The Mill on the Floss

w Scho

d have been no ray of expected pleasure to enliven the general gloom. But he liked to think how Laura would put out her lips and her tiny hands for the bits of sugarcandy; and to give the greater keenness to these pleasures of imagination

, heartily. "Take off your wrappings and come into the study til

as possible. He would have disliked having a deformed boy for his companion, even if Philip had not been the son of a bad man. And Tom did not see how a bad man's son could be very good. H

ntering the study,–"Master Philip Wakem. I shall leave you to make acquaintance by yourse

him timidly. Tom did not like to go up and put out his hand, and

ed the door behind him; boys' shyness onl

when he walked. So they remained without shaking hands or even speaking, while Tom went to the fire and warmed himself, every now and then casting furtive glances at Philip, who seemed to be drawing absently first one

f-admitted fear of him as probably a spiteful fellow, who, not being able to fight you, had cunning ways of doing you a mischief by the sly. There was a humpbacked tailor in the neighborhood of Mr. Jacobs's academy, who was considered a very unamiable character, and was much hooted after by public-spirited boys solely on the ground of his unsatisfactory moral qualities; so that Tom was not without a basis of fact to go upon. Still, no face could be more unlike that ugly tailor's than this melancholy boy's face,–the brown hair round it waved and curled at the ends like a girl's; Tom thought that truly pitiable. This Wakem was a pale, puny fellow, and it was quite clear he would not

is tongue being completely loosed by surprise and admiration. "Oh my buttons! I wish I could dra

ut learning," said Philip;

ry well. I can make houses, and all sorts of chimneys,–chimneys going all down the wall,–and windows in the roof, and all that. But I dare say I could do dogs and horses if I

look well at things, and draw them over and over again

a puzzled suspicion that Philip's crooked back might be the source o

een taught Latin and Greek and mathe

tin, though, do you?" said Tom, l

n't care much abou

," said Tom, nodding his head sideways, as much as to say, "t

active-looking boy; but made polite by his own extreme sensitiveness, as well as b

grammar; I don't l

lessons as I shall?" said Tom,

help you. I shall be very

orbed in the thought that Wakem's son did not see

resently, "do you

coloring deeply; "do

fortable. He found much difficulty in adjusting his attitude of mind toward the son of Lawyer Wakem, and it had o

g now?" he said, by way

er wishes me to give all my

Euclid, and those

ng his head on one hand, while Tom was learning forward on both elbo

that?" said Tom, w

erybody else knows. I can s

dy should learn Latin,"

gentleman," said Philip. "All g

the harriers, knows Latin?" said Tom, who had ofte

y, of course," said Philip. "Bu

re was no hindrance to his resembling Sir John Crake. "Only you're obliged to remember it while you're at school, else you've got to learn ever so many lines of '

ng about the Greeks. I should like to have been a Greek and fought the Persians, and then have come home and have written tragedies, or else have been listened to by everybody fo

direction. "Is there anything like David and Goliath and Samson in the

e Odyssey–that's a beautiful poem–there's a more wonderful giant than Goliath,–Polypheme, who had only one eye in the middle of his forehead; and Ul

e all about those stories? Because I sha'n't learn Greek, you know. Shall I?" he added, pausing in his stamping with a sudden ala

id Philip. "But you may read those stories wi

g ones, you know. My sister Maggie is always wanting to tell me stories, but they're

I can tell you about Richard C?ur-de-Lion and Saladin, and about

han I am, aren'

d are you? I

e I came here. And I beat 'em all at bandy and climbing. And I wish Mr. Stelling would let us go fishing. I

acquaintance with fighting stories put him on a par with an actual fighting hero, like Tom Tulliver. P

ools sitting watching a line hour after hour, or

tretch with indignant zeal for the honor of sport. Wakem's son, it was plain, had his disagreeable points, and must be kept in due check. Happily for the harmony of this first interview, they were