far different voice: Jimmy had suddenly come back to the present, and
to his grievance. "But, then, I ain't 'JAMIE,' you know," he finished
with scornful emphasis, as he turned loftily away, leaving a
distressed, bewildered Pollyanna behind him.

"Well, anyway, I can be glad he doesn't always act like this," sighed
the little girl, as she mournfully watched the sturdy, boyish figure
with its disagreeable, amazing swagger.




CHAPTER XV

AUNT POLLY TAKES ALARM


Pollyanna had been at home about a week when the letter from Della
Wetherby came to Mrs. Chilton.

"I wish I could make you see what your little niece has done for my
sister," wrote Miss Wetherby; "but I'm afraid I can't. You would have
to know what she was before. You did see her, to be sure, and perhaps
you saw something of the hush and gloom in which she has shrouded
herself for so many years. But you can have no conception of her
bitterness of heart, her lack of aim and interest, her insistence upon
eternal mourning.

"Then came Pollyanna. Probably I didn't tell you, but my sister
regretted her promise to take the child, almost the minute it was