“She knows, of course, that you and I, and half the town are playing the game with her, and that we – we are wonderfully happier because we are playing it. Mrs Chilton’s voice shook a little, then went on more steadily. “But if, consciously, she should begin to be anything but her own natural, sunny, happy little self, playing the game that her father taught her, she would be – just what that nurse said she sounded like – ‘impossible’. So, whatever I tell her, I shan’t tell her that she’s going down to Mrs Carew’s to cheer her up,” concluded Mrs Chilton, rising to her feet with decision, and putting away her work.
“Which is where I think you’re wise,” approved the doctor.
Pollyanna was told the next day; and this was the manner of it.
“My dear,” began her aunt, when the two were alone together that morning, “how would you like to spend next winter in Boston?”
“With you?”
“No; I have decided to go with your uncle to Germany. But Mrs Carew, a dear friend of Dr Ames, has asked you to come and stay with her for the winter, and I think I shall let you go.”
Pollyanna’s face fell.
“But in Boston I won’t have Jimmy, or Mr. Pendleton, or Mrs Snow, or anybody that I know, Aunt Polly.”
“No, dear; but you didn’t have them when you came here – till you found them.”
Pollyanna gave a sudden smile.
“Why, Aunt Polly, so I didn’t! And that means that down to Boston there are some Jimmys and Mr. Pendletons and Mrs Snows waiting for me that I don’t know, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Then I can be glad of that. I believe now, Aunt Polly, you know how to play the game better than I do. I never thought of the folks down there waiting for me to know them. And there’s such a lot of ’em, too! I saw some of them when I was there two years ago with Mrs Gray. We were there two whole hours, you know, on my way here from out West.
“There was a man in the station – a perfectly lovely man who told me where to get a drink of water. Do you suppose he’s there now? I’d like to know him. And there was a nice lady with a little girl. They live in Boston. They said they did. The little girl’s name was Susie Smith. Perhaps I could get to know them. Do you suppose I could? And there was a boy, and another lady with a baby – only they lived in Honolulu, so probably I couldn’t find them there now. But there’d be Mrs Carew, anyway. Who is Mrs Carew, Aunt Polly? Is she a relation?”
“Dear me, Pollyanna!” exclaimed Mrs Chilton, half laughingly, half despairingly. “How do you expect anybody to keep up with your tongue, much less your thoughts, when they skip to Honolulu and back again in two seconds! No, Mrs Carew isn’t any relation to us. She’s Miss Della Wetherby’s sister. Do you remember Miss Wetherby at the Sanatorium?”
Pollyanna clapped her hands.
“Her sister? Miss Wetherby’s sister? Oh, then she’ll be lovely, I know. Miss Wetherby was. I loved Miss Wetherby. She had little smile-wrinkles all around her eyes and mouth, and she knew the nicest stories. I only had her two months, though, because she only got there a little while before I came away. At first I was sorry that I hadn’t had her all the time, but afterwards I was glad; for you see if I had had her all the time, it would have been harder to say goodbye than ’twas when I’d only had her a little while. And now it’ll seem as if I had her again, ’cause I’m going to have her sister.”
Mrs Chilton drew in her breath and bit her lip.
“But, Pollyanna, dear, you must not expect that they’ll be quite alike,” she ventured.