CHAPTER XXIV. JOHN PENDLETON
Pollyanna did not go to school "to-morrow," nor the "day afterto-morrow." Pollyanna, however, did not realize this, except momentarilywhen a brief period of full consciousness sent insistent questions toher lips. Pollyanna did not realize anything, in fact, very clearlyuntil a week had passed; then the fever subsided, the pain lessenedsomewhat, and her mind awoke to full consciousness. She had then to betold all over again what had occurred.
"And so it's hurt that I am, and not sick," she sighed at last. "Well,I'm glad of that."
"G-glad, Pollyanna?" asked her aunt, who was sitting by the bed.
"Yes. I'd so much rather have broken legs like Mr. Pendleton's thanlife-long-invalids like Mrs. Snow, you know. Broken legs get well, andlifelong-invalids don't."
Miss Polly--who had said nothing whatever about broken legs--gotsuddenly to her feet and walked to the little dressing table across theroom. She was picking up one object after another now, and putting eachdown, in an aimless fashion quite unlike her usual decisiveness. Herface was not aimless-looking at all, however; it was white and drawn.
On the bed Pollyanna lay blinking at the dancing band of colors on theceiling, which came from one of the prisms in the window.
"I'm glad it isn't smallpox that ails me, too," she murmuredcontentedly. "That would be worse than freckles. And I'm glad 'tisn'twhooping cough--I've had that, and it's horrid--and I'm glad 'tisn'tappendicitis nor measles, 'cause they're catching--measles are, Imean--and they wouldn't let you stay here."
"You seem to--to be glad for a good many things, my dear," faltered AuntPolly, putting her hand to her throat as if her collar bound.
Pollyanna laughed softly.
"I am. I've been thinking of 'em--lots of 'em--all the time I've beenlooking up at that rainbow. I love rainbows. I'm so glad Mr. Pendletongave me those prisms! I'm glad of some things I haven't said yet. Idon't know but I'm 'most glad I was hurt."
"Pollyanna!"
Pollyanna laughed softly again. She turned luminous eyes on her aunt."Well, you see, since I have been hurt, you've called me 'dear' lots oftimes--and you didn't before. I love to be called 'dear'--by folks thatbelong to you, I mean. Some of the Ladies' Aiders did call me that; andof course that was pretty nice, but not so nice as if they had belongedto me, like you do. Oh, Aunt Polly, I'm so glad you belong to me!"
Aunt Polly did not answer. Her hand was at her throat again. Her eyeswere full of tears. She had turned away and was hurrying from the roomthrough the door by which the nurse had just entered.
It was that afternoon that Nancy ran out to Old Tom, who was cleaningharnesses in the barn. Her eyes were wild.
"Mr. Tom, Mr. Tom, guess what's happened," she panted. "You couldn'tguess in a thousand years--you couldn't, you couldn't!"
"Then I cal'late I won't try," retorted the man, grimly, "specially asI hain't got more'n TEN ter live, anyhow, probably. You'd better tell mefirst off, Nancy."
"Well, listen, then. Who do you s'pose is in the parlor now with themistress? Who, I say?"
Old Tom shook his head.
"There's no tellin'," he declared.
"Yes, there is. I'm tellin'. It's--John Pendleton!"
"Sho, now! You're jokin', girl."
"Not much I am--an' me a-lettin' him in myself--crutches an' all! An'the team he come in a-waitin' this minute at the door for him, jest asif he wa'n't the cranky old crosspatch he is, what never talks ter noone! jest think, Mr. Tom--HIM a-callin' on HER!"
"Well, why not?" demanded the old man, a little aggressively.
Nancy gave him a scornful glance.
"As if you didn't know better'n me!" she derided.
"Eh?"
"Oh, you needn't be so innercent," she retorted with mock indignation;"--you what led me wildgoose chasin' in the first place!"
"What do ye mean?"
Nancy glanced through the open barn door toward the house, and came astep nearer to the old man.
"Listen! 'Twas you that was tellin' me Miss Polly had a lover in thefirst place, wa'n't it? Well, one day I thinks I finds two and two, andI puts 'em tergether an' makes four. But it turns out ter be five--an'no four at all, at all!"
With a gesture of indifference Old Tom turned and fell to work.
"If you're goin' ter talk ter me, you've got ter talk plain horsesense," he declared testily. "I never was no hand for figgers."
Nancy laughed.
"Well, it's this," she explained. "I heard somethin' that made me thinkhim an' Miss Polly was lovers."
"MR. PENDLETON!" Old Tom straightened up.
"Yes. Oh, I know now; he wasn't. It was that blessed child's mother hewas in love with, and that's why he wanted--but never mind that part,"she added hastily, remembering just in time her promise to Pollyannanot to tell that Mr. Pendleton had wished her to come and live with him."Well, I've been askin' folks about him some, since, and I've found outthat him an' Miss Polly hain't been friends for years, an' that she'sbeen hatin' him like pizen owin' ter the silly gossip that coupled theirnames tergether when she was eighteen or twenty."
