“But, Pollyanna, I—­I—­”

Miss Polly did not finish her sentence.  To her helpless amazement she found herself in the low chair before the dressing table, with her hair already tumbling about her ears under ten eager, but very gentle fingers.

“Oh, my! what pretty hair you’ve got,” prattled Pollyanna; “and there’s so much more of it than Mrs. Snow has, too!  But, of course, you need more, anyhow, because you’re well and can go to places where folks can see it.  My!  I reckon folks’ll be glad when they do see it—­and surprised, too, ’cause you’ve hid it so long.  Why, Aunt Polly, I’ll make you so pretty everybody’ll just love to look at you!”

“Pollyanna!” gasped a stifled but shocked voice from a veil of hair.  “I—­I’m sure I don’t know why I’m letting you do this silly thing.”

“Why, Aunt Polly, I should think you’d be glad to have folks like to look at you!  Don’t you like to look at pretty things?  I’m ever so much happier when I look at pretty folks, ’cause when I look at the other kind I’m so sorry for them.”

“But—­but—­”

“And I just love to do folks’ hair,” purred Pollyanna, contentedly.  “I did quite a lot of the Ladies’ Aiders’—­but there wasn’t any of them so nice as yours.  Mrs. White’s was pretty nice, though, and she looked just lovely one day when I dressed her up in—­Oh, Aunt Polly, I’ve just happened to think of something!  But it’s a secret, and I sha’n’t tell.  Now your hair is almost done, and pretty quick I’m going to leave you just a minute; and you must promise—­promise—­promise not to stir nor peek, even, till I come back.  Now remember!” she finished, as she ran from the room.

Aloud Miss Polly said nothing.  To herself she said that of course she should at once undo the absurd work of her niece’s fingers, and put her hair up properly again.  As for “peeking” just as if she cared how—­

At that moment—­unaccountably—­Miss Polly caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror of the dressing table.  And what she saw sent such a flush of rosy color to her cheeks that—­she only flushed the more at the sight.

She saw a face—­not young, it is true—­but just now alight with excitement and surprise.  The cheeks were a pretty pink.  The eyes sparkled.  The hair, dark, and still damp from the outdoor air, lay in loose waves about the forehead and curved back over the ears in wonderfully becoming lines, with softening little curls here and there.

So amazed and so absorbed was Miss Polly with what she saw in the glass that she quite forgot her determination to do over her hair, until she heard Pollyanna enter the room again.  Before she could move, then, she felt a folded something slipped across her eyes and tied in the back.

“Pollyanna, Pollyanna!  What are you doing?” she cried.

Pollyanna chuckled.

“That’s just what I don’t want you to know, Aunt Polly, and I was afraid you would peek, so I tied on the handkerchief.  Now sit still.  It won’t take but just a minute, then I’ll let you see.”