Page 209 - pollyanna

Jimmy Bean again, I s’pose, sir, could I?’
‘I don’t see how you could—as I haven’t seen him,’ ob-
served the man a little shortly. ‘Why?’
‘Nothin’, sir, only—well, ye see, that’s one of the things
that she was feelin’ bad about, that she couldn’t take him ter
see you, now. She said she’d taken him once, but she didn’t
think he showed off very well that day, and that she was
afraid you didn’t think he would make a very nice child’s
presence, after all. Maybe you know what she means by
that; but I didn’t, sir.’
‘Yes, I know—what she means.’
‘All right, sir. It was only that she was wantin’ ter take him
again, she said, so’s ter show ye he really was a lovely child’s
presence. And now she—can’t—drat that autymobile! I begs
yer pardon, sir. Good-by!’ And Nancy fled precipitately.
It did not take long for the entire town of Beldingsville
to learn that the great New York doctor had said Pollyan-
na Whittier would never walk again; and certainly never
before had the town been so stirred. Everybody knew by
sight now the piquant little freckled face that had always a
smile of greeting; and almost everybody knew of the ‘game’
that Pollyanna was playing. To think that now never again
would that smiling face be seen on their streets—never
again would that cheery little voice proclaim the gladness
of some everyday experience! It seemed unbelievable, im-
possible, cruel.
In kitchens and sitting rooms, and over back-yard fences
women talked of it, and wept openly. On street corners and
in store lounging-places the men talked, too, and wept—

0 Pollyanna