CHAPTER VI. A QUESTION OF DUTY
It was nearly seven o'clock when Pollyanna awoke that first day afterher arrival. Her windows faced the south and the west, so she could notsee the sun yet; but she could see the hazy blue of the morning sky, andshe 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 thewindow to talk to them. She saw then that down in the garden her auntwas already out among the rosebushes. With rapid fingers, therefore, shemade herself 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 frontscreened-door and around to the garden, she ran.
Aunt Polly, with the bent old man, was leaning over a rose-bush whenPollyanna, gurgling with delight, flung herself upon her.
"Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, I reckon I am glad this morning just to bealive!"
"PollyANNA!" remonstrated the lady, sternly, pulling herself as erectas she could with a dragging weight of ninety pounds hanging about herneck. "Is this the usual way you say good morning?"
The little girl dropped to her toes, and danced lightly up and down.
"No, only when I love folks so I just can't help it! I saw you frommy window, Aunt Polly, and I got to thinking how you WEREN'T a Ladies'Aider, and you were my really truly aunt; and you looked so good I justhad to come down and hug you!"
The bent old man turned his back suddenly. Miss Polly attempted afrown--with not her usual success.
"Pollyanna, you--I Thomas, that will do for this morning. I think youunderstand--about those rose-bushes," she said stiffly. Then she turnedand walked rapidly away.
"Do you always work in the garden, Mr.--Man?" asked Pollyanna,interestedly.
The man turned. His lips were twitching, but his eyes looked blurred asif with tears.
"Yes, Miss. I'm Old Tom, the gardener," he answered. Timidly, but as ifimpelled by an irresistible force, he reached out a shaking hand and letit rest for a moment on her bright hair. "You are so like your mother,little Miss! I used ter know her when she was even littler than you be.You see, I used ter work in the garden--then."
Pollyanna caught her breath audibly.
"You did? And you knew my mother, really--when she was just a littleearth angel, and not a Heaven one? Oh, please tell me about her!" Anddown plumped Pollyanna in the middle of the dirt path by the old man'sside.
A bell sounded from the house. The next moment Nancy was seen flying outthe back door.
"Miss Pollyanna, that bell means breakfast--mornin's," she panted,pulling the little girl to her feet and hurrying her back to the house;"and other times it means other meals. But it always means thatyou're ter run like time when ye hear it, no matter where ye be. If yedon't--well, it'll take somethin' smarter'n we be ter find ANYTHIN' terbe glad about in that!" she finished, shooing Pollyanna into the houseas she would shoo an unruly chicken into a coop.
Breakfast, for the first five minutes, was a silent meal; then MissPolly, her disapproving eyes following the airy wings of two fliesdarting here and there over the table, said sternly:
"Nancy, where did those flies come from?"
"I don't know, ma'am. There wasn't one in the kitchen." Nancy had beentoo excited to notice Pollyanna's up-flung windows the afternoon before.
"I reckon maybe they're my flies, Aunt Polly," observed Pollyanna,amiably. "There were lots of them this morning having a beautiful timeupstairs."
Nancy left the room precipitately, though to do so she had to carry outthe hot muffins she had just brought in.
"Yours!" gasped Miss Polly. "What do you mean? Where did they comefrom?"
"Why, Aunt Polly, they came from out of doors of course, through thewindows. I SAW some of them come in."
"You saw them! You mean you raised those windows without any screens?"
"Why, yes. There weren't any screens there, Aunt Polly."
Nancy, at this moment, came in again with the muffins. Her face wasgrave, but very red.
"Nancy," directed her mistress, sharply, "you may set the muffins downand go at once to Miss Pollyanna's room and shut the windows. Shut thedoors, also. Later, when your morning work is done, go through everyroom with the spatter. See that you make a thorough search."
To her niece she said:
"Pollyanna, I have ordered screens for those windows. I knew, of course,that it was my duty to do that. But it seems to me that you have quiteforgotten YOUR duty."
"My--duty?" Pollyanna's eyes were wide with wonder.
"Certainly. I know it is warm, but I consider it your duty to keep yourwindows closed till those screens come. Flies, Pollyanna, are not onlyunclean and annoying, but very dangerous to health. After breakfast Iwill give you a little pamphlet on this matter to read."
"To read? Oh, thank you, Aunt Polly. I love to read!"
