Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,
Your go-to podcast that offers you a calm and relaxing transition into a great night's sleep.
It is time to relax and fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now,
And nowhere you need to go.
Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the support beneath you and let all the worries of the day drift away.
This is your time and your space.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.
There is nothing you need to be doing now,
And nowhere you need to go.
Happy listening.
Chapter Seven Pollyanna and Punishments At about half past one,
Timothy drove Miss Polly and her niece to the four or five principal dry goods stores,
Which were about half a mile from the homestead.
Fitting Pollyanna with a new wardrobe proved to be more or less of an exciting experience for all concerned.
Miss Polly came out of it with a feeling of limp relaxation that one might have finding oneself at last on solid earth after a perilous walk through the very thin crust of a volcano.
The various clerks who had waited upon the pair came out of it with very red faces,
And enough amusing stories of Pollyanna to keep their friends in gales of laughter the rest of the week.
Pollyanna herself came out of it with radiant smiles and a heart content,
For as she expressed it to one of the clerks,
When you haven't had anybody but missionary barrels and ladies aiders to dress you,
It's perfectly lovely just to walk right in and buy clothes that are brand new and that don't have to be tucked up or let down because they don't fit.
The shopping expedition consumed the entire afternoon.
Then came supper and a delightful talk with old Tom in the garden,
And another with Nancy on the back porch after the dishes were done,
And while Aunt Polly paid a visit to her neighbour.
Old Tom told Pollyanna wonderful things of her mother that made her very happy indeed,
And Nancy told her all about the little farm six miles where the Corners,
Where lived her own dear mother and her equally dear brother and sisters.
She promised too that sometime,
If Miss Polly were willing,
Pollyanna should be taken to see them.
And they've got lovely names too,
You'll like their names,
Sighed Nancy,
Their Algernon and Floribel and Estelle,
I just hate Nancy,
Oh Nancy,
What a dreadful thing to say,
Why?
Because it ain't pretty like the others,
You see I was the first baby and Mother Aunt begun to read so many stories with the pretty names in them then,
But I love Nancy just because it's you,
Declared Pollyanna.
Well I guess you could love Clarissa and Maybelle just as well,
Retorted Nancy,
And it would be a heap happier for me,
I think that name's just grand.
Pollyanna laughed,
Well anyhow,
She chuckled,
You can be glad it isn't Hepzibah,
Hepzibah?
Yes,
Mrs White's name's that,
Her husband calls her Hep and she doesn't like it,
She says when he calls out Hep,
She feels just as if the next minute he was going to yell hooray,
She doesn't like to be hoorayed at.
Nancy's gloomy face relaxed into a broad smile,
Well if you don't beat the Dutch,
Say,
Do you know,
I shan't never hear Nancy now,
I don't think of that Hep,
And giggle,
My I guess I'm glad.
Then she stopped short and turned amazed eyes on the little girl,
Say Miss Pollyanna,
Do you mean that was you playing that there glad game again about my being glad I wasn't named Hepzibah?
Pollyanna frowned and then laughed,
Why Nancy that is so,
I was playing the game,
But that's one of the times I did it without thinking I reckon,
You see you do lots of times because you get so used to it,
Looking for something to be glad about,
You know,
Most generally there is something about everything you can be glad about if you keep hunting long enough.
Well,
Maybe,
Grunted Nancy with open doubt.
At half past eight Pollyanna went up to bed,
The screens had not yet come and the closed little room was like an oven,
With longing eyes Pollyanna looked at the two fast-closed windows but she did not raise them.
She undressed,
Folded her clothes and neatly said her prayers,
Then blew out her candles and climbed into bed.
Just how long she lay in sleepless misery,
Tossing from side to side she did not know,
But it seemed to her it must have been hours before she finally slipped out of bed,
Felt her way across the room and opened the door.
Out in the main attic all was velvet blackness,
Save where the moon flung a path of silver halfway across the floor from the east dorm window.
With a resolute ignoring of that fearsome darkness to the right and the left,
Pollyanna drew a quick breath and patted straight into that silvery path and onto the window.
She had hoped vaguely this window might have had a screen,
But it did not.
