Polly Ann

“ He say, ‘Polly Ann, folks don’t hafter be skeer’d ter git burnted up.’”
At this point Free Polly suddenly became very solemn. A heavy frown appeared on her face. Her voice fell to a tragic whisper. She placed one hand lightly on Sweetest Susan’s shoulder and held the other to a gesture of warning, looking all around the room as if expecting to discover the beginning or the ending of some horrible catastrophe. ”

“ It was nothing but fun for Polly Ann after this. With unafraid hands she arranged the two sets of presents on the top of the bureau, and planned their disposal. Mentally she reviewed the two families. In Mary's home there were Mary herself; Joe, eighteen; Jennie, sixteen; Carrie, fourteen; Tom, eleven; and Nellie, six; besides Grandma. In John's there were John, his wife, Julia; their son Paul, ten; and daughter Roselle, four; besides John's younger sister Barbara, eighteen, and his mother. ”

“ This merry merry quite contrary tricky trixy, Polly Ann, Polly Ann.
The neighbors put their heads out of the windows. They said:—
“What sort of turtle dove is this that seems to wake the dead?”
Yes, in their nighties whispered this question to the night.
They did not dare to shout it. It wouldn’t be right.
And so, I say, they whispered:—“Does she hear this awful man,
Polly Ann, Polly Ann?”
John Littlehouse the redhead sang on of his desires:
“Steel makes the wires of lyres, makes the frames of terrible towers
And circus chariots’ tires. ”

“ This reproof, tempered with sweetness, had a salutary effect on Ann. She sat up, and ate her sweet cake and simballs, and sobbed out her contrition to grandma, and there was a marked improvement in her conduct for some days.
Mrs. Polly was a born driver. She worked hard herself, and she expected everybody about her to. The tasks which Ann had set her did not seem as much out of proportion, then, as they would now. Still, her mistress, even then, allowed her less time for play than was usual, though it was all done in good faith, and not from any intentional severity. ”

“ Now, as Aunt Polly was a middle-aged woman when she left Connecticut, and had lived at the Elm-tree tavern twenty-five years, this idea of settling for life-which, of course, comprised a husband, who might also be landlord to that establishment—struck the young girls at once as so improbable that they both smiled. ”

“ Flower started to her feet.
“I thought, I certainly thought, Polly said Mrs. Cameron,” she remarked. “I don’t think I shall be at all afraid to live with you. I don’t exactly know what Chinese relics are, but I should love to see them.”
“Then quick, my dear, quick! We haven’t a minute to spare. She’s sure to be down in a jiffy. Now then, step on tiptoe across the hall. Ann has the quickest ears, and she invariably reports. She’s not a nice girl, Ann isn’t. She hasn’t the smallest taste for relics. ”

“ Mother Derwent was both pleased at and annoyed by the sight of her visitor—pleased, because Aunt Polly Carter was born in the same old Connecticut town with herself; and annoyed, that she, the very best cook and housekeeper in Wyoming, should find a spoiled breakfast on the hearth—potatoes browned into chips, venison steaks with all the gravy dried up, and the johnnycake overdone. It was a terrible humiliation, and Mother Derwent felt as if she had been detected in some shameful act of negligence by her old friend of the Elm-tree tavern. ”

“ Jane could not altogether resist this good humor; still she came forward, half pouting, dragged the lumbering old swifts out from under the loom, banded her quill wheel, and soon supplied the empty shuttle, which Aunt Polly was so impatient to use. ”

“ The freckles had not disappeared, but still the buttermilk had done its work, and Polly's face presented every appearance of having been varnished, for, thanks to the polishing which it had undergone, it shone like a new copper tea-kettle. For an instant, tears of mortification stood in the gray eyes; then Polly's sense of the ridiculous had its way, and, dropping into a chair, she laughed till her cheeks were crimson under their metallic surface, and her lashes were damp with hysterical tears.
"What in the world are you laughing at, Polly?" asked Aunt Jane's voice at her door. ”

