A SURPRISE FOR MRS. SNOW (Pollyanna)

01Chapter 10.

02A Surprise for Mrs.

03Snow.

04The next time Pollyanna went to see Mrs.

05Snow, she found that lady as at first in a darkened room.

06"'It's the little girl from Miss Polly's, mother,' announced Millie in a tired manner.

07Then Pollyanna found herself alone with the invalid.

08"'Oh, it's you, is it?' asked a fretful voice from the bed.

09"'I remember you—anybody remember you, I guess, if they saw you once.

10I wish you had come yesterday.

11I wanted you yesterday.' "'Did you?

12Well, I'm glad tisn't any farther away from yesterday than today is, then,' laughed Pollyanna, advancing cheerily into the room and setting her basket carefully down on a chair.

13"'My, but aren't you dark here, though?

14I can't see you a bit,' she cried, unhesitatingly crossing to the window and pulling up the shade.

15"'I want to see if you've fixed your hair like I did.

16Oh, you haven't.

17But never mind.

18I'm glad you haven't, after all.

19"'Cause maybe you'll let me do it later.

20But now I want you to see what I've brought you.' The woman stirred restlessly.

21"'Just as if how it looks would make any difference in how it tastes,' she scoffed, but turned her eyes toward the basket.

22"'Well, what is it?' "'Guess.

23What do you want?' Pollyanna had skipped back to the basket.

24Her face was alight.

25The sick woman frowned.

26"'Why, I don't want anything, as I know of,' she sighed.

27"'After all, they all taste alike.' Pollyanna chuckled.

28"'This won't.

29Guess.

30If you did want something, what would it be?' The woman hesitated.

31She did not realize it herself, but she had so long been accustomed to wanting what she did not have, that to state offhand what she did want seemed impossible, until she knew what she had.

32Obviously, however, she must say something.

33This extraordinary child was waiting.

34"'Well, of course there's lamb broth.' "'I've got it,' crowed Pollyanna.

35"'But that's what I didn't want,' sighed the sick woman, sure now of what her stomach craved.

36"'It was chicken I wanted.' "'Oh, I've got that too,' chuckled Pollyanna.

37The woman turned in amazement.

38"'Both of them?' she demanded.

39"'Yes, and calf's foot jelly,' triumphed Pollyanna.

40"'I was just bound you should have what you wanted for once.

41So Nancy and I fixed it.

42Of course there's only a little of each, but there's some of all of them.

43I'm so glad you did want chicken,' she went on contentedly, as she lifted the three little bowls from her basket.

44"'You see, I got to thinking on the way here, what if you should say tripe or onions or something like that that I didn't have?

45Wouldn't it have been a shame when I tried so hard?' She laughed merrily.

46There was no reply.

47The sick woman seemed to be trying mentally to find something she had lost.

48"'There, I'm to leave them all,' announced Pollyanna, as she arranged the three bowls in a row on the table.

49"'Like enough, it'll be lamb broth you want tomorrow.

50How do you do today?' she finished in polite inquiry.

51"'Very poorly, thank you,' murmured Mrs.

52Snow, falling back into her usual listless attitude.

53"'I lost my nap this morning.

54Nellie Higgins, next door, has begun music lessons.

55And her practicing drives me nearly wild.

56She was at it all the morning, every minute.

57I'm sure I don't know what I shall do.' Polly nodded sympathetically.

58"'I know.

59It is awful.

60Mrs.

61White had it once.

62One of my lady's aiders, you know.

63She had rheumatic fever, too, at the same time.

64So she couldn't thrash round.

65She said it would have been easier if she could have.

66Can you?' Can I what?

67Thrash round.

68Move, you know, so as to change your position when the music gets too hard to stand.

69Mrs.

70Snow stared a little.

71"'Why, of course I can move.

72Anywhere.

73In bed,' she rejoined a little irritably.

74"'Well, you can be glad of that then anyhow, can't you?' nodded Pollyanna.

75"'Mrs.

76White couldn't.

77You can't thrash when you have rheumatic fever.

78Though you want to something awful,' Mrs.

79White says.

80She told me afterwards she reckoned she'd have gone raving crazy if it hadn't been for Mr.

81White's sisters' ears, being deaf so.

82"'Sisters' ears?

83What do you mean?' Pollyanna laughed.

84"'Well, I reckon I didn't tell it all, and I forgot.

85You didn't know Mrs.

86White.

87You see, Miss White was deaf, awfully deaf, and she came to visit him and to help take care of Mrs.

88White in the house.

89Well, they had such an awful time making her understand anything, that after that, every time the piano commenced to play across the street, Mrs.

90White felt so good that she could hear it, that she didn't mind so much that she did hear it.

