to have when I get to Heaven.) And you've got two little red

spots in your cheeks. Why, Mrs. Snow, you ARE pretty! I should think you'd know it when you looked at

"The glass!" snapped the sick woman, falling back on her pillow. "Yes, well, I hain't done much prinkin'

before the mirror these daysand you wouldn't, if you was flat on your back as I am!"

"Why, no, of course not," agreed Pollyanna, sympathetically. "But waitjust let me show you," she

On the way back to the bed she stopped, eyeing the sick woman with a critical gaze.

"I reckon maybe, if you don't mind, I'd like to fix your hair just a little before I let you see it," she proposed.

"Why, Isuppose so, if you want to," permitted Mrs. Snow, grudgingly; "but 'twon't stay, you know."

"Oh, thank you. I love to fix people's hair," exulted Pollyanna, carefully laying down the handglass and

reaching for a comb. "I sha'n't do much today, of courseI'm in such a hurry for you to see how pretty you

are; but some day I'm going to take it all down and have a perfectly lovely time with it, she cried, touching

For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a

drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose.

Meanwhile the sick woman, frowning prodigiously, and openly scoffing at the whole procedure, was, in spite

"There!" panted Pollyanna, hastily plucking a pink from a vase near by and tucking it into the dark hair where

it would give the best effect. "Now I reckon we're ready to be looked at!" And she held out the mirror in

"Humph!" grunted the sick woman, eyeing her reflection severely. "I like red pinks better than pink ones; but

"But I should think you'd be glad they did fade," laughed Pollyanna, " 'cause then you can have the fun of

getting some more. I just love your hair fluffed out like that," she finished with a satisfied gaze. "Don't you?"

"Hmm; maybe. Still'twon't last, with me tossing back and forth on the pillow as I do."

"Of course notand I'm glad, too," nodded Pollyanna, cheerfully, "because then I can fix it again. Anyhow, I

should think you'd be glad it's blackblack shows up so much nicer on a pillow than yellow hair like mine

"Maybe; but I never did set much store by black hairshows gray too soon," retorted Mrs. Snow. She spoke

"Oh, I love black hair! I should be so glad if I only had it," sighed Pollyanna.

"Well, you wouldn't!not if you were me. You wouldn't be glad for black hair nor anything elseif you

"Be glad about thingswhen you're sick in bed all your days? Well, I should say it would," retorted Mrs.

Snow. "If you don't think so, just tell me something to be glad about; that's all!"

To Mrs. Snow's unbounded amazement, Pollyanna sprang to her feet and clapped her hands.

"Oh, goody! That'll be a hard onewon't it? I've got to go, now, but I'll think and think all the way home;

and maybe the next time I come I can tell it to you. Goodby. I've had a lovely time! Goodby," she called

"Well, I never! Now, what does she mean by that?" ejaculated Mrs. Snow, staring after her visitor. By and by

"That little thing HAS got a knack with hair and no mistake," she muttered under her breath. "I declare, I

didn't know it could look so pretty. But then, what's the use?" she sighed, dropping the little glass into the

A little later, when Milly, Mrs. Snow's daughter, came in, the mirror still lay among the bedclothes it had

"Why, motherthe curtain is up!" cried Milly, dividing her amazed stare between the window and the pink

"Well, what if it is?" snapped the sick woman. "I needn't stay in the dark all my life, if I am sick, need I?"

"Why, nno, of course not," rejoined Milly, in hasty conciliation, as she reached for the medicine bottle. "It's

onlywell, you know very well that I've tried to get you to have a lighter room for ages and you wouldn't."

There was no reply to this. Mrs. Snow was picking at the lace on her nightgown. At last she spoke fretfully.

"I should think SOMEBODY might give me a new nightdressinstead of lamb broth, for a change!

No wonder Milly quite gasped aloud with bewilderment. In the drawer behind her at that moment lay two

new nightdresses that Milly for months had been vainly urging her mother to wear.

It rained the next time Pollyanna saw the Man. She greeted him, however, with a bright smile.

"It isn't so nice today, is it?" she called blithesomely. "I'm glad it doesn't rain always, anyhow!"

The man did not even grunt this time, nor turn his head. Pollyanna decided that of course he did not hear her.

The next time, therefore (which happened to be the following day), she spoke up louder. She thought it

particularly necessary to do this, anyway, for the Man was striding along, his hands behind his back, and his

eyes on the groundwhich seemed, to Pollyanna, preposterous in the face of the glorious sunshine and the

freshlywashed morning air: Pollyanna, as a special treat, was on a morning errand today.

"See here, little girl, we might just as well settle this thing right now, once for all," he began testily. "I've got

something besides the weather to think of. I don't know whether the sun shines or not." Pollyanna beamed

"Yes; wellEh? What?" he broke off sharply, in sudden understanding of her words.

"I say, that's why I told youso you would notice it, you knowthat the sun shines, and all that. I knew

you'd be glad it did if you only stopped to think of itand you didn't look a bit as if you WERE thinking of

"Well, of all the" ejaculated the man, with an oddly impotent gesture. He started forward again, but after

"I'd like to, sir, but there aren't any 'round here, Nancy says. Still, I don't mind so very much. I like old folks

"Humph! The Ladies' Aid, indeed! Is that what you took me for?" The man's lips were threatening to smile,

"Oh, no, sir. You don't look a mite like a Ladies' Aidernot but that you're just as good, of coursemaybe

better," she added in hurried politeness. "You see, I'm sure you're much nicer than you look!"

The next time Pollyanna met the Man, his eyes were gazing straight into hers, with a quizzical directness that

"Good afternoon," he greeted her a little stiffly. "Perhaps I'd better say right away that I KNOW the sun is

"But you don't have to tell me," nodded Pollyanna, brightly. "I KNEW you knew it just as soon as I saw you."

The Man always spoke to Pollyanna after this, and frequently he spoke first, though usually he said little but

"good afternoon." Even that, however, was a great surprise to Nancy, who chanced to be with Pollyanna one

"I reckon he forgot to tell me one day. You see, I did my part of the introducing, but he didn't."

"But he never speaks ter anybody, childhe hain't for years, I guess, except when he just has to, for

business, and all that. He's John Pendleton. He lives all by himself in the big house on Pendleton Hill. He

won't even have any one 'round ter cook for himcomes down ter the hotel for his meals three times a day. I

know Sally Miner, who waits on him, and she says he hardly opens his head enough ter tell what he wants ter

eat. She has ter guess it more'n half the timeonly it'll be somethin' CHEAP! She knows that without no

"I know. You have to look for cheap things when you're poor. Father and I took meals out a lot. We had

beans and fish balls most generally. We used to say how glad we were we liked beansthat is, we said it

specially when we were looking at the roast turkey place, you know, that was sixty cents. Does Mr. Pendleton

"Like 'em! What if he doesor don't? Why, Miss Pollyanna, he ain't poor. He's got loads of money, John

Pendleton hasfrom his father. There ain't nobody in town as rich as he is. He could eat dollar bills, if he

"As if anybody COULD eat dollar bills and not know it, Nancy, when they come to try to chew 'em!"

"Ho! I mean he's rich enough ter do it," shrugged Nancy. "He ain't spendin' his money, that's all. He's

"Oh, for the heathen," surmised Pollyanna. "How perfectly splendid! That's denying yourself and taking up

Nancy's lips parted abruptly, as if there were angry words all ready to come; but her eyes, resting on

Pollyanna's jubilantly trustful face, saw something that prevented the words being spoken.

"Humph!" she vouchsafed. Then, showing her oldtime interest, she went on: "But, say, it is queer, his

speakin' to you, honestly, Miss Pollyanna. He don't speak ter no one; and he lives all alone in a great big

lovely house all full of jest grand things, they say. Some says he's crazy, and some jest cross; and some says

"Oh, Nancy!" shuddered Pollyanna. "How can he keep such a dreadful thing? I should think he'd throw it

Nancy chuckled. That Pollyanna had taken the skeleton literally instead of figuratively, she knew very well;

"And EVERYBODY says he's mysterious," she went on. "Some years he jest travels, week in and week out,

and it's always in heathen countriesEgypt and Asia and the Desert of Sarah, you know."

"Well, I didn't say that, Miss Pollyanna. When he comes back he writes booksqueer, odd books, they say,

about some gimcrack he's found in them heathen countries. But he don't never seem ter want ter spend no

"Of course notif he's saving it for the heathen," declared Pollyanna. "But he is a funny man, and he's

"I'm gladder'n ever now, anyhow, that he speaks to me," sighed Pollyanna contentedly.

The next time Pollyanna went to see Mrs. Snow, she found that lady, as at first, in a darkened room.

"It's the little girl from Miss Polly's, mother," announced Milly, in a tired manner; then Pollyanna found

"Oh, it's you, is it?" asked a fretful voice from the bed. "I remember you. ANYbody'd remember you, I guess,

"Did you? Well, I'm glad 'tisn't any farther away from yesterday than today is, then," laughed Pollyanna,

advancing cheerily into the room, and setting her basket carefully down on a chair. "My! but aren't you dark

here, though? I can't see you a bit," she cried, unhesitatingly crossing to the window and pulling up the shade.

"I want to see if you've fixed your hair like I didoh, you haven't! But, never mind; I'm glad you haven't,

after all, 'cause maybe you'll let me do itlater. But now I want you to see what I've brought you."

"Just as if how it looks would make any difference in how it tastes," she scoffedbut she turned her eyes

"Guess! What do you want?" Pollyanna had skipped back to the basket. Her face was alight. The sick woman

"Why, I don't WANT anything, as I know of," she sighed. "After all, they all taste alike!"

The woman hesitated. She did not realize it herself, but she had so long been accustomed to wanting what she

did not have, that to state offhand what she DID want seemed impossibleuntil she knew what she had.

Obviously, however, she must say something. This extraordinary child was waiting.

"But that's what I DIDN'T want," sighed the sick woman, sure now of what her stomach craved. "It was

"Yesand calf'sfoot jelly," triumphed Pollyanna. "I was just bound you should have what you wanted for

once; so Nancy and I fixed it. Oh, of course, there's only a little of eachbut there's some of all of 'em! I'm

so glad you did want chicken," she went on contentedly, as she lifted the three little bowls from her basket.

"You see, I got to thinking on the way herewhat if you should say tripe, or onions, or something like that,

that I didn't have! Wouldn't it have been a shamewhen I'd tried so hard?" she laughed merrily.

There was no reply. The sick woman seemed to be tryingmentally to find something she had lost.

"There! I'm to leave them all," announced Pollyanna, as she arranged the three bowls in a row on the table.

"Like enough it'll be lamb broth you want tomorrow. How do you do today?" she finished in polite

"Very poorly, thank you," murmured Mrs. Snow, falling back into her usual listless attitude. "I lost my nap

this morning. Nellie Higgins next door has begun music lessons, and her practising drives me nearly wild.

She was at it all the morningevery minute! I'm sure, I don't know what I shall do!"

"I know. It IS awful! Mrs. White had it onceone of my Ladies' Aiders, you know. She had rheumatic fever,

too, at the same time, so she couldn't thrash 'round. She said 'twould have been easier if she could have. Can

"Thrash 'roundmove, you know, so as to change your position when the music gets too hard to stand."

"Well, you can be glad of that, then, anyhow. can't you?" nodded Pollyanna. "Mrs. White couldn't. You can't

thrash when you have rheumatic feverthough you want to something awful, Mrs. White says. She told me

afterwards she reckoned she'd have gone raving crazy if it hadn't been for Mr. White's sister's earsbeing

"Well, I reckon I didn't tell it all, and I forgot you didn't know Mrs. White. You see, Miss White was

deafawfully deaf; and she came to visit 'em and to help take care of Mrs. White and the house. Well, they

had such an awful time making her understand ANYTHING, that after that, every time the piano commenced

to play across the street, Mrs. White felt so glad she COULD hear it, that she didn't mind so much that she

DID hear it, 'cause she couldn't help thinking how awful 'twould be if she was deaf and couldn't hear

anything, like her husband's sister. You see, she was playing the game, too. I'd told her about it."

"There! I 'most forgot; but I've thought it up, Mrs. Snowwhat you can be glad about."

"Why, I told you I would. Don't you remember? You asked me to tell you something to be glad aboutglad,

"Oh!" scoffed the woman. "THAT? Yes, I remember that; but I didn't suppose you were in earnest any more

"Oh, yes, I was," nodded Pollyanna, triumphantly; "and I found it, too. But 'TWAS hard. It's all the more fun,

though, always, when 'tis hard. And I will own up, honest to true, that I couldn't think of anything for a while.

"Did you, really? Well, what is it?" Mrs. Snow's voice was sarcastically polite.

"I thoughthow glad you could bethat other folks weren't like youall sick in bed like this, you know,"

"And now I'll tell you the game," proposed Pollyanna, blithely confident. "It'll be just lovely for you to

playit'll be so hard. And there's so much more fun when it is hard! You see, it's like this." And she began to

"Your aunt is wanting you, Miss Pollyanna," she said with dreary listlessness. "She telephoned down to the

Harlows' across the way. She says you're to hurrythat you've got some practising to make up before dark."

"All right," she sighed. "I'll hurry." Suddenly she laughed. "I suppose I ought to be glad I've got legs to hurry

There was no answer. Mrs. Snow's eyes were closed. But Milly, whose eyes were wide open with surprise,

"Goodby," flung Pollyanna over her shoulder, as she reached the door. "I'm awfully sorry about the hairI

One by one the July days passed. To Pollyanna, they were happy days, indeed. She often told her aunt,

joyously, how very happy they were. Whereupon her aunt would usually reply, wearily:

"Very well, Pollyanna. I am gratified, of course, that they are happy; but I trust that they are profitable, as

Generally Pollyanna would answer this with a hug and a kissa proceeding that was still always most

disconcerting to Miss Polly; but one day she spoke. It was during the sewing hour.

"Do you mean that it wouldn't be enough then, Aunt Polly, that they should be just happy days?" she asked

"Why, itit's just being profitablehaving profit, something to show for it, Pollyanna. What an

"Then just being glad isn't profitable?" questioned Pollyanna, a little anxiously.

"O dear! Then you wouldn't like it, of course. I'm afraid, now, you won't ever play the game, Aunt Polly."

"Why, that father" Pollyanna clapped her hand to her lips. "Nnothing," she stammered. Miss Polly

"That will do for this morning, Pollyanna," she said tersely. And the sewing lesson was over.

It was that afternoon that Pollyanna, coming down from her attic room, met her aunt on the stairway.

"Why, Aunt Polly, how perfectly lovely!" she cried. "You were coming up to see me! Come right in. I love

company," she finished, scampering up the stairs and throwing her door wide open.

Now Miss Polly had not been intending to call on her niece. She had been planning to look for a certain white

wool shawl in the cedar chest near the east window. But to her unbounded surprise now, she found herself,

not in the main attic before the cedar chest, but in Pollyanna's little room sitting in one of the straightbacked

chairsso many, many times since Pollyanna came, Miss Polly had found herself like this, doing some

utterly unexpected, surprising thing, quite unlike the thing she had set out to do!

"I love company," said Pollyanna, again, flitting about as if she were dispensing the hospitality of a palace;

"specially since I've had this room, all mine, you know. Oh, of course, I had a room, always, but 'twas a hired

room, and hired rooms aren't half as nice as owned ones, are they? And of course I do own this one, don't I?"

"Why, yyes, Pollyanna," murmured Miss Polly, vaguely wondering why she did not get up at once and go to

"And of course NOW I just love this room, even if it hasn't got the carpets and curtains and pictures that I'd

been want" With a painful blush Pollyanna stopped short. She was plunging into an entirely different

"Probably not," returned Miss Polly, coldly; "but you did say it, so suppose we have the rest of it."

"But it wasn't anything only that I'd been kind of planning on pretty carpets and lace curtains and things, you

"I ought not to have, of course, Aunt Polly," she apologized. "It was only because I'd always wanted them

and hadn't had them, I suppose. Oh, we'd had two rugs in the barrels, but they were little, you know, and one

had ink spots, and the other holes; and there never were only those two pictures; the one fathI mean the

good one we sold, and the bad one that broke. Of course if it hadn't been for all that I shouldn't have wanted

them, sopretty things, I mean; and I shouldn't have got to planning all through the hall that first day how

pretty mine would be here, andand But, truly, Aunt Polly, it wasn't but just a minuteI mean, a few

minutesbefore I was being glad that the bureau DIDN'T have a lookingglass, because it didn't show my

freckles; and there couldn't be a nicer picture than the one out my window there; and you've been so good to

"You have said quite enough, I'm sure." The next minute she had swept down the stairsand not until she

reached the first floor did it suddenly occur to her that she had gone up into the attic to find a white wool

"Nancy, you may move Miss Pollyanna's things downstairs this morning to the room directly beneath. I

"And won't ye jest be listenin' ter this, Miss Pollyanna. You're ter sleep downstairs in the room straight

"I guess you'll think it's really and truly," prophesied Nancy, exultingly, nodding her head to Pollyanna over

the armful of dresses she had taken from the closet. "I'm told ter take down yer things, and I'm goin' ter take

Pollyanna did not stop to hear the end of this sentence. At the imminent risk of being dashed headlong, she

Bang went two doors and a chair before Pollyanna at last reached her goalAunt Polly.

"Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, did you mean it, really? Why, that room's got EVERYTHINGthe carpet and

curtains and three pictures, besides the one outdoors, too, 'cause the windows look the same way. Oh, Aunt

"Very well, Pollyanna. I am gratified that you like the change, of course; but if you think so much of all those

things, I trust you will take proper care of them; that's all. Pollyanna, please pick up that chair; and you have

banged two doors in the last halfminute." Miss Polly spoke sternly, all the more sternly because, for some

inexplicable reason, she felt inclined to cryand Miss Polly was not used to feeling inclined to cry.

"Yes'm; I know I banged 'emthose doors," she admitted cheerfully. "You see I'd just found out about the

room, and I reckon you'd have banged doors if" Pollyanna stopped short and eyed her aunt with new

"Why, Aunt Polly, what a shame!" Pollyanna's face expressed only concerned sympathy.

"Why, yes. You see, if you'd felt like banging doors you'd have banged 'em, of course; and if you didn't, that

must have meant that you weren't ever glad over anythingor you would have banged 'em. You couldn't

"PollyANna!" gasped the lady; but Pollyanna was gone, and only the distant bang of the atticstairway door

Miss Polly, in the sitting room, felt vaguely disturbed;but then, of course she HAD been gladover some

August came. August brought several surprises and some changesnone of which, however, were really a

surprise to Nancy. Nancy, since Pollyanna's arrival, had come to look for surprises and changes.

Pollyanna found the kitten mewing pitifully some distance down the road. When systematic questioning of

the neighbors failed to find any one who claimed it, Pollyanna brought it home at once, as a matter of course.

"And I was glad I didn't find any one who owned it, too," she told her aunt in happy confidence; " 'cause I

wanted to bring it home all the time. I love kitties. I knew you'd be glad to let it live here."

Miss Polly looked at the forlorn little gray bunch of neglected misery in Pollyanna's arms, and shivered: Miss

"Ugh! Pollyanna! What a dirty little beast! And it's sick, I'm sure, and all mangy and fleay."

"I know it, poor little thing," crooned Pollyanna, tenderly, looking into the little creature's frightened eyes.

"And it's all trembly, too, it's so scared. You see it doesn't know, yet, that we're going to keep it, of course."

"Oh, yes, they do," nodded Pollyanna, entirely misunderstanding her aunt's words. "I told everybody we

should keep it, if I didn't find where it belonged. I knew you'd be glad to have itpoor little lonesome

Miss Polly opened her lips and tried to speak; but in vain. The curious helpless feeling that had been hers so

"Of course I knew," hurried on Pollyanna, gratefully, "that you wouldn't let a dear little lonesome kitty go

hunting for a home when you'd just taken ME in; and I said so to Mrs. Ford when she asked if you'd let me

keep it. Why, I had the Ladies' Aid, you know, and kitty didn't have anybody. I knew you'd feel that way,"

"But, Pollyanna, Pollyanna," remonstrated Miss Polly. "I don't" But Pollyanna was already halfway to the

"Nancy, Nancy, just see this dear little kitty that Aunt Polly is going to bring up along with me!" And Aunt

Polly, in the sitting roomwho abhorred catsfell back in her chair with a gasp of dismay, powerless to

The next day it was a dog, even dirtier and more forlorn, perhaps, than was the kitten; and again Miss Polly,

to her dumfounded amazement, found herself figuring as a kind protector and an angel of mercya role that

Pollyanna so unhesitatingly thrust upon her as a matter of course, that the womanwho abhorred dogs even

more than she did cats, if possiblefound herself as before, powerless to remonstrate.

