"I heard somethin' that made me think him an' Miss Polly was lovers." "MR.

PENDLETON!" Old Tom straightened up.
"Yes.

Oh, I know now; he wasn't.

It was that blessed child's mother he was in love with, and that's why he wanted--but never mind that part," she added hastily, remembering just in time her promise to Pollyanna not to tell that Mr.Pendleton had wished her to come and live with him.
"Well, I've been askin' folks about him some, since, and I've found out that him an' Miss Polly hain't been friends for years, an' that she's been hatin' him like pizen owin' ter the silly gossip that coupled their names tergether when she was eighteen or twenty." "Yes, I remember," nodded Old Tom.

"It was three or four years after Miss Jennie give him the mitten and went off with the other chap.