JIMMY AND JOHN
It was a very determined, square-jawed young man that alighted at the
Beldingsville station late that Saturday night. And it was an even
more determined, square-jawed young man that, before ten o'clock the
next morning, stalked through the Sunday-quiet village streets and
climbed the hill to the Harrington homestead. Catching sight of a
loved and familiar flaxen coil of hair on a well-poised little head
just disappearing into the summerhouse, the young man ignored the
conventional front steps and doorbell, crossed the lawn, and strode
through the garden paths until he came face to face with the owner of
the flaxen coil of hair.
"Jimmy!" gasped Pollyanna, falling back with startled eyes. "Why,
where did you--come from?"
"Boston. Last night. I had to see you, Pollyanna."
"To--see--m-me?" Pollyanna was plainly fencing for time to regain her
composure. Jimmy looked so big and strong and DEAR there in the door
of the summerhouse that she feared her eyes had been surprised into a
telltale admiration, if not more.
"Yes, Pollyanna; I wanted--that is, I thought--I mean, I feared--Oh,
hang it all, Pollyanna, I can't beat about the bush like this. I'll
have to come straight to the point. It's just this. I stood aside
before, but I won't now. It isn't a case any longer of fairness. He
isn't crippled like Jamie. He's got feet and hands and a head like
mine, and if he wins he'll have to win in a fair fight. I'VE got some
rights!"
Pollyanna stared frankly.
"Jimmy Bean Pendleton, whatever in the world are you talking about?"
she demanded.
The young man laughed shamefacedly.
"No wonder you don't know. It wasn't very lucid, was it? But I don't
think I've been really lucid myself since yesterday--when I found out
from Jamie himself."
"Found out--from Jamie!"
"Yes. It was the prize that started it. You see, he'd just got one,
and--"
"Oh, I know about that," interrupted Pollyanna, eagerly. "And wasn't
it splendid? Just think--the first one--three thousand dollars! I
wrote him a letter last night. Why, when I saw his name, and realized
it was Jamie--OUR JAMIE--I was so excited I forgot all about looking
for MY name, and even when I couldn't find mine at all, and knew that
I hadn't got any--I mean, I was so excited and pleased for Jamie that
I--I forgot--er--everything else," corrected Pollyanna, throwing a
dismayed glance into Jimmy's face, and feverishly trying to cover up
the partial admission she had made.
Jimmy, however, was too intent on his own problem to notice hers.
"Yes, yes, 'twas fine, of course. I'm glad he got it. But Pollyanna,
it was what he said AFTERWARD that I mean. You see, until then I'd
thought that--that he cared--that you cared--for each other, I mean;
and--"
"You thought that Jamie and I cared for each other!" exclaimed
Pollyanna, into whose face now was stealing a soft, shy color. "Why,
Jimmy, it's Sadie Dean. 'Twas always Sadie Dean. He used to talk of
her to me by the hour. I think she likes him, too."
"Good! I hope she does; but, you see, I didn't know. I thought 'twas
Jamie--and you. And I thought that because he was--was a cripple, you
know, that it wouldn't be fair if I--if I stayed around and tried to
win you myself."
Pollyanna stooped suddenly, and picked up a leaf at her feet. When she
rose, her face was turned quite away.
"A fellow can't--can't feel square, you know, running a race with a
chap that--that's handicapped from the start. So I--I just stayed away
and gave him his chance; though it 'most broke my heart to do it,
little girl. It just did! Then yesterday morning I found out. But I
found out something else, too. Jamie says there is--is somebody else
in the case. But I can't stand aside for him, Pollyanna. I can't--even
in spite of all he's done for me. John Pendleton is a man, and he's
got two whole feet for the race. He's got to take his chances. If you
care for him--if you really care for him--"
But Pollyanna had turned, wild-eyed.
"JOHN PENDLETON! Jimmy, what do you mean? What are you saying--about
John Pendleton?"
A great joy transfigured Jimmy's face. He held out both his hands.
"Then you don't--you don't! I can see it in your eyes that you
don't--care!"
Pollyanna shrank back. She was white and trembling.
"Jimmy, what do you mean? What do you mean?" she begged piteously.
"I mean--you don't care for Uncle John, that way. Don't you
understand? Jamie thinks you do care, and that anyway he cares for
you. And then I began to see it--that maybe he did. He's always
talking about you; and, of course, there was your mother--"
Pollyanna gave a low moan and covered her face with her hands. Jimmy
came close and laid a caressing arm about her shoulders; but again
Pollyanna shrank from him.
