One, two, three minutes passed. Miss Polly frowned. She rose to her feet, went into the hall, and looked upstairs. For a minute she listened; then she turned and went to the dining room.
“Nancy,” she said, “my niece is late. You need not call her,” she added. “I told her what time supper was, and now she will have to suffer the consequences.[19] She must learn to be punctual. When she comes she may have bread and milk in the kitchen.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
At the possible moment after supper, Nancy crept up to the attic room.
She softly pushed open the door. The next moment she gave a frightened cry. “Where are you?” she panted, and flew to Old Tom in the garden.
“Mr. Tom, Mr. Tom, that blessed child’s gone,[20]” she cried.
The old man stopped, straightened up and pointed at the slender figure on top of a huge rock.
“Miss Pollyanna, what a scare you did give me,[21]” panted Nancy, hurrying up to the big rock.
“Scare? Oh, I’m so sorry; but you mustn’t, really, ever get scared about me, Nancy,” said Pollyanna and slid down the rock.
“I didn’t see you go, and nobody didn’t. I guess you flew right up through the roof; I do, I do. Poor little lamb, you must be hungry, too. I–I’m afraid you’ll have to have bread and milk in the kitchen with me. Your aunt didn’t like it – because you didn’t come down to supper.”
“But I couldn’t. I was up here. But I’m glad.”
“Glad! Why?”
“I like bread and milk, and I’d like to eat with you. I don’t see any trouble about being glad about that.”
“You don’t seem to see any trouble being glad about everything,” retorted Nancy.
Pollyanna laughed softly.
“Well, that’s the game, you know, anyway.”
“The – GAME?”
“Yes; the ‘just being glad’ game.[22]”
“Whatever in the world are you talking about?”
“Why, it’s a game. Father told it to me, and it’s lovely. We’ve played it always, ever since I was a little, little girl. I told the Ladies’ Aid, and they played it – some of them… Only sometimes it’s almost too hard especially when your father goes to Heaven… I suppose, though, it’ll be a little harder now, as long as I haven’t anybody to play it with. Maybe Aunt Polly will play it, though,” she added.
“See here, Miss Pollyanna, I’m not sure that I’ll play it very well, and I don’t know how but I’ll play it with you, I will!”