Pollyanna Grows Up | Page 9

right, anyway."
"Well, who cares if I did?"
Pollyanna's eyes grew still more disapproving.
"You SAID you did--when you asked me this summer to tell you when
you said things wrong, because Mr. Pendleton was trying to make you
talk right."
"Well, if you'd been brought up in a 'sylum without any folks that cared,
instead of by a whole lot of old women who didn't have anything to do
but tell you how to talk right, maybe you'd say 'you was,' and a whole
lot more worse things, Pollyanna Whittier!"
"Why, Jimmy Bean!" flared Pollyanna. "My Ladies' Aiders weren't old
women--that is, not many of them, so very old," she corrected hastily,
her usual proclivity for truth and literalness superseding her anger;
"and--"
"Well, I'm not Jimmy Bean, either," interrupted the boy, uptilting his
chin.
"You're--not-- Why, Jimmy Be-- --What do you mean?" demanded the
little girl.
"I've been adopted, LEGALLY. He's been intending to do it, all along,
he says, only he didn't get to it. Now he's done it. I'm to be called
'Jimmy Pendleton' and I'm to call him Uncle John, only I ain't--are
not--I mean, I AM not used to it yet, so I hain't--haven't begun to call
him that, much."
The boy still spoke crossly, aggrievedly, but every trace of displeasure
had fled from the little girl's face at his words. She clapped her hands

joyfully.
"Oh, how splendid! Now you've really got FOLKS--folks that care, you
know. And you won't ever have to explain that he wasn't BORN your
folks, 'cause your name's the same now. I'm so glad, GLAD, GLAD!"
The boy got up suddenly from the stone wall where they had been
sitting, and walked off. His cheeks felt hot, and his eyes smarted with
tears. It was to Pollyanna that he owed it all--this great good that had
come to him; and he knew it. And it was to Pollyanna that he had just
now been saying--
He kicked a small stone fiercely, then another, and another. He thought
those hot tears in his eyes were going to spill over and roll down his
cheeks in spite of himself. He kicked another stone, then another; then
he picked up a third stone and threw it with all his might. A minute
later he strolled back to Pollyanna still sitting on the stone wall.
"I bet you I can hit that pine tree down there before you can," he
challenged airily.
"Bet you can't," cried Pollyanna, scrambling down from her perch.
The race was not run after all, for Pollyanna remembered just in time
that running fast was yet one of the forbidden luxuries for her. But so
far as Jimmy was concerned, it did not matter. His cheeks were no
longer hot, his eyes were not threatening to overflow with tears. Jimmy
was himself again.
CHAPTER III
A DOSE OF POLLYANNA
As the eighth of September approached--the day Pollyanna was to
arrive--Mrs. Ruth Carew became more and more nervously exasperated
with herself. She declared that she had regretted just ONCE her
promise to take the child--and that was ever since she had given it.
Before twenty-four hours had passed she had, indeed, written to her

sister demanding that she be released from the agreement; but Della
had answered that it was quite too late, as already both she and Dr.
Ames had written the Chiltons.
Soon after that had come Della's letter saying that Mrs. Chilton had
given her consent, and would in a few days come to Boston to make
arrangements as to school, and the like. So there was nothing to be
done, naturally, but to let matters take their course. Mrs. Carew realized
that, and submitted to the inevitable, but with poor grace. True, she
tried to be decently civil when Della and Mrs. Chilton made their
expected appearance; but she was very glad that limited time made Mrs.
Chilton's stay of very short duration, and full to the brim of business.
It was well, indeed, perhaps, that Pollyanna's arrival was to be at a date
no later than the eighth; for time, instead of reconciling Mrs. Carew to
the prospective new member of her household, was filling her with
angry impatience at what she was pleased to call her "absurd yielding
to Della's crazy scheme."
Nor was Della herself in the least unaware of her sister's state of mind.
If outwardly she maintained a bold front, inwardly she was very fearful
as to results; but on Pollyanna she was pinning her faith, and because
she did pin her faith on Pollyanna, she determined on the bold stroke of
leaving the little girl to begin her fight entirely unaided and alone. She
contrived, therefore, that Mrs. Carew should meet them at the station
upon their arrival; then, as soon