91Cause you can't help thinking how awful it would be if she was deaf and couldn't hear anything, like her husband's sister.

92You see, she was playing the game, too.

93I told her about it.' "'The game?' Pollyanna clapped her hands.

94"'There, I most forgot.

95But I've thought it up, Mrs.

96Snow.

97What you can be glad about.' "'Glad?

98About?

99What do you mean?' "'Why, I told you I would.

100Don't you remember?

101You asked me to tell you something to be glad about.

102Glad, you know, even though you did have to lie here a bit all day.' "'Oh!' scoffed the woman.

103"'That—' Yes, I remember that.

104But I didn't suppose you were in earnest any more than I was.' "'Oh, yes, I was,' nodded Pollyanna triumphantly.

105"'And I found it, too.

106But twas hard.

107It's all the more fun, though always, when tis hard.

108And I will own up, honest to true, that I couldn't think of anything for a while.

109Then I got it.' "'Did you really?

110Well, what is it?' Mrs.

111Snow's voice was sarcastically polite.

112Pollyanna drew a long breath.

113"'I thought how glad you could be, that other folks weren't like you, all sick in bed like this, you know,' she announced impressively.

114Mrs.

115Snow stared.

116Her eyes were angry.

117"'Well, really?' She ejaculated then, in not quite an agreeable tone of voice.

118"'And now I'll tell you the game,' proposed Pollyanna, blithely confident.

119"'It'll be just lovely for you to play.

120It'll be so hard.

121And there's so much more fun when it's hard.

122You see, it's like this.' And she began to tell of the missionary barrel, the crutches, and the doll that did not come.

123The story was just finished when Millie appeared at the door.

124"'Your aunt is wanting you, Miss Pollyanna,' she said with dreary listlessness.

125She telephoned down to the Harlows across the way.

126She says you're to hurry.

127That you got some practising to make up before dark.' Pollyanna rose reluctantly.

128"'All right,' she sighed.

129"'I'll hurry.' Suddenly she laughed.

130"'I suppose I ought to be glad I've got legs to hurry with, hadn't I, Mrs.

131Snow?' There was no answer.

132Mr.

133Snow's eyes were closed.

134But Millie, whose eyes were wide open with surprise, saw that there were tears on the wasted cheeks.

135"'Good-bye,' flung Pollyanna over her shoulder as she reached the door.

136"'I'm awfully sorry about the hair.

137I wanted to do it, but maybe I can next time.' One by one the July days passed.

138To Pollyanna they were happy days indeed.

139She often told her aunt joyously how very happy they were, whereupon her aunt would usually reply wearily, "'Very well, Pollyanna.

140I am gratified, of course, that they are happy.

141But I trust that they are profitable as well.

142Otherwise I should have failed signally in my duty.' Generally Pollyanna would answer this with a hug and a kiss, a proceeding that was still always most disconcerting to Miss Polly.

143But one day she spoke.

144It was during the sewing hour.

145"'Do you mean that it wouldn't be enough then, Aunt Polly, that they should be just happy days?' she asked wistfully.

146"'That is what I mean, Pollyanna.

147They must be profitable as well.' "'Certainly.' "'What is being profitable?' "'Why, it's—it's just being profitable.

148Having profit.

149Something to show for it, Pollyanna.

150What an extraordinary child you are.' "'Then just being glad isn't profitable?' questioned Pollyanna, a little anxiously.

151"'Certainly not.' "'Oh, dear.

152Then you wouldn't like it, of course.

153I'm afraid now you won't ever play the game, Aunt Polly.' "'Game?

154What game?' "'Why, that father—' Pollyanna clapped her hand to her lips.

155"'N-nothing,' she stammered.

156Miss Polly frowned.

157"'That will do for this morning, Pollyanna,' she said tersely.

158And the sewing lesson was over.

159It was that afternoon that Pollyanna, coming down from her attic room, met her aunt on the stairway.

160"'Why, Aunt Polly, how perfectly lovely!' she cried.

161"'You were coming up to see me.

162Come right in.

163I love company,' she finished scampering up the stairs and throwing her door wide open.

164Now Miss Polly had not been intending to call on her niece.

165She had been planning to look for a certain white-wool shawl in the cedar chest near the east window.

166But to her unbounded surprise now, she found herself not in the main attic before the cedar chest, but in Pollyanna's little room, sitting in one of the straight-backed chairs.

167So many, many times since Pollyanna came, Miss Polly had found herself like this, doing some utterly unexpected, surprising thing, quite unlike the things she had set out to do.

168And go to look for that shawl.

