His eyes flashed and his chin came up.

With two strides of his sturdy little legs he confronted Miss Polly fearlessly.
"I ain't a beggar, marm, an' I don't want nothin' o' you.

I was cal'latin' ter work, of course, fur my board an' keep.

I wouldn't have come ter your old house, anyhow, if this 'ere girl hadn't 'a' made me, a-tellin' me how you was so good an' kind that you'd be jest dyin' ter take me in.

So, there!" And he wheeled about and stalked from the room with a dignity that would have been absurd had it not been so pitiful.
"Oh, Aunt Polly," choked Pollyanna.