“How do you do, Pollyanna? I—” She had no chance to say more. Pollyanna, had fairly flown across the room and flung herself into her aunt's scandalized, unyielding lap.
“Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, I don't know how to be glad enough that you let me come to live with you,” she was sobbing3. “You don't know how perfectly4 lovely it is to have you and Nancy and all this after you've had just the Ladies' Aid!”
“Very likely—though I've not had the pleasure of the Ladies' Aid's acquaintance,” rejoined Miss Polly, stiffly, trying to unclasp the small, clinging fingers, and turning frowning eyes on Nancy in the doorway. “Nancy, that will do. You may go. Pollyanna, be good enough, please, to stand erect5 in a proper manner. I don't know yet what you look like.”
Pollyanna drew back at once, laughing a little hysterically6.
“No, I suppose you don't; but you see I'm not very much to look at, anyway, on account of the freckles7. Oh, and I ought to explain about the red gingham and the black velvet8 basque with white spots on the elbows. I told Nancy how father said—”
“Yes; well, never mind now what your father said,” interrupted Miss Polly, crisply. “You had a trunk, I presume?”
“Oh, yes, indeed, Aunt Polly. I've got a beautiful trunk that the Ladies' Aid gave me. I haven't got so very much in it—of my own, I mean. The barrels haven't had many clothes for little girls in them lately; but there were all father's books, and Mrs. White said she thought I ought to have those. You see, father—”
“Pollyanna,” interrupted her aunt again, sharply, “there is one thing that might just as well be understood right away at once; and that is, I do not care to have you keep talking of your father to me.”
The little girl drew in her breath tremulously.
“Why, Aunt Polly, you—you mean—” She hesitated, and her aunt filled the pause.
“We will go up-stairs to your room. Your trunk is already there, I presume. I told Timothy to take it up—if you had one. You may follow me, Pollyanna.”
Without speaking, Pollyanna turned and followed her aunt from the room. Her eyes were brimming with tears, but her chin was bravely high.
“After all, I—I reckon I'm glad she doesn't want me to talk about father,” Pollyanna was thinking. “It'll be easier, maybe—if I don't talk about him. Probably, anyhow, that is why she told me not to talk about him.” And Pollyanna, convinced anew of her aunt's “kindness,” blinked off the tears and looked eagerly about her.
She was on the stairway now. Just ahead, her aunt's black silk skirt rustled9 luxuriously10. Behind her an open door allowed a glimpse of soft-tinted rugs and satin-covered chairs. Beneath her feet a marvellous carpet was like green moss11 to the tread. On every side the gilt12 of picture frames or the glint of sunlight through the filmy mesh13 of lace curtains flashed in her eyes.
“Oh, Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly,” breathed the little girl, rapturously; “what a perfectly lovely, lovely house! How awfully14 glad you must be you're so rich!”
“PollyANNA!” ejaculated her aunt, turning sharply about as she reached the head of the stairs. “I'm surprised at you—making a speech like that to me!”
“Certainly not, Pollyanna. I hope I could not so far forget myself as to be sinfully proud of any gift the Lord has seen fit to bestow16 upon me,” declared the lady; “certainly not, of RICHES!”
Miss Polly turned and walked down the hall toward the attic17 stairway door. She was glad, now, that she had put the child in the attic room. Her idea at first had been to get her niece as far away as possible from herself, and at the same time place her where her childish heedlessness would not destroy valuable furnishings. Now—with this evident strain of vanity showing thus early—it was all the more fortunate that the room planned for her was plain and sensible, thought Miss Polly.
Eagerly Pollyanna's small feet pattered behind her aunt. Still more eagerly her big blue eyes tried to look in all directions at once, that no thing of beauty or interest in this wonderful house might be passed unseen. Most eagerly of all her mind turned to the wondrously19 exciting problem about to be solved: behind which of all these fascinating doors was waiting now her room—the dear, beautiful room full of curtains, rugs, and pictures, that was to be her very own? Then, abruptly20, her aunt opened a door and ascended21 another stairway.
