strange, half-familiar faces about her were not her own dear
Ladies' Aid.

"How do you do, Ladies' Aiders?" she faltered politely. "I'm Pollyanna
Whittier. I--I reckon some of you know me, maybe; anyway, I do YOU--only
I don't know you all together this way."

The silence could almost be felt now. Some of the ladies did know this
rather extraordinary niece of their fellow-member, and nearly all had
heard of her; but not one of them could think of anything to say, just
then.

"I--I've come to--to lay the case before you," stammered Pollyanna,
after a moment, unconsciously falling into her father's familiar
phraseology.

There was a slight rustle.

"Did--did your aunt send you, my dear?" asked Mrs. Ford, the minister's
wife.

Pollyanna colored a little.

"Oh, no. I came all by myself. You see, I'm used to Ladies' Aiders. It
was Ladies' Aiders that brought me up--with father."

Somebody tittered hysterically, and the minister's wife frowned.

"Yes, dear. What is it?"

"Well, it--it's Jimmy Bean," sighed Pollyanna. "He hasn't any home
except the Orphan one, and they're full, and don't want him, anyhow, he
thinks; so he wants another. He wants one of the common kind, that has
a mother instead of a Matron in it--folks, you know, that'll care. He's
ten years old going on eleven. I thought some of you might like him--to
live with you, you know."

"Well, did you ever!" murmured a voice, breaking the dazed pause that
followed Pollyanna's words.

With anxious eyes Pollyanna swept the circle of faces about her.

"Oh, I forgot to say; he will work," she supplemented eagerly.

Still there was silence; then, coldly, one or two women began to
question her. After a time they all had the story and began to talk
among themselves, animatedly, not quite pleasantly.

Pollyanna listened with growing anxiety. Some of what was said she could
not understand. She did gather, after a time, however, that there was
no woman there who had a home to give him, though every woman seemed to
think that some of the others might take him, as there were several who
had no little boys of their own already in their homes. But there was no
one who agreed herself to take him. Then she heard the minister's
wife suggest timidly that they, as a society, might perhaps assume his
support and education instead of sending quite so much money this year
to the little boys in far-away India.

A great many ladies talked then, and several of them talked