uddenly a painful color. "I suppose I ought to tell you. It
wasn't Aunt Polly that Mr. Pendleton loved long ago; and so we--we
aren't going there to live. You see, I told you it was--but I made a
mistake. I hope YOU didn't tell any one," she finished anxiously.

"No--I didn't tell any one, Pollyanna," replied the doctor, a little
queerly.

"Oh, that's all right, then," sighed Pollyanna in relief. "You see
you're the only one I told, and I thought Mr. Pendleton looked sort of
funny when I said I'd told YOU."

"Did he?" The doctor's lips twitched.

"Yes. And of course he wouldn't want many people to know it--when
'twasn't true. But why don't you get a woman's hand and heart, Dr.
Chilton?"

There was a moment's silence; then very gravely the doctor said:

"They're not always to be had--for the asking, little girl."

Pollyanna frowned thoughtfully.

"But I should think you could get 'em," she argued. The flattering
emphasis was unmistakable.

"Thank you," laughed the doctor, with uplifted eyebrows. Then, gravely
again: "I'm afraid some of your older sisters would not be quite
so--confident. At least, they--they haven't shown themselves to be
so--obliging," he observed.

Pollyanna frowned again. Then her eyes widened in surprise.

"Why, Dr. Chilton, you don't mean--you didn't try to get somebody's hand
and heart once, like Mr. Pendleton, and--and couldn't, did you?"

The doctor got to his feet a little abruptly.

"There, there, Pollyanna, never mind about that now. Don't let other
people's troubles worry your little head. Suppose you run back now
to Mrs. Snow. I've written down the name of the medicine, and the
directions how she is to take it. Was there anything else?"

Pollyanna shook her head.

"No, Sir; thank you, Sir," she murmured soberly, as she turned toward
the door. From the little hallway she called back, her face suddenly
alight: "Anyhow, I'm glad 'twasn't my mother's hand and heart that you
wanted and couldn't get, Dr. Chilton. Good-by!"

It was on the last day of October that the accident occurred. Pollyanna,
hurrying home from school, crossed the road at an apparently safe
distance in front of a swiftly approaching motor car.

Just what happened, no one could seem to tell afterward. Neither was
there any one found who could tell why it happened or who was to blame
that it did happen. Pollyanna, however, at five o'clock, was borne, limp
and unconscious, into the little room that was so de