When, in less than a week, however, Pollyanna brought home a small, ragged boy, and confidently claimed

the same protection for him, Miss Polly did have something to say. It happened after this wise.

On a pleasant Thursday morning Pollyanna had been taking calf'sfoot jelly again to Mrs. Snow. Mrs. Snow

and Pollyanna were the best of friends now. Their friendship had started from the third visit Pollyanna had

made, the one after she had told Mrs. Snow of the game. Mrs. Snow herself was playing the game now, with

Pollyanna. To be sure, she was not playing it very wellshe had been sorry for everything for so long, that it

was not easy to be glad for anything now. But under Pollyanna's cheery instructions and merry laughter at her

mistakes, she was learning fast. Today, even, to Pollyanna's huge delight, she had said that she was glad

Pollyanna brought calf'sfoot jelly, because that was just what she had been wantingshe did not know that

Milly, at the front door, had told Pollyanna that the minister's wife had already that day sent over a great

The boy was sitting in a disconsolate little heap by the roadside, whittling halfheartedly at a small stick.

"Now you don't look as if you'd be glad even for calf'sfoot jelly," she chuckled, stopping before him.

The boy stirred restlessly, gave her a surprised look, and began to whittle again at his stick, with the dull,

Pollyanna hesitated, then dropped herself comfortably down on the grass near him. In spite of Pollyanna's

brave assertion that she was "used to Ladies' Aiders," and "didn't mind," she had sighed at times for some

Again the boy stirred restlessly. He even almost got to his feet. But he settled back.

"Good! Now we're introduced. I'm glad you did your partsome folks don't, you know. I live at Miss Polly

Pollyanna tossed her head a little. This was not a nice boy, and she did not like to be called "silly." Still, he

"Well, if you ain't the beat'em for askin' questions!" sighed the boy impatiently.

"I have to be," retorted Pollyanna calmly, "else I couldn't find out a thing about you. If you'd talk more I

The boy gave a short laugh. It was a sheepish laugh, and not quite a willing one; but his face looked a little

"All right thenhere goes! I'm Jimmy Bean, and I'm ten years old goin' on eleven. I come last year ter live at

the Orphans' Home; but they've got so many kids there ain't much room for me, an' I wa'n't never wanted,

anyhow, I don't believe. So I've quit. I'm goin' ter live somewheres elsebut I hain't found the place, yet. I'd

LIKE a homejest a common one, ye know, with a mother in it, instead of a Matron. If ye has a home, ye

has folks; an' I hain't had folks sincedad died. So I'm ahuntin' now. I've tried four houses, butthey

didn't want methough I said I expected ter work, 'course. There! Is that all you want ter know?" The boy's

"Why, what a shame!" sympathized Pollyanna. "And didn't there anybody want you? O dear! I know just

how you feel, because afterafter my father died, too, there wasn't anybody but the Ladies' Aid for me, until

Aunt Polly said she'd take" Pollyanna stopped abruptly. The dawning of a wonderful idea began to show in

"Oh, I know just the place for you," she cried. "Aunt Polly'll take youI know she will! Didn't she take me?

And didn't she take Fluffy and Buffy, when they didn't have any one to love them, or any place to go?and

they're only cats and dogs. Oh, come, I know Aunt Polly'll take you! You don't know how good and kind she

"Honest Injun? Would she, now? I'd work, ye know, an' I'm real strong!" He bared a small, bony arm.

"Of course she would! Why, my Aunt Polly is the nicest lady in the worldnow that my mama has gone to

be a Heaven angel. And there's roomsheaps of 'em," she continued, springing to her feet, and tugging at his

arm. "It's an awful big house. Maybe, though," she added a little anxiously, as they hurried on, "maybe you'll

have to sleep in the attic room. I did, at first. But there's screens there now, so 'twon't be so hot, and the flies

can't get in, either, to bring in the germthings on their feet. Did you know about that? It's perfectly lovely!

Maybe she'll let you read the book if you're goodI mean, if you're bad. And you've got freckles,

too,"with a critical glance"so you'll be glad there isn't any lookingglass; and the outdoor picture is

nicer than any wallone could be, so you won't mind sleeping in that room at all, I'm sure," panted Pollyanna,

finding suddenly that she needed the rest of her breath for purposes other than talking.

"Gorry!" exclaimed Jimmy Bean tersely and uncomprehendingly, but admiringly. Then he added: "I shouldn't

think anybody who could talk like that, runnin', would need ter ask no questions ter fill up time with!"

"Well, anyhow, you can be glad of that," she retorted; "for when I'm talking, YOU don't have to!"

When the house was reached, Pollyanna unhesitatingly piloted her companion straight into the presence of

"Oh, Aunt Polly," she triumphed. "just look ahere! I've got something ever so much nicer, even, than Fluffy

and Buffy for you to bring up. It's a real live boy. He won't mind a bit sleeping in the attic, at first, you know,

and he says he'll work; but I shall need him the most of the time to play with, I reckon."

Miss Polly grew white, then very red. She did not quite understand; but she thought she understood enough.

"Pollyanna, what does this mean? Who is this dirty little boy? Where did you find him?" she demanded

The "dirty little boy" fell back a step and looked toward the door. Pollyanna laughed merrily.

"There, if I didn't forget to tell you his name! I'm as bad as the Man. And he is dirty, too, isn't he?I mean,

the boy isjust like Fluffy and Buffy were when you took them in. But I reckon he'll improve all right by

washing, just as they did, andOh, I 'most forgot again," she broke off with a laugh. "This is Jimmy Bean,

"Why, Aunt Polly, I just told you!" Pollyanna's eyes were wide with surprise. "He's for you. I brought him

homeso he could live here, you know. He wants a home and folks. I told him how good you were to me,

and to Fluffy and Buffy, and that I knew you would be to him, because of course he's even nicer than cats and

Miss Polly dropped back in her chair and raised a shaking hand to her throat. The old helplessness was

threatening once more to overcome her. With a visible struggle, however, Miss Polly pulled herself suddenly

"That will do, Pollyanna. This is a little the most absurd thing you've done yet. As if tramp cats and mangy

dogs weren't bad enough but you must needs bring home ragged little beggars from the street, who"

There was a sudden stir from the boy. His eyes flashed and his chin came up. With two strides of his sturdy

"I ain't a beggar, marm, an' I don't want nothin' o' you. I was cal'latin' ter work, of course, fur my board an'

keep. I wouldn't have come ter your old house, anyhow, if this 'ere girl hadn't 'a' made me, atellin' me how

you was so good an' kind that you'd be jest dyin' ter take me in. So, there!" And he wheeled about and stalked

from the room with a dignity that would have been absurd had it not been so pitiful.

"Oh, Aunt Polly," choked Pollyanna. "Why, I thought you'd be GLAD to have him here! I'm sure, I should

Miss Polly raised her hand with a peremptory gesture of silence. Miss Polly's nerves had snapped at last. The

"good and kind" of the boy's words were still ringing in her ears, and the old helplessness was almost upon

"Pollyanna," she cried sharply, "WILL you stop using that everlasting word 'glad'! It's 'glad''glad''glad'

"Why, Aunt Polly," she breathed, "I should think you'd be glad to have me glOh!" she broke off, clapping

"Boy! Boy! Jimmy Bean, I want you to know howhow sorry I am," she panted, catching him with a

"Sorry nothin'! I ain't blamin' you," retorted the boy, sullenly. "But I ain't no beggar!" he added, with sudden

"Of course you aren't! But you mustn't blame auntie," appealed Pollyanna. "Probably I didn't do the

introducing right, anyhow; and I reckon I didn't tell her much who you were. She is good and kind,

reallyshe's always been; but I probably didn't explain it right. I do wish I could find some place for you,

Pollyanna was frowning thoughtfully. Of a sudden she turned, her face illumined.

"Say, I'll tell you what I WILL do! The Ladies' Aid meets this afternoon. I heard Aunt Polly say so. I'll lay

your case before them. That's what father always did, when he wanted anythingeducating the heathen and

"Why, Jimmy Bean, wherever have you been brought up?not to know what a Ladies' Aid is!"

"Oh, all rightif you ain't tellin'," grunted the boy, turning and beginning to walk away indifferently.

"It'sit'swhy, it's just a lot of ladies that meet and sew and give suppers and raise money andand talk;

that's what a Ladies' Aid is. They're awfully kindthat is, most of mine was, back home. I haven't seen this

one here, but they're always good, I reckon. I'm going to tell them about you this afternoon."

"Not much you will! Maybe you think I'm goin' ter stand 'round an' hear a whole LOT o' women call me a

"Oh, but you wouldn't be there," argued Pollyanna, quickly. "I'd go alone, of course, and tell them."

"Yes; and I'd tell it better this time," hurried on Pollyanna, quick to see the signs of relenting in the boy's face.

"Of course not," promised Pollyanna, happily, sure now that her point was gained. "Then I'll let you know

"All right. I'll be there." The boy paused before he went on slowly: "Maybe I'd better go back, then, for

ternight, ter the Home. You see I hain't no other place ter stay; andand I didn't leave till this mornin'. I

slipped out. I didn't tell 'em I wasn't comin' back, else they'd pretend I couldn't comethough I'm thinkin'

they won't do no worryin' when I don't show up sometime. They ain't like FOLKS, ye know. They don't

"I know," nodded Pollyanna, with understanding eyes. "But I'm sure, when I see you tomorrow, I'll have

just a common home and folks that do care all ready for you. Goodby!" she called brightly, as she turned

In the sittingroom window at that moment, Miss Polly, who had been watching the two children, followed

with sombre eyes the boy until a bend of the road hid him from sight. Then she sighed, turned, and walked

listlesly upstairsand Miss Polly did not usually move listlessly. In her ears still was the boy's scornful

"you was so good and kind." In her heart was a curious sense of desolationas of something lost.

Dinner, which came at noon in the Harrington homestead, was a silent meal on the day of the Ladies' Aid

meeting. Pollyanna, it is true, tried to talk; but she did not make a success of it, chiefly because four times she

was obliged to break off a "glad" in the middle of it, much to her blushing discomfort. The fifth time it

"There, there, child, say it, if you want to," she sighed. "I'm sure I'd rather you did than not if it's going to

"Oh, thank you. I'm afraid it would be pretty hardnot to say it. You see I've played it so long."

"Played itthe game, you know, that father" Pollyanna stopped with a painful blush at finding herself so

Pollyanna was not sorry to hear Aunt Polly tell the minister's wife over the telephone, a little later, that she

would not be at the Ladies' Aid meeting that afternoon, owing to a headache. When Aunt Polly went

upstairs to her room and closed the door, Pollyanna tried to be sorry for the headache; but she could not help

feeling glad that her aunt was not to be present that afternoon when she laid the case of Jimmy Bean before

the Ladies' Aid. She could not forget that Aunt Polly had called Jimmy Bean a little beggar; and she did not

Pollyanna knew that the Ladies' Aid met at two o'clock in the chapel next the church, not quite half a mile

from home. She planned her going, therefore, so that she should get there a little before three.

"I want them all to be there," she said to herself; "else the very one that wasn't there might be the one who

would be wanting to give Jimmy Bean a home; and, of course, two o'clock always means three, reallyto

Quietly, but with confident courage, Pollyanna ascended the chapel steps, pushed open the door and entered

the vestibule. A soft babel of feminine chatter and laughter came from the main room. Hesitating only a brief

The chatter dropped to a surprised hush. Pollyanna advanced a little timidly. Now that the time had come, she

felt unwontedly shy. After all, these halfstrange, halffamiliar faces about her were not her own dear Ladies'

"How do you do, Ladies' Aiders?" she faltered politely. "I'm Pollyanna Whittier. II reckon some of you

The silence could almost be felt now. Some of the ladies did know this rather extraordinary niece of their

fellowmember, and nearly all had heard of her; but not one of them could think of anything to say, just then.

"II've come toto lay the case before you," stammered Pollyanna, after a moment, unconsciously falling

"Oh, no. I came all by myself. You see, I'm used to Ladies' Aiders. It was Ladies' Aiders that brought me

"Well, itit's Jimmy Bean," sighed Pollyanna. "He hasn't any home except the Orphan one, and they're full,

and don't want him, anyhow, he thinks; so he wants another. He wants one of the common kind, that has a

mother instead of a Matron in itfolks, you know, that'll care. He's ten years old going on eleven. I thought

"Well, did you ever!" murmured a voice, breaking the dazed pause that followed Pollyanna's words.

Still there was silence; then, coldly, one or two women began to question her. After a time they all had the

Pollyanna listened with growing anxiety. Some of what was said she could not understand. She did gather,

after a time, however, that there was no woman there who had a home to give him, though every woman

seemed to think that some of the others might take him, as there were several who had no little boys of their

own already in their homes. But there was no one who agreed herself to take him. Then she heard the

minister's wife suggest timidly that they, as a society, might perhaps assume his support and education

instead of sending quite so much money this year to the little boys in faraway India.

A great many ladies talked then, and several of them talked all at once, and even more loudly and more

unpleasantly than before. It seemed that their society was famous for its offering to Hindu missions, and

several said they should die of mortification if it should be less this year. Some of what was said at this time

Pollyanna again thought she could not have understood, too, for it sounded almost as if they did not care at all

what the money DID, so long as the sum opposite the name of their society in a certain "report" "headed the

list"and of course that could not be what they meant at all! But it was all very confusing, and not quite

pleasant, so that Pollyanna was glad, indeed, when at last she found herself outside in the hushed, sweet

aironly she was very sorry, too: for she knew it was not going to be easy, or anything but sad, to tell

Jimmy Bean tomorrow that the Ladies' Aid had decided that they would rather send all their money to bring

up the little India boys than to save out enough to bring up one little boy in their own town, for which they

would not get "a bit of credit in the report," according to the tall lady who wore spectacles.

"Not but that it's good, of course, to send money to the heathen, and I shouldn't want 'em not to send SOME

there," sighed Pollyanna to herself, as she trudged sorrowfully along. "But they acted as if little boys HERE

weren't any accountonly little boys 'way off. I should THINK, though, they'd rather see Jimmy Bean

Pollyanna had not turned her steps toward home, when she left the chapel. She had turned them, instead,

toward Pendleton Hill. It had been a hard day, for all it had been a "vacation one" (as she termed the

infrequent days when there was no sewing or cooking lesson), and Pollyanna was sure that nothing would do

her quite so much good as a walk through the green quiet of Pendleton Woods. Up Pendleton Hill, therefore,

"I don't have to get home till halfpast five, anyway," she was telling herself; "and it'll be so much nicer to go

It was very beautiful in the Pendleton Woods, as Pollyanna knew by experience. But today it seemed even

more delightful than ever, notwithstanding her disappointment over what she must tell Jimmy Bean

"I wish they were up hereall those ladies who talked so loud," sighed Pollyanna to herself, raising her eyes

to the patches of vivid blue between the sunlit green of the treetops. "Anyhow, if they were up here, I just

reckon they'd change and take Jimmy Bean for their little boy, all right," she finished, secure in her

Suddenly Pollyanna lifted her head and listened. A dog had barked some distance ahead. A moment later he

"Hullo, doggiehullo!" Pollyanna snapped her fingers at the dog and looked expectantly down the path. She

had seen the dog once before, she was sure. He had been then with the Man, Mr. John Pendleton. She was

looking now, hoping to see him. For some minutes she watched eagerly, but he did not appear. Then she

The dog, as even Pollyanna could see, was acting strangely. He was still barkinggiving little short, sharp

yelps, as if of alarm. He was running back and forth, too, in the path ahead. Soon they reached a side path,

and down this the little dog fairly flew, only to come back at once, whining and barking.

"Ho! That isn't the way home," laughed Pollyanna, still keeping to the main path.

The little dog seemed frantic now. Back and forth, back and forth, between Pollyanna and the side path he

vibrated, barking and whining pitifully. Every quiver of his little brown body, and every glance from his

beseeching brown eyes were eloquent with appealso eloquent that at last Pollyanna understood, turned,

Straight ahead, now, the little dog dashed madly; and it was not long before Pollyanna came upon the reason

for it all: a man lying motionless at the foot of a steep, overhanging mass of rock a few yards from the side

A twig cracked sharply under Pollyanna's foot, and the man turned his head. With a cry of dismay Pollyanna

"Hurt? Oh, no! I'm just taking a siesta in the sunshine," snapped the man irritably. "See here, how much do

Pollyanna caught her breath with a little gasp, butas was her habitshe answered the questions literally,

"Why, Mr. Pendleton, II don't know so very much, and I can't do a great many things; but most of the

Ladies' Aiders, except Mrs. Rawson, said I had real good sense. I heard 'em say so one daythey didn't

"There, there, child, I beg your pardon, I'm sure; it's only this confounded leg of mine. Now listen." He

paused, and with some difficulty reached his hand into his trousers pocket and brought out a bunch of keys,

singling out one between his thumb and forefinger. "Straight through the path there, about five minutes' walk,

is my house. This key will admit you to the side door under the portecochere. Do you know what a

"Oh, yes, sir. Auntie has one with a sun parlor over it. That's the roof I slept ononly I didn't sleep, you

"Eh? Oh! Well, when you get into the house, go straight through the vestibule and hall to the door at the end.

On the big, flattopped desk in the middle of the room you'll find a telephone. Do you know how to use a

"Never mind Aunt Polly now," cut in the man scowlingly, as he tried to move himself a little.

"Hunt up Dr. Thomas Chilton's number on the card you'll find somewhere around thereit ought to be on

the hook down at the side, but it probably won't be. You know a telephone card, I suppose, when you see

"Oh, yes, sir! I just love Aunt Polly's. There's such a lot of queer names, and"

"Tell Dr. Chilton that John Pendleton is at the foot of Little Eagle Ledge in Pendleton Woods with a broken

leg, and to come at once with a stretcher and two men. He'll know what to do besides that. Tell him to come

"A broken leg? Oh, Mr. Pendleton, how perfectly awful!" shuddered Pollyanna. "But I'm so glad I came!

"Yes, you canbut evidently you won't! WILL you go and do what I ask and stop talking," moaned the man,

Pollyanna did not stop now to look up at the patches of blue between the sunlit tops of the trees. She kept her

eyes on the ground to make sure that no twig nor stone tripped her hurrying feet.

It was not long before she came in sight of the house. She had seen it before, though never so near as this.

She was almost frightened now at the massiveness of the great pile of gray stone with its pillared verandas

and its imposing entrance. Pausing only a moment, however, she sped across the big neglected lawn and

around the house to the side door under the portecochere. Her fingers, stiff from their tight clutch upon the

keys, were anything but skilful in their efforts to turn the bolt in the lock; but at last the heavy, carved door

Pollyanna caught her breath. In spite of her feeling of haste, she paused a moment and looked fearfully

through the vestibule to the wide, sombre hall beyond, her thoughts in a whirl. This was John Pendleton's

house; the house of mystery; the house into which no one but its master entered; the house which sheltered,

somewherea skeleton. Yet she, Pollyanna, was expected to enter alone these fearsome rooms, and

With a little cry Pollyanna, looking neither to the right nor the left, fairly ran through the hall to the door at

The room was large, and sombre with dark woods and hangings like the hall; but through the west window

the sun threw a long shaft of gold across the floor, gleamed dully on the tarnished brass andirons in the

fireplace, and touched the nickel of the telephone on the great desk in the middle of the room. It was toward

The telephone card was not on its hook; it was on the floor. But Pollyanna found it, and ran her shaking

forefinger down through the C's to "Chilton." In due time she had Dr. Chilton himself at the other end of the

wires, and was tremblingly delivering her message and answering the doctor's terse, pertinent questions. This

Only a brief glance did Pollyanna give about her; then, with a confused vision in her eyes of crimson

draperies, booklined walls, a littered floor, an untidy desk, innumerable closed doors (any one of which

might conceal a skeleton), and everywhere dust, dust, dust, she fled back through the hall to the great carved

In what seemed, even to the injured man, an incredibly short time, Pollyanna was back in the woods at the

"Why, of course I could! I'm HERE," she answered. "As if I'd be here if I hadn't got in! And the doctor will

be right up just as soon as possible with the men and things. He said he knew just where you were, so I didn't

"Did you?" smiled the man, grimly. "Well, I can't say I admire your taste. I should think you might find

"Indeed! How do you know that?" asked the man, trying to change the position of his head without moving

"Oh, lots of ways; therelike thatthe way you act with the dog," she added, pointing to the long, slender

hand that rested on the dog's sleek head near him. "It's funny how dogs and cats know the insides of folks

better than other folks do, isn't it? Say, I'm going to hold your head," she finished abruptly.

