t
speak at all; then she said gently--though yet with a touch of her old
stern decisiveness:

"But I do mind, Pollyanna. I mind very much. I would do anything--almost
anything for you, my dear; but I--for reasons which I do not care to
speak of now, I don't wish Dr. Chilton called in on--on this case. And
believe me, he can NOT know so much about--about your trouble, as this
great doctor does, who will come from New York to-morrow."

Pollyanna still looked unconvinced.

"But, Aunt Polly, if you LOVED Dr. Chilton--"

"WHAT, Pollyanna?" Aunt Polly's voice was very sharp now. Her cheeks
were very red, too.

"I say, if you loved Dr. Chilton, and didn't love the other one," sighed
Pollyanna, "seems to me that would make some difference in the good he
would do; and I love Dr. Chilton."

The nurse entered the room at that moment, and Aunt Polly rose to her
feet abruptly, a look of relief on her face.

"I am very sorry, Pollyanna," she said, a little stiffly; "but I'm
afraid you'll have to let me be the judge, this time. Besides, it's
already arranged. The New York doctor is coming to-morrow."

As it happened, however, the New York doctor did not come "to-morrow."
At the last moment a telegram told of an unavoidable delay owing to
the sudden illness of the specialist himself. This led Pollyanna into a
renewed pleading for the substitution of Dr. Chilton--"which would be so
easy now, you know."

But as before, Aunt Polly shook her head and said "no, dear," very
decisively, yet with a still more anxious assurance that she would do
anything--anything but that--to please her dear Pollyanna.

As the days of waiting passed, one by one, it did indeed, seem that Aunt
Polly was doing everything (but that) that she could do to please her
niece.

"I wouldn't 'a' believed it--you couldn't 'a' made me believe it," Nancy
said to Old Tom one morning. "There don't seem ter be a minute in the
day that Miss Polly ain't jest hangin' 'round waitin' ter do somethin'
for that blessed lamb if 'tain't more than ter let in the cat--an' her
what wouldn't let Fluff nor Buff up-stairs for love nor money a week
ago; an' now she lets 'em tumble all over the bed jest 'cause it pleases
Miss Pollyanna!

"An' when she ain't doin' nothin' else, she's movin' them little glass
danglers 'round ter diff'rent winders in the room so the sun'll make
the 'rainbows dance,' as that blessed child calls it. She's sent Timothy
down ter Cobb's greenhouse three