Поллианна / Pollyanna

“Pollyanna, I have a message for you from Mr. John Pendleton. 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.”

Pollyanna’s little face flamed into sudden joy.

“Glad? GLAD? Well, I reckon I am glad! Oh, Aunt Polly, I’m so glad for Jimmy! Besides, I’m glad for Mr. Pendleton, too. You see, now he’ll have the child’s presence.”

“The – what?”

“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 a – a home. And now he’s got it – the child’s presence.”

“Oh, I – see,” said Miss Polly very gently.

“Dr. Chilton says so, too – that it takes a woman’s hand and heart, or a child’s presence, to make a home, you know,” she remarked.

“DR. CHILTON! How do you know – that?”

“He told me so. It was when he said he lived in just rooms, you know – not a home.”

Miss Polly did not answer. Her eyes were out the window.

“So I asked him why he didn’t get them – a woman’s hand and heart, and have a home.”

“Pollyanna!” Miss Polly turned sharply.

“Well, he looked so – so sorrowful.”

“What did he – say?” Miss Polly asked.

“He didn’t say anything for a minute; then he said very low that you couldn’t always get them for the asking.”

There was a brief silence. Miss Polly’s eyes turned again to the window. Her cheeks were unnaturally pink.

Pollyanna sighed.

“He wants one, anyhow, I know, and I wish he could have one.[144]”

“Why, Pollyanna, HOW do you know?”

“Because, afterwards, on another day, he said something else. He said that he’d give all the world if he did have one woman’s hand and heart.”

Chapter XXVII. The Game and Its Players

It was not long after John Pendleton’s visit that Milly Snow called one afternoon.[145]

“I–I came to inquire for the little girl,” she stammered.

“You are very kind. She is about the same. How is your mother?” rejoined Miss Polly.

“That is what I came to tell you. You know nothing was ever right before – for mother. She was always wanting something different. But now she takes interest in things – how she looks, and her nightdress, and all that. And she knits little 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, because 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 something – to knit, 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. And – and that’s all,” sighed Milly, rising hurriedly to her feet. “You’ll tell her?”

“Why, of course,” murmured Miss Polly.

These visits of John Pendleton and Milly Snow were only the first of many.

One day there was the little Widow Benton. Miss Polly knew her well. By reputation she knew her as the saddest little woman in town – one who was always in black. Today, however, Mrs. Benton wore a knot of pale blue at the throat,[146] though there were tears in her eyes. She asked if she might see Pollyanna.

Miss Polly shook her head.

“I am sorry, but she sees no one yet. A little later – perhaps.”

Mrs. Benton rose, and turned to go. But after she came back hurriedly.

“Miss Harrington, please give her – a message,” she stammered.

“Certainly, Mrs. Benton.”

Still the little woman hesitated; then she spoke.

“Will you tell her, please, that now I wear THIS,” she said, just touching the blue bow at her throat. The little girl has been trying for so long to make me wear – some color, that I thought she’d be – glad to know I’d begun. If you’ll just tell Pollyanna – SHE’LL understand.” And the door closed after her.

A little later, that same day, there was the other widow. The lady gave her name as “Mrs. Tarbell.”

“I’m a stranger to you, of course,” she began at once. “But I’m not a stranger to your little niece, Pollyanna. She’s such a dear little girl! I was very sad when I came up here; and her bright face and cheery manners reminded me of – my own little girl that I lost years ago. I was so shocked to hear of the accident. I just had to come to you.”

“You are very kind,” murmured Miss Polly.

“I–I want you to give her a message from me. Will you?”

“Certainly.”

“Will you just tell her, then, that Mrs. Tarbell is glad now. Yes, I know it sounds odd, and you don’t understand. But your niece will know just what I mean; and I felt that I must tell – her.” she said.

Miss Polly hurried upstairs to Pollyanna’s room.

“Pollyanna, do you know a Mrs. Tarbell?[147]”

“Oh, yes. I love Mrs. Tarbell. She’s sick, and sad; and takes long walks.”

“We’ll, she’s just been here, dear. She left a message for you. She said to tell you that Mrs. Tarbell is glad now.”

Pollyanna clapped her hands softly.

“Did she say that – really? Oh, I’m so glad!”

“But, Pollyanna, what did she mean?”

“Why, it’s the game, and – ” Pollyanna stopped short.

“What game?”

“N-nothing much, Aunt Polly; that is – I can’t tell it unless I tell other things that – that I’m not to speak of.[148]”

It was on Miss Polly’s tongue to question her niece further; but the obvious distress on the little girl’s face stopped the words before they were uttered.

Miss Polly went to the kitchen to Nancy.

“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 her – now. But from something I heard her say to you last night, I should judge you were one of them, too. Now WILL you tell me what it all means?”