“ Don't do it! Suppose something should happen to you!" cried Anne.
"Why, I wouldn't let it, Anne! If I creep through that tunnel, I'd shove the torch in first and keep it moving ahead of me all the way, so that nothing could grab me, you see!" said Polly, half laughingly.
"I say, Polly, let well enough alone. Let's go back and get supper and rest for to-morrow!" advised Barbara.
"But just s'posing a rattle-snake was coiled up inside that tunnel! A burro wouldn't smell it, and it could crawl out during the night and take a good straight bite!" teased Eleanor. ”

“ Nothing like putting on a lot of ‘dog’ if you want to make a splash in the puddle,” hastily explained Eleanor.
Anne felt like laughing but she hid her face, and Polly turned pale with annoyance.
“Why, Nolla! How could you? You know I’d rather be considered a nobody than stand in a false light. Now what can I do to clear this up?”
“It isn’t false light at all, Polly. You can’t do anything now without making me out a fibber,” retorted Eleanor.
“You are acting just like your sister Bob might have done! That’s the worst thing I can say to you,” scorned Polly. ”

“ You breathe all the time you're asleep, but you aren't living. I mean living—doing the things you want to do: playing outdoors, reading (to myself, of course) , climbing hills, talking to Mr. Tom in the garden, and Nancy, and finding out all about the houses and the people and everything everywhere all through the perfectly lovely streets I came through yesterday. That's what I call living, Aunt Polly. Just breathing isn't living!"
Miss Polly lifted her head irritably.
"Pollyanna, you are the most extraordinary child! You will be allowed a proper amount of playtime, of course. ”

“ Anne.
"Yes, I always look after that! But I was wondering what we can have for breakfast?"
"Ha! Leave that to the cook!" laughed Anne, going to the ledge and reaching up behind a crevice in the rocky wall. She brought forth one of the small fish spared from the night before.
"Good for you, Anne! If you could only dig up some sandwiches as readily!" laughed Polly.
"Maybe I can do that too, if you will look after the horses and burros!" said Anne, taking a small newspaper bundle from behind her spruce bed. ”

“ I will go and meet the boy and girl in London, and bring them to the Hollow. We can have them for a month, and if we fail, children,” added the Doctor, a twinkle of amusement overspreading his face, “we won’t tell any one but ourselves. It is quite possible that in the future we shall be comparatively poor if we cannot manage to make that boy and girl from Australia comfortable and happy; but Polly there has taught us how to economize, for we can always fall back on potatoes and point.”
“Oh—oh—oh, father,” came from Polly’s lips.
“That is unkind, dear father,” said Helen. ”

“ Her friends laughed and Nancy Fabian, the oldest girl of the five, said teasingly:
“Isn’t it delicious to worry one’s self over who could have sent us a welcome, when we might know for certain, if we would but act prosaically and open the seal.”
The girls laughed, and Eleanor remarked, knowingly: “Oh, Polly knows who it is from! She just wants to enjoy a few extra thrills before she reads the message.”
“Nolla, I do not know, and you know it! You always make ‘a mountain from a mole-hill.’ I declare, you are actually growing to be childish in your old age!” retorted Polly, sarcastically. ”

“ As he rose to go, he said:
“Don’t you think I’m a pretty good sort of a Santa Claus after all, Miss Polly?”
Polly seized his outstretched hand.
“I didn’t believe any one person could be so rich, and so good, too!” she declared.
“And, O Dan!” cried Polly, the minute they were alone together, “let’s send a New-Year’s box home. There’ll be just time enough. We can get one of those great carriage rugs for Uncle Seth, and a China silk for Aunt Lucia.” ”

“ Now she gave her dolly a tight little hug, and gently placed a kiss on Polly’s red lips.
‘Are you happy, Dearie?’ whispered Anne Marie. ‘I am. Oh, how I hope no one ever comes to take you away from me.’
[50] If Polly could only have spoken, without startling everybody and making them jump, she would have answered truthfully that she was happy, too. Anne Marie had loved her dearly from the very moment that she had first seen Polly, and Polly with her tender heart had soon learned in her turn to love Anne Marie.
But do not think for a moment that Polly had forgotten Patty King. ”

“ So that is why New York houses go up twenty and thirty stories, eh? The owner has to get his rents out of the air and sky, and pay it over to the land-assessor,” Polly exclaimed, in a tone of understanding.
Her friends laughed. “You are an apt pupil, Poll,” said Anne.
When their hosts for the evening called for Anne and her party, they were all ready and eager to start. So they were soon seated in the two cars; Jim driving one, with Polly seated beside him, and Ken, Eleanor and Anne in the back seat. Mrs. Stewart was welcomed with the two ladies and the two men in the other car. ”

