Page 140 - pollyanna

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 wouldn’t let him bring you to me, I said no.
‘But after a time I found I was wanting to see you so much
that—that the fact that I WASN’T seeing you was making
me remember all the more vividly the thing I was so want-
ing to forget. So now I want you to come. Will you—little
girl?’
‘Why, yes, Mr. Pendleton,’ breathed Pollyanna, her eyes
luminous with sympathy for the sad-faced man lying back
on the pillow before her. ‘I’d love to come!’
‘Thank you,’ said John Pendleton, gently.
After supper that evening, Pollyanna, sitting on the back
porch, told Nancy all about Mr. John Pendleton’s won-
derful carved box, and the still more wonderful things it
contained.
‘And ter think,’ sighed Nancy, ‘that he SHOWED ye all
them things, and told ye about ‘em like that—him that’s so
cross he never talks ter no one—no one!’
‘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 Pollyanna—meanin’ no offence ter you, of course—
but he ain’t the sort o’ man what gen’rally takes ter kids; he

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