The man winced several times and groaned once; softly while the change was being made; but in the end he

found Pollyanna's lap a very welcome substitute for the rocky hollow in which his head had lain before.

He did not speak again for some time. Pollyanna, watching his face, wondered if he were asleep. She did not

think he was. He looked as if his lips were tight shut to keep back moans of pain. Pollyanna herself almost

cried aloud as she looked at his great, strong body lying there so helpless. One hand, with fingers tightly

clenched, lay outflung, motionless. The other, limply open, lay on the dog's head. The dog, his wistful, eager

Minute by minute the time passed. The sun dropped lower in the west and the shadows grew deeper under the

trees. Pollyanna sat so still she hardly seemed to breathe. A bird alighted fearlessly within reach of her hand,

and a squirrel whisked his bushy tail on a treebranch almost under her noseyet with his bright little eyes

At last the dog pricked up his cars and whined softly; then he gave a short, sharp bark. The next moment

Pollyanna heard voices, and very soon their owners appeared three men carrying a stretcher and various other

The tallest of the partya smoothshaven, kindeyed man whom Pollyanna knew by sight as "Dr.

"Oh, no, sir," smiled Pollyanna. "I've only held his headI haven't given him a mite of medicine. But I'm

"So am I," nodded the doctor, as he turned his absorbed attention to the injured man.

Pollyanna was a little late for supper on the night of the accident to John Pendleton; but, as it happened, she

"Well, if I ain't glad ter be settin' my two eyes on you," she sighed in obvious relief. "It's halfpast six!"

"I know it," admitted Pollyanna anxiously; "but I'm not to blametruly I'm not. And I don't think even Aunt

"She won't have the chance," retorted Nancy, with huge satisfaction. "She's gone."

"Gone!" gasped Pollyanna. "You don't mean that I've driven her away?" Through Pollyanna's mind at the

moment trooped remorseful memories of the morning with its unwanted boy, cat, and dog, and its

unwelcome "glad" and forbidden "father that would spring to her forgetful little tongue. Oh, I DIDN'T drive

"Not much you did," scoff ed Nancy. "Her cousin died suddenly down to Boston, and she had ter go. She had

one o' them yeller telegram letters after you went away this afternoon, and she won't be back for three days.

Now I guess we're glad all right. We'll be keepin' house tergether, jest you and me, all that time. We will, we

"Oh, but 'twa'n't the funeral I was glad for, Miss Pollyanna. It was" Nancy stopped abruptly. A shrewd

twinkle came into her eyes. "Why, Miss Pollyanna, as if it wa'n't yerself that was teachin' me ter play the

"I can't help it, Nancy," she argued with a shake of her head. "It must be that there are some things that 'tisn't

right to play the game onand I'm sure funerals is one of them. There's nothing in a funeral to be glad

"We can be glad 'tain't our'n," she observed demurely. But Pollyanna did not hear. She had begun to tell of

At the appointed place the next afternoon, Pollyanna met Jimmy Bean according to agreement. As was to be

expected, of course, Jimmy showed keen disappointment that the Ladies' Aid preferred a little India boy to

"Well, maybe 'tis natural," he sighed. "Of course things you don't know about are always nicer'n things you

do, same as the pertater on 'tother side of the plate is always the biggest. But I wish I looked that way ter

somebody 'way off. Wouldn't it be jest great, now, if only somebody over in India wanted ME?"

"Why, of course! That's the very thing, Jimmy! I'll write to my Ladies' Aiders about you. They aren't over in

India; they're only out Westbut that's awful far away, just the same. I reckon you'd think so if you'd come

"Of course they would! Don't they take little boys in India to bring up? Well, they can just play you are the

little India boy this time. I reckon you're far enough away to make a report, all right. You wait. I'll write 'em.

I'll write Mrs. White. No, I'll write Mrs. Jones. Mrs. White has got the most money, but Mrs. Jones gives the

mostwhich is kind of funny, isn't it?when you think of it. But I reckon some of the Aiders will take

"All rightbut don't furgit ter say I'll work fur my board an' keep," put in Jimmy. "I ain't no beggar, an'

biz'ness is biz'ness, even with Ladies' Aiders, I'm thinkin'." He hesitated, then added: "An' I s'pose I better

"Of course," nodded Pollyanna emphatically. "Then I'll know just where to find you. And they'll take

youI'm sure you're far enough away for that. Didn't Aunt Polly takeSay!" she broke off, suddenly, "DO

It was about a week after the accident in Pendleton Woods that Pollyanna said to her aunt one morning:

"Aunt Polly, please would you mind very much if I took Mrs. Snow's calf'sfoot jelly this week to some one

"Dear me, Pollyanna, what ARE you up to now? sighed her aunt. "You ARE the most extraordinary child!"

"Aunt Polly, please, what is extraordinary? If you're EXtraordinary you can't be ORdinary, can you?"

"Oh, that's all right, then. I'm glad I'm EXtraordinary," sighed Pollyanna, her face clearing. "You see, Mrs.

White used to say Mrs. Rawson was a very ordinary womanand she disliked Mrs. Rawson something

awful. They were always fightI mean, father hadthat is, I mean, WE had more trouble keeping peace

between them than we did between any of the rest of the Aiders," corrected Pollyanna, a little breathless from

her efforts to steer between the Scylla of her father's past commands in regard to speaking of church quarrels,

and the Charybdis of her aunt's present commands in regard to speaking of her father.

"Yes, yes; well, never mind," interposed Aunt Polly, a trifle impatiently. "You do run on so, Pollyanna, and

no matter what we're talking about you always bring up at those Ladies' Aiders!"

"Yes'm," smiled Pollyanna, cheerfully, "I reckon I do, maybe. But you see they used to bring me up, and"

"That will do, Pollyanna," interrupted a cold voice. "Now what is it about this jelly?"

"Nothing, Aunt Polly, truly, that you would mind, I'm sure. You let me take jelly to HER, so I thought you

would to HIMthis once. You see, broken legs aren't likelike lifelong invalids, so his won't last forever as

Mrs. Snow's does, and she can have all the rest of the things after just once or twice."

"Oh, I forgot. I reckon you didn't know. You see, it happened while you were gone. It was the very day you

went that I found him in the woods, you know; and I had to unlock his house and telephone for the men and

the doctor, and hold his head, and everything. And of course then I came away and haven't seen him since.

But when Nancy made the jelly for Mrs. Snow this week I thought how nice it would be if I could take it to

"Yes, yes, I suppose so," acquiesced Miss Polly, a little wearily. "Who did you say he was?"

"Oh, yes. He always speaks and smilesnow. He's only cross OUTSIDE, you know. I'll go and get the jelly.

Nancy had it 'most fixed when I came in," finished Pollyanna, already halfway across the room.

"Pollyanna, wait! Miss Polly's voice was suddenly very stern. I've changed my mind. I would prefer that Mrs.

"Oh, but Aunt Polly, HERS will last. She can always be sick and have things, you know; but his is just a

broken leg, and legs don't lastI mean, broken ones. He's had it a whole week now."

"Yes, I remember. I heard Mr. John Pendleton had met with an accident," said Miss Polly, a little stiffly;

"I know, he is crossoutside," admitted Pollyanna, sadly, "so I suppose you don't like him. But I wouldn't

say 'twas you sent it. I'd say 'twas me. I like him. I'd be glad to send him jelly."

Miss Polly began to shake her head again. Then, suddenly, she stopped, and asked in a curiously quiet voice:

For a moment there was silence. Miss Polly was looking at Pollyanna with eyes that did not seem to see her

at all. The little girl, shifting impatiently from one small foot to the other, sighed audibly. Then Miss Polly

"Very well, Pollyanna," she said at last , still in that queer voice, so unlike her own; "you may you may take

the jelly to Mr. Pendleton as your own gift. But understand: I do not send it. Be very sure that he does not

"Yes'mno'mthank you, Aunt Polly," exulted Pollyanna, as she flew through the door.

The great gray pile of masonry looked very different to Pollyanna when she made her second visit to the

house of Mr. John Pendleton. Windows were open, an elderly woman was hanging out clothes in the back

As before Pollyanna went to the side door. This time she rang the bellher fingers were not stiff today

A familiarlooking small dog bounded up the steps to greet her, but there was a slight delay before the

"If you please, I've brought some calf'sfoot jelly for Mr. Pendleton," smiled Pollyanna.

"Thank you," said the woman, reaching for the bowl in the little girl's hand. "Who shall I say sent it? And it's

The doctor, coming into the hall at that moment, heard the woman's words and saw the disappointed look on

"Ah! Some calf'sfoot jelly?" he asked genially. "That will be fine! Maybe you'd like to see our patient, eh?"

"Oh, yes, sir," beamed Pollyanna; and the woman, in obedience to a nod from the doctor, led the way down

Behind the doctor, a young man (a trained nurse from the nearest city) gave a disturbed exclamation.

"Oh, yes," nodded the doctor, imperturbably. "But I'm giving orders now. I'll take the risk." Then he added

whimsically: "You don't know, of course; but that little girl is better than a sixquart bottle of tonic any day.

If anything or anybody can take the grouch out of Pendleton this afternoon, she can. That's why I sent her in."

"She's the niece of one of our best known residents. Her name is Pollyanna Whittier. II don't happen to

enjoy a very extensive personal acquaintance with the little lady as yet; but lots of my patients doI'm

"Indeed! And what are the special ingredients of this wonderworkingtonic of hers?"

"I don't know. As near as I can find out it is an overwhelming, unquenchable gladness for everything that has

happened or is going to happen. At any rate, her quaint speeches are constantly being repeated to me, and, as

near as I can make out, 'just being glad' is the tenor of most of them. All is," he added, with another

whimsical smile, as he stepped out on to the porch, "I wish I could prescribe herand buy heras I would a

box of pills;though if there gets to be many of her in the world, you and I might as well go to

ribbonselling and ditchdigging for all the money we'd get out of nursing and doctoring," he laughed,

Pollyanna, meanwhile, in accordance with the doctor's orders, was being escorted to John Pendleton's rooms.

Her way led through the great library at the end of the hall, and, rapid as was her progress through it,

Pollyanna saw at once that great changes had taken place. The booklined walls and the crimson curtains

were the same; but there was no litter on the floor, no untidiness on the desk, and not so much as a grain of

dust in sight. The telephone card hung in its proper place, and the brass andirons had been polished. One of

the mysterious doors was open, and it was toward this that the maid led the way. A moment later Pollyanna

found herself in a sumptuously furnished bedroom while the maid was saying in a frightened voice:

"If you please, sir, herehere's a little girl with some jelly. The doctor said I was toto bring her in."

The next moment Pollyanna found herself alone with a very crosslooking man lying flat on his back in bed.

"See here, didn't I say" began an angry voice. "Oh, it's you!" it broke off not very graciously, as Pollyanna

"Yes, sir," smiled Pollyanna. "Oh, I'm so glad they let me in! You see, at first the lady 'most took my jelly,

and I was so afraid I wasn't going to see you at all. Then the doctor came, and he said I might. Wasn't he

In spite of himself the man's lips twitched into a smile; but all he said was "Humph!"

"And I've brought you some jelly," resumed Pollyanna; "calf'sfoot. I hope you like it?" There was a rising

"Never ate it." The fleeting smile had gone, and the scowl had come back to the man's face.

For a brief instant Pollyanna's countenance showed disappointment; but it cleared as she set the bowl of jelly

"Didn't you? Well, if you didn't, then you can't know you DON'T like it, anyhow, can you? So I reckon I'm

"Yes, yes; well, there's one thing I know all right, and that is that I'm flat on my back right here this minute,

"Oh, no! It couldn't be till doomsday, you know, when the angel Gabriel blows his trumpet, unless it should

come quicker than we think it willoh, of course, I know the Bible says it may come quicker than we think,

but I don't think it willthat is, of course I believe the Bible; but I mean I don't think it will come as much

John Pendleton laughed suddenlyand aloud. The nurse, coming in at that moment, heard the laugh, and

beat a hurriedbut a very silentretreat. He had the air of a frightened cook who, seeing the danger of a

"Maybe. But what I mean is, that legs don't lastbroken ones, you knowlike lifelong invalids, same as

Mrs. Snow has got. So yours won't last till doomsday at all. I should think you could be glad of that."

"And you didn't break but one. You can be glad 'twasn't two." Pollyanna was warming to her task.

"Of course! So fortunate," sniffed the man, with uplifted eyebrows; "looking at it from that standpoint, I

"Oh, that's the best yet," she crowed. "I know what a centipede is; they've got lots of legs. And you can be

"Oh, of course," interrupted the man, sharply, all the old bitterness coming back to his voice; "I can be glad,

too, for all the rest, I supposethe nurse, and the doctor, and that confounded woman in the kitchen!"

"Why, I say, only think how bad it would be if you didn't have 'emand you lying here like this!"

"As if that wasn't the very thing that was at the bottom of the whole matter," retorted the man, testily,

"because I am lying here like this! And yet you expect me to say I'm glad because of a fool woman who

disarranges the whole house and calls it 'regulating,' and a man who aids and abets her in it, and calls it

'nursing,' to say nothing of the doctor who eggs 'em both onand the whole bunch of them, meanwhile,

"Yes, I know. THAT part is too badabout the moneywhen you've been saving it, too, all this time."

"Saving itbuying beans and fish balls, you know. Say, DO you like beans?or do you like turkey better,

"About your money, you knowdenying yourself, and saving it for the heathen. You see, I found out about

it. Why, Mr. Pendleton, that's one of the ways I knew you weren't cross inside. Nancy told me."

"Yes; I'm her niece. She's taken me to bring upon account of my mother, you know," faltered Pollyanna, in

a low voice. "She was her sister. And after fatherwent to be with her and the rest of us in Heaven, there

The man did not answer. His face, as he lay back on the pillow now, was very whiteso white that

"I reckon maybe I'd better go now," she proposed. "II hope you'll likethe jelly."

The man turned his head suddenly, and opened his eyes. There was a curious longing in their dark depths

Still the man's dark eyes lingered on her face, until Pollyanna, feeling vaguely restless, murmured:

"Oh, yes; I know her." He hesitated, then went on, still with that curious smile. "Butyou don't meanyou

can't mean that it was Miss Polly Harrington who sent that jellyto me?" he said slowly,

"Nno, sir: she didn't. She said I must be very sure not to let you think she did send it. But I"

"I thought as much," vouchsafed the man, shortly, turning away his head. And Pollyanna, still more

Under the portecochere she found the doctor waiting in his gig. The nurse stood on the steps.

"Well, Miss Pollyanna, may I have the pleasure of seeing you home?" asked the doctor smilingly. "I started

"Thank you, sir. I'm glad you did. I just love to ride," beamed Pollyanna, as he reached out his hand to help

"Do you?" smiled the doctor, nodding his head in farewell to the young man on the steps. "Well, as near as I

can judge, there are a good many things you 'love' to doeh?" he added, as they drove briskly away.

"Why, I don't know. I reckon perhaps there are," she admitted. "I like to do 'most everything that's LIVING.

Of course I don't like the other things very wellsewing, and reading out loud, and all that. But THEY aren't

"Aunt Polly says they're 'learning to live,' sighed Pollyanna, with a rueful smile.

"Yes," responded Pollyanna. "But I don't see it that way at all. I don't think you have to LEARN how to live.

"After all, I'm afraid some of usdo have to, little girl," he said. Then, for a time he was silent. Pollyanna,

stealing a glance at his face, felt vaguely sorry for him. He looked so sad. She wished, uneasily, that she

could "do something." It was this, perhaps, that caused her to say in a timid voice:

"Dr. Chilton, I should think being a doctor would, be the very gladdest kind of a business there was."

"I know; but you're HELPING itdon't you see?and of course you're glad to help it! And so that makes

The doctor's eyes filled with sudden hot tears. The doctor's life was a singularly lonely one. He had no wife

and no home save his tworoom office in a boarding house. His profession was very dear to him. Looking

now into Pollyanna's shining eyes, he felt as if a loving hand had been suddenly laid on his head in blessing.

He knew, too, that never again would a long day's work or a long night's weariness be quite without that

"God bless you, little girl," he said unsteadily. Then, with the bright smile his patients knew and loved so

well, he added: "And I'm thinking, after all, that it was the doctor, quite as much as his patients, that needed a

draft of that tonic!" All of which puzzled Pollyanna very muchuntil a chipmunk, running across the road,

The doctor left Pollyanna at her own door, smiled at Nancy, who was sweeping off the front porch, then

"I've had a perfectly beautiful ride with the doctor," announced Pollyanna, bounding up the steps. "He's

"Yes. And I told him I should think his business would be the very gladdest one there was."

"What!goin' ter see sick folksan' folks what ain't sick but thinks they is, which is worse? Nancy's face

"Yes. That's 'most what he said, too; but there is a way to be glad, even then. Guess!"

Nancy frowned in meditation. Nancy was getting so she could play this game of "being glad" quite

successfully, she thought. She rather enjoyed studying out Pollyanna's "posers," too, as she called some of the

"Oh, I know," she chuckled. "It's just the opposite from what you told Mis' Snow."

"Yes. You told her she could be glad because other folks wasn't like herall sick, you know."

"Well, the doctor can be glad because he isn't like other folksthe sick ones, I mean, what he doctors,"

"Why, yyes," she admitted. "Of course that IS one way, but it isn't the way I said; andsomeway, I don't

seem to quite like the sound of it. It isn't exactly as if he said he was glad they WERE sick, butYou do play

"Who was that manthe one who drove into the yard, Pollyanna?" questioned the lady a little sharply.

"I SAID, Pollyanna, that I did not send it, and for you to be very sure that he did not think I DID!which is

a very different matter from TELLING him outright that I did not send it." And she turned vexedly away.

"Dear me! Well, I don't see where the difference is," sighed Pollyanna, as she went to hang her hat on the one

particular hook in the house upon which Aunt Polly had said that it must be hung.

It was on a rainy day about a week after Pollyanna's visit to Mr. John Pendleton, that Miss Polly was driven

by Timothy to an early afternoon committee meeting of the Ladies' Aid Society. When she returned at three

o'clock, her cheeks were a bright, pretty pink, and her hair, blown by the damp wind, had fluffed into kinks

"Ohohoh! Why, Aunt Polly, you've got 'em, too," she cried rapturously, dancing round and round her

"And I never knew you had 'em! Can folks have 'em when you don't know they've got 'em? DO you suppose I

could?'fore I get to Heaven, I mean," she cried, pulling out with eager fingers the straight locks above her

ears. "But then, they wouldn't be black, if they did come. You can't hide the black part."

"Pollyanna, what does all this mean?" demanded Aunt Polly, hurriedly removing her hat, and trying to

"No, noplease, Aunt Polly!" Pollyanna's jubilant voice turned to one of distressed appeal. "Don't smooth

'em out! It's those that I'm talking aboutthose darling little black curls. Oh, Aunt Polly, they're so pretty!"

"Nonsense! What do you mean, Pollyanna, by going to the Ladies' Aid the other day in that absurd fashion

"But it isn't nonsense," urged Pollyanna, answering only the first of her aunt's remarks. "You don't know how

pretty you look with your hair like that! Oh, Aunt Polly, please, mayn't I do your hair like I did Mrs. Snow's,

and put in a flower? I'd so love to see you that way! Why, you'd be ever so much prettier than she was!"

"Pollyanna!" (Miss Polly spoke very sharplyall the more sharply because Pollyanna's words had given her

an odd throb of joy: when before had anybody cared how she, or her hair looked? When before had anybody

"loved" to see her "pretty"?) "Pollyanna, you did not answer my question. Why did you go to the Ladies' Aid

"Yes'm, I know; but, please, I didn't know it was absurd until I went and found out they'd rather see their

report grow than Jimmy. So then I wrote to MY Ladies' Aiders'cause Jimmy is far away from them, you

know; and I thought maybe he could be their little India boy same asAunt Polly, WAS I your little India

Aunt Polly put her hand to her throatthe old, helpless feeling was upon her, she knew.

"But, Pollyanna, when the ladies Old me this afternoon how you came to them, I was so ashamed! I"

"You didn't!You didn't say I COULDN'T do your hair," she crowed triumphantly; "and so I'm sure it

means just the other way 'round, sort oflike it did the other day about Mr. Pendleton's jelly that you didn't

send, but didn't want me to say you didn't send, you know. Now wait just where you are. I'll get a comb."

"But Pollyanna, Pollyanna," remonstrated Aunt Polly, following the little girl from the room and panting

"Oh, did you come up here?" Pollyanna greeted her at the door of Miss Polly's own room. "That'll be nicer

yet! I've got the comb. Now sit down, please, right here. Oh, I'm so glad you let me do it!"