"Yes, I remember," nodded Old Tom. "It was three or four years afterMiss Jennie give him the mitten and went off with the other chap. MissPolly knew about it, of course, and was sorry for him. So she tried terbe nice to him. Maybe she overdid it a little--she hated that ministerchap so who had took off her sister. At any rate, somebody begun termake trouble. They said she was runnin' after him."
"Runnin' after any man--her!" interjected Nancy.
"I know it; but they did," declared Old Tom, "and of course no gal ofany spunk'll stand that. Then about that time come her own lover an'the trouble with HIM. After that she shut up like an oyster an' wouldn'thave nothin' ter do with nobody fur a spell. Her heart jest seemed toturn bitter at the core."
"Yes, I know. I've heard about that now," rejoined Nancy; "an' that'swhy you could 'a' knocked me down with a feather when I see HIM at thedoor--him, what she hain't spoke to for years! But I let him in an' wentan' told her."
"What did she say?" Old Tom held his breath suspended.
"Nothin'--at first. She was so still I thought she hadn't heard; and Iwas jest goin' ter say it over when she speaks up quiet like: 'Tell Mr.Pendleton I will be down at once.' An' I come an' told him. Then I comeout here an' told you," finished Nancy, casting another backward glancetoward the house.
"Humph!" grunted Old Tom; and fell to work again.
In the ceremonious "parlor" of the Harrington homestead, Mr. JohnPendleton did not have to wait long before a swift step warned him ofMiss Polly's coming. As he attempted to rise, she made a gesture ofremonstrance. She did not offer her hand, however, and her face wascoldly reserved.
"I called to ask for--Pollyanna," he began at once, a little brusquely.
"Thank you. She is about the same," said Miss Polly.
"And that is--won't you tell me HOW she is?" His voice was not quitesteady this time.
A quick spasm of pain crossed the woman's face.
"I can't, I wish I could!"
"You mean--you don't know?"
"Yes."
"But--the doctor?"
"Dr. Warren himself seems--at sea. He is in correspondence now with aNew York specialist. They have arranged for a consultation at once."
"But--but what WERE her injuries that you do know?"
"A slight cut on the head, one or two bruises, and--and an injury to thespine which has seemed to cause--paralysis from the hips down."
A low cry came from the man. There was a brief silence; then, huskily,he asked:
"And Pollyanna--how does she--take it?"
"She doesn't understand--at all--how things really are. And I CAN'T tellher."
"But she must know--something!"
Miss Polly lifted her hand to the collar at her throat in the gesturethat had become so common to her of late.
"Oh, yes. She knows she can't--move; but she thinks her legsare--broken. She says she's glad it's broken legs like yours rathe
r than'lifelong-invalids' like Mrs. Snow's; because broken legs get well, andthe other--doesn't. She talks like that all the time, until it--it seemsas if I should--die!"
Through the blur of tears in his own eyes, the man saw the drawn faceopposite, twisted with emotion. Involuntarily his thoughts went backto what Pollyanna had said when he had made his final plea for herpresence: "Oh, I couldn't leave Aunt Polly--now!"
It was this thought that made him ask very gently, as soon as he couldcontrol his voice:
"I wonder if you know, Miss Harrington, how hard I tried to getPollyanna to come and live with me."
"With YOU!--Pollyanna!"
The man winced a little at the tone of her voice; but his own voice wasstill impersonally cool when he spoke again.
"Yes. I wanted to adopt her--legally, you understand; making her myheir, of course."
The woman in the opposite chair relaxed a little. It came toher, suddenly, what a brilliant future it would have meant forPollyanna--this adoption; and she wondered if Pollyanna were old enoughand mercenary enough--to be tempted by this man's money and position.
"I am very fond of Pollyanna," the man was continuing. "I am fond ofher both for her own sake, and for--her mother's. I stood ready to givePollyanna the love that had been twenty-five years in storage."
"LOVE." Miss Polly remembered suddenly why SHE had taken this childin the first place--and with the recollection came the remembrance ofPollyanna's own words uttered that very morning: "I love to be called'dear' by folks that belong to you!" And it was this love-hungry littlegirl that had been offered the stored-up affection of twenty-fiveyears:--and she was old enough to be tempted by love! With a sinkingheart Miss Polly realized that. With a sinking heart, too, she realizedsomething else: the dreariness of her own future now without Pollyanna.
"Well?" she said. And the man, recognizing the self-control thatvibrated through the harshness of the tone, smiled sadly.
"She would not come," he answered.
"Why?"
"She would not leave you. She said you had been so good to her. Shewanted to stay with you--and she said she THOUGHT you wanted her tostay," he finished, as he pulled himself to his feet.
He did not look toward Miss Polly. He turned his face resolutely towardthe door. But instantly he heard a swift step at his side, and found ashaking hand thrust toward him.
"When the specialist comes, and I know anything--definite aboutPollyanna, I will let you hear from me," said a trembling voice."Good-by--and thank you for coming. Pollyanna will be pleased."