POLLYANNA
"As if that wasn't the very thing that was at the bottom of the whole matter," retorted the man, testily, "because I am lying here like this! And yet you expect me to say I'm glad because of a fool woman who disarranges the whole house and calls it 'regulating,' and a man who aids and abets her in it, and calls it 'nursing,' to say nothing of the doctor who eggs 'em both on—and the whole bunch of them, meanwhile, expecting me to pay them for it, and pay them well, too!"
Pollyanna frowned sympathetically.
"Yes, I know. That part is too bad—about the money—when you've been saving it, too, all this time."
"When—eh?"
"Saving it—buying beans and fish balls, you know. Say, do you like beans?—or do you like turkey better, only on account of the sixty cents?"
"Look a-here, child, what are you talking about?"
Pollyanna smiled radiantly.
"About your money, you know—denying yourself, and saving it for the heathen. You see, I found out about it. Why, Mr. Pendleton, that's one of the ways I knew you weren't cross inside Nancy told me."
The man's jaw dropped.
140