Miss Polly drew in her breath audibly, then she shut her lips togetherhard. Pollyanna, seeing her stern face, frowned a little thoughtfully.
"Of course I'm sorry about the duty I forgot, Aunt Polly," sheapologized timidly. "I won't raise the windows again."
Her aunt made no reply. She did not speak, indeed, until the meal wasover. Then she rose, went to the bookcase in the sitting room, took outa small paper booklet, and crossed the room to her niece's side.
"This is the article I spoke of, Pollyanna. I desire you to go to yourroom at once and read it. I will be up in half an hour to look over yourthings."
Pollyanna, her eyes on the illustration of a fly's head, many timesmagnified, cried joyously:
"Oh, thank you, Aunt Polly!" The next moment she skipped merrily fromthe room, banging the door behind her.
Miss Polly frowned, hesitated, then crossed the room majestically andopened the door; but Pollyanna was already out of sight, clattering upthe attic stairs.
Half an hour later when Miss Polly, her face expressing stern duty inevery line, climbed those stairs and entered Pollyanna's room, she wasgreeted with a burst of eager enthusiasm.
"Oh, Aunt Polly, I never saw anything so perfectly lovely andinteresting in my life. I'm so glad you gave me that book to read! Why,I didn't suppose flies could carry such a lot of things on their feet,and--"
"That will do," observed Aunt Polly, with dignity. "Pollyanna, you maybring out your clothes now, and I will look them over. What are notsuitable for you I shall give to the Sullivans, of course."
With visible reluctance Pollyanna laid down the pamphlet and turnedtoward the closet.
"I'm afraid you'll think they're worse than the Ladies' Aid did--andTHEY said they were shameful," she sighed. "But there were mostly thingsfor boys and older folks in the last two or three barrels; and--did youever have a missionary barrel, Aunt Polly?"
At her aunt's look of shocked anger, Pollyanna corrected herself atonce.
"Why, no, of course you didn't, Aunt Polly!" she hurried on, with ahot blush. "I forgot; rich folks never have to have them. But you seesometimes I kind of forget that you are rich--up here in this room, youknow."
Miss Polly's lips parted indignantly, but no words came. Pollyanna,plainly unaware that she had said anything in the least unpleasant, washurrying on.
"Well, as I was going to say, you can't tell a thing about missionarybarrels--except that you won't find in 'em what you think you're goingto--even when you think you won't. It was the barrels every time, too,that were hardest to play the game on, for father and--"
Just in time Pollyanna remembered that she was not to talk of her fatherto her aunt. She dived into her closet then, hurriedly, and brought outall the poor little dresses in both her arms.
"They aren't nice, at all," she choked, "and they'd been black if ithadn't been for the red carpet for the church; but they're all I'vegot."
With the tips of her fingers Miss Polly turned over the conglomerategarments, so obviously made for anybody but Pollyanna. Next she bestowedfrowning attention
on the patched undergarments in the bureau drawers.
"I've got the best ones on," confessed Pollyanna, anxiously. "TheLadies' Aid bought me one set straight through all whole. Mrs.Jones--she's the president--told 'em I should have that if they had toclatter down bare aisles themselves the rest of their days. But theywon't. Mr. White doesn't like the noise. He's got nerves, his wife says;but he's got money, too, and they expect he'll give a lot toward thecarpet--on account of the nerves, you know. I should think he'd be gladthat if he did have the nerves he'd got money, too; shouldn't you?"
Miss Polly did not seem to hear. Her scrutiny of the undergarmentsfinished, she turned to Pollyanna somewhat abruptly.
"You have been to school, of course, Pollyanna?"
"Oh, yes, Aunt Polly. Besides, fath--I mean, I was taught at home some,too."
Miss Polly frowned.
"Very good. In the fall you will enter school here, of course. Mr.Hall, the principal, will doubtless settle in which grade you belong.Meanwhile, I suppose I ought to hear you read aloud half an hour eachday."
"I love to read; but if you don't want to hear me I'd be just glad toread to myself--truly, Aunt Polly. And I wouldn't have to half try to beglad, either, for I like best to read to myself--on account of the bigwords, you know."
"I don't doubt it," rejoined Miss Polly, grimly. "Have you studiedmusic?"
"Not much. I don't like my music--I like other people's, though.I learned to play on the piano a little. Miss Gray--she plays forchurch--she taught me. But I'd just as soon let that go as not, AuntPolly. I'd rather, truly."
