Pollyanna Grows Up Eleanor H. Porter (booksvooks .TXT) š
- Author: Eleanor H. Porter
Book online Ā«Pollyanna Grows Up Eleanor H. Porter (booksvooks .TXT) šĀ». Author Eleanor H. Porter
āOf course,ā nodded Pollyanna, in approval. āHeād want it that way, Iām sure. I should. It isnāt nice to be under obligations that you canāt pay. I know how it is. Thatās why I so wish I could help Aunt Polly outā āafter all sheās done for me!ā
āBut you are helping her this summer.ā
Pollyanna lifted her eyebrows.
āYes, Iām keeping summer boarders. I look it, donāt I?ā she challenged, with a flourish of her hands toward her surroundings. āSurely, never was a boardinghouse mistressās task quite like mine! And you should have heard Aunt Pollyās dire predictions of what summer boarders would be,ā she chuckled irrepressibly.
āWhat was that?ā
Pollyanna shook her head decidedly.
āCouldnāt possibly tell you. Thatās a dead secret. Butā āā She stopped and sighed, her face growing wistful again. āThis isnāt going to last, you know. It canāt. Summer boarders donāt. Iāve got to do something winters. Iāve been thinking. I believeā āIāll write stories.ā
Jamie turned with a start.
āYouāllā āwhat?ā he demanded.
āWrite storiesā āto sell, you know. You neednāt look so surprised! Lots of folks do that. I knew two girls in Germany who did.ā
āDid you ever try it?ā Jamie still spoke a little queerly.
āN-no; not yet,ā admitted Pollyanna. Then, defensively, in answer to the expression on his face, she bridled: āI told you I was keeping summer boarders now. I canāt do both at once.ā
āOf course not!ā
She threw him a reproachful glance.
āYou donāt think I can ever do it?ā
āI didnāt say so.ā
āNo; but you look it. I donāt see why I canāt. It isnāt like singing. You donāt have to have a voice for it. And it isnāt like an instrument that you have to learn how to play.ā
āI think it isā āa littleā ālike that.ā Jamieās voice was low. His eyes were turned away.
āHow? What do you mean? Why, Jamie, just a pencil and paper, soā āthat isnāt like learning to play the piano or violin!ā
There was a momentās silence. Then came the answer, still in that low, diffident voice; still with the eyes turned away.
āThe instrument that you play on, Pollyanna, will be the great heart of the world; and to me that seems the most wonderful instrument of allā āto learn. Under your touch, if you are skilful, it will respond with smiles or tears, as you will.ā
Pollyanna drew a tremulous sigh. Her eyes grew wet.
āOh, Jamie, how beautifully you do put thingsā āalways! I never thought of it that way. But itās so, isnāt it? How I would love to do it! Maybe I couldnāt doā āall that. But Iāve read stories in the magazines, lots of them. Seems as if I could write some like those, anyway. I love to tell stories. Iām always repeating those you tell, and I always laugh and cry, too, just as I do when you tell them.ā
Jamie turned quickly.
āDo they make you laugh and cry, Pollyannaā āreally?ā There was a curious eagerness in his voice.
āOf course they do, and you know it, Jamie. And they used to long ago, too, in the Public Garden. Nobody can tell stories like you, Jamie. you ought to be the one writing stories; not I. And, say, Jamie, why donāt you? You could do it lovely, I know!ā
There was no answer. Jamie, apparently, did not hear; perhaps because he called, at that instant, to a chipmunk that was scurrying through the bushes near by.
It was not always with Jamie, nor yet with Mrs. Carew and Sadie Dean that Pollyanna had delightful walks and talks, however; very often it was with Jimmy, or John Pendleton.
Pollyanna was sure now that she had never before known John Pendleton. The old taciturn moroseness seemed entirely gone since they came to camp. He rowed and swam and fished and tramped with fully as much enthusiasm as did Jimmy himself, and with almost as much vigor. Around the camp fire at night he quite rivaled Jamie with his story-telling of adventures, both laughable and thrilling, that had befallen him in his foreign travels.
āIn the āDesert of Sarah,ā Nancy used to call it,ā laughed Pollyanna one night, as she joined the rest in begging for a story.
Better than all this, however, in Pollyannaās opinion, were the times when John Pendleton, with her alone, talked of her mother as he used to know her and love her, in the days long gone. That he did so talk with her was a joy to Pollyanna, but a great surprise, too; for, never in the past, had John Pendleton talked so freely of the girl whom he had so lovedā āhopelessly. Perhaps John Pendleton himself felt some of the surprise, for once he said to Pollyanna, musingly:
āI wonder why Iām talking to you like this.ā
āOh, but I love to have you,ā breathed Pollyanna.
āYes, I knowā ābut I wouldnāt think I would do it. It must be, though, that itās because you are so like her, as I knew her. You are very like your mother, my dear.ā
āWhy, I thought my mother was beautiful!ā cried Pollyanna, in unconcealed amazement.
John Pendleton smiled quizzically.
āShe was, my dear.ā
Pollyanna looked still more amazed.
āThen I donāt see how I can be like her!ā
The man laughed outright.
āPollyanna, if some girls had said that, Iā āwell, never mind what Iād say. You little witch!ā āyou poor, homely little Pollyanna!ā
Pollyanna flashed a genuinely distressed reproof straight into the manās merry eyes.
āPlease, Mr. Pendleton, donāt look like that, and donāt tease meā āabout that. Iād so love to be beautifulā āthough of course it sounds silly to say it. And I have a mirror, you know.ā
āThen I advise you to look in itā āwhen youāre talking sometime,ā observed the man sententiously.
Pollyannaās eyes flew wide open.
āWhy, thatās just what Jimmy said,ā she cried.
āDid he, indeedā āthe young rascal!ā retorted John Pendleton, dryly. Then, with one of the curiously abrupt changes of manner peculiar to him, he said, very low: āYou have your motherās eyes and smile, Pollyanna; and to me you areā ābeautiful.ā
And Pollyanna, her eyes blinded with sudden hot tears, was silenced.
Dear as were these talks, however, they still
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