"Don"t laugh at me, Tom," said Maggie, in a pa.s.sionate tone, and with an outburst of angry tears, stamping, and giving him a push.
"Now, then, spitfire!" said Tom. "What did you cut it off for, then? I shall go down: I can smell the dinner going in."
Tom hurried down-stairs and left poor Maggie. As she stood crying before the gla.s.s, she felt it impossible that she should go down to dinner and endure the severe eyes and severe words of her aunts, while Tom, and Lucy, and Martha, who waited at table, and perhaps her father and her uncles, would laugh at her. If Tom had laughed at her, of course every one else would; and, if she had only let her hair alone, she could have sat with Tom and Lucy, and had the apricot pudding and the custard! What could she do but sob?
"Miss Maggie, you"re to come down this minute," said Kezia, entering the room hurriedly. "What have you been a-doing? I never saw such a fright!"
"Don"t, Kezia," said Maggie, angrily. "Go away!"
"But I tell you, you"re to come down, Miss, this minute: your mother says so," said Kezia, going up to Maggie and taking her by the hand to raise her from the floor.
"Get away, Kezia; I don"t want any dinner," said Maggie, resisting Kezia"s arm. "I shan"t come."
"Oh, well, I can"t stay. I"ve got to wait at dinner," said Kezia, going out again.
"Maggie, you little silly," said Tom, peeping into the room ten minutes after, "why don"t you come and have your dinner? There"s lots o"
goodies, and mother says you"re to come. What are you crying for?"
Oh, it was dreadful! Tom was so hard and unconcerned; if _he_ had been crying on the floor, Maggie would have cried, too. And there was the dinner, so nice; and she was _so_ hungry. It was very bitter.
But Tom was not altogether hard. He went and put his head near her, and said, in a lower, comforting tone: "Won"t you come, then, Maggie? Shall I bring you a bit of pudding when I"ve had mine--and a custard and things?"
"Ye-e-es," said Maggie, beginning to feel life a little more tolerable.
"Very well," said Tom, going away. But he turned again at the door and said: "But you"d better come, you know. There"s the dessert, you know."
Maggie"s tears had ceased, and she looked reflective as Tom left her.
His good nature had taken off the keenest edge of her suffering.
Slowly she rose from among her scattered locks, and slowly she made her way down-stairs. Then she stood leaning with one shoulder against the frame of the dining-parlour door, peeping in when it was ajar. She saw Tom and Lucy with an empty chair between them, and there were the custards on a side-table--it was too much. She slipped in and went towards the empty chair. But she had no sooner sat down than she repented, and wished herself back again.
Mrs. Tulliver gave a little scream as she saw her, and dropped the large gravy-spoon into the dish with the most serious results to the tablecloth.
Mrs. Tulliver"s scream made all eyes turn towards the same point as her own, and Maggie"s cheeks and ears began to burn, while Uncle Glegg, a kind-looking, white-haired old gentleman, said: "Heyday! what little girl"s this? Why, I don"t know her. Is it some little girl you"ve picked up in the road, Kezia?"
"Why, she"s gone and cut her hair herself," said Mr. Tulliver in an undertone to Mr. Deane, laughing with much enjoyment.
"Why, little Miss, you"ve made yourself look very funny," said Uncle Pullet.
"Fie, for shame!" said Aunt Glegg, in her severest tone of reproof.
"Little girls that cut their own hair should be whipped and fed on bread and water, not come and sit down with their aunts and uncles."
"Aye, aye," said Uncle Glegg, meaning to give a playful turn, "she must be sent to jail, I think, and they"ll cut the rest of her hair off there, and make it all even."
"She"s more like a gypsy than ever," said Aunt Pullet in a pitying tone.
"She"s a naughty child, that"ll break her mother"s heart," said Mrs.
Tulliver, with the tears in her eyes.
Maggie seemed to be listening to a chorus of reproach and derision. Her first flush came from anger. Tom thought she was braving it out, supported by the recent appearance of the pudding and custard.
He whispered: "Oh, my! Maggie, I told you you"d catch it." He meant to be friendly, but Maggie felt convinced that Tom was rejoicing in her ignominy.
Her feeble power of defiance left her in an instant, her heart swelled, and, getting up from her chair, she ran to her father, hid her face on his shoulder, and burst out into loud sobbing. "Come, come," said her father, soothingly, putting his arm round her, "never mind; give over crying: father"ll take your part."
Delicious words of tenderness! Maggie never forgot any of these moments when her father "took her part"; she kept them in her heart, and thought of them long years after, when every one else said that her father had done very ill by his children.
GEORGE ELIOT: "The Mill on the Floss."
(Adapted)
THE CORN SONG
Heap high the farmer"s wintry h.o.a.rd!
Heap high the golden corn!
No richer gift has Autumn poured From out her lavish horn!
Let other lands, exulting, glean The apple from the pine, The orange from its glossy green, The cl.u.s.ter from the vine;
We better love the hardy gift Our rugged vales bestow, To cheer us when the storm shall drift Our harvest-fields with snow.
Through vales of gra.s.s and meads of flowers, Our ploughs their furrows made, While on the hills the sun and showers Of changeful April played.
We dropped the seed o"er hill and plain, Beneath the sun of May, And frightened from our sprouting grain The robber crows away.
All through the long, bright days of June Its leaves grew green and fair, And waved in hot midsummer"s noon Its soft and yellow hair.
And now, with autumn"s moon-lit eves, Its harvest-time has come, We pluck away the frosted leaves, And bear the treasure home.
There, richer than the fabled gift Apollo showered of old, Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, And knead its meal of gold.
Let vapid idlers loll in silk Around their costly board; Give us the bowl of samp and milk, By homespun beauty poured!
Where"er the wide old kitchen hearth Sends up its smoky curls, Who will not thank the kindly earth, And bless our farmer girls!
WHITTIER
SPORTS IN NORMAN ENGLAND
After dinner all the youth of the city go into the field of the suburbs, and address themselves to the famous game of football. The scholars of each school have their peculiar ball; and the particular trades have, most of them, theirs. The elders of the city, the fathers of the parties, and the rich and wealthy, come to the field on horseback, in order to behold the exercises of the youth, and in appearance are themselves as youthful as the youngest; seeming to be revived at the sight of so much agility, and in a partic.i.p.ation of the diversion of their festive sons.
At Easter the diversion is prosecuted on the water; a target is strongly fastened to a trunk or mast fixed in the middle of the river, and a youngster standing upright in the stern of a boat, made to move as fast as the oars and current can carry it, is to strike the target with his lance; and if, in hitting it, he breaks his lance and keeps his place in the boat, he gains his point and triumphs; but if it happens the lance is not shivered by the force of the blow, he is, of course, tumbled into the water, and away goes his vessel without him.