Tom and Maggie Tulliver

by George Eliot

  Chapter VII.

  MAGGIE IS VERY NAUGHTY.

  As soon as the children reached the open air Tom said, "Here, Lucy, youcome along with me," and walked off to the place where the toads were,as if there were no Maggie in existence. Lucy was naturally pleasedthat Cousin Tom was so good to her, and it was very amusing to see himtickling a fat toad with a piece of string, when the toad was safe downthe area, with an iron grating over him.

  Still Lucy wished Maggie to enjoy the sight also, especially as shewould doubtless find a name for the toad, and say what had been hispast history; for Lucy loved Maggie's stories about the live thingsthey came upon by accident--how Mrs. Earwig had a wash at home, and oneof her children had fallen into the hot copper, for which reason shewas running so fast to fetch the doctor. So now the desire to know thehistory of a very portly toad made her run back to Maggie and say, "Oh,there is such a big, funny toad, Maggie! Do come and see."

  Maggie said nothing, but turned away from her with a deep frown. Shewas actually beginning to think that she should like to make Lucy cry,by slapping or pinching her, especially as it might vex Tom, whom itwas of no use to slap, even if she dared, because he didn't mind it.And if Lucy hadn't been there, Maggie was sure he would have madefriends with her sooner.

  Tickling a fat toad is an amusement that does not last, and Tomby-and-by began to look round for some other mode of passing the time.But in so prim a garden, where they were not to go off the paved walks,there was not a great choice of sport.

  "I say, Lucy," he began, nodding his head up and down, as he coiled uphis string again, "what do you think I mean to do?"

  "What, Tom?" said Lucy.

  "I mean to go to the pond and look at the pike. You may go with me ifyou like."

  "O Tom, dare you?" said Lucy. "Aunt said we mustn't go out of thegarden."

  "Oh, I shall go out at the other end of the garden," said Tom. "Nobody'ull see us. Besides, I don't care if they do; I'll run off home."

  "But I couldn't run," said Lucy.

  "Oh, never mind; they won't be cross with you," said Tom. "You say Itook you."

  Tom walked along, and Lucy trotted by his side. Maggie saw themleaving the garden, and could not resist the impulse to follow. Shekept a few yards behind them unseen by Tom, who was watching for thepike--a highly interesting monster; he was said to be so very old, sovery large, and to have such a great appetite.

  "Here, Lucy," he said in a loud whisper, "come here."

  Lucy came carefully as she was bidden, and bent down to look at whatseemed a golden arrow-head darting through the water. It was awater-snake, Tom told her; and Lucy at last could see the wave of itsbody, wondering very much that a snake could swim.

  Maggie had drawn nearer and nearer; she must see it too, though it wasbitter to her, like everything else, since Tom did not care about herseeing it. At last she was close by Lucy, and Tom turned round andsaid,--

  "Now, get away, Maggie. There's no room for you on the grass here.Nobody asked _you_ to come."

  Then Maggie, with a fierce thrust of her small brown arm, pushed poorlittle pink-and-white Lucy into the cow-trodden mud.

  Tom could not restrain himself, and gave Maggie two smart slaps on thearm as he ran to pick up Lucy, who lay crying helplessly. Maggieretreated to the roots of a tree a few yards off, and looked on. Whyshould she be sorry? Tom was very slow to forgive _her_, however sorryshe might have been.

  "I shall tell mother, you know, Miss Mag," said Tom, as soon as Lucywas up and ready to walk away. It was not Tom's practice to "tell,"but here justice clearly demanded that Maggie should be visited withthe utmost punishment.

  "Sally," said Tom, when they reached the kitchen door--"Sally, tellmother it was Maggie pushed Lucy into the mud."

  Sally, as we have seen, lost no time in presenting Lucy at the parlourdoor.

  "Goodness gracious!" Aunt Pullet exclaimed, after giving a scream;"keep her at the door, Sally! Don't bring her off the oilcloth,whatever you do."

  "Why, she's tumbled into some nasty mud," said Mrs. Tulliver, going upto Lucy.

  "If you please, 'um, it was Miss Maggie as pushed her in," said Sally."Master Tom's been and said so; and they must ha' been to the pond, forit's only there they could ha' got into such dirt."

  "There it is, Bessy; it's what I've been telling you," said Mrs.Pullet. "It's your children; there's no knowing what they'll come to."

  Mrs. Tulliver went out to speak to these naughty children, supposingthem to be close at hand; but it was not until after some search thatshe found Tom leaning with rather a careless air against the whitepaling of the poultry-yard, and lowering his piece of string on theother side as a means of teasing the turkey-cock.

  "Tom, you naughty boy, where's your sister?" said Mrs. Tulliver in adistressed voice.

  "I don't know," said Tom.

  "Why, where did you leave her?" said his mother, looking round.

  "Sitting under the tree against the pond," said Tom.

  "Then go and fetch her in this minute, you naughty boy. And how couldyou think o' going to the pond, and taking your sister where there wasdirt? You know she'll do mischief, if there's mischief to be done."

  The idea of Maggie sitting alone by the pond roused a fear in Mrs.Tulliver's mind, and she mounted the horse-block to satisfy herself bya sight of that fatal child, while Tom walked--not very quickly--on hisway towards her.

  "They're such children for the water, mine are," she said aloud,without reflecting that there was no one to hear her; "they'll bebrought in dead and drownded some day. I wish that river was farenough."

  But when she not only failed to see Maggie, but presently saw Tomreturning from the pond alone, she hurried to meet him.

  "Maggie's nowhere about the pond, mother," said Tom; "she's gone away."