Pollyanna, with all the confidence of one who has reached familiar ground.
It was quite dark when Pollyanna led the way up the broad Carew steps. The boy’s ring at the bell was very quickly answered, and Pollyanna found herself confronted by not only Mary, but by Mrs. Carew, Bridget, and Jennie as well. All four of the women were white-faced and anxious-eyed.
“Child, child, where HAVE you been?” demanded Mrs. Carew, hurrying forward.
“Why, I – I just went to walk,” began Pollyanna, “and I got lost, and this boy —”
“Where did you find her?” cut in Mrs. Carew, turning imperiously to Pollyanna’s escort, who was, at the moment, gazing in frank admiration at the wonders about him in the brilliantly-lighted hall.
“Where did you find her, boy?” she repeated sharply.
For a brief moment the boy met her gaze unflinchingly; then something very like a twinkle came into his eyes, though his voice, when he spoke, was gravity itself.
“Well, I found her ’round Bowdoin Square, but I reckon she’d been doin’ the North End, only she couldn’t catch on ter the lingo of the Dagos, so I don’t think she give ’em the glad hand, ma’am.”
“The North End – that child – alone! Pollyanna!” shuddered Mrs. Carew.
“Oh, I wasn’t alone, Mrs. Carew,” fended Pollyanna. “There were ever and ever so many people there, weren’t there, boy?”
But the boy, with an impish grin, was disappearing through the door.
Pollyanna learned many things during the next half-hour. She learned that nice little girls do not take long walks alone in unfamiliar cities, nor sit on park benches and talk to strangers. She learned, also, that it was only by a “perfectly marvelous miracle” that she had reached home at all that night, and that she had escaped many, many very disagreeable consequences of her foolishness. She learned that Boston was not Beldingsville, and that she must not think it was.
“But, Mrs. Carew,” she finally argued despairingly, “I AM here, and I didn’t get lost for keeps. Seems as if I ought to be glad for that instead of thinking all the time of the sorry things that might have happened.”
“Yes, yes, child, I suppose so, I suppose so,” sighed Mrs. Carew; “but you have given me such a fright, and I want you to be sure, SURE, SURE never to do it again. Now come, dear, you must be hungry.”
It was just as she was dropping off to sleep that night that Pollyanna murmured drowsily to herself:
“The thing I’m the very sorriest for of anything is that I didn’t ask that boy his name nor where he lived. Now I can’t ever say thank you to him!”
Chapter VII
A New Acquaintance
Pollyanna’s movements were most carefully watched over after her adventurous walk; and, except to go to school, she was not allowed out of the house unless Mary or Mrs. Carew herself accompanied her. This, to Pollyanna, however, was no cross, for she loved both Mrs. Carew and Mary, and delighted to be with them. They were, too, for a while, very generous with their time. Even Mrs. Carew, in her terror of what might have happened, and her relief that it had not happened, exerted herself to entertain the child.
Thus it came about that, with Mrs. Carew, Pollyanna attended concerts and matinées[43], and visited the Public Library and the Art Museum; and with Mary she took the wonderful “seeing Boston” trips, and visited the State House and the Old South Church.
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