ohn Pendleton; but, as it happened, she escaped without reproof.

Nancy met her at the door.

"Well, if I ain't glad ter be settin' my two eyes on you," she sighed in
obvious relief. "It's half-past six!"

"I know it," admitted Pollyanna anxiously; "but I'm not to blame--truly
I'm not. And I don't think even Aunt Polly will say I am, either."

"She won't have the chance," retorted Nancy, with huge satisfaction.
"She's gone."

"Gone!" gasped Pollyanna. "You don't mean that I've driven her away?"
Through Pollyanna's mind at the moment trooped remorseful memories
of the morning with its unwanted boy, cat, and dog, and its unwelcome
"glad" and forbidden "father" that would spring to her forgetful little
tongue. "Oh, I DIDN'T drive her away?"

"Not much you did," scoffed Nancy. "Her cousin died suddenly down to
Boston, and she had ter go. She had one o' them yeller telegram letters
after you went away this afternoon, and she won't be back for three
days. Now I guess we're glad all right. We'll be keepin' house
tergether, jest you and me, all that time. We will, we will!"

Pollyanna looked shocked.

"Glad! Oh, Nancy, when it's a funeral?"

"Oh, but 'twa'n't the funeral I was glad for, Miss Pollyanna. It was--"
Nancy stopped abruptly. A shrewd twinkle came into her eyes. "Why, Miss
Pollyanna, as if it wa'n't yerself that was teachin' me ter play the
game," she reproached her gravely.

Pollyanna puckered her forehead into a troubled frown.

"I can't help it, Nancy," she argued with a shake of her head. "It
must be that there are some things that 'tisn't right to play the game
on--and I'm sure funerals is one of them. There's nothing in a funeral
to be glad about."

Nancy chuckled.

"We can be glad 'tain't our'n," she observed demurely. But Pollyanna did
not hear. She had begun to tell of the accident; and in a moment Nancy,
open-mouthed, was listening.

At the appointed place the next afternoon, Pollyanna met Jimmy Bean
according to agreement. As was to be expected, of course, Jimmy showed
keen disappointment that the Ladies' Aid preferred a little India boy to
himself.

"Well, maybe 'tis natural," he sighed. "Of course things you don't know
about are always nicer'n things you do, same as the pertater on 'tother
side of the plate is always the biggest. But I wish I looked that way
ter somebody 'way off. Wouldn't it be jest great, now, if only somebody
over in India wanted ME?"

Pollyanna clapped her hands.