Page:Pollyanna Grows Up.djvu/115

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Jamie
93


"I don't know. I was little. Mumsey says she guesses maybe I was about six. That's when they took me, you see."

"And your name is Jamie?" Pollyanna was holding her breath.

"Why, yes, I told you that."

"And what's the other name?" Longingly, but fearfully, Pollyanna asked this question.

"I don't know."

"You don't know!"

"I don't remember. I was too little, I suppose. Even the Murphys don't know. They never knew me as anything but Jamie."

A great disappointment came to Pollyanna's face, but almost immediately a flash of thought drove the shadow away.

"Well, anyhow, if you don't know what your name is, you can't know it isn't 'Kent'!" she exclaimed.

"'Kent'?" puzzled the boy.

"Yes," began Pollyanna, all excitement. "You see, there was a little boy named Jamie Kent that—" She stopped abruptly and bit her lip. It had occurred to Pollyanna that it would be kinder not to let this boy know yet of her hope that he might be the lost Jamie. It would be better that she make sure of it before raising any expectations, otherwise she might be bringing him sorrow rather than joy. She had not forgotten how disappointed Jimmy Bean had been when she had been obliged to tell him that the Ladies' Aid did not want him, and again when at first Mr. Pendleton had not wanted him, either. She was de-