Eleanor H. Porter

“ Pollyanna stopped abruptly. The dawning of a wonderful idea began to show in her face.
"Oh, I know just the place for you," she cried. "Aunt Polly'll take you—I know she will! Didn't she take me? And didn't she take Fluffy and Buffy, when they didn't have any one to love them, or any place to go?—and they're only cats and dogs. Oh, come, I know Aunt Polly'll take you! You don't know how good and kind she is!"
Jimmy Bean's thin little face brightened.
"Honest Injun? Would she, now? I'd work, ye know, an' I'm real strong!" He bared a small, bony arm. ”

“ Pollyanna stared in shocked disapproval.
"Why, Jimmy Bean, wherever have you been brought up?—not to know what a Ladies' Aid is!"
"Oh, all right—if you ain't tellin'," grunted the boy, turning and beginning to walk away indifferently.
Pollyanna sprang to his side at once.
"It's—it's—why, it's just a lot of ladies that meet and sew and give suppers and raise money and—and talk; that's what a Ladies' Aid is. They're awfully kind—that is, most of mine was, back home. I haven't seen this one here, but they're always good, I reckon. ”

“ Why, my Aunt Polly is the nicest lady in the world—now that my mama has gone to be a Heaven angel. And there's rooms—heaps of 'em," she continued, springing to her feet, and tugging at his arm. "It's an awful big house. Maybe, though," she added a little anxiously, as they hurried on, "maybe you'll have to sleep in the attic room. ”

“ Ford when she asked if you'd let me keep it. Why I had the Ladies' Aid, you know, and kitty didn't have anybody. I knew you'd feel that way," she nodded happily, as she ran from the room.
"But, Pollyanna, Pollyanna," remonstrated Miss Polly. "I don't—" But Pollyanna was already halfway to the kitchen, calling:
"Nancy, Nancy, just see this dear little kitty that Aunt Polly is going to bring up along with me!" And Aunt Polly, in the sitting room—who abhorred cats—fell back in her chair with a gasp of dismay, powerless to remonstrate. ”

“ And you've got freckles, too,"—with a critical glance—"so you'll be glad there isn't any looking-glass; and the outdoor picture is nicer than any wall-one could be, so you won't mind sleeping in that room at all, I'm sure," panted Pollyanna, finding suddenly that she needed the rest of her breath for purposes other than talking.
"Gorry!" exclaimed Jimmy Bean tersely and uncomprehendingly, but admiringly. Then he added: "I shouldn't think anybody who could talk like that, runnin', would need ter ask no questions ter fill up time with!" ”

“ I'm goin' ter live somewheres else—but I hain't found the place, yet. I'd like a home—jest a common one, ye know, with a mother in it, instead of a Matron. If ye has a home, ye has folks; an' I hain't had folks since—dad died. So I'm a-huntin' now. I've tried four houses, but—they didn't want me—though I said I expected ter work, 'course. There! Is that all you want ter know?" The boy's voice had broken a little over the last two sentences.
"Why, what a shame!" sympathized Pollyanna. ”

“ The boy paused before he went on slowly: "Maybe I'd better go back, then, for ter-night, ter the Home. You see I hain't no other place ter stay; and—and I didn't leave till this mornin'. I slipped out. I didn't tell 'em I wasn't comin' back, else they'd pretend I couldn't come—though I'm thinkin' they won't do no worryin' when I don't show up sometime. They ain't like folks, ye know. They don't care!"
"I know," nodded Pollyanna, with understanding eyes. "But I'm sure, when I see you to-morrow, I'll have just a common home and folks that do care all ready for you. ”