Miss Polly did not finish her sentence. To her helpless amazement she found herself in the low chair before

the dressing table, with her hair already tumbling about her ears under ten eager, but very gentle fingers.

"Oh, my! what pretty hair you've got," prattled Pollyanna; "and there's so much more of it than Mrs. Snow

has, too! But, of course, you need more, anyhow, because you're well and can go to places where folks can

see it. My! I reckon folks'll be glad when they do see itand surprised, too, 'cause you've hid it so long.

Why, Aunt Polly, I'll make you so pretty everybody'll just love to look at you!"

"Pollyanna!" gasped a stifled but shocked voice from a veil of hair. II'm sure I don't know why I'm letting

"Why, Aunt Polly, I should think you'd be glad to have folks like to look at you! Don't you like to look at

pretty things? I'm ever so much happier when I look at pretty folks, 'cause when I look at the other kind I'm

"And I just love to do folks' hair," purred Pollyanna, contentedly. "I did quite a lot of the Ladies' Aiders'but

there wasn't any of them so nice as yours. Mrs. White's was pretty nice, though, and she looked just lovely

one day when I dressed her up inOh, Aunt Polly, I've just happened to think of something! But it's a secret,

and I sha'n't tell. Now your hair is almost done, and pretty quick I'm going to leave you just a minute; and you

must promisepromisePROMISE not to stir nor peek, even, till I come back. Now remember! she

Aloud Miss Polly said nothing. To herself she said that of course she should at once undo the absurd work of

her niece's fingers, and put her hair up properly again. As for "peeking" just as if she cared how

At that momentunaccountablyMiss Polly caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror of the dressing table.

And what she saw sent such a flush of rosy color to her cheeks thatshe only flushed the more at the sight.

She saw a facenot young, it is truebut just now alight with excitement and surprise. The cheeks were a

pretty pink. The eyes sparkled. The hair, dark, and still damp from the outdoor air, lay in loose waves about

the forehead and curved back over the ears in wonderfully becoming lines, with softening little curls here and

So amazed and so absorbed was Miss Polly with what she saw in the glass that she quite forgot her

determination to do over her hair, until she heard Pollyanna enter the room again. Before she could move,

"That's just what I don't want you to know, Aunt Polly, and I was afraid you WOULD peek, so I tied on the

handkerchief. Now sit still. It won't take but just a minute, then I'll let you see."

"But, Pollyanna," began Miss Polly, struggling blindly to her feet, "you must take this off! Youchild,

child! what ARE you doing?" she gasped, as she felt a soft something slipped about her shoulders.

Pollyanna only chuckled the more gleefully. With trembling fingers she was draping about her aunt's

shoulders the fleecy folds of a beautiful lace shawl, yellowed from long years of packing away, and fragrant

with lavender. Pollyanna had found the shawl the week before when Nancy had been regulating the attic; and

it had occurred to her today that there was no reason why her aunt, as well as Mrs. White of her Western

Her task completed, Pollyanna surveyed her work with eyes that approved, but that saw yet one touch

wanting. Promptly, therefore, she pulled her aunt toward the sun parlor where she could see a belated red rose

"Pollyanna, what are you doing? Where are you taking me to?" recoiled Aunt Polly, vainly trying to hold

"It's just to the sun parloronly a minute! I'll have you ready now quicker'n no time," panted Pollyanna,

reaching for the rose and thrusting it into the soft hair above Miss Polly's left ear. "There!" she exulted,

untying the knot of the handkerchief and flinging the bit of linen far from her. "Oh, Aunt Polly, now I reckon

For one dazed moment Miss Polly looked at her bedecked self, and at her surroundings; then she gave a low

cry and fled to her room. Pollyanna, following the direction of her aunt's last dismayed gaze, saw, through the

open windows of the sun parlor, the horse and gig turning into the driveway. She recognized at once the man

In the bedroom Pollyanna found a flushedfaced, angryeyed woman plucking at the pins that held a lace

"Pollyanna, how could you?" moaned the woman. "To think of your rigging me up like this, and then letting

" 'Lovely'!" scorned the woman, flinging the shawl to one side and attacking her hair with shaking fingers.

"Stay? Like this? As if I would!" And Miss Polly pulled the locks so tightly back that the last curl lay

"O dear! And you did look so pretty," almost sobbed Pollyanna, as she stumbled through the door.

"I've prescribed you for a patient, and he's sent me to get the prescription filled," announced the doctor. "Will

"You meanan errandto the drug store?" asked Pollyanna, a little uncertainly. "I used to go somefor

"Not exactly. It's Mr. John Pendleton. He would like to see you today, if you'll be so good as to come. It's

stopped raining, so I drove down after you. Will you come? I'll call for you and bring you back before six

"Didn'tyour aunt want you to go?" asked the doctor, a little diffidently, as they drove away.

"Yes. I reckon she meant she didn't want me there. You see, she said: 'Yes, yes, run along, run alongdo! I

The doctor smiledbut with his lips only. His eyes were very grave. For some time he said nothing; then, a

"Wasn't ityour aunt I saw with you a few minutes agoin the window of the sun parlor?

"Yes; that's what's the whole trouble, I suppose. You see I'd dressed her up in a perfectly lovely lace shawl I

found upstairs, and I'd fixed her hair and put on a rose, and she looked so pretty. Didn't YOU think she

For a moment the doctor did not answer. When he did speak his voice was so low Pollyanna could but just

"That's somaybe she wouldn't," she sighed. "I remember now; 'twas 'cause she saw you that she ran. And

The doctor said nothing. He did not speak again, indeed, until they were almost to the great stone house in

"Well, Miss Pollyanna, I'm thinking you must be a very forgiving little person, else you wouldn't have come

"Why, Mr. Pendleton, I was real glad to come, and I'm sure I don't see why I shouldn't be, either."

"Oh, well, you know, I was pretty cross with you, I'm afraid, both the other day when you so kindly brought

me the jelly, and that time when you found me with the broken leg at first. By the way, too, I don't think I've

ever thanked you for that. Now I'm sure that even you would admit that you were very forgiving to come and

"But I was glad to find youthat is, I don't mean I was glad your leg was broken, of course," she corrected

"I understand. Your tongue does get away with you once in a while, doesn't it, Miss Pollyanna? I do thank

you, however; and I consider you a very brave little girl to do what you did that day. I thank you for the jelly,

"Very much. I supposethere isn't any more today thatthat Aunt Polly DIDN'T send, is there?" he asked

"Nno, sir." She hesitated, then went on with heightened color. "Please, Mr. Pendleton, I didn't mean to be

There was no answer. John Pendleton was not smiling now. He was looking straight ahead of him with eyes

that seemed to be gazing through and beyond the object before them. After a time he drew a long sigh and

turned to Pollyanna. When he spoke his voice carried the old nervous fretfulness.

"Well, well, this will never do at all! I didn't send for you to see me moping this time. Listen! Out in the

librarythe big room where the telephone is, you knowyou will find a carved box on the lower shelf of

the big case with glass doors in the corner not far from the fireplace. That is, it'll be there if that confounded

woman hasn't 'regulated' it to somewhere else! You may bring it to me. It is heavy, but not too heavy for you

"Oh, I'm awfully strong," declared Pollyanna, cheerfully, as she sprang to her feet. In a minute she had

It was a wonderful halfhour that Pollyanna spent then. The box was full of treasurescurios that John

Pendleton had picked up in years of traveland concerning each there was some entertaining story, whether

it were a set of exquisitely carved chessmen from China, or a little jade idol from India.

It was after she had heard the story about the idol that Pollyanna murmured wistfully:

"Well, I suppose it WOULD be better to take a little boy in India to bring upone that didn't know any more

than to think that God was in that dollthingthan it would be to take Jimmy Bean, a little boy who knows

God is up in the sky. Still, I can't help wishing they had wanted Jimmy Bean, too, besides the India boys."

John Pendleton did not seem to hear. Again his, eyes were staring straight before him, looking at nothing. But

The visit, certainly, was a delightful one, but before it was over, Pollyanna was realizing that they were

talking about something besides the wonderful things in the beautiful carved box. They were talking of

herself, of Nancy, of Aunt Polly, and of her daily life. They were talking, too, even of the life and home long

Not until it was nearly time for her to go, did the man say, in a voice Pollyanna had never before heard from

"Little girl, I want you to come to see me often. Will you? I'm lonesome, and I need you. There's another

reasonand I'm going to tell you that, too. I thought, at first, after I found out who you were, the other day,

that I didn't want you to come any more. You reminded me ofof something I have tried for long years to

forget. So I said to myself that I never wanted to see you again; and every day, when the doctor asked if I

"But after a time I found I was wanting to see you so much thatthat the fact that I WASN'T seeing you was

making me remember all the more vividly the thing I was so wanting to forget. So now I want you to come.

"Why, yes, Mr. Pendleton," breathed Pollyanna, her eyes luminous with sympathy for the sadfaced man

After supper that evening, Pollyanna, sitting on the back porch, told Nancy all about Mr. John Pendleton's

"And ter think," sighed Nancy, "that he SHOWED ye all them things, and told ye about 'em like thathim

"Oh, but he isn't cross, Nancy, only outside," demurred Pollyanna, with quick loyalty. "I don't see why

everybody thinks he's so bad, either. They wouldn't, if they knew him. But even Aunt Polly doesn't like him

very well. She wouldn't send the jelly to him, you know, and she was so afraid he'd think she did send it!"

"Probably she didn't call him no duty," shrugged Nancy. "But what beats me is how he happened ter take ter

you so, Miss Pollyannameanin' no offence ter you, of coursebut he ain't the sort o' man what gen'rally

"But he did, Nancy," she nodded, "only I reckon even he didn't want toALL the time. Why, only today he

owned up that one time he just felt he never wanted to see me again, because I reminded him of something he

"What's that?" interrupted Nancy, excitedly. "He said you reminded him of something he wanted to forget?"

"THE MYSTERY!" breathed Nancy, in an awestruck voice. "That's why he took to you in the first place. Oh,

Miss Pollyanna! Why, that's just like a bookI've read lots of 'em; 'Lady Maud's Secret,' and 'The Lost Heir,'

and 'Hidden for Years'all of 'em had mysteries and things just like this. My stars and stockings! Just think

of havin' a book lived right under yer nose like this an' me not knowin' it all this time! Now tell me

everythin'everythin' he said, Miss Pollyanna, there's a dear! No wonder he took ter you; no wonderno

"But he didn't," cried Pollyanna, "not till _I_ talked to HIM, first. And he didn't even know who I was till I

took the calf'sfoot jelly, and had to make him understand that Aunt Polly didn't send it, and"

"Oh, Miss Pollyanna, I know, I knowI KNOW I know!" she exulted rapturously. The next minute she was

down at Pollyanna's side again. "Tell menow think, and answer straight and true," she urged excitedly. "It

was after he found out you was Miss Polly's niece that he said he didn't ever want ter see ye again, wa'n't it?"

"I thought as much," triumphed Nancy. "And Miss Polly wouldn't send the jelly herself, would she?"

"And he began ter act queer and cry out sudden after he found out you was her niece. He did that, didn't he?"

"Why, yyes; he did act a little queerover that jelly," admitted Pollyanna, with a thoughtful frown.

"Then I've got it, sure! Now listen. MR. JOHN PENDLETON WAS MISS POLLY HARRINGTON'S

LOVER!" she announced impressively, but with a furtive glance over her shoulder.

Pollyanna still looked incredulous, and with another long breath Nancy happily settled herself to tell the

"It's like this. Just before you come, Mr. Tom told me Miss Polly had had a lover once. I didn't believe it. I

couldn'ther and a lover! But Mr. Tom said she had, and that he was livin' now right in this town. And

NOW I know, of course. It's John Pendleton. Hain't he got a mystery in his life? Don't he shut himself up in

that grand house alone, and never speak ter no one? Didn't he act queer when he found out you was Miss

Polly's niece? And now hain't he owned up that you remind him of somethin' he wants ter forget? Just as if

ANYBODY couldn't see 'twas Miss Polly!an' her sayin' she wouldn't send him no jelly, too. Why, Miss

"Ohh!" breathed Pollyanna, in wideeyed amazement. "But, Nancy, I should think if they loved each other

they'd make up some time. Both of 'em all alone, so, all these years. I should think they'd be glad to make

"I guess maybe you don't know much about lovers, Miss Pollyanna. You ain't big enough yet, anyhow. But if

there IS a set o' folks in the world that wouldn't have no use for that 'ere 'glad game' o' your'n, it'd be a pair o'

quarrellin' lovers; and that's what they be. Ain't he cross as sticks, most gen'rally?and ain't she"

Nancy stopped abruptly, remembering just in time to whom, and about whom, she was speaking. Suddenly,

"I ain't sayin', though, Miss Pollyanna, but what it would be a pretty slick piece of business if you could GET

'em ter playin' itso they WOULD be glad ter make up. But, my land! wouldn't folks stare someMiss

Pollyanna said nothing; but when she went into the house a little later, her face was very thoughtful.

As the warm August days passed, Pollyanna went very frequently to the great house on Pendleton Hill. She

did not feel, however, that her visits were really a success. Not but that the man seemed to want her

therehe sent for her, indeed, frequently; but that when she was there, he seemed scarcely any the happier

He talked to her, it was true, and be showed her many strange and beautiful thingsbooks, pictures, and

curios. But he still fretted audibly over his own helplessness, and he chafed visibly under the rules and

"regulatings" of the unwelcome members of his household. He did, indeed, seem to like to hear Pollyanna

talk, however, and Pollyanna talked, Pollyanna liked to talkbut she was never sure that she would not look

up and find him lying back on his pillow with that white, hurt look that always pained her; and she was never

sure whichif anyof her words had brought it there. As for telling him the "glad game," and trying to get

him to play itPollyanna had never seen the time yet when she thought he would care to hear about it. She

had twice tried to tell him; but neither time had she got beyond the beginning of what her father had

saidJohn Pendleton had on each occasion turned the conversation abruptly to another subject.

Pollyanna never doubted now that John Pendleton was her Aunt Polly's onetime lover; and with all the

strength of her loving, loyal heart, she wished she could in some way bring happiness into their to her

Just how she was to do this, however, she could not see. She talked to Mr. Pendleton about her aunt; and he

listened, sometimes politely, sometimes irritably, frequently with a quizzical smile on his usually stern lips.

She talked to her aunt about Mr. Pendletonor rather, she tried to talk to her about him. As a general thing,

however, Miss Polly would not listenlong. She always found something else to talk about. She frequently

did that, however, when Pollyanna was talking of othersof Dr. Chilton, for instance. Pollyanna laid this,

though, to the fact that it had been Dr. Chilton who had seen her in the sun parlor with the rose in her hair and

the lace shawl draped about her shoulders. Aunt Polly, indeed, seemed particularly bitter against Dr. Chilton,

"Shall you? Then I'm going to be worse," gurgled Pollyanna. "I'd love to have Dr. Chilton come to see me!"

"It will not be Dr. Chilton, Pollyanna," Miss Polly said sternly. "Dr. Chilton is not our family physician. I

"And I'm so glad, too," Pollyanna said to her aunt that evening. "Of course I like Dr. Warren, and all that; but

I like Dr. Chilton better, and I'm afraid he'd feel hurt if I didn't have him. You see, he wasn't really to blame,

after all, that he happened to see you when I'd dressed you up so pretty that day, Aunt Polly," she finished

"That will do, Pollyanna. I really do not wish to discuss Dr. Chiltonor his feelings," reproved Miss Polly,

Pollyanna looked at her for a moment with mournfully interested eyes; then she sighed:

"I just love to see you when your cheeks are pink like that, Aunt Polly; but I would so like to fix your hair.

It was toward the end of August that Pollyanna, making an early morning call on John Pendleton, found the

flaming band of blue and gold and green edged with red and violet lying across his pillow. She stopped short

"Why, Mr. Pendleton, it's a baby rainbowa real rainbow come in to pay you a visit!" she exclaimed,

clapping her hands together softly. "Ohohoh, how pretty it is! But how DID it get in?" she cried.

The man laughed a little grimly: John Pendleton was particularly out of sorts with the world this morning.

"Well, I suppose it 'got in' through the bevelled edge of that glass thermometer in the window," he said

"Oh, but it's so pretty, Mr. Pendleton! And does just the sun do that? My! if it was mine I'd have it hang in the

"Lots of good you'd get out of the thermometer, then," laughed the man. "How do you suppose you could tell

how hot it was, or how cold it was, if the thermometer hung in the sun all day?"

"I shouldn't care," breathed Pollyanna, her fascinated eyes on the brilliant band of colors across the pillow.

The man laughed. He was watching Pollyanna's rapt face a little curiously. Suddenly a new thought came to

"Nora," he said, when the elderly maid appeared at the door, "bring me one of the big brass candlesticks

"Yes, sir," murmured the woman, looking slightly dazed. In a minute she had returned. A musical tinkling

entered the room with her as she advanced wonderingly toward the bed. It came from the prism pendants

"Thank you. You may set it here on the stand," directed the man. "Now get a string and fasten it to the

sashcurtain fixtures of that window there. Take down the sashcurtain, and let the string reach straight

across the window from side to side. That will be all. Thank you," he said, when she had carried out his

With both hands she brought it; and in a moment he was slipping off the pendants, one by one, until they lay,

"Now, my dear, suppose you take them and hook them to that little string Nora fixed across the window. If

you really WANT to live in a rainbowI don't see but we'll have to have a rainbow for you to live in!"

Pollyanna had not hung up three of the pendants in the sunlit window before she saw a little of what was

going to happen. She was so excited then she could scarcely control her shaking fingers enough to hang up

the rest. But at last her task was finished, and she stepped back with a low cry of delight.

It had become a fairylandthat sumptuous, but dreary bedroom. Everywhere were bits of dancing red and

green, violet and orange, gold and blue. The wall, the floor, and the furniture, even to the bed itself, were

"Oh, oh, oh, how lovely!" breathed Pollyanna; then she laughed suddenly. "I just reckon the sun himself is

trying to play the game now, don't you?" she cried, forgetting for the moment that Mr. Pendleton could not

know what she was talking about. "Oh, how I wish I had a lot of those things! How I would like to give them

to Aunt Polly and Mrs. Snow andlots of folks. I reckon THEN they'd be glad all right! Why, I think even

Aunt Polly'd get so glad she couldn't help banging doors if she lived in a rainbow like that. Don't you?"

"Well, from my remembrance of your aunt, Miss Pollyanna, I must say I think it would take something more

than a few prisms in the sunlight toto make her bang many doorsfor gladness. But come, now, really,

And this time Pollyanna told him. She told him the whole thing from the very firstfrom the crutches that

should have been a doll. As she talked, she did not look at his face. Her rapt eyes were still on the dancing

"And that's all," she sighed, when she had finished. "And now you know why I said the sun was trying to play

"Perhaps; but I'm thinking that the very finest prism of them all is yourself, Pollyanna."

"Oh, but I don't show beautiful red and green and purple when the sun shines through me, Mr. Pendleton!"

"Don't you?" smiled the man. And Pollyanna, looking into his face, wondered why there were tears in his

"No," she said. Then, after a minute she added mournfully: "I'm afraid, Mr. Pendleton, the sun doesn't make

The man laughed a little; and again Pollyanna looked at him: the laugh had sounded almost like a sob.

Pollyanna entered school in September. Preliminary examinations showed that she was well advanced for a

girl of her years, and she was soon a happy member of a class of girls and boys her own age.

School, in some ways, was a surprise to Pollyanna; and Pollyanna, certainly, in many ways, was very much

of a surprise to school. They were soon on the best of terms, however, and to her aunt Pollyanna confessed

In spite of her delight in her new work, Pollyanna did not forget her old friends. True, she could not give

them quite so much time now, of course; but she gave them what time she could. Perhaps John Pendleton, of

"See here, Pollyanna, how would you like to come and live with me? he asked, a little impatiently. "I don't

"Oh, but that was before you taught me to play that wonderful game of yours. Now I'm glad to be waited on,

hand and foot! Never mind, I'll be on my own two feet yet, one of these days; then I'll see who steps around,"

he finished, picking up one of the crutches at his side and shaking it playfully at the little girl. They were

"Oh, but you aren't really glad at all for things; you just SAY you are," pouted Pollyanna, her eyes on the dog,

dozing before the fire. "You know you don't play the game right EVER, Mr. Pendletonyou know you

A quick something crossed the man's face that Pollyanna could not quite understand. His head came up

"You're no more hers thanPerhaps she would let you come to me," he finished more gently. "Would you

"But Aunt Polly has been sogood to me," she began slowly; "and she took me when I didn't have anybody

Again that spasm of something crossed the man's face; but this time, when he spoke, his voice was low and

"Pollyanna, long years ago I loved somebody very much. I hoped to bring her, some day, to this house. I

"Butwell, I didn't bring her here. Never mind why. I just didn't that's all. And ever since then this great

gray pile of stone has been a housenever a home. It takes a woman's hand and heart, or a child's presence,

to make a home, Pollyanna; and I have not had either. Now will you come, my dear?"

