Aunt Polly frowned and said nothing. The rest of the meal was a
silent one.

Pollyanna was not sorry to hear Aunt Polly tell the minister's
wife over the telephone, a little later, that she would not be at
the Ladies' Aid meeting that afternoon, owing to a headache. When
Aunt Polly went up-stairs to her room and closed the door,
Pollyanna tried to be sorry for the headache; but she could not
help feeling glad that her aunt was not to be present that
afternoon when she laid the case of Jimmy Bean before the Ladies'
Aid. She could not forget that Aunt Polly had called Jimmy Bean a
little beggar; and she did not want Aunt Polly to call him
that--before the Ladies' Aid.

Pollyanna knew that the Ladies' Aid met at two o'clock in the
chapel next the church, not quite half a mile from home. She
planned her going, therefore, so that she should get there a
little before three.

"I want them all to be there," she said to herself; "else the
very one that wasn't there might be the one who would be wanting
to give Jimmy Bean a home; and, of course, two o'clock always
means three, really--to Ladies' Aiders."

Quietly, but with confident courage, Pollyanna ascended the
chapel steps, pushed open the door and entered the vestibule. A
soft babel of feminine chatter and laughter came from the main
room. Hesitating only a brief moment Pollyanna pushed open one of
the inner doors.