by George Eliot
Chapter X.
TOM AT SCHOOL.
In due time Tom found himself at King's Lorton, under the care of theRev. Walter Stelling, a big, broad-chested man, not yet thirty, withfair hair standing erect, large light-gray eyes, and a deep bass voice.
The schoolmaster had made up his mind to bring Tom on very quicklyduring the first half-year; but Tom did not greatly enjoy the process,though he made good progress in a very short time.
The boy was, however, very lonely, and longed for playfellows. In hissecret heart he yearned to have Maggie with him; though, when he was athome, he always made it out to be a great favour on his part to letMaggie trot by his side on his pleasure excursions.
And before this dreary half-year was ended Maggie actually came. Mrs.Stelling had given a general invitation for the little girl to come andstay with her brother; so when Mr. Tulliver drove over to King's Lortonlate in October, Maggie came too. It was Mr. Tulliver's first visit tosee Tom, for the lad must learn, he had said, not to think too muchabout home.
"Well, my lad," the miller said to Tom, when Mr. Stelling had left theroom, and Maggie had begun to kiss Tom freely, "you look rarely.School agrees with you."
Tom wished he had looked rather ill.
"I don't think I am well, father," said Tom; "I wish you'd ask Mr.Stelling not to let me do Euclid; it brings on the tooth-ache, I think."
"Euclid, my lad. Why, what's that?" said Mr. Tulliver.
"Oh, I don't know. It's definitions, and axioms, and triangles, andthings. It's a book I've got to learn in; there's no sense in it."
"Go, go!" said Mr. Tulliver; "you mustn't say so. You must learn whatyour master tells you. He knows what it's right for you to learn."
"I'll help you now, Tom," said Maggie. "I'm come to stay ever so long,if Mrs. Stelling asks me. I've brought my box and mypinafores--haven't I, father?"
"_You_ help me, you silly little thing!" said Tom. "I should like tosee _you_ doing one of my lessons! Why, I learn Latin too! Girlsnever learn such things; they're too silly."
"I know what Latin is very well," said Maggie confidently. "Latin's alanguage. There are Latin words in the dictionary. There's _bonus_, agift."
"Now you're just wrong there, Miss Maggie!" said Tom. "You thinkyou're very wise. But _bonus_ means 'good,' as it happens--_bonus,bona, bonum_."
"Well, that's no reason why it shouldn't mean 'gift,'" said Maggiestoutly. "It may mean several things--almost every word does. There's'lawn'--it means the grass-plot, as well as the stuff handkerchiefs aremade of."
"Well done, little un," said Mr. Tulliver, laughing, while Tom feltrather disgusted.
Mrs. Stelling did not mention a longer time than a week for Maggie'sstay, but Mr. Stelling said that she must stay a fortnight.
"Now, then, come with me into the study, Maggie," said Tom, as theirfather drove away. "What do you shake and toss your head now for, yousilly? It makes you look as if you were crazy."
"Oh, I can't help it," said Maggie. "Don't tease me, Tom. Oh, whatbooks!" she exclaimed, as she saw the bookcases in the study. "How Ishould like to have as many books as that!"
"Why, you couldn't read one of 'em," said Tom triumphantly. "They'reall Latin."
"No, they aren't," said Maggie. "I can read the back of this--_Historyof the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_."
"Well, what does that mean? You don't know," said Tom, wagging hishead.
"But I could soon find out," said Maggie.
"Why, how?"
"I should look inside, and see what it was about."
"You'd better not, Miss Maggie," said Tom, seeing her hand on thevolume. "Mr. Stelling lets nobody touch his books without leave, and Ishall catch it if you take it out."
"Oh, very well! Let me see all your books, then," said Maggie, turningto throw her arms round Tom's neck, and rub his cheek with her smallround nose.
Tom, in the gladness of his heart at having dear old Maggie to disputewith and crow over again, seized her round the waist, and began to jumpwith her round the large library table. Away they jumped with more andmore vigour, till at last, reaching Mr. Stelling's reading-stand, theysent it thundering down with its heavy books to the floor. Tom stooddizzy and aghast for a few minutes, dreading the appearance of Mr. orMrs. Stelling.
"Oh, I say, Maggie," said Tom at last, lifting up the stand, "we mustkeep quiet here, you know. If we break anything, Mrs. Stelling'll makeus cry _peccavi_."
"What's that?" said Maggie.
"Oh, it's the Latin for a good scolding," said Tom.
"Is she a cross woman?" said Maggie.
"I believe you!" said Tom, with a nod.
"I think all women are crosser than men," said Maggie. "Aunt Glegg's agreat deal crosser than Uncle Glegg, and mother scolds me more thanfather does."
"Well, you'll be a woman some day," said Tom, "so you needn't talk."
