“Oh, Nancy!” Pollyanna exclaimed. “He is a funny man, and he’s different, too, just like Mrs. Snow, only he’s a different differently.”
“Well, I guess he is,” chuckled Nancy.
“I’m so glad that he speaks to me,” sighed Pollyanna contentedly.
Chapter X. A Surprise for Mrs. Snow
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.
“Oh, it’s you?” asked a voice from the bed. I wish you had come yesterday.”
“Did you? Well, I’m glad,” Pollyanna entered the room and set her basket carefully down on a chair. “It’s so dark here! I can’t see you,” she cried. After that Pollyanna pulled up the shade.[52]
Mrs. Snow turned her eyes toward the basket. “Well, what is it?”
“Guess! What do you want?”
The sick woman frowned.
“Why, I don’t WANT anything,” she sighed. “After all, they all taste alike!”
Pollyanna chuckled.
“If you DID want something, what would it be?”
The woman hesitated.
“Well, of course, there’s lamb broth – ”
“I’ve got it!” crowed Pollyanna.
“But that’s what I DIDN’T want,[53]” sighed the sick woman. “It was chicken I wanted.”
“Oh, I’ve got that, too,” chuckled Pollyanna.
The woman turned in amazement.
“Both of them?” she demanded.
“Yes – and calf’s-foot jelly,” triumphed Pollyanna. “I was just bound you should have what you wanted for once; so Nancy and I fixed it. “I’ll leave them all,” announced Pollyanna.
Suddenly Milly appeared at the door.
“Your aunt is wanting you,[54] Miss Pollyanna.
Pollyanna rose.
“All right,” she sighed. “Goodbye, I’m awfully sorry about the hair – I wanted to do it. But maybe I can next time!”
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. Her aunt usually replied:
“Very well, Pollyanna. I am gratified, of course, that they are happy; but I trust that they are profitable, as well – otherwise I should have failed signally in my duty.[55]”
“Is just being glad isn’t pro-fi-ta-ble?” asked Pollyanna, a little anxiously.
“Certainly not.”
“Oh dear! I’m afraid, now, you won’t ever play the game, Aunt Polly.”
“Game? What game?”
“Why, that father – ” Pollyanna clapped her hand to her lips. “N-nothing,” she stammered. Miss Polly frowned.
It was that afternoon that Pollyanna, coming down from her attic room, met her aunt on the stairway.
“Why, Aunt Polly,” she cried. “You were coming up to see me! Come right in. I love company,” said Pollyanna, “especially since I’ve had this room,[56] all mine, you know. And of course NOW I just love this room, even if it hasn’t got the carpets and curtains and pictures – ” With a painful blush Pollyanna stopped.
“What’s that, Pollyanna?”
Pollyanna blushed still more painfully.
“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.”
Miss Polly rose suddenly to her feet. Her face was very red.
“That will do,[57] Pollyanna,” she said.
Less than twenty-four hours later, Miss Polly said to Nancy:
“Nancy, move Miss Pollyanna’s things downstairs this morning to the room directly beneath.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Nancy aloud.
“O glory!” said Nancy to herself.
To Pollyanna, a minute later, she cried joyously:
“You’re to sleep downstairs in the room straight under this![58]”
“You mean – why, Nancy, not really – really and truly?”
“Your aunt told me to take your things down. And I’m going to take them there now.”
Pollyanna did not stop to hear the end of this sentence. She flied downstairs to Aunt Polly.
“Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, did you mean it, really? Why, that room’s got EVERYTHING – the carpet and curtains and three pictures. Oh, Aunt Polly!”
“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.
But Pollyanna had gone to help Nancy bring down “her things”.[59]
Miss Polly, in the sitting room, felt vaguely disturbed but she was glad!
Chapter XI. Introducing Jimmy
August came. August brought several surprises and some changes.
First there was the kitten.
Pollyanna found the kitten mewing distance down the road. Nobody wanted to take it and Pollyanna brought it home.
“I was glad I didn’t find any one who owned it,” she told her aunt in happy confidence; “because I wanted to bring it home all the time. I love kitties. I knew you’d be glad to let it live here.”
“Of course I knew,” added Pollyanna, gratefully, “that you wouldn’t let a dear little lonesome kitty go hunting for a home when you’d just taken ME in.[60]”
“But, Pollyanna, Pollyanna,” remonstrated Miss Polly. “I don’t – ”
But Pollyanna was already halfway to the kitchen, calling:
“Nancy, Nancy, just see this dear little kitty that Aunt Polly is going to bring up along with me!”
The next day it was a dog; and again Miss Polly found herself as before powerless to remonstrate.
Mrs. Snow and Pollyanna were the best friends now. And Mrs. Snow herself was playing the game now, with Pollyanna. To be sure, she was not playing it very well – but under Pollyanna’s cheery instructions and merry laughter at her mistakes, she was learning fast. That day she was carrying calf’s-foot jelly to Mrs. Snow when suddenly she saw a boy. The boy was sitting by the roadside.
“Hullo,” smiled Pollyanna.
The boy glanced up, but he looked away again, at once.
“Hullo yourself,[61]” he mumbled.
Pollyanna laughed. She hesitated, but then sat comfortably down on the grass near him.
“My name’s Pollyanna Whittier,” she began pleasantly. “What’s yours?”
“Jimmy Bean,” he grunted with ungracious indifference.
“Good! Now we’re introduced. Where do you live?”
“Nowhere.”
“Nowhere! Why, you can’t do that – everybody lives somewhere,” asserted Pollyanna.
“Well, I don’t – just now. I’m hunting up a new place.”
“Oh! Where is it?”
The boy looked at her with scornful eyes.
“Silly! As if I’d be hunting for it – if I knew![62]”
“Where did you live – before?” she asked.
“All right then —! I’m Jimmy Bean, and I’m ten years old. I came last year to live at the Orphans’ Home; but I’ve left it. I’m going to live somewhere else. I’d LIKE to have a home. Since my parents died I’ve tried four houses,[63] but – they didn’t want me – though I said I wanted to work, of course. There! Is that all you want to know?”
“O dear! I know just how you feel, because after – after my father died, too, there wasn’t anybody but the Ladies’ Aid for me, until Aunt Polly said – ”
Pollyanna stopped abruptly.
“Oh, I know just the place for you,” she cried. “Aunt Polly will take you – I 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 is!”
55
otherwise I should have failed signally in my duty – иначе я решу, что плохо выполняю свой долг
58
You’re to sleep downstairs in the room straight under this! – Вы теперь будете жить в комнате этажом ниже!
59
But Pollyanna had gone to help Nancy bring down “her things”. – Только Поллианна уже убежала вниз, чтобы помочь Нэнси перенести «ее вещи».
60
you wouldn’t let a dear little lonesome kitty go hunting for a home when you’d just taken ME in – вы не позволите этому маленькому одинокому котеночку бродить где-то в поисках дома, ведь меня вы приютили
62
Silly! As if I’d be hunting for it – if I knew! – Ну и глупая! Искал бы я его, если бы знал, где оно находится.