CHAPTER XVII. "JUST LIKE A BOOK"
John Pendleton greeted Pollyanna to-day with a smile.
"Well, Miss Pollyanna, I'm thinking you must be a very forgiving littleperson, else you wouldn't have come to see me again to-day."
"Why, Mr. Pendleton, I was real glad to come, and I'm sure I don't seewhy I shouldn't be, either."
"Oh, well, you know, I was pretty cross with you, I'm afraid, both theother day when you so kindly brought me the jelly, and that time whenyou found me with the broken leg at first. By the way, too, I don'tthink I've ever thanked you for that. Now I'm sure that even you wouldadmit that you were very forgiving to come and see me, after suchungrateful treatment as that!"
Pollyanna stirred uneasily.
"But I was glad to find you--that is, I don't mean I was glad your legwas broken, of course," she corrected hurriedly.
John Pendleton smiled.
"I understand. Your tongue does get away with you once in a while,doesn't it, Miss Pollyanna? I do thank you, however; and I consider youa very brave little girl to do what you did that day. I thank you forthe jelly, too," he added in a lighter voice.
"Did you like it?" asked Pollyanna with interest.
"Very much. I suppose--there isn't any more to-day that--that Aunt PollyDIDN'T send, is there?" he asked with an odd smile.
His visitor looked distressed.
"N-no, sir." She hesitated, then went on with heightened color. "Please,Mr. Pendleton, I didn't mean to be rude the other day when I said AuntPolly did NOT send the jelly."
There was no answer. John Pendleton was not smiling now. He was lookingstraight ahead of him with eyes that seemed to be gazing through andbeyond the object before them. After a time he drew a long sigh andturned to Pollyanna. When he spoke his voice carried the old nervousfretfulness.
"Well, well, this will never do at all! I didn't send for you to seeme moping this time. Listen! Out in the library--the big room where thetelephone is, you know--you will find a carved box on the lower shelf ofthe big case with glass doors in the corner not far from the fireplace.That is, it'll be there if that confounded woman hasn't 'regulated'it to somewhere else! You may bring it to me. It is heavy, but not tooheavy for you to carry, I think."
"Oh, I'm awfully strong," declared Pollyanna, cheerfully, as she sprangto her feet. In a minute she had returned with the box.
It was a wonderful half-hour that Pollyanna spent then. The box wasfull of treasures--curios that John Pendleton had picked up in years oftravel--and concerning each there was some entertaining story, whetherit were a set of exquisitely carved chessmen from China, or a littlejade idol from India.
It was after she had heard the story about the idol that Pollyannamurmured wistfully:
"Well, I suppose it WOULD be better to take a little boy in India tobring up--one that didn't know any more than to think that God was inthat doll-thing--than it would be to take Jimmy Bean, a little boy whoknows God is up in the sky. Still, I can't help wishing they had wantedJimmy Bean, too, besides the India boys."
John Pendleton did not seem to hear. Again his, eyes were staringstraight before him, looking at nothing. But soon he had roused himself,and had picked up another curio to talk about.
The visit, certainly, was a delightful one, but before it was over,Pollyanna was realizing that they were talking about something besidesthe wonderful things in the beautiful carved box. They were talkingof herself, of Nancy, of Aunt Polly, and of her daily life. They weretalking, too, even of the life and home long ago in the far Westerntown.
Not until it was nearly time for her to go, did the man say, in a voicePollyanna had never before heard from stern John Pendleton:
"Little girl, I want you to come to see me often. Will you? I'mlonesome, and I need you. There's another reason--and I'm going to tellyou that, too. I thought, at first, after I found out who you were,the other day, that I didn't want you to come any more. You remindedme of--of something I have tried for long years to forget. So I saidto myself that I never wanted to see you again; and every day, when thedoctor asked if I wouldn't let him bring you to me, I said no.
"But after a time I found I was wanting to see you so much that--thatthe fact that I WASN'T seeing you was making me remember all the morevividly the thing I was so wanting to forget. So now I want you to come.Will you--little girl?"
"Why, yes, Mr. Pendleton," breathed Pollyanna, her eyes luminous withsympathy for the sad-faced man lying back on the pillow before her. "I'dlove to come!"
"Thank you," said John Pendleton, gently.
After supper that evening, Pollyanna, sitting on the back porch, toldNancy all about Mr. John Pendleton's wonderful carved box, and the stillmore wonderful things it contained.
"And ter think," sighed Nancy, "that he SHOWED ye all them things, andtold ye about 'em like that--him that's so cross he never talks ter noone--no one!"
"Oh, but he isn't cross, Nancy, only outside," demurred Pollyanna, withquick loyalty. "I don't see why everybody thinks he's so bad, either.They wouldn't, if they knew him. But even Aunt Polly doesn't like himvery well. She wouldn't send the jelly to him, you know, and she was soafraid he'd think she did send it!"
