Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7

ind, she herself was tasting only bitterness of the present. Childhood has

in the severest terms of the condition in which he had found her hair, holding up one jagged lock after another and saying, "see here! tut, tut, tut!" in a tone of mingled disgust and pity, which to Maggie's imagination was equivalent to the strongest expression of public opinion. Mr. Rappit, the hair

he might if possible shrink away from the prickliest of tuckers, while her mother was remonstrating, "Don't, Maggie, my dear; don't make yourself so ugly!" and Tom's cheeks were looking particularly brilliant as a relief to his best blue

d behaving peevishly about the card houses which they were allowed to build till dinner, as a suitable amusement for boys and girls in their best clothes. Tom could build perfect pyramids of houses; but Maggie's would never bear the laying on the roof. It was always so with the things that Maggie made; and Tom had deduced the conclusion that no girls could ever make anything. But it happened that Lucy proved wonderfully clever at building; she

out angrily; "I'm not a stupid. I

thing as you, making faces like that. Lucy doesn't do so

" said Maggie, starting up hurriedly from her place

white with anger, but said nothing; he would have struck her, only he knew it was cowardly

r and walked away, pale, from the scattered ruins of his pagoda,

halfway toward him, "I didn't mean to k

ow, vaguely at first, but presently with the distinct aim of hitting a superannuated blue bottle which was exposing its imbecility in the

and sunshine for her. He called Lucy to look at the half-built bird's nest without caring to show it to Maggie, and peeled a wil

y; Guinea fowls that flew and screamed and dropped their pretty spotted feathers; pouter pigeons and a tame magpie; nay, a goat, and a wonderful brindled dog, half mastiff, half bulldog, as large as a lion. Then there were white railings and white gates all about, and glittering weathercocks of various design, and garden walks paved with pebbles in beautiful patterns,-nothing was quite c

d it was very amusing to see him tickling a fat toad with a piece of string when the toad was safe down the area, with an iron grating over him. Still Lucy wished Maggie to enjoy the spectacle also, especially as she would doubtless find a name for the toad, and say what had been his past history; for Lucy had a delighted semi-belief in Maggie's stories about the live things they came upon by accident,-how Mrs. Earwig had a wash at home, and one of her children had fallen into the hot copper, for which reason she was running s

any more than she could be cruel to a little white mouse; but then, Tom had always been quite indifferent to Lucy before, and it had been left to Maggie to pet and make much of her. As it was, she was actually beginning to think that she should l

ssing 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. The only great pleasure such a r

down with great significance, as he coiled up h

said Lucy, wi

at the pike. You may go with me i

Lucy. "Aunt said we must

arden," said Tom. "Nobody 'ull see us. Beside

, who had never before been exp

t be cross with you," said

. Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love, and that Tom and Lucy should do or see anything of which she was ignorant would have been an intolerable idea to Maggie. So she kept a few yards behind them, unobserved by Tom, who was presently absorbed in watching for the pike,-a

E, L

cows have been!" he added, pointing to a peninsula of dry grass, with trodden mud on each side of it; fo

he serpentine wave of its body, very much wondering that a snake could swim. Maggie had drawn nearer and nearer; she must see it too, though it was bitter to her, like everything else, s

no room for you on the grass h

es were made by passion only; the utmost Maggie could do, with a fierce thrust of her

of a tree a few yards off, and looked on impenitently. Usually her repentance came quickly after one rash deed, but now Tom and Lucy had made her so miserable, she

, and the discomfort of being wet and dirty,-to think much of the cause, which was entirely mysterious to her. She could never have guessed what she had done to make Maggie angry with her; but she felt that Maggie was very unkind

in speechless amaze, with a piece of bread-and-butter in her mouth and a toastin

ud as that?" said Sally, making a wry face, as s

oner put than he foresaw whither it tended, and that Maggie would not be considered the only culprit in the case. He walked quietly

to have so dirty an object introduced into the house at Garu

ing by an inarticulate scream; "keep her at the door, Sa

going up to Lucy to examine into the amount of damage to cloth

Sally; "Master Tom's been and said so, and they must ha' been to

said Mrs. Pullet, in a tone of prophetic sadness; "it's

rd the premises from serious injury in the course of removing the dirt. Meantime tea was to be brought in by the cook, and the two naughty children were to have theirs in an ignominious manner in the kitchen. Mrs. Tulliver went out to speak to these naughty childr

s your sister?" said Mrs. Tul

diminished since he had seen clearly that it could hardly be bro

eave her?" said the m

" said Tom, apparently indifferent to ever

you think o' going to the pond, and taking your sister where there w

e blamed Tom, to refer his misdem

Tulliver's mind, and she mounted the horse block to satisfy herself by a sigh

hout reflecting that there was no one to hear her; "they'll be broug

w Tom returning from the pool alone, this hovering fear entered

the pond, mother," sai

not in the pond. Mrs. Pullet observed that the child might come to a worse end if she lived, there was no k

t Maggie was gone home, and the suggesti

perhaps find her on the road. Lucy can't walk in her dirty clothes," she said, looking at t

d it was not long before Mrs. Tulliver was in the chaise, looking anxiously at the most distant point bef