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Page 75
"Get a woman's hand and heart. Oh--and I forgot." Pollyanna's
face showed suddenly a painful color. "I suppose I ought to tell
you. It wasn't Aunt Polly that Mr. Pendleton loved long ago; and
so we--we aren't going there to live. You see, I told you it
was--but I made a mistake. I hope YOU didn't tell any one," she
finished anxiously.
"No--I didn't tell any one, Pollyanna," replied the doctor, a
little queerly.
"Oh, that's all right, then," sighed Pollyanna in relief. "You
see you're the only one I told, and I thought Mr. Pendleton
looked sort of funny when I said I'd told YOU."
"Did he?" The doctor's lips twitched.
"Yes. And of course he wouldn't want many people to know it--when
'twasn't true. But why don't you get a woman's hand and heart,
Dr. Chilton?"
There was a moment's silence; then very gravely the doctor said:
"They're not always to be had--for the asking, little girl."
Pollyanna frowned thoughtfully.
"But I should think you could get 'em," she argued. The
flattering emphasis was unmistakable.
"Thank you," laughed the doctor, with uplifted eyebrows. Then,
gravely again: "I'm afraid some of your older sisters would not
be quite so--confident. At least, they--they haven't shown
themselves to be so--obliging," he observed.
Pollyanna frowned again. Then her eyes widened in surprise.
"Why, Dr. Chilton, you don't mean--you didn't try to get
somebody's hand and heart once, like Mr. Pendleton, and--and
couldn't, did you?"
The doctor got to his feet a little abruptly.
"There, there, Pollyanna, never mind about that now. Don't let
other people's troubles worry your little head. Suppose you run
back now to Mrs. Snow. I've written down the name of the
medicine, and the directions how she is to take it. Was there
anything else?"
Pollyanna shook her head.
"No, Sir; thank you, Sir," she murmured soberly, as she turned
toward the door. From the little hallway she called back, her
face suddenly alight: "Anyhow, I'm glad 'twasn't my mother's
hand and heart that you wanted and couldn't get, Dr. Chilton.
Good-by!"
It was on the last day of October that the accident occurred.
Pollyanna, hurrying home from school, crossed the road at an
apparently safe distance in front of a swiftly approaching motor
car.
Just what happened, no one could seem to tell afterward. Neither
was there any one found who could tell why it happened or who was
to blame that it did happen. Pollyanna, however, at five o'clock,
was borne, limp and unconscious, into the little room that was so
dear to her. There, by a white-faced Aunt Polly and a weeping
Nancy she was undressed tenderly and put to bed, while from the
village, hastily summoned by telephone, Dr. Warren was hurrying
as fast as another motor car could bring him.
"And ye didn't need ter more'n look at her aunt's face," Nancy
was sobbing to Old Tom in the garden, after the doctor had
arrived and was closeted in the hushed room; "ye didn't need ter
more'n look at her aunt's face ter see that 'twa'n't no duty that
was eatin' her. Yer hands don't shake, and yer eyes don't look as
if ye was tryin' ter hold back the Angel o' Death himself, when
you're jest doin' yer DUTY, Mr. Tom they don't, they don't!"
"Is she hurt--bad?" The old man's voice shook.
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