anions."

"Do you mean--because you're so--cross?"

"Thanks for your frankness. Yes."

Pollyanna laughed softly.

"But you're only cross OUTSIDE--You arn't cross inside a bit!"

"Indeed! How do you know that?" asked the man, trying to change the
position of his head without moving the rest of his body.

"Oh, lots of ways; there--like that--the way you act with the dog," she
added, pointing to the long, slender hand that rested on the dog's sleek
head near him. "It's funny how dogs and cats know the insides of folks
better than other folks do, isn't it? Say, I'm going to hold your head,"
she finished abruptly.

The man winced several times and groaned once; softly while the change
was being made; but in the end he found Pollyanna's lap a very welcome
substitute for the rocky hollow in which his head had lain before.

"Well, that is--better," he murmured faintly.

He did not speak again for some time. Pollyanna, watching his face,
wondered if he were asleep. She did not think he was. He looked as if
his lips were tight shut to keep back moans of pain. Pollyanna herself
almost cried aloud as she looked at his great, strong body lying there
so helpless. One hand, with fingers tightly clenched, lay outflung,
motionless. The other, limply open, lay on the dog's head. The dog, his
wistful, eager eyes on his master's face, was motionless, too.

Minute by minute the time passed. The sun dropped lower in the west
and the shadows grew deeper under the trees. Pollyanna sat so still she
hardly seemed to breathe. A bird alighted fearlessly within reach of
her hand, and a squirrel whisked his bushy tail on a tree-branch almost
under her nose--yet with his bright little eyes all the while on the
motionless dog.

At last the dog pricked up his cars and whined softly; then he gave a
short, sharp bark. The next moment Pollyanna heard voices, and very soon
their owners appeared three men carrying a stretcher and various other
articles.

The tallest of the party--a smooth-shaven, kind-eyed man whom Pollyanna
knew by sight as "Dr. Chilton"--advanced cheerily.

"Well, my little lady, playing nurse?"

"Oh, no, sir," smiled Pollyanna. "I've only held his head--I haven't
given him a mite of medicine. But I'm glad I was here."

"So am I," nodded the doctor, as he turned his absorbed attention to the
injured man.

CHAPTER XIV. JUST A MATTER OF JELLY

Pollyanna was a little late for supper on the night of the accident to
J