"Probably she didn't call him no duty," shrugged Nancy. "But what beatsme is how he happened ter take ter you so, Miss Pollyanna--meanin' nooffence ter you, of course--but he ain't the sort o' man what gen'rallytakes ter kids; he ain't, he ain't."
Pollyanna smiled happily.
"But he did, Nancy," she nodded, "only I reckon even he didn't wantto--ALL the time. Why, only to-day he owned up that one time hejust felt he never wanted to see me again, because I reminded him ofsomething he wanted to forget. But afterwards--"
"What's that?" interrupted Nancy, excitedly. "He said you reminded himof something he wanted to forget?"
"Yes. But afterwards--"
"What was it?" Nancy was eagerly insistent.
"He didn't tell me. He just said it was something."
"THE MYSTERY!" breathed Nancy, in an awestruck voice. "That's why hetook to you in the first place. Oh, Miss Pollyanna! Why, that's justlike a book--I've read lots of 'em; 'Lady Maud's Secret,' and 'The LostHeir,' and 'Hidden for Years'--all of 'em had mysteries and things justlike this. My stars and stockings! Just think of havin' a book livedright under yer nose like this an' me not knowin' it all this time! Nowtell me everythin'--everythin' he said, Miss Pollyanna, there's a dear!No wonder he took ter you; no wonder--no wonder!"
"But he didn't," cried Pollyanna, "not till _I_ talked to HIM, first.And he didn't even know who I was till I took the calf's-foot jelly, andhad to make him understand that Aunt Polly didn't send it, and--"
Nancy sprang to her feet and clasped her hands together suddenly.
"Oh, Miss Pollyanna, I know, I know--I KNOW I know!" she exultedrapturously. The next minute she was down at Pollyanna's side again."Tell me--now think, and answer straight and true," she urged excitedly."It was after he found out you was Miss Polly's niece that he said hedidn't ever want ter see ye again, wa'n't it?"
"Oh, yes. I told him that the last time I saw him, and he told me thisto-day."
"I thought as much," triumphed Nancy. "And Miss Polly wouldn't send thejelly herself, would she?"
"No."
"And you told him she didn't send it?"
"Why, yes; I--"
"And he began ter act queer and cry out sudden after he found out youwas her niece. He did that, didn't he?"
"Why, y-yes; he did act a little queer--over that jelly," admittedPollyanna, with a thoughtful frown.
Nancy drew a long sigh.
"Then I've got it, sure! Now listen. MR. JOHN PENDLETON WAS MISS POLLYHARRINGTON'S LOVER!" she announced impressively, but with a furtiveglance over her shoulder.
"Why, Nancy, he couldn't be! She doesn't like him," objected Pollyanna.
Nancy gave her a scornful glance.
"Of course she don't! THAT'S the quarrel!"
Pollyanna still looked incredulous, and with another long
breath Nancyhappily settled herself to tell the story.
"It's like this. Just before you come, Mr. Tom told me Miss Polly hadhad a lover once. I didn't believe it. I couldn't--her and a lover! ButMr. Tom said she had, and that he was livin' now right in this town. AndNOW I know, of course. It's John Pendleton. Hain't he got a mystery inhis life? Don't he shut himself up in that grand house alone, and neverspeak ter no one? Didn't he act queer when he found out you was MissPolly's niece? And now hain't he owned up that you remind him ofsomethin' he wants ter forget? Just as if ANYBODY couldn't see 'twasMiss Polly!--an' her sayin' she wouldn't send him no jelly, too. Why,Miss Pollyanna, it's as plain as the nose on yer face; it is, it is!"
"Oh-h!" breathed Pollyanna, in wide-eyed amazement. "But, Nancy, Ishould think if they loved each other they'd make up some time. Bothof 'em all alone, so, all these years. I should think they'd be glad tomake up!"
Nancy sniffed disdainfully.
"I guess maybe you don't know much about lovers, Miss Pollyanna. Youain't big enough yet, anyhow. But if there IS a set o' folks in theworld that wouldn't have no use for that 'ere 'glad game' o' your'n,it'd be a pair o' quarrellin' lovers; and that's what they be. Ain't hecross as sticks, most gen'rally?--and ain't she--"
Nancy stopped abruptly, remembering just in time to whom, and aboutwhom, she was speaking. Suddenly, however, she chuckled.
"I ain't sayin', though, Miss Pollyanna, but what it would be a prettyslick piece of business if you could GET 'em ter playin' it--so theyWOULD be glad ter make up. But, my land! wouldn't folks stare some--MissPolly and him! I guess, though, there ain't much chance, much chance!"
Pollyanna said nothing; but when she went into the house a little later,her face was very thoughtful.