Outside however there was a wide world of fairy-like beauty and there was too,
She knew,
Fresh sweet air that would feel so good to her hot cheeks and hands.
As she stepped nearer and peered longingly out she saw something else.
Only little way below the window she saw the wide flat tin roof of Miss Polly's sun parlour.
The sight filled her with longing,
If only now she were out there.
Fearfully she looked behind her,
Back there somewhere were her hot little room and her still hotter bed,
But between her and them lay a horrid desert of blackness across which one must feel one's way with outstretched shrinking arms,
Whilst before her,
Out on the sun parlour roof,
Were the moonlight and the cool sweet night air.
If only her bed were out there,
The folks did sleep out of doors.
Joel Hartley at home,
Who was so sick with consumption,
Had to sleep out of doors.
Suddenly Pollyanna remembered she'd seen near this attic window a row of long white bags hanging from nails.
Nancy said they contained the winter clothing put away for the summer.
A little fearfully now,
Pollyanna felt her way to these bags,
Selected a nice fat soft one for a bed,
And a thinner one to be doubled up for a pillow,
And still another for a covering.
Thus equipped,
Pollyanna in high glee,
Patted to the moonlight window,
Raised the sash,
Stuffed her burden through to the roof below,
Then let herself down after it,
Closing the window carefully behind her.
How deliciously cool it was!
Pollyanna quite danced up and down with delight,
Drawing in long full breaths of the refreshing air.
The tin roof under her feet crackled with little resounding snaps that Pollyanna rather liked.
She walked indeed two or three times back and forth from end to end.
It gave her such a pleasant sensation of airy space after her hot little room,
And the roof was so broad and flat,
She had no fear of falling off.
Finally,
With a sigh of content,
She curled herself up on the seal-skin coat mattress,
Arranged one bag for a pillow and the other for a covering,
And settled herself down to sleep.
I'm so glad now the screens didn't come,
She murmured,
Blinking up at the stars,
Else I couldn't have had this,
Could I?
Downstairs in Miss Polly's room,
Next to the Sun Parlour,
Miss Polly herself was hurrying into dressing gown and slippers,
Her face white and frightened.
A minute before,
She'd been telephoning in a shaking voice to Timothy.
Come up quick,
You and your father,
Bring lanterns,
Somebody's on the roof of the Sun Parlour,
He must have climbed up the rose trellis or somewhere,
And of course he can get right into the house through the east window in the attic.
I've locked the attic door down there,
But hurry,
Quick.
Some time later,
Pollyanna,
Dropping off to sleep,
Was startled by a lantern flash and a trio of amazed ejaculations.
She opened her eyes to find Timothy at the top of a ladder near her.
Old Tom was just getting through the window,
And her aunt was peering out at her from behind him.
Pollyanna,
What does this mean?
She cried.
Pollyanna blinked sleepy eyes and sat up.
Why,
Mr Tom,
Old Polly,
She stammered,
Don't look so scared,
It isn't that I've got the consumption,
You know,
Like Joel Hartley,
It's that I was so hot in there,
But I shut the window,
Aunt Polly,
So the flies couldn't get in.
Timothy disappeared suddenly down the ladder,
Old Tom with almost equal precipitation handed his lantern to Miss Polly and followed his son.
Miss Polly bit her lip hard.
Pollyanna,
And those things to me at once and come in here,
Of all the extraordinary children.
A little later,
With Pollyanna by her side and the lantern in her hand,
She turned back into the attic.
For the rest of the night,
Pollyanna,
You're to sleep in my bed with me,
The screens will be here tomorrow,
She said,
But until then,
I consider it my duty to keep you where I know where you are.
With you in your bed?
Pollyanna drew in her breath.
Oh,
Aunt Polly,
How perfectly lovely of you,
And when I've so wanted to sleep with someone sometime,
Someone that belonged to me,
You know,
Naughty ladies,
Ada.
There was no reply to this.
Miss Polly was stalking on ahead.
But I reckon I'm glad now those screens didn't come,
Continued Pollyanna,
Wouldn't you be?
To tell the truth,
Miss Pollyanna was feeling curiously helpless.
For the third time since her niece's arrival,
She was punishing Pollyanna and being confronted with the amazing fact her punishment was being taken as a special reward of merit.