"Mr. Pendleton, youyou mean that you wish youyou had had that woman's hand and heart all this

"Oh, I'm so glad! Then it's all right," sighed the little girl. "Now you can take us both, and everything will be

"Well, of course, Aunt Polly isn't won over, yet; but I'm sure she will be if you tell it to her just as you did to

"Would you rather go THERE?" she asked. Of course the house isn't quite so pretty, but it's nearer"

"Why, about where we're going to live, of course," rejoined Pollyanna, in obvious surprise. "I THOUGHT

you meant here, at first. You said it was here that you had wanted Aunt Polly's hand and heart all these years

An inarticulate cry came from the man's throat. He raised his hand and began to speak; but the next moment

"Pollyanna, for Heaven's sake, say nothing of what I asked youyet," he begged, in a low voice. Pollyanna

"Of course not! Just as if I didn't know you'd rather tell her yourself!" she called back merrily over her

"Why, what's up?" demanded the doctor, a minute later, his fingers on his patient's galloping pulse.

"Overdose of yourtonic, I guess," he laughed, as he noted the doctor's eyes following Pollyanna's little

Sunday mornings Pollyanna usually attended church and Sunday school. Sunday afternoons she frequently

went for a walk with Nancy. She had planned one for the day after her Saturday afternoon visit to Mr. John

Pendleton; but on the way home from Sunday school Dr. Chilton overtook her in his gig, and brought his

"Suppose you let me drive you home, Pollyanna," he suggested. "I want to speak to you a minute. I, was just

driving out to your place to tell you," he went on, as Pollyanna settled herself at his side. "Mr. Pendleton sent

a special request for you to go to see him this afternoon, SURE. He says it's very important."

"I'm not sure I shall let you, after all," he declared, his eyes twinkling. "You seemed more upsetting than

"Oh, it wasn't me, trulynot really, you know; not so much as it was Aunt Polly."

"Yes. And it's so exciting and lovely, just like a story, you know. II'm going to tell you," she burst out,

with sudden decision. He said not to mention it; but he wouldn't mind your knowing, of course. He meant not

"Yes; Aunt Polly. And, of course he WOULD want to tell her himself instead of having me do itlovers,

"Lovers!" As the doctor said the word, the horse started violently, as if the hand that held the reins had given

"Yes," nodded Pollyanna, happily. "That's the storypart, you see. I didn't know it till Nancy told me. She

said Aunt Polly had a lover years ago, and they quarrelled. She didn't know who it was at first. But we've

"Yes; and I'm so glad now. It's come out lovely. Mr. Pendleton asked me to come and live with him, but of

course I wouldn't leave Aunt Polly like thatafter she'd been so good to me. Then he told me all about the

woman's hand and heart that he used to want, and I found out that he wanted it now; and I was so glad! For of

course if he wants to make up the quarrel, everything will be all right now, and Aunt Polly and I will both go

to live there, or else he'll come to live with us. Of course Aunt Polly doesn't know yet, and we haven't got

everything settled; so I suppose that is why he wanted to see me this afternoon, sure."

"Yes; I can well imagine that Mr. John Pendleton doeswant to see you, Pollyanna," he nodded, as he

"There's Aunt Polly now in the window," cried Pollyanna; then, a second later: "Why, no, she isn'tbut I

"No; she isn't therenow," said the doctor, His lips had suddenly lost their smile.

"Pollyanna," he began at once. "I've been trying all night to puzzle out what you meant by all that,

yesterdayabout my wanting your Aunt Polly's hand and heart here all those years. What did you mean?"

"Why, because you were lovers, you know once; and I was so glad you still felt that way now."

"O dear! And it was all going so splendidly," almost sobbed Pollyanna. "I'd have been so glad to comewith

"Before you were hers, Pollyanna, you wereyour mother's. Andit was your mother's hand and heart that

"Yes. I had not meant to tell you, but perhaps it's better, after all, that I donow." John Pendleton's face had

grown very white. He was speaking with evident difficulty. Pollyanna, her eyes wide and frightened, and her

lips parted, was gazing at him fixedly. "I loved your mother; but shedidn't love me. And after a time she

went away withyour father. I did not know until then how much I didcare. The whole world suddenly

seemed to turn black under my fingers, andBut, never mind. For long years I have been a cross, crabbed,

unlovable, unloved old manthough I'm not nearly sixty, yet, Pollyanna. Then, One day, like one of the

prisms that you love so well, little girl, you danced into my life, and flecked my dreary old world with dashes

of the purple and gold and scarlet of your own bright cheeriness. I found out, after a time, who you were,

andand I thought then I never wanted to see you again. I didn't want to be reminded ofyour mother.

Butyou know how that came out. I just had to have you come. And now I want you always. Pollyanna,

"But, Mr. Pendleton, IThere's Aunt Polly!" Pollyanna's eyes were blurred with tears.

"What about me? How do you suppose I'm going to be 'glad' about anythingwithout you? Why, Pollyanna,

it's only since you came that I've been even half glad to live! But if I had you for my own little girl, I'd be

glad foranything; and I'd try to make you glad, too, my dear. You shouldn't have a wish ungratified. All

"Why, Mr. Pendleton, as if I'd let you spend it on meall that money you've saved for the heathen!"

A dull red came to the man's face. He started to speak, but Pollyanna was still talking.

"Besides, anybody with such a lot of money as you have doesn't need me to make you glad about things.

You're making other folks so glad giving them things that you just can't help being glad yourself! Why, look

at those prisms you gave Mrs. Snow and me, and the gold piece you gave Nancy on her birthday, and"

"Yes, yesnever mind about all that," interrupted the man. His face was very, very red nowand no

wonder, perhaps: it was not for "giving things" that John Pendleton had been best known in the past. "That's

all nonsense. 'Twasn't much, anyhowbut what there was, was because of you. YOU gave those things; not

I! Yes, you did," he repeated, in answer to the shocked denial in her face. "And that only goes to prove all the

more how I need you, little girl," he added, his voice softening into tender pleading once more. "If ever, ever

I am to play the 'glad game,' Pollyanna, you'll have to come and play it with me."

"Aunt Polly has been so good to me," she began; but the man interrupted her sharply. The old irritability had

come back to his face. Impatience which would brook no opposition had been a part of John Pendleton's

"Of course she's been good to you! But she doesn't want you, I'll warrant, half so much as I do," he contested.

"Glad!" interrupted the man, thoroughly losing his patience now. "I'll wager Miss Polly doesn't know how to

be gladfor anything! Oh, she does her duty, I know. She's a very DUTIFUL woman. I've had experience

with her 'duty,' before. I'll acknowledge we haven't been the best of friends for the last fifteen or twenty years.

But I know her. Every one knows herand she isn't the 'glad' kind, Pollyanna. She doesn't know how to be.

As for your coming to meyou just ask her and see if she won't let you come. And, oh, little girl, little girl, I

"All right. I'll ask her," she said wistfully. "Of course I don't mean that I wouldn't like to live here with you,

Mr. Pendleton, but" She did not complete her sentence. There was a moment's silence, then she added:

"Well, anyhow, I'm glad I didn't tell her yesterday;'cause then I supposed SHE was wanted, too."

"Well, yes, Pollyanna; I guess it is just as well you didn't mention ityesterday."

"Well, of all the" muttered the man, falling back in his chair. Then he sat up with sudden interest. "And

"Why, I don't remember. Not much, I reckon. Oh, he did say he could well imagine you did want to see me."

"Oh, did he, indeed!" answered John Pendleton. And Pollyanna wondered why he gave that sudden queer

The sky was darkening fast with what appeared to be an approaching thunder shower when Pollyanna hurried

down the hill from John Pendleton's house. Halfway home she met Nancy with an umbrella. By that time,

however, the clouds had shifted their position and the shower was not so imminent.

"Guess it's goin' 'round ter the north," announced Nancy, eyeing the sky critically. I thought 'twas, all the

"You don't seem ter notice what I said," she observed aggrievedly. "I said yer aunt was WORRIED about

"Oh," sighed Pollyanna, remembering suddenly the question she was so soon to ask her aunt. "I'm sorry. I

"GLAD that Aunt Polly was scared about me! Why, Nancy, THAT isn't the way to play the gameto be

"There wa'n't no game in it," retorted Nancy. "Never thought of it. YOU don't seem ter sense what it means

"Why, it means worriedand worried is horridto feel," maintained Pollyanna. "What else can it mean?"

"Well, I'll tell ye what it means. It means she's at last gettin' down somewheres near humanlike folks; an'

"Why, Nancy," demurred the scandalized Pollyanna, "Aunt Polly always does her duty. Sheshe's a very

dutiful woman!" Unconsciously Pollyanna repeated John Pendleton's words of half an hour before.

"You're right she isand she always was, I guess! But she's somethin' more, now, since you came."

"There, that's what I was going to ask you, Nancy," she sighed. "Do you think Aunt Polly likes to have me

Nancy threw a quick look into the little girl's absorbed face. She had expected to be asked this question long

before, and she had dreaded it. She had wondered how she should answer ithow she could answer it

honestly without cruelly hurting the questioner. But now, NOW, in the face of the new suspicions that had

become convictions by the afternoon's umbrellasendingNancy only welcomed the question with open

arms. She was sure that, with a clean conscience today, she could set the lovehungry little girl's heart at

"Likes ter have ye here? Would she miss ye if ye wa'n't here?" cried Nancy, indignantly. "As if that wa'n't jest

what I was tellin' of ye! Didn't she send me posthaste with an umbrella 'cause she see a little cloud in the sky?

Didn't she make me tote yer things all downstairs, so you could have the pretty room you wanted? Why,

"And it ain't jest things I can put my fingers on, neither," rushed on Nancy, breathlessly. "It's little ways she

has, that shows how you've been softenin' her up an' mellerin' her downthe cat, and the dog, and the way

she speaks ter me, and oh, lots o' things. Why, Miss Pollyanna, there ain't no tellin' how she'd miss yeif ye

wa'n't here," finished Nancy, speaking with an enthusiastic certainty that was meant to hide the perilous

admission she had almost made before. Even then she was not quite prepared for the sudden joy that

"Oh, Nancy, I'm so gladgladglad! You don't know how glad I am that Aunt Pollywants me!"

"As if I'd leave her now!" thought Pollyanna, as she climbed the stairs to her room a little later. "I always

knew I wanted to live with Aunt Pollybut I reckon maybe I didn't know quite how much I wanted Aunt

The task of telling John Pendleton of her decision would not be an easy one, Pollyanna knew, and she

dreaded it. She was very fond of John Pendleton, and she was very sorry for himbecause he seemed to be

so sorry for himself. She was sorry, too, for the long, lonely life that had made him so unhappy; and she was

grieved that it had been because of her mother that he had spent those dreary years. She pictured the great

gray house as it would be after its master was well again, with its silent rooms, its littered floors, its

disordered desk; and her heart ached for his loneliness. She wished that somewhere, some one might be found

whoAnd it was at this point that she sprang to her feet with a little cry of joy at the thought that had come

As soon as she could, after that, she hurried up the hill to John Pendleton's house; and in due time she found

herself in the great dim library, with John Pendleton himself sitting near her, his long, thin hands lying idle on

Well, Pollyanna, is it to be the 'glad game' with me, all the rest of my life?" asked the man, gently.

"Oh, yes," cried Pollyanna. "I've thought of the very gladdest kind of a thing for you to do, and"

"WithYOU?" asked John Pendleton, his mouth growing a little stern at the corners.

Pollyanna turned away her eyes. She could not meet the hurt, grieved gaze of her friend.

"I couldn't, sirtruly," faltered Pollyanna. "You see, I found outwithout asking. Aunt Polly WANTS me

with her, andand I want to stay, too," she confessed bravely. "You don't know how good she's been to me;

andand I think, really, sometimes she's beginning to be glad about thingslots of things. And you know

she never used to be. You said it yourself. Oh, Mr. Pendleton, I COULDN'T leave Aunt Pollynow!"

There was a long pause. Only the snapping of the wood fire in the grate broke the silence. At last, however,

"No, Pollyanna; I see. You couldn't leave hernow," he said. "I won't ask youagain." The last word was

"Oh, but you don't know about the rest of it," she reminded him eagerly. "There's the very gladdest thing you

"Yes, sir, for you. You SAID it. You said only aa woman's hand and heart or a child's presence could make

a home. And I can get it for youa child's presence;not me, you know, but another one."

"But you willwhen you know; you're so kind and good! Why, think of the prisms and the gold pieces, and

"Pollyanna!" interrupted the man, savagely. "Once for all let us end that nonsense! I've tried to tell you half a

dozen times before. There is no money for the heathen. I never sent a penny to them in my life. There!"

He lifted his chin and braced himself to meet what he expectedthe grieved disappointment of Pollyanna's

eyes. To his amazement, however, there was neither grief nor disappointment in Pollyanna's eyes. There was

"Oh, oh!" she cried, clapping her hands. "I'm so glad! That is," she corrected, coloring distressfully, "I don't

mean that I'm not sorry for the heathen, only just now I can't help being glad that you don't want the little

India boys, because all the rest have wanted them. And so I'm glad you'd rather have Jimmy Bean. Now I

"Jimmy Bean. He's the 'child's presence,' you know; and he'll be so glad to be it. I had to tell him last week

that even my Ladies' Aid out West wouldn't take him, and he was so disappointed. But nowwhen he hears

"Will he? Well, I won't," ejaculated the man, decisively. "Pollyanna, this is sheer nonsense!"

"But he'd be a lovely child's presence," faltered Pollyanna. She was almost crying now. "And you

It was then that Pollyanna, for the first time in weeks, suddenly remembered something Nancy had once told

"Maybe you think a nice live little boy wouldn't be better than that old dead skeleton you keep somewhere;

"Why, what" Suddenly the man threw back his head and laughed. He laughed very heartily indeedso

heartily that Pollyanna began to cry from pure nervousness. When he saw that, John Pendleton sat erect very

"Pollyanna, I suspect you are rightmore right than you know," he said gently. "In fact, I KNOW that a 'nice

live little boy' would be far better thanmy skeleton in the closet; onlywe aren't always willing to make

the exchange. We are apt to still cling toour skeletons, Pollyanna. However, suppose you tell me a little

Perhaps the laugh cleared the air; or perhaps the pathos of Jimmy Bean's story as told by Pollyanna's eager

little lips touched a heart already strangely softened. At all events, when Pollyanna went home that night she

carried with her an invitation for Jimmy Bean himself to call at the great house with Pollyanna the next

"And I'm so glad, and I'm sure you'll like him," sighed Pollyanna, as she said goodby. "I do so want Jimmy

On the afternoon that Pollyanna told John Pendleton of Jimmy Bean, the Rev. Paul Ford climbed the hill and

entered the Pendleton Woods, hoping that the hushed beauty of God's outofdoors would still the tumult

The Rev. Paul Ford was sick at heart. Month by month, for a year past, conditions in the parish under him

had been growing worse and worse; until it seemed that now, turn which way he would, he encountered only

wrangling, backbiting, scandal, and jealousy. He had argued, pleaded, rebuked, and ignored by turns; and

always and through all he had prayedearnestly, hopefully. But today miserably he was forced to own that

Two of his deacons were at swords' points over a silly something that only endless brooding had made of any

account. Three of his most energetic women workers had withdrawn from the Ladies' Aid Society because a

tiny spark of gossip had been fanned by wagging tongues into a devouring flame of scandal. The choir had

split over the amount of solo work given to a fanciedly preferred singer. Even the Christian Endeavor Society

was in a ferment of unrest owing to open criticism of two of its officers. As to the Sunday schoolit had

been the resignation of its superintendent and two of its teachers that had been the last straw, and that had

Under the green arch of the trees the Rev. Paul Ford faced the thing squarely. To his mind, the crisis had

come. Something must be doneand done at once. The entire work of the church was at a standstill. The

Sunday services, the weekday prayer meeting, the missionary teas, even the suppers and socials were

becoming less and less well attended. True, a few conscientious workers were still left. But they pulled at

cross purposes, usually; and always they showed themselves to be acutely aware of the critical eyes all about

them, and of the tongues that had nothing to do but to talk about what the eyes saw.

And because of all this, the Rev. Paul Ford understood very well that he (God's minister), the church, the

town, and even Christianity itself was suffering; and must suffer still more unless

Slowly the minister took from his pocket the notes he had made for his next Sunday's sermon. Frowningly he

looked at them. His mouth settled into stern lines, as aloud, very impressively, he read the verses on which he

" 'But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for

ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.'

" 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make

" 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have

omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to

It was a bitter denunciation. In the green aisles of the woods, the minister's deep voice rang out with scathing

effect. Even the birds and squirrels seemed hushed into awed silence. It brought to the minister a vivid

realization of how those words would sound the next Sunday when he should utter them before his people in

His people!they WERE his people. Could he do it? Dare he do it? Dare he not do it? It was a fearful

denunciation, even without the words that would followhis own words. He had prayed and prayed. He had

pleaded earnestly for help, for guidance. He longedoh, how earnestly he longed!to take now, in this

Slowly the minister folded the papers and thrust them back into his pocket. Then, with a sigh that was almost

a moan, he flung himself down at the foot of a tree, and covered his face with his hands.

It was there that Pollyanna, on her way home from the Pendleton house, found him. With a little cry she ran

"Oh, oh, Mr. Ford! YouYOU haven't broken YOUR leg oror anything, have you?" she gasped.

"Oh," sighed Pollyanna, falling back a little. "That's all right, then. You see, Mr. Pendleton HAD broken his

The last words were very low, but Pollyanna heard them. A swift change crossed her face. Her eyes glowed

"I know what you meansomething plagues you. Father used to feel like that, lots of times. I reckon

ministers domost generally. You see there's such a lot depends on 'em, somehow."

"Yes, sir. Didn't you know? I supposed everybody knew that. He married Aunt Polly's sister, and she was my

"Oh, I understand. But, you see, I haven't been here many years, so I don't know all the family histories."

There was a long pause. The minister, still sitting at the foot of the tree, appeared to have forgotten

Pollyanna's presence. He had pulled some papers from his pocket and unfolded them; but he was not looking

at them. He was gazing, instead, at a leaf on the ground a little distance awayand it was not even a pretty

leaf. It was brown and dead. Pollyanna, looking at him, felt vaguely sorry for him.

"And 'tisn't cold at all, either, even if 'tis October," observed Pollyanna, still more hopefully. "Mr. Pendleton

had a fire, but he said he didn't need it. It was just to look at. I like to look at fires, don't you?"

There was no reply this time, though Pollyanna waited patiently, before she tried againby a new route.

"Nothingonly the way you looked. It made me think of my father. He used to look like thatsometimes."

"Did he?" The minister's voice was polite, but his eyes had gone back to the dried leaf on the ground.

"Yes, and I used to ask him just as I did you if he was glad he was a minister."

"Oh, he always said he was, of course, but 'most always he said, too, that he wouldn't STAY a minister a

"TheWHAT?" The Rev. Paul Ford's eyes left the leaf and gazed wonderingly into Pollyanna's merry little

"Well, that's what father used to call 'em," she laughed. "Of course the Bible didn't name 'em that. But it's all

those that begin 'Be glad in the Lord,' or 'Rejoice greatly,' or 'Shout for joy,' and all that, you knowsuch a

lot of 'em. Once, when father felt specially bad, he counted 'em. There were eight hundred of 'em."

"Yesthat told you to rejoice and be glad, you know; that's why father named 'em the 'rejoicing texts.' "

"Oh!" There was an odd look on the minister's face. His eyes had fallen to the words on the top paper in his

hands"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" "And so your fatherliked those 'rejoicing

"Oh, yes," nodded Pollyanna, emphatically. "He said he felt better right away, that first day he thought to

count 'em. He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want

us to do itSOME. And father felt ashamed that he hadn't done it more. After that, they got to be such a

comfort to him, you know, when things went wrong; when the Ladies' Aiders got to fightI mean, when

they DIDN'T AGREE about something," corrected Pollyanna, hastily. "Why, it was those texts, too, father

said, that made HIM think of the gamehe began with ME on the crutchesbut he said 'twas the rejoicing

"About finding something in everything to be glad about, you know. As I said, he began with me on the

crutches." And once more Pollyanna told her storythis time to a man who listened with tender eyes and

A little later Pollyanna and the minister descended the hill, hand in hand. Pollyanna's face was radiant.

