"Of course not! I'm Aunt Polly's."

The man turned now, almost fiercely.

"Before you were hers, Pollyanna, you were--your mother's. And--it was
your mother's hand and heart that I wanted long years ago."

"My mother's!"

"Yes. I had not meant to tell you, but perhaps it's better, after all,
that I do--now." John Pendleton's face had grown very white. He
was speaking with evident difficulty. Pollyanna, her eyes wide and
frightened, and her lips parted, was gazing at him fixedly. "I loved
your mother; but she--didn't love me. And after a time she went away
with--your father. I did not know until then how much I did--care. The
whole world suddenly seemed to turn black under my fingers, and--But,
never mind. For long years I have been a cross, crabbed, unlovable,
unloved old man--though I'm not nearly sixty, yet, Pollyanna. Then,
One day, like one of the prisms that you love so well, little girl, you
danced into my life, and flecked my dreary old world with dashes of the
purple and gold and scarlet of your own bright cheeriness. I found out,
after a time, who you were, and--and I thought then I never wanted to
see you again. I didn't want to be reminded of--your mother. But--you
know how that came out. I just had to have you come. And now I want you
always. Pollyanna, won't you come NOW?"

"But, Mr. Pendleton, I--There's Aunt Polly!" Pollyanna's eyes were
blurred with tears.

The man made an impatient gesture.

"What about me? How do you suppose I'm going to be 'glad' about
anything--without you? Why, Pollyanna, it's only since you came that
I've been even half glad to live! But if I had you for my own little
girl, I'd be glad for--anything; and I'd try to make you glad, too, my
dear. You shouldn't have a wish ungratified. All my money, to the last
cent, should go to make you happy."

Pollyanna looked shocked.

"Why, Mr. Pendleton, as if I'd let you spend it on me--all that money
you've saved for the heathen!"

A dull red came to the man's face. He started to speak, but Pollyanna
was still talking.

"Besides, anybody with such a lot of money as you have doesn't need me
to make you glad about things. You're making other folks so glad giving
them things that you just can't help being glad yourself! Why, look
at those prisms you gave Mrs. Snow and me, and the gold piece you gave
Nancy on her birthday, and--"

"Yes, yes--never mind about all that," interrupted the man. His face
was very, very red now--and no