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POLLYANNA Pollyanna looked distressed.

"Why, Mr. Pendleton, I can't—you know I can't. Why, I'm—Aunt Polly's!"

A quick something crossed the man's face that Pollyanna could not quite understand. His head came up almost fiercely.

"You're no more hers than— Perhaps she would let you come to me," he finished more gently. "Would you come—if she did?"

Pollyanna frowned in deep thought.

"But Aunt Polly has been so—good to me," she began slowly; "and she took me when I didn't have anybody left but the Ladies' Aid, and—"

Again that spasm of something crossed the man's face; but this time, when he spoke, his voice was low and very sad.

"Pollyanna, long years ago I loved somebody very much. I hoped to bring her, some day, to this house. I pictured how happy we'd be together in our home all the long years to come."

"Yes," pitied Pollyanna, her eyes shining with sympathy.

"But—well, I didn't bring her here. Never mind why. I just didn't—that's all. And ever since then this great gray pile of stone has been a house—never a home. It takes a woman's hand and heart, or a child's presence, to make a home, 178