Pollyanna: The First Glad Book. Pollyanna Grows Up: The Second Glad Book / Поллианна. Поллианна вырастает

Some of what was said at this time Pollyanna again thought she could not have understood, too, for it sounded almost as if they did not care at all what the money DID, so long as the sum opposite the name of their society in a certain “report” “headed the list”-and of course that could not be what they meant at all! But it was all very confusing, and not quite pleasant, so that Pollyanna was glad, indeed, when at last she found herself outside in the hushed, sweet air-only she was very sorry, too: for she knew it was not going to be easy, or anything but sad, to tell Jimmy Bean tomorrow that the Ladies’ Aid had decided that they would rather send all their money to bring up the little India boys than to save out enough to bring up one little boy in their own town, for which they would not get “a bit of credit in the report,” according to the tall lady who wore spectacles.

“Not but that it’s good, of course, to send money to the heathen, and I shouldn’t want �em not to send SOME there,” sighed Pollyanna to herself, as she trudged sorrowfully along.

“But they acted as if little boys HERE weren’t any account-only little boys �way off. I should THINK, though, they’d rather see Jimmy Bean grow-than just a report!”

Chapter XIII

In pendleton woods

Pollyanna had not turned her steps toward home, when she left the chapel. She had turned them, instead, toward Pendleton Hill. It had been a hard day, for all it had been a “vacation one” (as she termed the infrequent days when there was no sewing or cooking lesson), and Pollyanna was sure that nothing would do her quite so much good as a walk through the green quiet of Pendleton Woods.

Up Pendleton Hill, therefore, she climbed steadily, in spite of the warm sun on her back.

“I don’t have to get home till half-past five, anyway,” she was telling herself; “and it’ll be so much nicer to go around by the way of the woods, even if I do have to climb to get there.

”

It was very beautiful in the Pendleton Woods, as Pollyanna knew by experience. But today it seemed even more delightful than ever, notwithstanding her disappointment over what she must tell Jimmy Bean tomorrow.

“I wish they were up here-all those ladies who talked so loud,” sighed Pollyanna to herself, raising her eyes to the patches of vivid blue between the sunlit green of the tree-tops.