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years. Heā€™s let me help himā ā€”but only as a loan. Heā€™s been very particular to stipulate that.ā€

ā€œOf course,ā€ nodded Pollyanna, in approval. ā€œHeā€™d want it that way, Iā€™m sure. I should. It isnā€™t nice to be under obligations that you canā€™t pay. I know how it is. Thatā€™s why I so wish I could help Aunt Polly outā ā€”after all sheā€™s done for me!ā€

ā€œBut you are helping her this summer.ā€

Pollyanna lifted her eyebrows.

ā€œYes, Iā€™m keeping summer boarders. I look it, donā€™t I?ā€ she challenged, with a flourish of her hands toward her surroundings. ā€œSurely, never was a boardinghouse mistressā€™s task quite like mine! And you should have heard Aunt Pollyā€™s dire predictions of what summer boarders would be,ā€ she chuckled irrepressibly.

ā€œWhat was that?ā€

Pollyanna shook her head decidedly.

ā€œCouldnā€™t possibly tell you. Thatā€™s a dead secret. Butā ā€”ā€ She stopped and sighed, her face growing wistful again. ā€œThis isnā€™t going to last, you know. It canā€™t. Summer boarders donā€™t. Iā€™ve got to do something winters. Iā€™ve been thinking. I believeā ā€”Iā€™ll write stories.ā€

Jamie turned with a start.

ā€œYouā€™llā ā€”what?ā€ he demanded.

ā€œWrite storiesā ā€”to sell, you know. You neednā€™t look so surprised! Lots of folks do that. I knew two girls in Germany who did.ā€

ā€œDid you ever try it?ā€ Jamie still spoke a little queerly.

ā€œN-no; not yet,ā€ admitted Pollyanna. Then, defensively, in answer to the expression on his face, she bridled: ā€œI told you I was keeping summer boarders now. I canā€™t do both at once.ā€

ā€œOf course not!ā€

She threw him a reproachful glance.

ā€œYou donā€™t think I can ever do it?ā€

ā€œI didnā€™t say so.ā€

ā€œNo; but you look it. I donā€™t see why I canā€™t. It isnā€™t like singing. You donā€™t have to have a voice for it. And it isnā€™t like an instrument that you have to learn how to play.ā€

ā€œI think it isā ā€”a littleā ā€”like that.ā€ Jamieā€™s voice was low. His eyes were turned away.

ā€œHow? What do you mean? Why, Jamie, just a pencil and paper, soā ā€”that isnā€™t like learning to play the piano or violin!ā€

There was a momentā€™s silence. Then came the answer, still in that low, diffident voice; still with the eyes turned away.

ā€œThe 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 ā€”to 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.

ā€œOh, Jamie, how beautifully you do put thingsā ā€”always! I never thought of it that way. But itā€™s so, isnā€™t it? How I would love to do it! Maybe I couldnā€™t doā ā€”all that. But Iā€™ve read stories in the magazines, lots of them. Seems as if I could write some like those, anyway. I love to tell stories. Iā€™m always repeating those you tell, and I always laugh and cry, too, just as I do when you tell them.ā€

Jamie turned quickly.

ā€œDo they make you laugh and cry, Pollyannaā ā€”really?ā€ There was a curious eagerness in his voice.

ā€œOf 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 donā€™t 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.

ā€œIn the ā€˜Desert 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 Pollyannaā€™s 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 ā€”hopelessly. Perhaps John Pendleton himself felt some of the surprise, for once he said to Pollyanna, musingly:

ā€œI wonder why Iā€™m talking to you like this.ā€

ā€œOh, but I love to have you,ā€ breathed Pollyanna.

ā€œYes, I knowā ā€”but I wouldnā€™t think I would do it. It must be, though, that itā€™s because you are so like her, as I knew her. You are very like your mother, my dear.ā€

ā€œWhy, I thought my mother was beautiful!ā€ cried Pollyanna, in unconcealed amazement.

John Pendleton smiled quizzically.

ā€œShe was, my dear.ā€

Pollyanna looked still more amazed.

ā€œThen I donā€™t see how I can be like her!ā€

The man laughed outright.

ā€œPollyanna, if some girls had said that, Iā ā€”well, never mind what Iā€™d say. You little witch!ā ā€”you poor, homely little Pollyanna!ā€

Pollyanna flashed a genuinely distressed reproof straight into the manā€™s merry eyes.

ā€œPlease, Mr. Pendleton, donā€™t look like that, and donā€™t tease meā ā€”about that. Iā€™d so love to be beautifulā ā€”though of course it sounds silly to say it. And I have a mirror, you know.ā€

ā€œThen I advise you to look in itā ā€”when youā€™re talking sometime,ā€ observed the man sententiously.

Pollyannaā€™s eyes flew wide open.

ā€œWhy, thatā€™s just what Jimmy said,ā€ she cried.

ā€œDid he, indeedā ā€”the young rascal!ā€ retorted John Pendleton, dryly. Then, with one of the curiously abrupt changes of manner peculiar to him, he said, very low: ā€œYou have your motherā€™s eyes and smile, Pollyanna; and to me you areā ā€”beautiful.ā€

And Pollyanna, her eyes blinded with sudden hot tears, was silenced.

Dear as were these talks, however, they still

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