Pollyanna Grows Up

against the electric-bell button. From the tip of her wing-trimmed hat to the toe of her low-heeled shoe she radiated health,

g, Mary. Is

," hesitated the girl; "but-she

Don't worry-I'll take the blame," she nodded, in answer to the frighte

owever, was already halfway up the broad stairway; and,

by unhesitatingly walked towar

n't I-Oh, Della!" The voice grew suddenly warm with love

at the beach with two of the other nurses, and I'm on my way back to the Sanatorium now. That is, I'm here now, but I

of joy and animation that had come into her face fled, leaving only

have known," she said.

ce and manner changed. She regarded her sister with grave, tender eyes. "Ruth, dear, I

w stirred

n't see why no

erby shook

of sympathy with it all: the gloom, the lack o

miserable

ght not

have I to mak

y gave an imp

erly-and you certainly have an abundance of time and a superabundance of money. Surely anybody would say you ought to find SOMETHIN

t WANT to s

MAKE mysel

wearily and turn

ever understand? I'm not

ossed the young

orget-that, dear. I couldn't, of cour

years-and by something besides moping," flashed

; "and we shall keep on hunting, both of us, till we d

-anything else," murmur

younger woman sat regarding her sist

ll admit; but your married life lasted only a year, and your husband was much older than yourself. You were little more than a chi

rmured Mrs. Care

going to be al

rse, if I cou

, isn't there anything in the worl

that I can think of," sighe

er. Then suddenly she laughed. "Oh, Ruth, Ruth, I'd like to give

stiffened

it," she retorted sharply, nettled in her turn. "This isn't your beloved S

s danced, but her li

d demurely, "-though I have heard some people

adonna,' so I'm sure I don't see why not 'pollyanna.' Besides, you're always recommending somet

tle girl, Ruth, twelve or thirteen years old, who was at the Sanatorium all last summer and most of the winter. I didn't see her but a month or two, for she left s

AM

, and very soon after my arrival it fell to my lot to give it to her. I was dreading it, for I knew from past experience with other children what to expect: fretfulness and tears, if nothing worse. To my unbounded

ed to feel that way, too, and I did dread it so, till I happened to think 'twas just like Nancy's wash-d

!" frowned Mrs. Carew,

I don't see any

t, and was brought up by the Ladies' Aid Society and missionary barrels. When she was a tiny girl she wanted a doll

he said she could begin right then by being glad she didn't NEED the crutches. That was the beginning. Pollyanna said it was a lovely game, and she'd been pl

murmured Mrs. Carew, still

u could see the resul

Della; "and Dr. Ames

e town where she came f

ry well-the man that ma

eve that marriage was o

old lovers' quar

walk again. In April Dr. Chilton sent her to the Sanatorium, and she was there till last March-almost a year. She went home practically cured. You should have seen the child! The

her. And that's why I say I wish you could have a

ifted her ch

no lovers' quarrel to be patched up; and if there is ANYTHING that would be insufferable to me, it would be a little Miss Pri

might have known. I SAID one couldn't TELL about Pollyanna. And of course you won't be apt to see her. But-Miss Prim, indeed!" And off sh

ed. "You ought not to waste your life like this. Won

nt to? I'm tired of-people. Yo

ry some sort of

ave an impat

oney-lots of it, and that's enough. In fact, I'm not sure

Della, gently. "If you could only get interested in somet

rself into an angel of mercy and give cups of cold water, and bandage up broken heads, and all that. Perhaps YOU can forget Jamie that way; but I couldn't. It would only make me think of him a

u ever

!" Mrs. Carew's voice w

ily. "But I must go, dear. I'm to meet the girls at the South Station. Our train goes at twelve-

a," sighed Mrs. Carew; "but i

ent from what they had been when she tripped up the steps less than half an hour before. All the alertness, the springiness, the joy of livin

en Pollyanna herself could so much as make a dent in the gloom! And the on

s not Della Wetherby's real opinion, however, was quickly proved; for no sooner had the nurse reached the Sanato

at her sister's home that it seemed almost as

g, "I just HAD to come, and you must, this once, yield to me and let me have

rned Mrs. Carew, wi

seem to have heard. S

nter for a special course, and was going to take his wife with him, if he could persuade her that Pollyanna would be all right in some boarding school here meantime. But Mrs. Chilton didn't want

lla! As if I wanted a ch

or quite thirteen by this time, and she's

perversely-but she laughed; and because she did laugh,

arew's heart. Perhaps it was only her unwillingness to refuse her sister's impassioned plea. Whatever it was that finally turned the scale,

minute that child begins to preach to me and to tell me to count my mercies, ba

pered, as she hurried away from the house: "Half my job is done. Now for the other half-to get Polly