sure, and
all mangy and fleay."

"I know it, poor little thing," crooned Pollyanna, tenderly, looking
into the little creature's frightened eyes. "And it's all trembly, too,
it's so scared. You see it doesn't know, yet, that we're going to keep
it, of course."

"No--nor anybody else," retorted Miss Polly, with meaning emphasis.

"Oh, yes, they do," nodded Pollyanna, entirely misunderstanding her
aunt's words. "I told everybody we should keep it, if I didn't find
where it belonged. I knew you'd be glad to have it--poor little lonesome
thing!"

Miss Polly opened her lips and tried to speak; but in vain. The curious
helpless feeling that had been hers so often since Pollyanna's arrival,
had her now fast in its grip.

"Of course I knew," hurried on Pollyanna, gratefully, "that you wouldn't
let a dear little lonesome kitty go hunting for a home when you'd just
taken ME in; and I said so to Mrs. Ford when she asked if you'd let me
keep it. Why, I had the Ladies' Aid, you know, and kitty didn't have
anybody. I knew you'd feel that way," she nodded happily, as she ran
from the room.

"But, Pollyanna, Pollyanna," remonstrated Miss Polly. "I don't--" But
Pollyanna was already halfway to the kitchen, calling:

"Nancy, Nancy, just see this dear little kitty that Aunt Polly is going
to bring up along with me!" And Aunt Polly, in the sitting room--who
abhorred cats--fell back in her chair with a gasp of dismay, powerless
to remonstrate.

The next day it was a dog, even dirtier and more forlorn, perhaps, than
was the kitten; and again Miss Polly, to her dumfounded amazement, found
herself figuring as a kind protector and an angel of mercy--a role that
Pollyanna so unhesitatingly thrust upon her as a matter of course,
that the woman--who abhorred dogs even more than she did cats, if
possible--found herself as before, powerless to remonstrate.

When, in less than a week, however, Pollyanna brought home a small,
ragged boy, and confidently claimed the same protection for him, Miss
Polly did have something to say. It happened after this wise.

On a pleasant Thursday morning Pollyanna had been taking calf's-foot
jelly again to Mrs. Snow. Mrs. Snow and Pollyanna were the best of
friends now. Their friendship had started from the third visit Pollyanna
had made, the one after she had told Mrs. Snow of the game. Mrs. Snow
herself was playing the game now, with Pollyanna. To be sure, she was
not playing it very well--she had been s