Pollyanna loved to talk, and she had been talking now for some time: there seemed to be so many, many

things about the game, her father, and the old home life that the minister wanted to know.

At the foot of the hill their ways parted, and Pollyanna down one road, and the minister down another,

In the Rev. Paul Ford's study that evening the minister sat thinking. Near him on the desk lay a few loose

sheets of paperhis sermon notes. Under the suspended pencil in his fingers lay other sheets of paper,

blankhis sermon to be. But the minister was not thinking either of what he had written, or of what be

intended to write. In his imagination he was far away in a little Western town with a missionary minister who

was poor, sick, worried, and almost alone in the worldbut who was poring over the Bible to find how many

After a time, with a long sigh, the Rev. Paul Ford roused himself, came back from the far Western town, and

"Matthew twentythird; 1314 and 23," he wrote; then, with a gesture of impatience, he dropped his pencil

and pulled toward him a magazine left on the desk by his wife a few minutes before. Listlessly his tired eyes

"A father one day said to his son, Tom, who, he knew, had refused to fill his mother's woodbox that morning:

'Tom, I'm sure you'll be glad to go and bring in some wood for your mother.' And without a word Tom went.

Why? Just because his father showed so plainly that he expected him to do the right thing. Suppose he had

said: 'Tom, I overheard what you said to your mother this morning, and I'm ashamed of you. Go at once and

fill that woodbox!' I'll warrant that woodbox, would be empty yet, so far as Tom was concerned!"

On and on read the ministera word here, a line there, a paragraph somewhere else:

"What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not

weakened. . . . Instead of always harping on a man's faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his

rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his REAL self that can dare and do and win out! . . . The

influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town. . . .

People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. If a man feels kindly and obliging, his neighbors will

feel that way, too, before long. But if he scolds and scowls and criticizeshis neighbors will return scowl for

scowl, and add interest! . . . When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will

find the goodyou will get that. . . . Tell your son Tom you KNOW he'll be glad to fill that woodboxthen

The minister dropped the paper and lifted his chin. In a moment he was on his feet, tramping the narrow room

back and forth, back and forth. Later, some time later, he drew a long breath, and dropped himself in the chair

"God helping me, I'll do it!" he cried softly. "I'll tell all my Toms I KNOW they'll be glad to fill that

woodbox! I'll give them work to do, and I'll make them so full of the very joy of doing it that they won't have

TIME to look at their neighbors' woodboxes!" And he picked up his sermon notes, tore straight through the

sheets, and cast them from him, so that on one side of his chair lay "But woe unto you," and on the other,

"scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" while across the smooth white paper before him his pencil fairly

flewafter first drawing one black line through Matthew twentythird; 1314 and 23."

Thus it happened that the Rev. Paul Ford's sermon the next Sunday was a veritable buglecall to the best that

was in every man and woman and child that heard it; and its text was one of Pollyanna's shining eight

"Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart."

At Mrs. Snow's request, Pollyanna went one day to Dr. Chilton's office to get the name of a medicine which

Mrs. Snow had forgotten. As it chanced, Pollyanna had never before seen the inside of Dr. Chilton's office.

"I've never been to your home before! This IS your home, isn't it?" she said, looking interestedly about her.

"Yessuch as 'tis," he answered, as he wrote something on the pad of paper in his hand; "but it's a pretty

Pollyanna nodded her head wisely. Her eyes glowed with sympathetic understanding.

"I know. It takes a woman's hand and heart, or a child's presence to make a home," she said.

"Mr. Pendleton told me," nodded Pollyanna, again; "about the woman's hand and heart, or the child's

presence, you know. Why don't you get a woman's hand and heart, Dr. Chilton? Or maybe you'd take Jimmy

"So Mr. Pendleton says it takes a woman's hand and heart to make a home, does he?" he asked evasively.

"Get a woman's hand and heart. Ohand I forgot." Pollyanna's face showed suddenly a painful color. "I

suppose I ought to tell you. It wasn't Aunt Polly that Mr. Pendleton loved long ago; and so wewe aren't

going there to live. You see, I told you it wasbut I made a mistake. I hope YOU didn't tell any one," she

"Oh, that's all right, then," sighed Pollyanna in relief. "You see you're the only one I told, and I thought Mr.

"Yes. And of course he wouldn't want many people to know itwhen 'twasn't true. But why don't you get a

"But I should think you could get 'em," she argued. The flattering emphasis was unmistakable.

"Thank you," laughed the doctor, with uplifted eyebrows. Then, gravely again: "I'm afraid some of your older

sisters would not be quite soconfident. At least, theythey haven't shown themselves to be

"Why, Dr. Chilton, you don't meanyou didn't try to get somebody's hand and heart once, like Mr.

"There, there, Pollyanna, never mind about that now. Don't let other people's troubles worry your little head.

Suppose you run back now to Mrs. Snow. I've written down the name of the medicine, and the directions how

"No, Sir; thank you, Sir," she murmured soberly, as she turned toward the door. From the little hallway she

called back, her face suddenly alight: "Anyhow, I'm glad 'twasn't my mother's hand and heart that you wanted

It was on the last day of October that the accident occurred. Pollyanna, hurrying home from school, crossed

the road at an apparently safe distance in front of a swiftly approaching motor car.

Just what happened, no one could seem to tell afterward. Neither was there any one found who could tell why

it happened or who was to blame that it did happen. Pollyanna, however, at five o'clock, was borne, limp and

unconscious, into the little room that was so dear to her. There, by a whitefaced Aunt Polly and a weeping

Nancy she was undressed tenderly and put to bed, while from the village, hastily summoned by telephone,

"And ye didn't need ter more'n look at her aunt's face," Nancy was sobbing to Old Tom in the garden, after

the doctor had arrived and was closeted in the hushed room; "ye didn't need ter more'n look at her aunt's face

ter see that 'twa'n't no duty that was eatin' her. Yer hands don't shake, and yer eyes don't look as if ye was

tryin' ter hold back the Angel o' Death himself, when you're jest doin' yer DUTY, Mr. Tom they don't, they

"There ain't no tellin'," sobbed Nancy. "She lay back that white an' still she might easy be dead; but Miss

Polly said she wa'n't deadan' Miss Polly had oughter know, if any one wouldshe kept up such a listenin'

"Couldn't ye tell anythin' what it done to her?thatthat" Old Tom's face worked convulsively.

"I wish ye WOULD call it somethin', Mr. Tom an' somethin' good an' strong, too. Drat it! Ter think of its

runnin' down our little girl! I always hated the evilsmellin' things, anyhowI did, I did!"

"I don't know, I don't know," moaned Nancy. There's a little cut on her blessed head, but 'tain't badthat

"I guess you mean internally, Nancy," he said dryly. "She's hurt infernally, all rightplague take that

"Eh? Well, I don't know, I don't know," moaned Nancy, with a shake of her head as she turned away. "Seems

as if I jest couldn't stand it till that doctor gits out o' there. I wish I had a washin' ter dothe biggest washin' I

Even after the doctor was gone, however, there seemed to be little that Nancy could tell Mr. Tom. There

appeared to be no bones broken, and the cut was of slight consequence; but the doctor had looked very grave,

had shaken his head slowly, and had said that time alone could tell. After he had gone, Miss Polly had shown

a face even whiter and more drawn looking than before. The patient had not fully recovered consciousness,

but at present she seemed to be resting as comfortably as could be expected. A trained nurse had been sent

for, and would come that night. That was all. And Nancy turned sobbingly, and went back to her kitchen.

It was sometime during the next forenoon that Pollyanna opened conscious eyes and realized where she was.

"Why, Aunt Polly, what's the matter? Isn't it daytime? Why don't I get up?" she cried. "Why, Aunt Polly, I

can't get up," she moaned, falling back on the pillow, after an ineffectual attempt to lift herself.

Miss Polly's eyes asked an agonized question of the whitecapped young woman standing in the window, out

Miss Polly cleared her throat, and tried to swallow the lump that would scarcely let her speak.

"You were hurt, dear, by the automobile last night. But never mind that now. Auntie wants you to rest and go

"Hurt? Oh, yes; II ran." Pollyanna's eyes were dazed. She lifted her hand to her forehead. "Why,

"But, Aunt Polly, I feel so funny, and so bad! My legs feel soso queeronly they don't FEELat all!"

With an imploring look into the nurse's face, Miss Polly struggled to her feet, and turned away. The nurse

"Suppose you let me talk to you now," she began cheerily. "I'm sure I think it's high time we were getting

acquainted, and I'm going to introduce myself. I am Miss Hunt, and I've come to help your aunt take care of

you. And the very first thing I'm going to do is to ask you to swallow these little white pills for me."

"But I don't want to be taken care ofthat is, not for long! I want to get up. You know I go to school. Can't I

Well, I may not let you out quite so soon as that, Miss Pollyanna. But just swallow these little pills for me,

"All right," agreed Pollyanna, somewhat doubtfully; "but I MUST go to school day after tomorrowthere

She spoke again, a minute later. She spoke of school, and of the automobile, and of how her head ached; but

very soon her voice trailed into silence under the blessed influence of the little white pills she had swallowed.

Pollyanna did not go to school "tomorrow," nor the "day after tomorrow." Pollyanna, however, did not

realize this, except momentarily when a brief period of full consciousness sent insistent questions to her lips.

Pollyanna did not realize anything, in fact, very clearly until a week had passed; then the fever subsided, the

pain lessened somewhat, and her mind awoke to full consciousness. She had then to be told all over again

"And so it's hurt that I am, and not sick," she sighed at last. "Well, I'm glad of that."

"Yes. I'd so much rather have broken legs like Mr. Pendleton's than lifelonginvalids like Mrs. Snow, you

Miss Pollywho had said nothing whatever about broken legsgot suddenly to her feet and walked to the

little dressing table across the room. She was picking up one object after another now, and putting each down,

in an aimless fashion quite unlike her usual decisiveness. Her face was not aimlesslooking at all, however; it

On the bed Pollyanna lay blinking at the dancing band of colors on the ceiling, which came from one of the

"I'm glad it isn't smallpox that ails me, too," she murmured contentedly. "That would be worse than freckles.

And I'm glad 'tisn't whooping coughI've had that, and it's horridand I'm glad 'tisn't appendicitis nor

measles, 'cause they're catchingmeasles are, I meanand they wouldn't let you stay here."

"You seem toto be glad for a good many things, my dear," faltered Aunt Polly, putting her hand to her

"I am. I've been thinking of 'emlots of 'emall the time I've been looking up at that rainbow. I love

rainbows. I'm so glad Mr. Pendleton gave me those prisms! I'm glad of some things I haven't said yet. I don't

Pollyanna laughed softly again. She turned luminous eyes on her aunt. "Well, you see, since I have been hurt,

you've called me 'dear' lots of timesand you didn't before. I love to be called 'dear'by folks that belong to

you, I mean. Some of the Ladies' Aiders did call me that; and of course that was pretty nice, but not so nice as

if they had belonged to me, like you do. Oh, Aunt Polly, I'm so glad you belong to me!"

Aunt Polly did not answer. Her hand was at her throat again. Her eyes were full of tears. She had turned away

and was hurrying from the room through the door by which the nurse had just entered.

It was that afternoon that Nancy ran out to Old Tom, who was cleaning harnesses in the barn. Her eyes were

"Mr. Tom, Mr. Tom. guess what's happened," she panted. "You couldn't guess in a thousand yearsyou

"Then I cal'late I won't try," retorted the man, grimly, "specially as I hain't got more'n TEN ter live, anyhow,

"Well, listen, then. Who do you s'pose is in the parlor now with the mistress? Who, I say?"

"Not much I aman' me alettin' him in myselfcrutches an' all! An' the team he come in awaitin' this

minute at the door for him, jest as if he wa'n't the cranky old crosspatch he is, what never talks ter no one! jest

"Oh, you needn't be so innercent," she retorted with mock indignation; "you what led me wildgoose chasin'

Nancy glanced through the open barn door toward the house, and came a step nearer to the old man.

"Listen! 'Twas you that was tellin' me Miss Polly had a lover in the first place, wa'n't it? Well, one day I

thinks I finds two and two, and I puts 'em tergether an' makes four. But it turns out ter be fivean' no four at

"If you're goin' ter talk ter me, you've got ter talk plain horse sense," he declared testily. "I never was no hand

"Well, it's this," she explained. "I heard somethin' that made me think him an' Miss Polly was lovers."

"Yes. Oh, I know now; he wasn't. It was that blessed child's mother he was in love with, and that's why he

wantedbut never mind that part," she added hastily, remembering just in time her promise to Pollyanna not

to tell that Mr. Pendleton had wished her to come and live with him. "Well, I've been askin' folks about him

some, since, and I've found out that him an' Miss Polly hain't been friends for years, an' that she's been hatin'

him like pizen owin' ter the silly gossip that coupled their names tergether when she was eighteen or twenty."

"Yes, I remember," nodded Old Tom. "It was three or four years after Miss Jennie give him the mitten and

went off with the other chap. Miss Polly knew about it, of course, and was sorry for him. So she tried ter be

nice to him. Maybe she overdid it a littleshe hated that minister chap so who had took off her sister. At any

"I know it; but they did," declared Old Tom, "and of course no gal of any spunk'll stand that. Then about that

time come her own lover an' the trouble with HIM. After that she shut up like an oyster an' wouldn't have

nothin' ter do with nobody fur a spell. Her heart jest seemed to turn bitter at the core."

"Yes, I know. I've heard about that now," rejoined Nancy; "an' that's why you could 'a' knocked me down

with a feather when I see HIM at the doorhim, what she hain't spoke to for years! But I let him in an' went

"Nothin'at first. She was so still I thought she hadn't heard; and I was jest goin' ter say it over when she

speaks up quiet like: 'Tell Mr. Pendleton I will be down at once.' An' I come an' told him. Then I come out

here an' told you," finished Nancy, casting another backward glance toward the house.

In the ceremonious "parlor" of the Harrington homestead, Mr. John Pendleton did not have to wait long

before a swift step warned him of Miss Polly's coming. As he attempted to rise, she made a gesture of

remonstrance. She did not offer her hand, however, and her face was coldly reserved.

"And that iswon't you tell me HOW she is? His voice was not quite steady this time.

"Dr. Warren himself seemsat sea. He is in correspondence now with a New York specialist. They have

"A slight cut on the head, one or two bruises, andand an injury to the spine which has seemed to

A low cry came from the man. There was a brief silence; then, huskily, he asked:

Miss Polly lifted her hand to the collar at her throat in the gesture that had become so common to her of late.

"Oh, yes. She knows she can'tmove; but she thinks her legs arebroken. She says she's glad it's broken

legs like yours rather than 'lifelonginvalids' like Mrs. Snow's; because broken legs get well, and the

otherdoesn't. She talks like that all the time, until itit seems as if I shoulddie!"

Through the blur of tears in his own eyes, the man saw the drawn face opposite, twisted with emotion.

Involuntarily his thoughts went back to what Pollyanna had said when he had made his final plea for her

It was this thought that made him ask very gently, as soon as he could control his voice:

"I wonder if you know, Miss Harrington, how hard I tried to get Pollyanna to come and live with me."

The man winced a little at the tone of her voice; but his own voice was still impersonally cool when he spoke

"Yes. I wanted to adopt herlegally, you understand; making her my heir, of course."

The woman in the opposite chair relaxed a little. It came to her, suddenly, what a brilliant future it would

have meant for Pollyannathis adoption; and she wondered if Pollyanna were old enough and mercenary

"I am very fond of Pollyanna," the man was continuing. "I am fond of her both for her own sake, and

forher mother's. I stood ready to give Pollyanna the love that had been twentyfive years in storage."

"LOVE." Miss Polly remembered suddenly why SHE had taken this child in the first placeand with the

recollection came the remembrance of Pollyanna's own words uttered that very morning: "I love to be called

'dear' by folks that belong to you!" And it was this lovehungry little girl that had been offered the storedup

affection of twentyfive years:and she was old enough to be tempted by love! With a sinking heart Miss

Polly realized that. With a sinking heart, too, she realized something else: the dreariness of her own future

"Well?" she said. And the man, recognizing the selfcontrol that vibrated through the harshness of the tone,

"She would not leave you. She said you had been so good to her. She wanted to stay with youand she said

she THOUGHT you wanted her to stay," he finished, as he pulled himself to his feet.

He did not look toward Miss Polly. He turned his face resolutely toward the door. But instantly he heard a

"When the specialist comes, and I know anythingdefinite about Pollyanna, I will let you hear from me,"

said a trembling voice. "Goodbyand thank you for coming. Pollyanna will be pleased."

On the day after John Pendleton's call at the Harrington homestead, Miss Polly set herself to the task of

"Pollyanna, my dear," she began gently, "we have decided that we want another doctor besides Dr. Warren to

see you. Another one might tell us something new to doto help you get well faster, you know."

"Dr. Chilton! Oh, Aunt Polly, I'd so love to have Dr. Chilton! I've wanted him all the time, but I was afraid

you didn't, on account of his seeing you in the sun parlor that day, you know; so I didn't like to say anything.

Aunt Polly's face had turned white, then red, then back to white again. But when she answered, she showed

"Oh, no, dear! It wasn't Dr. Chilton at all that I meant. It is a new doctora very famous doctor from New

"But it was Dr. Chilton who doctored Mr. Pendleton's broken leg, Aunt Polly. Ifif you don't mind VERY

A distressed color suffused Miss Polly's face. For a moment she did not speak at all; then she said

"But I do mind, Pollyanna. I mind very much. I would do anythingalmost anything for you, my dear; but

Ifor reasons which I do not care to speak of now, I don't wish Dr. Chilton called in onon this case. And

believe me, he can NOT know so much aboutabout your trouble, as this great doctor does, who will come

"WHAT, Pollyanna?" Aunt Polly's voice was very sharp now. Her cheeks were very red, too.

"I say, if you loved Dr. Chilton, and didn't love the other one," sighed Pollyanna, "seems to me that would

The nurse entered the room at that moment, and Aunt Polly rose to her feet abruptly, a look of relief on her

"I am very sorry, Pollyanna," she said, a little stiffly; "but I'm afraid you'll have to let me be the judge, this

As it happened, however, the New York doctor did not come "tomorrow." At the last moment a telegram

told of an unavoidable delay owing to the sudden illness of the specialist himself. This led Pollyanna into a

renewed pleading for the substitution of Dr. Chilton"which would be so easy now, you know."

But as before, Aunt Polly shook her head and said "no, dear," very decisively, yet with a still more anxious

assurance that she would do anythinganything but thatto please her dear Pollyanna.

As the days of waiting passed, one by one, it did indeed, seem that Aunt Polly was doing everything (but

"I wouldn't 'a' believed ityou couldn't 'a' made me believe it," Nancy said to Old Tom one morning. "There

don't seem ter be a minute in the day that Miss Polly ain't jest hangin' 'round waitin' ter do somethin' for that

blessed lamb if 'tain't more than ter let in the catan' her what wouldn't let Fluff nor Buff upstairs for love

nor money a week ago; an' now she lets 'em tumble all over the bed jest 'cause it pleases Miss Pollyanna!

"An' when she ain't doin' nothin' else, she's movin' them little glass danglers 'round ter diff'rent winders in the

room so the sun'll make the 'rainbows dance,' as that blessed child calls it. She's sent Timothy down ter

Cobb's greenhouse three times for fresh flowersan' that besides all the posies fetched in ter her, too. An' the

other day, if I didn't find her sittin' 'fore the bed with the nurse actually doin' her hair, an' Miss Pollyanna

lookin' on an' bossin' from the bed, her eyes all shinin' an' happy. An' I declare ter goodness, if Miss Polly

hain't wore her hair like that every day nowjest ter please that blessed child!"

"Well, it strikes me Miss Polly herself ain't lookin' none the worsefor wearin' them 'ere curls 'round her

" 'Course she ain't," retorted Nancy, indignantly. "She looks like FOLKS, now. She's actually almost"

"Keerful, now, Nancy!" interrupted the old man, with a slow grin. "You know what you said when I told ye

"Oh, she ain't handsome, of course; but I will own up she don't look like the same woman, what with the

"Well, I'll own up she HAIN'T got quite so good an imitation of itas she did have, 'fore Miss Pollyanna

come. Say, Mr. Tom, who WAS her A lover? I hain't found that out, yet; I hain't, I hain't!"