To Miss Polly’s surprise and dismay, Nancy burst into tears.

“It means that ever since last June Pollyanna has just been making the whole town glad, and now they’re turning around and trying to make her a little glad, too.[149]”

“Glad of what?”

“Just glad! That’s the game.”

“What game?”

“I’ll tell you, ma’am. It’s a game Miss Pollyanna’s father taught her to play. The game is to find something in everything to be glad about. And they called it the ‘just being glad’ game. That’s the game, ma’am.”

“But why hasn’t – she told me – the game?” faltered Miss Polly.

Nancy hesitated.

“Ma’am, you told her not to speak of – her father; so she couldn’t tell you. It was her father’s game, you see.”

Miss Polly bit her lip.

“She wanted to tell you, first off,” continued Nancy, a little unsteadily. “She wanted somebody to play it with. That’s why I began it, so she could have someone.”

“And – and – these others?” Miss Polly’s voice shook now.

“Oh, of course she told a lot, and they told the rest. And she was always so smiling and pleasant to everyone. Now, since she’s hurt, everybody feels so bad – especially when they heard how bad SHE feels because she can’t find anything to be glad about. And so they come every day to tell her how glad she’s made THEM, hoping that’ll help some.[150] You see, she’s always wanted everybody to play the game with her.”

“Well, I know somebody who’ll play it – now,” choked Miss Polly, as she turned and ran through the kitchen doorway.

Behind her, Nancy stood staring amazedly.

A little later, in Pollyanna’s room, the nurse left Miss Polly and Pollyanna alone together.

“Now I know everything about the game you’re playing. Nancy told me. I think it’s a beautiful game. I’m going to play it now – with you.”

“Oh, Aunt Polly – YOU? I’m so glad! You see, I’ve really wanted you most of anybody, all the time.”

“Yes, dear; and there are all those others, too. Why, Pollyanna, I think all the town is playing that game now with you – even to the minister! The whole town is playing the game, and the whole town is wonderfully happier – and all because of one little girl who taught the people a new game, and how to play it.”

Pollyanna clapped her hands.

“Oh, I’m so glad,” she cried. Then, suddenly, a wonderful light illumined her face. “Aunt Polly, there IS something I can be glad about, after all. I can be glad I’ve HAD my legs, anyway – else I couldn’t have done – that![151]”

Chapter XXVIII. Through an Open Window

One by one the short winter days came and went – but they were not short to Pollyanna. They were long, and sometimes full of pain.

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 about – and Pollyanna needed new things to think about.

John Pendleton told her what a fine boy Jimmy was getting to be, and how well he was doing. Jimmy told her what a first-rate home he had; and both said that it was all owing to her.

The winter passed, and spring came. There seemed every reason to believe, indeed, that Dr. Mead’s worst fears would be realized – that Pollyanna would never walk again.

One day Mr. John Pendleton, somewhat to his surprise, received one Saturday morning a call from Dr. Thomas Chilton.

“Pendleton,” began the doctor, abruptly, “I’ve come to you because you, better than anyone else in town, know something of my relations with Miss Polly Harrington.”

“Yes,” he said, trying to make his voice sound concerned enough for sympathy, and not eager enough for curiosity.

“Pendleton, I want to see that child. I want to make an examination. I MUST make an examination.”

“Well – can’t you?”

“CAN’T I! Pendleton, you know very well I haven’t been inside that door for more than fifteen years.[152] 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 before – which meant that she’d marry me. Perhaps you see her summoning me now – but I don’t!”

“But couldn’t you go – without a summons?”

The doctor frowned.

“Well, hardly. I have some pride, you know.”

“But if you’re so anxious – couldn’t you swallow your pride and forget the quarrel – ”

“Forget the quarrel!” interrupted the doctor. “I’m not talking of that kind of pride. It’s PROFESSIONAL pride I’m talking about. It’s a case of sickness, and I’m a doctor.”

“Chilton, what was the quarrel?” demanded Pendleton.

“What was it? A silly wrangle over the size of the moon or the depth of a river! Never mind the quarrel! So far as I am concerned, I am willing to say there was no quarrel.[153] Pendleton, I must see that child. It may mean life or death. It will mean – I honestly believe – nine chances out of ten that Pollyanna Whittier will walk again!”

The words were spoken clearly and impressively. Thus it happened that very distinctly they reached the ears of Jimmy Bean who was pulling up the first little green weeds of the flowerbeds near the window.

“Walk! Pollyanna!” John Pendleton was saying. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that from what I can hear and learn – that her case is very much like one that a college friend of mine has just helped.[154] But I want to SEE the girl!”

John Pendleton came erect in his chair.

“You must see her, man! Couldn’t you – say, through Dr. Warren?”

The other shook his head.