"Pollyanna, little girl, don't! You'll break my heart," he begged.
"Don't you care for me--ANY? Is it that, and you don't want to tell
me?"
She dropped her hands and faced him. Her eyes had the hunted look of
some wild thing at bay.
"Jimmy, do YOU think--he cares for me--that way?" she entreated, just
above a whisper.
Jimmy gave his head an impatient shake.
"Never mind that, Pollyanna,--now. I don't know, of course. How should
I? But, dearest, that isn't the question. It's you. If YOU don't care
for him, and if you'll only give me a chance--half a chance to let me
make you care for me--" He caught her hand, and tried to draw her to
him.
"No, no, Jimmy, I mustn't! I can't!" With both her little palms she
pushed him from her.
"Pollyanna, you don't mean you DO care for him?" Jimmy's face
whitened.
"No; no, indeed--not that way," faltered Pollyanna. "But--don't you
see?--if he cares for me, I'll have to--to learn to, someway."
"POLLYANNA!"
"Don't! Don't look at me like that, Jimmy!"
"You mean you'd MARRY him, Pollyanna?"
"Oh, no!--I mean--why--er--y-yes, I suppose so," she admitted faintly.
"Pollyanna, you wouldn't! You couldn't! Pollyanna, you--you're
breaking my heart."
Pollyanna gave a low sob. Her face was in her hands again. For a
moment she sobbed on, chokingly; then, with a tragic gesture, she
lifted her head and looked straight into Jimmy's anguished,
reproachful eyes.
"I know it, I know it," she chattered frenziedly. "I'm breaking mine,
too. But I'll have to do it. I'd break your heart, I'd break mine--but
I'd never break his!"
Jimmy raised his head. His eyes flashed a sudden fire. His whole
appearance underwent a swift and marvelous change. With a tender,
triumphant cry he swept Pollyanna into his arms and held her close.
"Now I KNOW you care for me!" he breathed low in her ear. "You said it
was breaking YOUR heart, too. Do you think I'll give you up now to any
man on earth? Ah, dear, you little understand a love like mine if you
think I'd give you up now. Pollyanna, say you love me--say it with
your own dear lips!"
For one long minute Pollyanna lay unresisting in the fiercely tender
embrace that encircled her; then with a sigh that was half content,
half renunciation, she began to draw herself away.
"Yes, Jimmy, I do love you." Jimmy's arms tightened, and would have
drawn her back to him; but something in the girl's face forbade. "I
love you dearly. But I couldn't ever be happy with you and feel
that--Jimmy, don't you see, dear? I'll have to know--that I'm free,
first."
"Nonsense, Pollyanna! Of course you're free!" Jimmy's eyes were
mutinous again.
Pollyanna shook her head.
"Not with this hanging over me, Jimmy. Don't you see? It was mother,
long ago, that broke his heart--MY MOTHER. And all these years he's
lived a lonely, unloved life in consequence. If now he should come to
me and ask me to make that up to him, I'd HAVE to do it, Jimmy. I'd
HAVE to. I couldn't REFUSE! Don't you see?"
But Jimmy did not see; he could not see. He would not see, though
Pollyanna pleaded and argued long and tearfully. But Pollyanna, too,
was obdurate, though so sweetly and heartbrokenly obdurate that Jimmy,
in spite of his pain and anger, felt almost like turning comforter.
"Jimmy, dear," said Pollyanna, at last, "we'll have to wait. That's
all I can say now. I hope he doesn't care; and I--I don't believe he
does care. But I've got to KNOW. I've got to be sure. We'll just have
to wait, a little, till we find out, Jimmy--till we find out!"
And to this plan Jimmy had to submit, though it was with a most
rebellious heart.
"All right, little girl, it'll have to be as you say, of course," he
despaired. "But, surely, never before was a man kept waiting for his
answer till the girl he loved, AND WHO LOVED HIM, found out if the
other man wanted her!"
"I know; but, you see, dear, never before had the other man WANTED her
mother," sighed Pollyanna, her face puckered into an anxious frown.
"Very well, I'll go back to Boston, of course," acceded Jimmy
reluctantly. "But you needn't think I've given up--because I haven't.
Nor I sha'n't give up, just so long as I know you really care for me,
my little sweetheart," he finished, with a look that sent her
palpitatingly into retreat, just out of reach of his arms.