"Very likely," observed Aunt Polly, with slightly uplifted eyebrows."Nevertheless I think it is my duty to see that you are properlyinstructed in at least the rudiments of music. You sew, of course."
"Yes, ma'am." Pollyanna sighed. "The Ladies' Aid taught me that. But Ihad an awful time. Mrs. Jones didn't believe in holding your needlelike the rest of 'em did on buttonholing, and Mrs. White thoughtbackstitching ought to be taught you before hemming (or else the otherway), and Mrs. Harriman didn't believe in putting you on patchwork ever,at all."
"Well, there will be no difficulty of that kind any longer, Pollyanna. Ishall teach you sewing myself, of course. You do not know how to cook, Ipresume."
Pollyanna laughed suddenly.
"They were just beginning to teach me that this summer, but I hadn'tgot far. They were more divided up on that than they were on the sewing.They were GOING to begin on bread; but there wasn't two of 'em that madeit alike, so after arguing it all one sewing-meeting, they decided totake turns at me one forenoon a week--in their own kitchens, you know.I'd only learned chocolate fudge and fig cake, though, when--when I hadto stop." Her voice broke.
"Chocolate fudge and fig cake, indeed!" scorned Miss Polly. "I thinkwe can remedy that very soon." She paused in thought for a minute, thenwent on slowly: "At nine o'clock every morning you will read aloud onehalf-hour to me. Before that you will use the time to put this room inorder. Wednesday and Saturday forenoons, after half-past nine, you willspend with Nancy in the kitchen, learning to cook. Other mornings youwill sew with me. That will leave the afternoons for your music. Ishall, of course, procure a teacher at once for you," she finisheddecisively, as she arose from her chair.
Pollyanna cried out in dismay.
"Oh, but Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, you haven't left me any time at alljust to--to live."
"To live, child! What do you mean? As if you weren't living all thetime!"
"Oh, of course I'd be BREATHING all the time I was doing those things,Aunt Polly, but I wouldn't be living. You breathe all the time you'reasleep, but you aren't living. I mean living--doing the things you wantto do: playing outdoors, reading (to myself, of course), climbing hills,talking to Mr. Tom in the garden, and Nancy, and finding out all aboutthe houses and the people and everything everywhere all through theperfectly lovely streets I came through yesterday. That's what I callliving, Aunt Polly. Just breathing isn't living!"
Miss Polly lifted her head irritably.
"Pollyanna, you ARE the most extraordinary child! You will be allowed aproper amount of playtime, of course. But, surely, it seems to me ifI am willing to do my duty in seeing that you have proper care andinstruction, YOU ought to be willing to do yours by seeing that thatcare and instruction are not ungratefully wasted."
Pollyanna looked shocked.
"Oh, Aunt Polly, as if I ever could be ungrateful--to YOU! Why, I LOVEYOU--and you aren't even a Ladies' Aider; you're an aunt!"
"Very well; then see that you don't act ungrateful," vouchsafed MissPolly, as she turned toward the door.
She had gone halfway down the stairs when a small, unsteady voice calledafter her:
"Please, Aunt Polly, you didn't tell me which of my things you wantedto--to give away."
Aunt Polly emitted a tired sigh--a sigh that ascended straight toPollyanna's ears.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Pollyanna. Timothy will drive us into townat half-past one this afternoon. Not one of your garments is fit for myniece to wear. Certainly I should be very far from doing my duty by youif I should let you appear out in any one of them."
Pollyanna sighed now--she believed she was going to hate thatword--duty.
"Aunt Polly, please," she called wistfully, "isn't there ANY way you canbe glad about all that--duty business?"
"What?" Miss Polly looked up in dazed surprise; then, suddenly, withvery red cheeks, she turned and swept angrily down the stairs. "Don't beimpertinent, Pollyanna!"
In the hot little attic room Pollyanna dropped herself on to one of thestraight-backed chairs. To her, existence loomed ahead one endless roundof duty.
"I don't see, really, what there was impertinent about that," shesighed. "I was only asking her if she couldn't tell me something to beglad about in all that duty business."
For several minutes Pollyanna sat in silence, her rueful eyes fixedon the forlorn heap of garments on the bed. Then, slowly, she rose andbegan to put away the dresses.
"There just isn't anything to be glad about, that I can see," she saidaloud; "unless--it's to be glad when the duty's done!" Whereupon shelaughed suddenly.