169And of course now I just love this room, even if it hasn't got the carpets and curtains and pictures that I'd been want—' With a painful blush, Pollyanna stopped short.

170She was plunging into an entirely different sentence when her aunt interrupted her sharply.

171"'What's that, Pollyanna?' "'N-nothing, Aunt Polly.

172Truly, I didn't mean to say it.' "'Probably not,' returned Miss Polly coldly.

173"'But you did say it.

174So suppose we have the rest of it?' "'But it wasn't anything.

175Only that I'd been kind of planning on pretty carpets and lace curtains and things you know, but of course planning on them,' interrupted Miss Polly sharply.

176Pollyanna blushed still more painfully.

177"'I ought not to have, of course, Aunt Polly,' she apologized.

178"'It was only because I'd always wanted them and hadn't had them.

179I suppose—' "'Oh, we had two rugs in the barrels, but they were little, you know, and one had ink spots, and the other holes.

180There never were only those two pictures, the one fa—' "'I mean, the good one we sold, and the bad one that broke.

181"'Of course, if it hadn't been for all that, I shouldn't have wanted them sold.

182"'Pretty things, I mean.

183"'And I shouldn't have got to planning all through the hall the first day, "'how pretty mine would be here, and—' "'And but truly, Aunt Polly, it wasn't but just a minute—' "'I mean, a few minutes, before I was being glad that the Bureau didn't have a looking-glass, "'because it didn't show my freckles, and there couldn't be a nicer picture than the one out my window there, "'and you've been so good to me that—' "'Miss Polly rose to her feet.

184"'Her face was very red.

185"'That will do, Pollyanna,' she said stiffly.

186"'You have said quite enough, I'm sure.' The next minute she had swept down the stairs, and not until she reached the first floor did it suddenly occur to her that she had gone up into the attic to find a white wool shawl in the cedar chest near the east window.

187Less than twenty-four hours later Miss Polly said to Nancy crisply, "'Nancy, you may move Miss Pollyanna's things downstairs this morning to the room directly beneath.

188I have decided to have my niece sleep there for the present.' "'Yes, ma'am,' said Nancy aloud.

189"'Oh, glory!' said Nancy to herself.

190To Pollyanna a minute later she cried joyously, "'And won't you just be listening to this, Miss Pollyanna?

191You're to sleep downstairs in the room straight under this.

192You are, you are?' Pollyanna actually grew white.

193"'You mean—what?

194Nancy—not really.

195Really and truly?' "'I guess you think it's really and truly,' prophesied Nancy, exulting, nodding her head to Pollyanna over the armful of dresses she had taken from the closet.

196"'I'm told to take down your things, and I'm going to take them too, for she gets a chance to change her mind.' Pollyanna did not stop to hear the end of this sentence.

197At the imminent risk of being dashed headlong, she was flying downstairs two steps at a time.

198Bang went two doors and a chair, before Pollyanna at last reached her goal.

199Aunt Polly.

200"'Oh, Aunt Polly!

201Aunt Polly!

202Do you mean it?

203Really?

204Why, that room's got everything—the carpet and curtains and three pictures, besides the one outdoors, too, because the windows look the same way.

205Oh, Aunt Polly!' "'Very well, Pollyanna.

206I am gratified that you like the change, of course.

207But if you think so much of all those things, I trust you will take proper care of them.

208That's all.

209Pollyanna, please pick up that chair, and you have banged two doors in the last half-minute.' Miss Polly spoke sternly, all the more sternly because, for some inexplicable reason, she felt inclined to cry, and Miss Polly was not used to feeling inclined to cry.

210Pollyanna picked up the chair.

211"'Yes, I know I banged those doors,' she admitted cheerfully.

212"'You see, I just found out about the room, and I reckon you'd have bang doors if—' Pollyanna stopped short and eyed her aunt with new interest.

213"'Aunt Polly, did you ever bang doors?' "'I hope not, Pollyanna.' Miss Polly's voice was properly shocked.

214"'Why, Aunt Polly, what a shame!' Pollyanna's voice expressed only concerned sympathy.

215"'A shame?' repeated Aunt Polly, too dazed to say more.

216"'Why, yes.

217You see, if you'd felt like banging doors, you'd have banged them, of course.

218And if you didn't, that must have meant that you weren't ever glad over anything, or you would have banged them.

219You couldn't have helped it.

220And I'm so sorry you weren't ever glad over anything.' "'Pollyanna!' gasped the lady.

221But Pollyanna was gone, and only the distant bang of the attic stairway door answered for her.

222Pollyanna had gone to help Nancy bring down her things.

223Miss Polly, in the sitting-room, felt vaguely disturbed.

224But then, of course, she had been glad, over some things.

225End of chapter 10