"But I shall be a clever woman," said Maggie, with a toss.
"Oh, I dare say, and a nasty, conceited thing. Everybody'll hate you."
"But _you_ oughtn't to hate me, Tom. It'll be very wicked of you, forI shall be your sister."
"Yes; but if you're a nasty, disagreeable thing, I shall hate you."
"Oh but, Tom, you won't! I shan't be disagreeable. I shall be verygood to you, and I shall be good to everybody. You won't hate mereally, will you, Tom?"
"Oh, bother, never mind! Come, it's time for me to learn my lessons.See here what I've got to do," Tom went on, drawing Maggie towards him,and showing her his theorem, while she pushed her hair behind her ears,and prepared herself to help him in Euclid.
"It's nonsense!" she said, after a few moments reading, "and very uglystuff; nobody need want to make it out."
"Ah, there now, Miss Maggie!" said Tom, drawing the book away andwagging his head at her; "you see you're not so clever as you thoughtyou were."
"Oh," said Maggie, pouting, "I dare say I could make it out if I'dlearned what goes before, as you have."
"But that's what you just couldn't, Miss Wisdom," said Tom. "For it'sall the harder when you know what goes before. But get along with younow; I must go on with this. Here's the Latin Grammar. See what youcan make of that."
Maggie found the Latin Grammar quite soothing, for she delighted in newwords, and quickly found that there was an English Key at the end,which would make her very wise about Latin at slight expense.
After a short period of silence Tom called out,--
"Now, then, Magsie, give us the Grammar!"
"O Tom, it's such a pretty book!" she said, as she jumped out of thelarge armchair to give it him. "I could learn Latin very soon. Idon't think it's at all hard."
"Oh, I know what you've been doing," said Tom; "you've been reading theEnglish at the end. Any donkey can do that. Here, come and hear if Ican say this. Stand at that end of the table."
"Here, Magsie, come and hear if I can say this."]
Maggie obeyed, and took the open book.
"Where do you begin, Tom?"
"Oh, I begin at '_Appellativa arborum_,' because I say all over againwhat I've been learning this week."
Tom sailed along pretty well for three lines, and then he stuck fast.
"There, you needn't laugh at me, Tom, for you didn't remember it atall, you see."
"Phee-e-e-h! I told you girls couldn't learn Latin."
"Very well, then," said Maggie, pouting. "I can say it as well as youcan. And you don't mind your stops. For you ought to stop twice aslong at a semicolon as you do at a comma, and you make the longeststops where there ought to be no stops at all."
"Oh, well, don't chatter. Let me go on."
It was a very happy fortnight to Maggie, this visit to Tom. She wasallowed to be in the study while he had his lessons, and in time gotvery deep into the examples in the Latin Grammar.
Mr. Stelling liked her prattle immensely, and they were on the best ofterms. She told Tom she should like to go to school to Mr. Stelling,as he
did, and learn just the same things. She knew she could doEuclid, for she had looked into it again, and she saw what ABCmeant--they were the names of the lines.
"I'm sure you couldn't do it, now," said Tom, "and I'll just ask Mr.Stelling if you could."
"I don't mind," said she. "I'll ask him myself."
"Mr. Stelling," she said, that same evening when they were in thedrawing-room, "couldn't I do Euclid, and all Tom's lessons, if you wereto teach me instead of him?"
"No, you couldn't," said Tom indignantly. "Girls can't do Euclid--canthey, sir?"
"They can pick up a little of everything, I dare say," said Mr.Stelling; "but they couldn't go far into anything. They're quick andshallow."
Tom, delighted with this, wagged his head at Maggie behind Mr.Stelling's chair. As for Maggie, she had hardly ever been so angry.She had been so proud to be called "quick" all her little life, and nowit appeared that this quickness showed what a poor creature she was.It would have been better to be slow, like Tom.
"Ha, ha, Miss Maggie!" said Tom, when they were alone; "you see it'snot such a fine thing to be quick. You'll never go far into anything,you know."
And Maggie had no spirit for a retort.
But when she was fetched away in the gig by Luke, and the study wasonce more quite lonely for Tom, he missed her grievously.
Still, the dreary half-year did come to an end at last. How glad Tomwas to see the last yellow leaves fluttering before the cold wind! Thedark afternoons, and the first December snow, seemed to him farlivelier than the August sunshine; and that he might make himself thesurer about the flight of the days that were carrying him homeward, hestuck twenty-one sticks deep in a corner of the garden, when he wasthree weeks from the holidays, and pulled one up every day with a greatwrench, throwing it to a distance.
But it was worth buying, even at the heavy price of the LatinGrammar--the happiness of seeing the bright light in the parlour athome as the gig passed over the snow-covered bridge--the happiness ofpassing from the cold air to the warmth, and the kisses, and the smilesof home.