"Hain't ye?" asked the old man, with an odd look on his face. "Well, I guess ye won't then from me."

"Oh, Mr. Tom, come on, now," wheedled the girl. "Ye see, there ain't many folks here that I CAN ask."

"Maybe not. But there's one, anyhow, that ain't answerin'," grinned Old Tom. Then, abruptly, the light died

"Just the same, Mr. Tom. There ain't no special diff'rence, as I can seeor anybody, I guess. She jest lays

there an' sleeps an' talks some, an' tries ter smile an' be 'glad' 'cause the sun sets or the moon rises, or some

"I know; it's the 'game'bless her sweet heart!" nodded Old Tom, blinking a little.

"Oh, yes. She told me long ago." The old man hesitated, then went on, his lips twitching a little. "I was

growlin' one day 'cause I was so bent up and crooked; an' what do ye s'pose the little thing said?"

"I couldn't guess. I wouldn't think she could find ANYTHIN' about THAT ter be glad about!"

"She did. She said I could be glad, anyhow, that I didn't have ter STOOP SO FAR TER DO MY WEEDIN'

"Well, I ain't surprised, after all. You might know she'd find somethin'. We've been playin' itthat

gamesince almost the first, 'cause there wa'n't no one else she could play it withthough she did speak

"I guess you hain't got such an awful diff'rent opinion o' the mistress than I have," she bridled.

"I was only thinkin' 'twould besome of a surpriseto her," he explained with dignity.

"Well, yes, I guess 'twould beTHEN," retorted Nancy. "I ain't sayin' what 'twould be NOW. I'd believe

"But hain't the little gal told herever? She's told ev'ry one else, I guess. I'm hearin' of it ev'rywhere, now,

"Well, she didn't tell Miss Polly," rejoined Nancy. "Miss Pollyanna told me long ago that she couldn't tell her,

'cause her aunt didn't like ter have her talk about her father; an' 'twas her father's game, an' she'd have ter talk

"Oh, I see, I see." The old man nodded his head slowly. "They was always bitter against the minister

chapall of 'em, 'cause he took Miss Jennie away from 'em. An' Miss Pollyyoung as she wascouldn't

never forgive him; she was that fond of Miss Jenniein them days. I see, I see. 'Twas a bad mess," he

"Yes, 'twasall 'round, all 'round," sighed Nancy in her turn, as she went back to her kitchen.

For no one were those days of waiting easy. The nurse tried to look cheerful, but her eyes were troubled. The

doctor was openly nervous and impatient. Miss Polly said little; but even the softening waves of hair about

her face, and the becoming laces at her throat, could not hide the fact that she was growing thin and pale. As

to PollyannaPollyanna petted the dog, smoothed the cat's sleek head, admired the flowers and ate the fruits

and jellies that were sent in to her; and returned innumerable cheery answers to the many messages of love

and inquiry that were brought to her bedside. But she, too, grew pale and thin; and the nervous activity of the

poor little hands and arms only emphasized the pitiful motionlessness of the once active little feet and legs

As to the gamePollyanna told Nancy these days how glad she was going to be when she could go to school

again, go to see Mrs. Snow, go to call on Mr. Pendleton, and go to ride with Dr. Chilton nor did she seem to

realize that all this "gladness" was in the future, not the present. Nancy, however, did realize itand cry

Just a week from the time Dr. Mead, the specialist, was first expected, he came. He was a tall,

broadshouldered man with kind gray eyes, and a cheerful smile. Pollyanna liked him at once, and told him

"YOUR doctor?" Dr. Mead glanced in evident surprise at Dr. Warren, talking with the nurse a few feet away.

"Oh, THAT isn't my doctor," smiled Pollyanna, divining his thought. "Dr. Warren is Aunt Polly's doctor. My

"Ohh!" said Dr. Mead, a little oddly, his eyes resting on Miss Polly, who, with a vivid blush, had turned

"Yes." Pollyanna hesitated, then continued with her usual truthfulness. "You see, _I_ wanted Dr. Chilton all

the time, but Aunt Polly wanted you. She said you knew more than Dr. Chilton, anyway aboutabout

broken legs like mine. And of course if you do, I can be glad for that. Do you?"

A swift something crossed the doctor's face that Pollyanna could not quite translate.

"Only time can tell that, little girl," he said gently; then he turned a grave face toward Dr. Warren, who had

Every one said afterward that it was the cat that did it. Certainly, if Fluffy had not poked an insistent paw and

nose against Pollyanna's unlatched door, the door would not have swung noiselessly open on its hinges until

it stood perhaps a foot ajar; and if the door had not been open, Pollyanna would not have heard her aunt's

In the hall the two doctors, the nurse, and Miss Polly stood talking. In Pollyanna's room Fluffy had just

jumped to the bed with a little purring "meow" of joy when through the open door sounded clearly and

It was all confusion then. First, from the bedroom came Pollyanna's terrified "Aunt Polly Aunt Polly!" Then

Miss Polly, seeing the open door and realizing that her words had been heard, gave a low little moan

The nurse, with a choking "She heard!" stumbled toward the open door. The two doctors stayed with Miss

Polly. Dr. Mead had to stayhe had caught Miss Polly as she fell. Dr. Warren stood by, helplessly. It was

not until Pollyanna cried out again sharply and the nurse closed the door, that the two men, with a despairing

glance into each other's eyes, awoke to the immediate duty of bringing the woman in Dr. Mead's arms back to

In Pollyanna's room, the nurse had found a purring gray cat on the bed vainly trying to attract the attention of

"Sheshe can't come just this minute, dear. She willa little later. What is it? Can't Iget it?"

"But I want to know what she saidjust now. Did you hear her? I want Aunt Pollyshe said something. I

The nurse tried to speak, but no words came. Something in her face sent an added terror to Pollyanna's eyes.

"Miss Hunt, you DID hear her! It is true! Oh, it isn't true! You don't mean I can't everwalk again?

"There, there, deardon't, don't!" choked the nurse. "Perhaps he didn't know. Perhaps he was mistaken.

"But Aunt Polly said he did know! She said he knew more than anybody else aboutabout broken legs like

"Yes, yes, I know, dear; but all doctors make mistakes sometimes. Justjust don't think any more about it

Pollyanna flung out her arms wildly. "But I can't help thinking about it," she sobbed. "It's all there is now to

think about. Why, Miss Hunt, how am I going to school, or to see Mr. Pendleton, or Mrs. Snow, oror

anybody?" She caught her breath and sobbed wildly for a moment. Suddenly she stopped and looked up, a

new terror in her eyes. "Why, Miss Hunt, if I can't walk, how am I ever going to be glad forANYTHING?"

Miss Hunt did not know "the game;" but she did know that her patient must be quieted, and that at once. In

spite of her own perturbation and heartache, her hands had not been idle, and she stood now at the bedside

"There, there, dear, just take this," she soothed; "and by and by we'll be more rested, and we'll see what can

be done then. Things aren't half as bad as they seem, dear, lots of times, you know."

Obediently Pollyanna took the medicine, and sipped the water from the glass in Miss Hunt's hand.

"I know; that sounds like things father used to say," faltered Pollyanna, blinking off the tears. "He said there

was always something about everything that might be worse; but I reckon he'd never just heard he couldn't

ever walk again. I don't see how there CAN be anything about that, that could be worsedo you?"

It was Nancy who was sent to tell Mr. John Pendleton of Dr. Mead's verdict. Miss Polly had remembered her

promise to let him have direct information from the house. To go herself, or to write a letter, she felt to be

There had been a time when Nancy would have rejoiced greatly at this extraordinary opportunity to see

something of the House of Mystery and its master. But today her heart was too heavy to, rejoice at anything.

She scarcely even looked about her at all, indeed, during the few minutes, she waited for Mr. John Pendleton

"I'm Nancy, sir," she said respectfully, in response to the surprised questioning of his eyes, when he came

In spite of the curt terseness of the word, Nancy quite understood the anxiety that lay behind that short

For a moment there was absolute silence in the room; then the man spoke, in a voice shaken with emotion.

Nancy glanced at him, but dropped her eyes at once. She had not supposed that sour, cross, stern John

Pendleton could look like that. In a moment he spoke again, still in the low, unsteady voice.

"But she does, sir." sobbed Nancy, "an' that's what makes it all the harder. She found outdrat that cat! I

begs yer pardon," apologized the girl, hurriedly. "It's only that the cat pushed open the door an' Miss

"Yes, sir. You'd say so, sir, if you could see her," choked Nancy. "I hain't seen her but twice since she knew

about it, an' it done me up both times. Ye see it's all so fresh an' new to her, an' she keeps thinkin' all the time

of new things she can't doNOW. It worries her, too, 'cause she can't seem ter be gladmaybe you don't

"Oh, she did! Well, I guess she has told it generally ter most folks. But ye see, now sheshe can't play it

herself, an' it worries her. She says she can't think of a thingnot a thing about this not walkin' again, ter be

"That's the way I felt, tootill I happened ter thinkit WOULD be easier if she could find somethin', ye

"Ofof how she told others ter play it Mis' Snow, and the rest, ye knowand what she said for them ter do.

But the poor little lamb just cries, an' says it don't seem the same, somehow. She says it's easy ter TELL

lifelong invalids how ter be glad, but 'tain't the same thing when you're the lifelong invalid yerself, an' have

ter try ter do it. She says she's told herself over an' over again how glad she is that other folks ain't like her;

but that all the time she's sayin' it, she ain't really THINKIN' of anythin' only how she can't ever walk again."

"Then I tried ter remind her how she used ter say the game was all the nicer ter play whenwhen it was

hard," resumed Nancy, in a dull voice. "But she says that, too, is diff'rentwhen it really IS hard. An' I must

"I couldn't be tellin' Miss Pollyanna thatthat you'd seen Jimmy Bean again, I s'pose, sir, could I?"

"I don't see how you couldas I haven't seen him," observed the man a little shortly. "Why?"

"Nothin', sir, onlywell, ye see, that's one of the things that she was feelin' bad about, that she couldn't take

him ter see you, now. She said she'd taken him once, but she didn't think he showed off very well that day,

and that she was afraid you didn't think he would make a very nice child's presence, after all. Maybe you

"All right, sir. It was only that she was wantin' ter take him again, she said, so's ter show ye he really was a

lovely child's presence. And now shecan'tdrat that autymobile! I begs yer pardon, sir. Goodby!" And

It did not take long for the entire town of Beldingsville to learn that the great New York doctor had said

Pollyanna Whittier would never walk again; and certainly never before had the town been so stirred.

Everybody knew by sight now the piquant little freckled face that had always a smile of greeting; and almost

everybody knew of the "game" that Pollyanna was playing. To think that now never again would that smiling

face be seen on their streetsnever again would that cheery little voice proclaim the gladness of some

In kitchens and sitting rooms, and over backyard fences women talked of it, and wept openly. On street

corners and in store loungingplaces the men talked, too, and weptthough not so openly. And neither the

talking nor the weeping grew less when fast on the heels of the news itself, came Nancy's pitiful story that

Pollyanna, face to face with what had come to her, was bemoaning most of all the fact that she could not play

It was then that the same thought must have, in some way, come to Pollyanna's friends. At all events, almost

at once, the mistress of the Harrington homestead, greatly to her surprise, began to receive calls: calls from

people she knew, and people she did not know; calls from men, women, and childrenmany of whom Miss

Some came in and sat down for a stiff five or ten minutes. Some stood awkwardly on the porch steps,

fumbling with hats or handbags, according to their sex. Some brought a book, a bunch of flowers, or a

dainty to tempt the palate. Some cried frankly. Some turned their backs and blew their noses furiously. But

all inquired very anxiously for the little injured girl; and all sent to her some messageand it was these

"I don't need to tell you how shocked I am," he began almost harshly. "But cannothing be done?"

"Oh, we're 'doing,' of course, all the time. Dr. Mead prescribed certain treatments and medicines that might

help, and Dr. Warren is carrying them out to the letter, of course. ButDr. Mead held out almost no hope."

John Pendleton rose abruptlythough he had but just come. His face was white, and his mouth was set into

stern lines. Miss Polly, looking at him, knew very well why he felt that he could not stay longer in her

"I have a message for Pollyanna," he said. "Will you tell her, please, that I have seen Jimmy Bean andthat

he's going to be my boy hereafter. Tell her I thought she would beGLAD to know. I shall adopt him,

"Yes. I think Pollyanna will understand. You will tell her I thought she would beGLAD!"

In the middle of the floor Miss Polly stood, silent and amazed, still looking after the man who had just left

her. Even yet she could scarcely believe what her ears had heard. John Pendleton ADOPT Jimmy Bean? John

Pendleton, wealthy, independent, morose, reputed to be miserly and supremely selfish, to adopt a little

"Pollyanna, I have a message for you from Mr. John Pendleton. He has just been here. He says to tell you he

has taken Jimmy Bean for his little boy. He said he thought you'd be glad to know it."

"Glad? GLAD? Well, I reckon I am glad! Oh, Aunt Polly, I've so wanted to find a place for Jimmyand

that's such a lovely place! Besides, I'm so glad for Mr. Pendleton, too. You see, now he'll have the child's

Pollyanna colored painfully. She had forgotten that she had never told her aunt of Mr. Pendleton's desire to

adopt herand certainly she would not wish to tell her now that she had ever thought for a minute of leaving

"The child's presence," stammered Pollyanna, hastily. "Mr. Pendleton told me once, you see, that only a

woman's hand and heart or a child's presence could make aa home. And now he's got itthe child's

"Oh, Isee," said Miss Polly very gently; and she did seemore than Pollyanna realized. She saw

something of the pressure that was probably brought to bear on Pollyanna herself at the time John Pendleton

was asking HER to be the "child's presence," which was to transform his great pile of gray stone into a home.

Pollyanna, fearful that her aunt might ask further embarrassing questions, hastened to lead the conversation

"Dr. Chilton says so, toothat it takes a woman's hand and heart, or a child's presence, to make a home, you

"So I asked him why he didn't get 'em.a woman's hand and heart, and have a home."

"What did hesay?" Miss Polly asked the question as if in spite of some force within her that was urging her

"He didn't say anything for a minute; then he said very low that you couldn't always get 'em for the asking."

There was a brief silence. Miss Polly's eyes had turned again to the window. Her cheeks were still unnaturally

"Because, afterwards, on another day, he said something else. He said that low, too, but I heard him. He said

that he'd give all the world if he did have one woman's hand and heart. Why, Aunt Polly, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, dear. I was changing the position of this prism," said Aunt Polly, whose whole face now was

It was not long after John Pendleton's second visit that Milly Snow called one afternoon. Milly Snow had

never before been to the Harrington homestead. She blushed and looked very embarrassed when Miss Polly

"You are very kind. She is about the same. How is your mother?" rejoined Miss Polly, wearily.

"That is what I came to tell youthat is, to ask you to tell Miss Pollyanna," hurried on the girl, breathlessly

and incoherently. "We think it'sso awfulso perfectly awful that the little thing can't ever walk again; and

after all she's done for us, toofor mother, you know, teaching her to play the game, and all that. And when

we heard how now she couldn't play it herselfpoor little dear! I'm sure I don't see how she CAN, either, in

her condition!but when we remembered all the things she'd said to us, we thought if she could only know

what she HAD done for us, that it would HELP, you know, in her own case, about the game, because she

could be gladthat is, a little glad" Milly stopped helplessly, and seemed to be waiting for Miss Polly to

Miss Polly had sat politely listening, but with a puzzled questioning in her eyes. Only about half of what had

been said, had she understood. She was thinking now that she always had known that Milly Snow was

"queer," but she had not supposed she was crazy. In no other way, however, could she account for this

incoherent, illogical, unmeaning rush of words. When the pause came she filled it with a quiet:

"I don't think I quite understand, Milly. Just what is it that you want me to tell my niece?"

"Yes, that's it; I want you to tell her," answered the girl, feverishly. "Make her see what she's done for us. Of

course she's SEEN some things, because she's been there, and she's known mother is different; but I want her

to know HOW different she isand me, too. I'm different. I've been trying to play itthe gamea little."

Miss Polly frowned. She would have asked what Milly meant by this "game," but there was no opportunity.

"You know nothing was ever right beforefor mother. She was always wanting 'em different. And, really, I

don't know as one could blame her muchunder the circumstances. But now she lets me keep the shades up,

and she takes interest in thingshow she looks, and her nightdress, and all that. And she's actually begun to

knit little thingsreins and baby blankets for fairs and hospitals. And she's so interested, and so GLAD to

think she can do it!and that was all Miss Pollyanna's doings, you know, 'cause she told mother she could

be glad she'd got her hands and arms, anyway; and that made mother wonder right away why she didn't DO

something with her hands and arms. And so she began to do somethingto knit, you know. And you can't

think what a different room it is now, what with the red and blue and yellow worsteds, and the prisms in the

window that SHE gave herwhy, it actually makes you feel BETTER just to go in there now; and before I

used to dread it awfully, it was so dark and gloomy, and mother was soso unhappy, you know.

"And so we want you to please tell Miss Pollyanna that we understand it's all because of her. And please say

we're so glad we know her, that we thought, maybe if she knew it, it would make her a little glad that she

knew us. Andand that's all," sighed Milly, rising hurriedly to her feet. "You'll tell her?"

"Why, of course," murmured Miss Polly, wondering just how much of this remarkable discourse she could

These visits of John Pendleton and Milly Snow were only the first of many; and always there were the

messagesthe messages which were in some ways so curious that they caused Miss Polly more and more to

One day there was the little Widow Benton. Miss Polly knew her well, though they had never called upon

each other. By reputation she knew her as the saddest little woman in townone who was always in black.

Today, however, Mrs. Benton wore a knot of pale blue at the throat, though there were tears in her eyes. She

spoke of her grief and horror at the accident; then she asked diffidently if she might see Pollyanna.

Mrs. Benton wiped her eyes, rose, and turned to go. But after she had almost reached the hall door she came

"Will you tell her, please, thatthat I've put on THIS," she said, just touching the blue bow at her throat.

Then, at Miss Polly's illconcealed look of surprise, she added: "The little girl has been trying for so long to

make me wearsome color, that I thought she'd beglad to know I'd begun. She said that Freddy would be

so glad to see it, if I would. You know Freddy's ALL I have now. The others have all" Mrs. Benton shook

her head and turned away. "If you'll just tell PollyannaSHE'LL understand." And the door closed after her.

A little later, that same day, there was the other widowat least, she wore widow's garments. Miss Polly did

not know her at all. She wondered vaguely how Pollyanna could have known her. The lady gave her name as

"I'm a stranger to you, of course," she began at once. "But I'm not a stranger to your little niece, Pollyanna.

I've been at the hotel all summer, and every day I've had to take long walks for my health. It was on these

walks that I've met your nieceshe's such a dear little girl! I wish I could make you understand what she's

been to me. I was very sad when I came up here; and her bright face and cheery ways reminded me ofmy

own little girl that I lost years ago. I was so shocked to hear of the accident; and then when I learned that the

poor child would never walk again, and that she was so unhappy because she couldn't be glad any

"But it is you who are to be kind," demurred the other. "II want you to give her a message from me. Will

"Will you just tell her, then, that Mrs. Tarbell is glad now. Yes, I know it sounds odd, and you don't

understand. Butif you'll pardon me I'd rather not explain." Sad lines came to the lady's mouth, and the

smile left her eyes. "Your niece will know just what I mean; and I felt that I must tellher. Thank you; and

pardon me, please, for any seeming rudeness in my call," she begged, as she took her leave.

"Oh, yes. I love Mrs. Tarbell. She's sick, and awfully sad; and she's at the hotel, and takes long walks. We go

together. I meanwe used to." Pollyanna's voice broke, and two big tears rolled down her cheeks.

"We'll, she's just been here, dear. She left a message for youbut she wouldn't tell me what it meant. She

"Nnothing much, Aunt Polly; that isI can't tell it unless I tell other things thatthat I'm not to speak of."

It was on Miss Polly's tongue to question her niece further; but the obvious distress on the little girl's face

Not long after Mrs. Tarbell's visit, the climax came. It came in the shape of a call from a certain young

woman with unnaturally pink cheeks and abnormally yellow hair; a young woman who wore high heels and

cheap jewelry; a young woman whom Miss Polly knew very well by reputationbut whom she was angrily

Miss Polly did not offer her hand. She drew back, indeed, as she entered the room.

The woman rose at once. Her eyes were very red, as if she had been crying. Half defiantly she asked if she

Miss Polly said no. She began to say it very sternly; but something in the woman's pleading eyes made her

The woman hesitated; then a little brusquely she spoke. Her chin was still at a slightly defiant tilt.

