Well, it its Jimmy Bean, sighed Pollyanna. He hasnt any home except the Orphan one, and theyre full, and dont 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 it folks, you know, thatll care. Hes ten years old going on eleven. I thought some of you might like him to live with you, you know.
Well, did you ever![90] murmured a voice, breaking the dazed pause that followed Pollyannas words.
With anxious eyes Pollyanna swept the circle of faces about her.
Oh, I forgot to say; he will work, she supplemented eagerly.
Still there was silence; then, coldly, one or two women began to question her. After a time they all had the story and began to talk among themselves, animatedly, not quite pleasantly.
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 ministers 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 far-away 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[91] 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 air only she was very sorry, too: for she knew it was not going to be easy, or anything but sad, to tell Jimmy Bean to-morrow 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 its good, of course, to send money to the heathen, and I shouldnt want em not to send SOME there, sighed Pollyanna to herself, as she trudged sorrowfully along. But they acted as if little boys HERE werent any account only little boys way off. I should THINK, though, theyd rather see Jimmy Bean grow than just a report!
Chapter XIII
In Pendleton Woods
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, she climbed steadily, in spite of the warm sun on her back.
I dont have to get home till half-past five, anyway, she was telling herself; and itll be so much nicer to go around by the way of the woods, even if I do have to climb to get there.
It was very beautiful in the Pendleton Woods, as Pollyanna knew by experience. But to-day it seemed even more delightful than ever, notwithstanding her disappointment over what she must tell Jimmy Bean to-morrow.
I wish they were up here all 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 tree-tops. Anyhow, if they were up here, I just reckon theyd change[92] and take Jimmy Bean for their little boy, all right, she finished, secure in her conviction, but unable to give a reason for it, even to herself.
Suddenly Pollyanna lifted her head and listened. A dog had barked some distance ahead. A moment later he came dashing toward her, still barking.
Hullo, doggie hullo! 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 turned her attention toward the dog.
The dog, as even Pollyanna could see, was acting strangely. He was still barking giving 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 isnt the way home, laughed Pollyanna, still keeping to the main path.
The little dog seemed frantic now[93]. 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 appeal so eloquent that at last Pollyanna understood, turned, and followed him.
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 path.
A twig cracked sharply under Pollyannas foot, and the man turned his head. With a cry of dismay Pollyanna ran to his side.
Mr. Pendleton! Oh, are you hurt?
Hurt? Oh, no! Im just taking a siesta in the sunshine, snapped the man irritably. See here, how much do you know[94]? What can you do? Have you got any sense?
Pollyanna caught her breath with a little gasp, but as was her habit she answered the questions literally, one by one.
Why, Mr. Pendleton, I I dont know so very much, and I cant 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 day they didnt know I heard, though.
The man smiled grimly.
There, there, child, I beg your pardon, Im sure; its 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 porte-cochère. Do you know what a porte-cochère is?
Oh, yes, sir. Auntie has one with a sun parlor over it. Thats the roof I slept on only I didnt sleep, you know. They found me.
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, flat-topped desk in the middle of the room youll find a telephone. Do you know how to use a telephone?
Oh, yes, sir! Why, once when Aunt Polly
Never mind Aunt Polly now, cut in the man scowl-ingly, as he tried to move himself a little.
Hunt up Dr. Thomas Chiltons number on the card youll find somewhere around there it ought to be on the hook down at the side, but it probably wont be. You know a telephone card, I suppose, when you see one!
Oh, yes, sir! I just love Aunt Pollys. Theres 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. Hell know what to do besides that. Tell him to come by the path from the house.
A broken leg? Oh, Mr. Pendleton, how perfectly awful! shuddered Pollyanna. But Im so glad I came! Cant I do
Yes, you can but evidently you wont! WILL you go and do what I ask and stop talking, moaned the man, faintly. And, with a little sobbing cry, Pollyanna went.
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 porte-cochère. 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 swung slowly back on its hinges.
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 Pendletons house; the house of mystery; the house into which no one but its master entered; the house which sheltered, somewhere a skeleton. Yet she, Pollyanna, was expected to enter alone these fearsome rooms, and telephone the doctor that the master of the house lay now
With a little cry Pollyanna, looking neither to the right nor the left, fairly ran through the hall to the door at the end and opened it.
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 this desk that Pollyanna hurriedly tiptoed.
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 Cs 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 doctors terse, pertinent questions. This done, she hung up the receiver and drew a long breath of relief.