Page 41 - pollyanna

CHAPTER VI. A

QUESTION OF DUTY

t was nearly seven o’clock when Pollyanna awoke that
Ifirst day after her arrival. Her windows faced the south
and the west, so she could not see the sun yet; but she could
see the hazy blue of the morning sky, and she knew that the
day promised to be a fair one.
The little room was cooler now, and the air blew in fresh
and sweet. Outside, the birds were twittering joyously, and
Pollyanna flew to the window to talk to them. She saw then
that down in the garden her aunt was already out among
the rosebushes. With rapid fingers, therefore, she made her-
self ready to join her.
Down the attic stairs sped Pollyanna, leaving both doors
wide open. Through the hall, down the next flight, then
bang through the front screened-door and around to the
garden, she ran.
Aunt Polly, with the bent old man, was leaning over a
rose-bush when Pollyanna, gurgling with delight, flung
herself upon her.
‘Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, I reckon I am glad this morn-
ing just to be alive!’
‘PollyANNA!’ remonstrated the lady, sternly, pulling her-
self as erect as she could with a dragging weight of ninety

0 Pollyanna