"My name is Mrs. PaysonMrs. Tom Payson. I presume you've heard of memost of the good people in

the town haveand maybe some of the things you've heard ain't true. But never mind that. It's about the little

girl I came. I heard about the accident, andand it broke me all up. Last week I heard how she couldn't ever

walk again, andand I wished I could give up my two uselessly well legs for hers. She'd do more good

trotting around on 'em one hour than I could in a hundred years. But never mind that. Legs ain't always given

She paused, and cleared her throat; but when she resumed her voice was still husky.

"Maybe you don't know it, but I've seen a good deal of that little girl of yours. We live on the Pendleton Hill

road, and she used to go by oftenonly she didn't always GO BY. She came in and played with the kids and

talked to meand my man, when he was home. She seemed to like it, and to like us. She didn't know, I

suspect, that her kind of folks don't generally call on my kind. Maybe if they DID call more, Miss Harrington,

"Be that as it may, she came; and she didn't do herself no harm, and she did do us gooda lot o' good. How

much she won't knownor can't know, I hope; 'cause if she did, she'd know other thingsthat I don't want

"But it's just this. It's been hard times with us this year, in more ways than one. We've been blue and

discouragedmy man and me, and ready for'most anything. We was reckoning on getting a divorce about

now, and letting the kids well, we didn't know what we would do with the kids, Then came the accident, and

what we heard about the little girl's never walking again. And we got to thinking how she used to come and

sit on our doorstep and train with the kids, and laugh, andand just be glad. She was always being glad

about something; and then, one day, she told us why, and about the game, you know; and tried to coax us to

"Well, we've heard now that she's fretting her poor little life out of her, because she can't play it no

morethat there's nothing to be glad about. And that's what I came to tell her todaythat maybe she can

be a little glad for us, 'cause we've decided to stick to each other, and play the game ourselves. I knew she

would be glad, because she used to feel kind of badat things we said, sometimes. Just how the game is

going to help us, I can't say that I exactly see, yet; but maybe 'twill. Anyhow, we're going to try'cause she

"Yes, I will tell her," promised Miss Polly, a little faintly. Then, with sudden impulse, she stepped forward

and held out her hand. "And thank you for coming, Mrs. Payson," she said simply.

The defiant chin fell. The lips above it trembled visibly. With an incoherently mumbled something, Mrs.

The door had scarcely closed behind her before Miss Polly was confronting Nancy in the kitchen.

Miss Polly spoke sharply. The series of puzzling, disconcerting visits of the last few days, culminating as

they had in the extraordinary experience of the afternoon, had strained her nerves to the snapping point. Not

"Nancy, WILL you tell me what this absurd 'game' is that the whole town seems to be babbling about? And

what, please, has my niece to do with it? WHY does everybody, from Milly Snow to Mrs. Tom Payson, send

word to her that they're 'playing it'? As near as I can judge, half the town are putting on blue ribbons, or

stopping family quarrels, or learning to like something they never liked before, and all because of Pollyanna.

I tried to ask the child herself about it, but I can't seem to make much headway, and of course I don't like to

worry hernow. But from something I heard her say to you last night, I should judge you were one of them,

"It means that ever since last June that blessed child has jest been makin' the whole town glad, an' now they're

Nancy lifted her chin. She faced her mistress and looked her squarely in the eye.

"I'll tell ye, ma'am. It's a game Miss Pollyanna's father learned her ter play. She got a pair of crutches once in

a missionary barrel when she was wantin' a doll; an' she cried, of course, like any child would. It seems 'twas

then her father told her that there wasn't ever anythin' but what there was somethin' about it that you could be

"Glad forCRUTCHES!" Miss Polly choked back a sobshe was thinking of the helpless little legs on the

"Yes'm. That's what I said, an' Miss Pollyanna said that's what she said, too. But he told her she COULD be

"And after that she said he made a regular game of itfindin' somethin' in everythin' ter be glad about. An'

she said ye could do it, too, and that ye didn't seem ter mind not havin' the doll so much, 'cause ye was so

glad ye DIDN'T need the crutches. An' they called it the 'jest bein' glad' game. That's the game, ma'am. She's

"An' you'd be surprised ter find how cute it works, ma'am, too," maintained Nancy, with almost the eagerness

of Pollyanna herself. "I wish I could tell ye what a lot she's done for mother an' the folks out home. She's

been ter see 'em, ye know, twice, with me. She's made me glad, too, on such a lot o' thingslittle things, an'

big things; an' it's made 'em so much easier. For instance, I don't mind 'Nancy' for a name half as much since

she told me I could be glad 'twa'n't 'Hephzibah.' An' there's Monday mornin's, too, that I used ter hate so.

"I know it does sound nutty, ma'am. But let me tell ye. That blessed lamb found out I hated Monday mornin's

somethin' awful; an' what does she up an' tell me one day but this: 'Well, anyhow, Nancy, I should think you

could be gladder on Monday mornin' than on any other day in the week, because 'twould be a whole WEEK

before you'd have another one!' An' I'm blest if I hain't thought of it ev'ry Monday mornin' sincean' it HAS

helped, ma'am. It made me laugh, anyhow, ev'ry time I thought of it; an' laughin' helps, ye knowit does, it

"But why hasn'tshe told methe game?" faltered Miss Polly. "Why has she made such a mystery of it,

"Beggin' yer pardon, ma'am, you told her not ter speak ofher father; so she couldn't tell ye. 'Twas her

"She wanted ter tell ye, first off," continued Nancy, a little unsteadily. "She wanted somebody ter play it with,

"Oh, ev'rybody, 'most, knows it now, I guess. Anyhow, I should think they did from the way I'm hearin' of it

ev'rywhere I go. Of course she told a lot, and they told the rest. Them things go, ye know, when they gets

started. An' she was always so smilin' an' pleasant ter ev'ry one, an' soso jest glad herself all the time, that

they couldn't help knowin' it, anyhow. Now, since she's hurt, ev'rybody feels so badspecially when they

heard how bad SHE feels 'cause she can't find anythin' ter be glad about. An' so they've been comin' ev'ry day

ter tell her how glad she's made THEM, hopin' that'll help some. Ye see, she's always wanted ev'rybody ter

"Well, I know somebody who'll play itnow," choked Miss Polly, as she turned and sped through the

"Well, I'll believe anythin'anythin' now," she muttered to herself. "Ye can't stump me with anythin' I

A little later, in Pollyanna's room, the nurse left Miss Polly and Pollyanna alone together.

"And you've had still another caller today, my dear," announced Miss Polly, in a voice she vainly tried to

"Mrs. Payson? Why, I reckon I do! She lives on the way to Mr. Pendleton's, and she's got the prettiest little

girl baby three years old, and a boy 'most five. She's awfully nice, and so's her husbandonly they don't

seem to know how nice each other is. Sometimes they fightI mean, they don't quite agree. They're poor,

too, they say, and of course they don't ever have barrels, 'cause he isn't a missionary minister, you know,

A faint color stole into Pollyanna's cheeks which was duplicated suddenly in those of her aunt.

"But she wears real pretty clothes, sometimes, in spite of their being so poor," resumed Pollyanna, in some

haste. "And she's got perfectly beautiful rings with diamonds and rubies and emeralds in them; but she says

she's got one ring too many, and that she's going to throw it away and get a divorce instead. What is a

divorce, Aunt Polly? I'm afraid it isn't very nice, because she didn't look happy when she talked about it. And

she said if she did get it, they wouldn't live there any more, and that Mr. Payson would go 'way off, and

maybe the children, too. But I should think they'd rather keep the ring, even if they did have so many more.

"But they aren't going 'way off, dear," evaded Aunt Polly, hurriedly. "They're going to stay right there

"Oh, I'm so glad! Then they'll be there when I go up to seeO dear!" broke off the little girl, miserably.

"Aunt Polly, why CAN'T I remember that my legs don't go any more, and that I won't ever, ever go up to see

"There, there, don't," choked her aunt. "Perhaps you'll drive up sometime. But listen! I haven't told you, yet,

all that Mrs. Payson said. She wanted me to tell you that theythey were going to stay together and to play

"Yes, she said she hoped you'd be. That's why she told you, to make youGLAD, Pollyanna."

"Why, Aunt Polly, youyou spoke just as if you knewDO you know about the game, Aunt Polly?"

"Yes, dear." Miss Polly sternly forced her voice to be cheerfully matteroffact. "Nancy told me. I think it's a

"Oh, Aunt PollyYOU? I'm so glad! You see, I've really wanted you most of anybody, all the time."

Aunt Polly caught her breath a little sharply. It was even harder this time to keep her voice steady; but she did

"Yes, dear; and there are all those others, too. Why, Pollyanna, I think all the town is playing that game now

with youeven to the minister! I haven't had a chance to tell you, yet, but this morning I met Mr. Ford when

I was down to the village, and he told me to say to you that just as soon as you could see him, he was coming

to tell you that he hadn't stopped being glad over those eight hundred rejoicing texts that you told him about.

So you see, dear, it's just you that have done it. The whole town is playing the game, and the whole town is

wonderfully happierand all because of one little girl who taught the people a new game, and how to play

"Oh, I'm so glad," she cried. Then, suddenly, a wonderful light illumined her face. "Why, Aunt Polly, there IS

something I can be glad about, after all. I can be glad I've HAD my legs, anywayelse I couldn't have

One by one the short winter days came and wentbut they were not short to Pollyanna. They were long, and

sometimes full of pain. Very resolutely, these days, however, Pollyanna was turning a cheerful face toward

whatever came. Was she not specially bound to play the game, now that Aunt Polly was playing it, too? And

Aunt Polly found so many things to be glad about! It was Aunt Polly, too, who discovered the story one day

about the two poor little waifs in a snowstorm who found a blowndown door to crawl under, and who

wondered what poor folks did that didn't have any door! And it was Aunt Polly who brought home the other

story that she had heard about the poor old lady who had only two teeth, but who was so glad that those two

Pollyanna now, like Mrs. Snow, was knitting wonderful things out of bright colored worsteds that trailed

their cheery lengths across the white spread, and made Pollyannaagain like Mrs. Snowso glad she had

Pollyanna saw people now, occasionally, and always there were the loving messages from those she could

not see; and always they brought her something new to think aboutand Pollyanna needed new things to

Once she had seen John Pendleton, and twice she had seen Jimmy Bean. John Pendleton had told her what a

fine boy Jimmy was getting to be, and how well he was doing. Jimmy had told her what a firstrate home he

had, and what bangup "folks" Mr. Pendleton made; and both had said that it was all owing to her.

"Which makes me all the gladder, you know, that I HAVE had my legs," Pollyanna confided to her aunt

The winter passed, and spring came. The anxious watchers over Pollyanna's condition could see little change

wrought by the prescribed treatment. There seemed every reason to believe, indeed, that Dr. Mead's worst

Beldingsville, of course, kept itself informed concerning Pollyanna; and of Beldingsville, one man in

particular fumed and fretted himself into a fever of anxiety over the daily bulletins which he managed in

some way to procure from the bed of suffering. As the days passed, however, and the news came to be no

better, but rather worse, something besides anxiety began to show in the man's face: despair, and a very

dogged determination, each fighting for the mastery. In the end, the dogged determination won; and it was

then that Mr. John Pendleton, somewhat to his surprise, received one Saturday morning a call from Dr.

"Pendleton," began the doctor, abruptly, "I've come to you because you, better than any one else in town,

John Pendleton was conscious that he must have started visiblyhe did know something of the affair

between Polly Harrington and Thomas Chilton, but the matter had not been mentioned between them for

"Yes," he said, trying to make his voice sound concerned enough for sympathy, and not eager enough for

curiosity. In a moment he saw that he need not have worried, however: the doctor was quite too intent on his

"Pendleton, I want to see that child. I want to make an examination. I MUST make an examination."

"CAN'T I! Pendleton, you know very well I haven't been inside that door for more than fifteen years. You

don't knowbut I will tell youthat the mistress of that house told me that the NEXT time she ASKED me

to enter it, I might take it that she was begging my pardon, and that all would be as beforewhich meant that

"But if you're so anxiouscouldn't you swallow your pride and forget the quarrel"

"Forget the quarrel!" interrupted the doctor, savagely. "I'm not talking of that kind of pride. So far as THAT

is concerned, I'd go from here there on my kneesor on my headif that would do any good. It's

PROFESSIONAL pride I'm talking about. It's a case of sickness, and I'm a doctor. I can't butt in and say,

"What was it? What's any lovers' quarrel after it's over?" he snarled, pacing the room angrily. "A silly

wrangle over the size of the moon or the depth of a river, maybeit might as well be, so far as its having any

real significance compared to the years of misery that follow them! Never mind the quarrel! So far as I am

concerned, I am willing to say there was no quarrel. Pendleton, I must see that child. It may mean life or

death. It will meanI honestly believenine chances out of ten that Pollyanna Whittier will walk again!"

The words were spoken clearly, impressively; and they were spoken just as the one who uttered them had

almost reached the open window near John Pendleton's chair. Thus it happened that very distinctly they

reached the ears of a small boy kneeling beneath the window on the ground outside.

Jimmy Bean, at his Saturday morning task of pulling up the first little green weeds of the flowerbeds, sat up

I mean that from what I can hear and learna mile from her bedsidethat her case is very much like one

that a college friend of mine has just helped. For years he's been making this sort of thing a special study. I've

kept in touch with him, and studied, too, in a way. And from what I hearbut I want to SEE the girl!"

"I'm afraid not. Warren has been very decent, though. He told me himself that he suggested consultation with

me at the first, butMiss Harrington said no so decisively that he didn't dare venture it again, even though

he knew of my desire to see the child. Lately, some of his best patients have come over to meso of course

that ties my hands still more effectually. But, Pendleton, I've got to see that child! Think of what it may mean

"No, I guess you don'tnor anybody else. She's too proud and too angry to ask meafter what she said

years ago it would mean if she did ask me. But when I think of that child, doomed to lifelong misery, and

when I think that maybe in my hands lies a chance of escape, but for that confounded nonsense we call pride

and professional etiquette, I" He did not finish his sentence, but with his hands thrust deep into his pockets,

Outside the window Jimmy Bean stirred suddenly. Up to now he had scarcely breathed, so intently had he

"Well, by Jinks, I know!" he whispered, exultingly. "I'M agoin' ter do it!" And forthwith he rose to his feet,

crept stealthily around the corner of the house, and ran with all his might down Pendleton Hill.

"Me?" rejoined Miss Polly, plainly surprised. "Are you sure he did not mean Miss Pollyanna? He may see her

"Very well, I'll come down." And Miss Polly arose from her chair a little wearily.

In the sitting room she found waiting for her a roundeyed, flushedfaced boy, who began to speak at once.

"Ma'am, I s'pose it's dreadfulwhat I'm doin', an' what I'm sayin'; but I can't help it. It's for Pollyanna, and

I'd walk over hot coals for her, or face you, oror anythin' like that, any time. An' I think you would, too, if

you thought there was a chance for her ter walk again. An' so that's why I come ter tell ye that as long as it's

only pride an' etetsomethin' that's keepin' Pollyanna from walkin', why I knew you WOULD ask Dr.

"What?" interrupted Miss Polly, the look of stupefaction on her face changing to one of angry indignation.

"There, I didn't mean ter make ye mad. That's why I begun by tellin' ye about her walkin' again. I thought

"Well, then tell me. But begin at the beginning, and be sure I understand each thing as you go. Don't plunge

"Well, ter begin with, Dr. Chilton come ter see Mr. Pendleton, an' they talked in the library. Do you

"Well, the window was open, and I was weedin' the flowerbed under it; an' I heard 'em talk."

" 'Twa'n't about me, an' 'twa'n't sneak listenin'," bridled Jimmy. "And I'm glad I listened. You will be when I

"There, I told ye so," nodded Jimmy, contentedly. "Well, Dr. Chilton knows some doctor somewhere that can

cure Pollyanna, he thinksmake her walk, ye know; but he can't tell sure till he SEES her. And he wants ter

"But, Jimmy, II can'tI couldn't! That is, I didn't know!" Miss Polly was twisting her fingers together

"Yes, an' that's what I come ter tell ye, so you WOULD know," asserted Jimmy, eagerly. "They said that for

some reasonI didn't rightly catch whatyou wouldn't let Dr. Chilton come, an' you told Dr. Warren so; an'

Dr. Chilton couldn't come himself, without you asked him, on account of pride an' professional etetwell,

etsomethin anyway. An' they was wishin' somebody could make you understand, only they didn't know who

could; an' I was outside the winder, an' I says ter myself right away, 'By Jinks, I'll do it!' An' I comean'

"Yes; but, Jimmy, about that doctor," implored Miss Polly, feverishly. "Who was he? What did he do? Are

"I don't know who he was. They didn't say. Dr. Chilton knows him, an' he's just cured somebody just like her,

Dr. Chilton thinks. Anyhow, they didn't seem ter be doin' no worryin' about HIM. 'Twas YOU they was

worryin' about, 'cause you wouldn't let Dr. Chilton see her. An' sayyou will let him come. won't

Miss Polly turned her head from side to side. Her breath was coming in little uneven, rapid gasps. Jimmy,

watching her with anxious eyes, thought she was going to cry. But she did not cry. After a minute she said

"YesI'll letDr. Chiltonsee her. Now run home, Jimmyquick! I've got to speak to Dr. Warren. He's

A little later Dr. Warren was surprised to meet an agitated, flushedfaced Miss Polly in the hall. He was still

"Dr. Warren, you asked me once to allow Dr. Chilton to be called in consultation, andI refused. Since then

I have reconsidered. I very much desire that you SHOULD call in Dr. Chilton. Will you not ask him at

The next time Dr. Warren entered the chamber where Pollyanna lay watching the dancing shimmer of color

"Dr. Chilton!oh, Dr. Chilton, how glad I am to see YOU!" cried Pollyanna. And at the joyous rapture of

the voice, more than one pair of eyes in the room brimmed hot with sudden tears. "But, of course, if Aunt

"It is all right, my dear; don't worry," soothed Miss Polly, agitatedly, hurrying forward. "I have told Dr.

"Yes, dear, I asked him. That is" But it was too late. The adoring happiness that had leaped to Dr. Chilton's

eyes was unmistakable and Miss Polly had seen it. With very pink cheeks she turned and left the room

Over in the window the nurse and Dr. Warren were talking earnestly. Dr. Chilton held out both his hands to

"Little girl, I'm thinking that one of the very gladdest jobs you ever did has been done today," he said in a

At twilight a wonderfully tremulous, wonderfully different Aunt Polly crept to Pollyanna's bedside. The nurse

"Pollyanna, dear, I'm going to tell youthe very first one of all. Some day I'm going to give Dr. Chilton to

you for youruncle. And it's you that have done it all. Oh, Pollyanna, I'm sohappy! And

Pollyanna began to clap her hands; but even as she brought her small palms together the first time, she

"Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, WERE you the woman's hand and heart he wanted so long ago? You wereI know

you were! And that's what he meant by saying I'd done the gladdest job of alltoday. I'm so glad! Why,

"Perhaps, some day, dear" But Aunt Polly did not finish. Aunt Polly did not dare to tell, yet, the great hope

that Dr. Chilton had put into her heart. But she did say thisand surely this was quite wonderful enoughto

"Pollyanna, next week you're going to take a journey. On a nice comfortable little bed you're going to be

carried in cars and carriages to a great doctor who has a big house many miles from here made on purpose for

just such people as you are. He's a dear friend of Dr. Chilton's, and we're going to see what he can do for

"Dear Aunt Polly and Uncle Tom:Oh, I canI canI CAN walk! I did today all the way from my bed

"All the doctors stood around and smiled, and all the nurses stood beside of them and cried. A lady in the

next ward who walked last week first, peeked into the door, and another one who hopes she can walk next

month, was invited in to the party, and she laid on my nurse's bed and clapped her hands. Even Black Tilly

who washes the floor, looked through the piazza window and called me 'Honey, child' when she wasn't crying

"I don't see why they cried. _I_ wanted to sing and shout and yell! Ohohoh! just think, I can

walkwalkWALK! Now I don't mind being here almost ten months, and I didn't miss the wedding,

anyhow. Wasn't that just like you, Aunt Polly, to come on here and get married right beside my bed, so I

"Pretty soon, they say, I shall go home. I wish I could walk all the way there. I do. I don't think I shall ever

want to ride anywhere any more. It will be so good just to walk. Oh, I'm so glad! I'm glad for everything.

Why, I'm glad now I lost my legs for a while, for you never, never know how perfectly lovely legs are till you