There was little to be seen here. A bare wall rose on either side. At the top of the stairs, wide reaches of shadowy space led to far corners where the roof came almost down to the floor, and where were stacked innumerable trunks and boxes. It was hot and stifling22, too. Unconsciously Pollyanna lifted her head higher—it seemed so hard to breathe. Then she saw that her aunt had thrown open a door at the right.
“There, Pollyanna, here is your room, and your trunk is here, I see. Have you your key?”
Pollyanna nodded dumbly. Her eyes were a little wide and frightened.
Her aunt frowned.
“When I ask a question, Pollyanna, I prefer that you should answer aloud not merely with your head.”
“Yes, Aunt Polly.”
“Thank you; that is better. I believe you have everything that you need here,” she added, glancing at the well-filled towel rack and water pitcher23. “I will send Nancy up to help you unpack24. Supper is at six o'clock,” she finished, as she left the room and swept down-stairs.
For a moment after she had gone Pollyanna stood quite still, looking after her. Then she turned her wide eyes to the bare wall, the bare floor, the bare windows. She turned them last to the little trunk that had stood not so long before in her own little room in the far-away Western home. The next moment she stumbled blindly toward it and fell on her knees at its side, covering her face with her hands.
Nancy found her there when she came up a few minutes later.
“There, there, you poor lamb,” she crooned, dropping to the floor and drawing the little girl into her arms. “I was just a-fearin! I'd find you like this, like this.”
Pollyanna shook her head.
“But I'm bad and wicked, Nancy—awful wicked,” she sobbed25. “I just can't make myself understand that God and the angels needed my father more than I did.”
“Oh-h!—NANCY!” The burning horror in Pollyanna's eyes dried the tears.
Nancy gave a shamefaced smile and rubbed her own eyes vigorously.
“There, there, child, I didn't mean it, of course,” she cried briskly. “Come, let's have your key and we'll get inside this trunk and take out your dresses in no time, no time.”
Somewhat tearfully Pollyanna produced the key.
“Then they're all the sooner unpacked,” declared Nancy.
Pollyanna gave a sudden radiant smile.
“That's so! I can be glad of that, can't I?” she cried.
Nancy stared.
“Why, of—course,” she answered a little uncertainly.
Nancy's capable hands made short work of unpacking28 the books, the patched undergarments, and the few pitifully unattractive dresses. Pollyanna, smiling bravely now, flew about, hanging the dresses in the closet, stacking the books on the table, and putting away the undergarments in the bureau drawers.
“I'm sure it—it's going to be a very nice room. Don't you think so?” she stammered29, after a while.
There was no answer. Nancy was very busy, apparently30, with her head in the trunk. Pollyanna, standing31 at the bureau, gazed a little wistfully at the bare wall above.
“And I can be glad there isn't any looking-glass here, too, 'cause where there ISN'T any glass I can't see my freckles.”
Nancy made a sudden queer little sound with her mouth—but when Pollyanna turned, her head was in the trunk again. At one of the windows, a few minutes later, Pollyanna gave a glad cry and clapped her hands joyously32.
“Oh, Nancy, I hadn't seen this before,” she breathed. “Look—'way off there, with those trees and the houses and that lovely church spire33, and the river shining just like silver. Why, Nancy, there doesn't anybody need any pictures with that to look at. Oh, I'm so glad now she let me have this room!”
To Pollyanna's surprise and dismay, Nancy burst into tears. Pollyanna hurriedly crossed to her side.
“Why, Nancy, Nancy—what is it?” she cried; then, fearfully: “This wasn't—YOUR room, was it?”
“My room!” stormed Nancy, hotly, choking back the tears. “If you ain't a little angel straight from Heaven, and if some folks don't eat dirt before—Oh, land! there's her bell!” After which amazing speech, Nancy sprang to her feet, dashed out of the room, and went clattering34 down the stairs.
Left alone, Pollyanna went back to her “picture,” as she mentally designated the beautiful view from the window. After a time she touched the sash tentatively. It seemed as if no longer could she endure the stifling heat. To her joy the sash moved under her fingers. The next moment the window was wide open, and Pollyanna was leaning far out, drinking in the fresh, sweet air.