“ Mrs. 247 Evans had wisely refrained from giving any names of the tenants of the Studio.
Before seven o’clock that morning, the telephone began ringing. Anne answered it, but described the baby left on their door-step differently from what the anxious mother on the other end of the wire had expected.
By eight-thirty, the telephone had called Anne or Polly five times. At last Polly said: “My goodness! how can five mothers lose boys like ours in one evening? Can’t they take care of them?”
Eleanor then said, “Why, in Chicago, there are records of more than a score of babies lost every day. ”

“ This was the family circle in which Polly Adams had spent the thirteen happy years of her life, respecting and loving her father, adoring her mother, and continually coming in conflict with Aunt Jane. And Polly herself? Like countless other girls, she was good and bad, naughty and lovable by turns, now yielding to violent fits of temper, now going into the depths of penitence for them; but always, in the inmost recesses of her childish soul, possessed with a firm resolve to be as good a woman as her mother was before her. ”

“ Near the confines of this forest, Polly suddenly reined in Noddy and held out a warning hand. Right across their pathway sped a young deer. It paused by the side of a sheltering pine-trunk, with head erect and fore-foot poised gracefully, gazing steadily at the strange creatures who dared intrude upon those sacred precincts!
It as suddenly vanished again, and the girls breathed deeply.
"Oh, for our camera!" cried Eleanor.
"How stupid of us to leave it home," added Barbara.
"It's always the way. Who remembers a kodak until it is needed," laughed Anne. ”

“ The little folks in Russell’s car were in mild excitement, watching proceedings with great interest. The less fortunate ones, after vainly craning their necks and being unable to get a satisfactory view of the scene, gave themselves up to conversing with their neighbors or finishing their interrupted naps.
[110] “I say, it’s a good time for a lunch—” began Polly.
“Oh!”—“Oh, do, Miss Dudley!”—“I’m hungrier than anything!”—“What are we goin’ to have?”—“Oh, my! are we goin’ to have ice-cream?”
“We’re going to have cookies and milk,” replied Polly. ”

“ In reality you are, neither of you, grown up; in reality Polly is quite a child, and you, my wise little Nell, are very little more. I have offended your aunt, Mrs. Cameron, as it is, and what will she say if I yield to you on this point? Still, still——”
“Oh, father, don’t mind what that tiresome Aunt Maria says or thinks on any subject,” said Polly. “Why should we mind her, she wasn’t mother’s real sister. We scarcely know her at all, and she scarcely knows us. We don’t like her, and we are sure she doesn’t like us. Why should she spoil our lives, and prevent our helping you? ”

“ When Mr. Polly re-entered the house he found three entirely strange young women with pink faces, demonstrative manners and emphatic mourning, engaged in an incoherent conversation with Mrs. Johnson. All three kissed him with great gusto after the ancient English fashion. “These are your cousins Larkins,” said Mrs. Johnson; “that’s Annie (unexpected hug and smack) , that’s Miriam (resolute hug and smack) , and that’s Minnie (prolonged hug and smack) .” ”

“ There were so many wonderful things to do during that Holiday Week, that the girls could not attend them all. Many of their school-friends were eager to have them at teas and parties and matinees, but all these had to be refused with regrets. Eleanor remarked: “Wait for school to open. We’ll be the most popular girls there. In fact, every last girl will want to fag for us!”
“Why?” asked Polly, wonderingly.
“Because they think we are in such demand, everywhere, that we can’t accept any invitations of theirs. Don’t you suppose they have told each other? ”

“ I thought of this way to give the girls many interesting quests, and make use of the car at the same time, so I mentioned it to him. He was delighted and wants the girls to try the plan,” explained Mr. Ashby.
“And I will offer myself as chaperone,” hastily added Mrs. Fabian.
“If I could only be included in these outings I should love it,” laughed Nancy Fabian.
“You are! Any one who belongs to us, must consider themselves as invited,” said Polly, laughingly.
So an outing for Saturday was planned, that night, and Mrs. Fabian and Nancy were to manage the details for the girls. ”