CHAPTER IX. WHICH TELLS OF THE MAN

It rained the next time Pollyanna saw the Man. She greeted him, however,
with a bright smile.

"It isn't so nice to-day, is it?" she called blithesomely. "I'm glad it
doesn't rain always, anyhow!"

The man did not even grunt this time, nor turn his head. Pollyanna
decided that of course he did not hear her. The next time, therefore
(which happened to be the following day), she spoke up louder. She
thought it particularly necessary to do this, anyway, for the Man
was striding along, his hands behind his back, and his eyes on the
ground--which seemed, to Pollyanna, preposterous in the face of the
glorious sunshine and the freshly-washed morning air: Pollyanna, as a
special treat, was on a morning errand to-day.

"How do you do?" she chirped. "I'm so glad it isn't yesterday, aren't
you?"

The man stopped abruptly. There was an angry scowl on his face.

"See here, little girl, we might just as well settle this thing right
now, once for all," he began testily. "I've got something besides
the weather to think of. I don't know whether the sun shines or not."
Pollyanna beamed joyously.

"No, sir; I thought you didn't. That's why I told you."

"Yes; well--Eh? What?" he broke off sharply, in sudden understanding of
her words.

"I say, that's why I told you--so you would notice it, you know--that
the sun shines, and all that. I knew you'd be glad it did if you
only stopped to think of it--and you didn't look a bit as if you WERE
thinking of it!"

"Well, of all the--" ejaculated the man, with an oddly impotent gesture.
He started forward again, but after the second step he turned back,
still frowning.

"See here, why don't you find some one your own age to talk to?"

"I'd like to, sir, but there aren't any 'round here, Nancy says. Still,
I don't mind so very much. I like old folks just as well, maybe better,
sometimes--being used to the Ladies' Aid, so."

"Humph! The Ladies' Aid, indeed! Is that what you took me for?" The
man's lips were threatening to smile, but the scowl above them was still
trying to hold them grimly stern.

Pollyanna laughed gleefully.

"Oh, no, sir. You don't look a mite like a Ladies' Aider--not but that
you're just as good, of course--maybe better," she added in hurried
politeness. "You see, I'm sure you're much nicer than you look!"

The man made a queer noise in his throat.

"Well, of all the--" he ejaculated again, as he turned and strode on as
be