She ran then to the other window. That, too, soon flew up under her eager hands. A big fly swept past her nose, and buzzed noisily about the room. Then another came, and another; but Pollyanna paid no heed18. Pollyanna had made a wonderful discovery—against this window a huge tree flung great branches. To Pollyanna they looked like arms outstretched, inviting36 her. Suddenly she laughed aloud.
“I believe I can do it,” she chuckled37. The next moment she had climbed nimbly to the window ledge38. From there it was an easy matter to step to the nearest tree-branch. Then, clinging like a monkey, she swung herself from limb to limb until the lowest branch was reached. The drop to the ground was—even for Pollyanna, who was used to climbing trees—a little fearsome. She took it, however, with bated breath, swinging from her strong little arms, and landing on all fours in the soft grass. Then she picked herself up and looked eagerly about her.
She was at the back of the house. Before her lay a garden in which a bent39 old man was working. Beyond the garden a little path through an open field led up a steep hill, at the top of which a lone35 pine tree stood on guard beside the huge rock. To Pollyanna, at the moment, there seemed to be just one place in the world worth being in—the top of that big rock.
With a run and a skilful40 turn, Pollyanna skipped by the bent old man, threaded her way between the orderly rows of green growing things, and—a little out of breath—reached the path that ran through the open field. Then, determinedly41, she began to climb. Already, however, she was thinking what a long, long way off that rock must be, when back at the window it had looked so near!
Fifteen minutes later the great clock in the hallway of the Harrington homestead struck six. At precisely42 the last stroke Nancy sounded the bell for supper.
One, two, three minutes passed. Miss Polly frowned and tapped the floor with her slipper43. A little jerkily she rose to her feet, went into the hall, and looked up-stairs, plainly impatient. For a minute she listened intently; then she turned and swept into the dining room.
“Nancy,” she said with decision, as soon as the little serving-maid appeared; “my niece is late. No, you need not call her,” she added severely44, as Nancy made a move toward the hall door. “I told her what time supper was, and now she will have to suffer the consequences. She may as well begin at once to learn to be punctual. When she comes down she may have bread and milk in the kitchen.”
“Yes, ma'am.” It was well, perhaps, that Miss Polly did not happen to be looking at Nancy's face just then.
At the earliest possible moment after supper, Nancy crept up the back stairs and thence to the attic room.
“Bread and milk, indeed!—and when the poor lamb hain't only just cried herself to sleep,” she was muttering fiercely, as she softly pushed open the door. The next moment she gave a frightened cry. “Where are you? Where've you gone? Where HAVE you gone?” she panted, looking in the closet, under the bed, and even in the trunk and down the water pitcher. Then she flew down-stairs and out to Old Tom in the garden.
“Mr. Tom, Mr. Tom, that blessed child's gone,” she wailed45. “She's vanished right up into Heaven where she come from, poor lamb—and me told ter give her bread and milk in the kitchen—her what's eatin' angel food this minute, I'll warrant, I'll warrant!”
The old man straightened up.
“Gone? Heaven?” he repeated stupidly, unconsciously sweeping46 the brilliant sunset sky with his gaze. He stopped, stared a moment intently, then turned with a slow grin. “Well, Nancy, it do look like as if she'd tried ter get as nigh Heaven as she could, and that's a fact,” he agreed, pointing with a crooked47 finger to where, sharply outlined against the reddening sky, a slender, wind-blown figure was poised48 on top of a huge rock.
“Well, she ain't goin' ter Heaven that way ter-night—not if I has my say,” declared Nancy, doggedly49. “If the mistress asks, tell her I ain't furgettin' the dishes, but I gone on a stroll,” she flung back over her shoulder, as she sped toward the path that led through the open field.
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1
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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7
freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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8
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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mesh
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| n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络 | |
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14
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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15
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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16
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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wondrously
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| adv.惊奇地，非常，极其 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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24
unpack
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| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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28
unpacking
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| n.取出货物，拆包[箱]v.从（包裹等）中取出（所装的东西），打开行李取出( unpack的现在分词 )；拆包；解除…的负担；吐露（心事等） | |
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29
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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40
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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41
determinedly
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| adv.决意地；坚决地，坚定地 | |
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42
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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43
slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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44
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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45
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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47
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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48
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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