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 Thirteen In Pendleton Woods Pollyanna had not turned her steps toward home when she left the chapel.
She had turned them instead towards Pendleton Hill.
It had been a hard day,
For all it had been a vacation one,
And Pollyanna was sure nothing would do her quite so much good as a walk through the green quiet of Pendleton Woods.
Up Pendleton Hill,
Therefore,
She climbed steadily,
In spite of the warm sun on her back.
I don't have to get home until half-past five anyway,
She was telling herself,
And it'll be so much nicer to go around by the way of the woods,
Even if I do have to climb to get there.
It was very beautiful in the Pendleton Woods,
As Pollyanna knew by experience,
But today it seemed even more delightful than ever,
Notwithstanding her disappointment over what she must tell Jimmy Bean tomorrow.
I wish they were up here,
All those ladies who talk so loud,
Sighed Pollyanna to herself.
Anyhow,
If they were up here,
I just reckon they'd change and take Jimmy Bean for their little boy,
All right,
She finished,
Securing her conviction,
But unable to give a reason for it even to herself.
Suddenly,
Pollyanna lifted her head and listened.
A dog had barked some distance ahead.
After a moment,
He came dashing towards her,
Still barking.
Hello,
Doggie,
Pollyanna snapped her fingers at the dog and looked expectantly down the path.
She'd seen the dog once before,
She was sure.
He'd been then with the man,
Mr John Pendleton.
She was looking now,
Hoping to see him,
But he did not appear.
The dog,
As even Pollyanna could see,
Seemed to be acting strangely.
He was still barking,
Giving short,
Sharp yelps.
That's not the way home,
Laughed Pollyanna,
Still keeping to the main path.
But the little dog fairly fewed down a different path,
Whining and barking.
He seemed frantic now,
Back and forth between Pollyanna and the side path he vibrated,
Every quiver of his little body and every glance from his beseeching brown eyes were eloquent with appeal.
Pollyanna followed him,
And it was not long before she came upon the reason for it all.
There was a man lying motionless at the foot of a steep,
Overhanging mass of rock,
A few yards away from the side path.
Mr Pendleton,
Are you hurt?
Hurt?
No,
I'm just taking a siesta in the sunshine,
Snapped the man irritably.
How much do you know?
What can you do?
Have you got any sense?
Pollyanna caught her breath with a little gasp,
But she answered the questions literally one by one.
I don't know so very much,
I can't do a great many things,
But most of the lady's aiders except Mrs Rawson said I had a really good sense.
The man smiled grimly,
There there child,
I beg your pardon I'm sure,
This confounded leg of mine though,
Now listen.
He paused,
And with some difficulty reached his hand into his trousers pocket and brought out a bunch of keys.
Straight through the path there,
He said,
About five minutes walk is my house.
He singled out one of the keys between his thumb and forefinger.
This will admit you to the side door,
Then when you get into the house go straight through the vestibule and the hall to the door at the end.
On the big flat top desk in the middle you'll find a telephone.
Do you know how to use a telephone?
Oh yes sir.
Hunt up Dr Thomas Chilton's number on the card you'll find somewhere around there.
It ought to be on the hook down the side.
You know a telephone card I suppose when you see one?
Yes sir.
Tell Dr Chilton John Pendleton's at the foot of the little eagle ledge in Pendleton Woods with a broken leg.
Tell him to come at once with a stretcher and two men.
He'll know what to do besides that.
A broken leg,
Mr Pendleton how perfectly awful,
Shuddered Pollyanna,
But I'm so glad I came.
Can't I do?
Yes you can,
But evidently you won't.
Now will you go and do what I ask?
With a little sobbing cry,
Pollyanna went.
She did not stop now to look up at the patches of blue between the sunlit tops of the trees.
She kept her eyes on the ground to make sure no twig nor stone tripped her up.
And it was not long before she came in sight of the house.
She'd seen it before,
Though never as near as this.
She was almost frightened now at the massiveness of it.
But pausing only a moment,
She sped through the great neglected lawn and round the house to the side door.
Her fingers stiff from this tight clutch upon the cleaves were anything but skilful in their efforts to turn the bolt in the lock.
But at last the heavy carved door swung slowly back on its hinges.
Pollyanna caught her breath.
In spite of her feeling of haste,
She paused a moment and looked fearfully through the door.
This was John Pendleton's house,
The house of mystery,
The house into which no one but its master entered.
Yet she,
Pollyanna,
Was expected to enter alone into these fearsome rooms and telephone the doctor that the master of the house lay now in.
With a little cry,
Pollyanna,
Looking neither to the right nor the left,
Fairly ran through the hall to the door at the end and opened it.
There was no time to lose.
But the telephone card was not on its hook,
It was on the floor.
She found it at last and ran her shaking forefinger down through the seas to Chiltern.
In due time she had Dr Chiltern himself on the other end of the wires and was trembling to deliver her message and answer the doctor's terse,
Pertinent questions.
This finally done,
She hung up the receiver and drew a long breath of relief.
Only a brief glance did Pollyanna give about her then.
And with a confused vision in her eyes of crimson draperies,
Book-lined walls,
A littered floor,
An untidy desk,
Innumerable closed doors and everywhere dust,
She fled back through the hall to the great carved door,
Still half opened,
As she had left it.
In what seemed,
Even to the injured man,
An incredibly short time,
Pollyanna was back in the woods at his side.
Then the man winced several times and groaned once,
Softly.
He was trying to change the position of his head without moving the rest of his body.
Then he did not speak again for some time.
Pollyanna sat watching his face,
Wondering if he was asleep.
She did not think he was.
He looked as if his lips were tight shut to keep back the bones of pain.
She herself almost cried aloud as she looked at his great strong body lying there so helpless.
Minute by minute,
The time passed.
One of his hands,
With fingers tightly clenched,
Lay outflung,
Motionless.
The other,
Limply opened,
Lay on the dog's head.
The dog,
His wistful eagle eyes were on his master's face,
Motionless too.
Some time passed and the sun dropped lower in the west and the shadows grew deeper under the trees.
Pollyanna was so still she hardly seemed to breathe.
A bird alighted fearlessly within reach of her hand and a swivel whisked his bushy tail on a tree branch,
Almost under her nose.
At last the dog pricked up his ears and whined softly.
Then the next moment,
Pollyanna heard voices and very soon their owners appeared,
Three men carrying a stretcher and various other articles.
The tallest of the party,
A smoothly shaven,
Kind-eyed man whom Pollyanna knew by sight as Dr Chilton,
Advanced cheerily.
Well my little lady,
Playing nurse are we?
Oh no sir,
Smiled Pollyanna,
I've only held his head,
I haven't given him a mite of medicine but I'm glad I was here anyway.
And the doctor said,
So am I,
As he turned his absorbed attention to the injured man.
