Page 212 - pollyanna

leton. He has just been here. 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 wistful little face flamed into sudden joy.
‘Glad? GLAD? Well, I reckon I am glad! Oh, Aunt Polly,
I’ve so wanted to find a place for Jimmy—and that’s such a
lovely place! Besides, I’m so glad for Mr. Pendleton, too. You
see, now he’ll have the child’s presence.’
‘The—what?’
Pollyanna colored painfully. She had forgotten that she
had never told her aunt of Mr. Pendleton’s desire to adopt
her—and certainly she would not wish to tell her now that
she had ever thought for a minute of leaving her—this dear
Aunt Polly!
‘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; and she did
see—more than Pollyanna realized. She saw something of
the pressure that was probably brought to bear on Polly-
anna herself at the time John Pendleton was asking HER to
be the ‘child’s presence,’ which was to transform his great
pile of gray stone into a home. ‘I see,’ she finished, her eyes
stinging with sudden tears.
Pollyanna, fearful that her aunt might ask further em-
barrassing questions, hastened to lead the conversation
away from the Pendleton house and its master.
‘Dr. Chilton says so, too—that it takes a woman’s hand

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