"  Sitting  under  the  tree  against  the  pond,"  said
Tom,  apparently  indifferent  to  everything  but  the
string  and  the  turkey-cock

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

It  was  Mrs  Tulliver's  way,  if  she  blamed  Tom,
to  refer  his  misdemeanour,  somehow  or  other,  to
Maggie.
The  idea  of  Maggie  sitting  alone  by  the  pond,
roused  an  habitual  fear  in  Mrs  Tulliver's  mind,  and
she  mounted  the  horse-block  to  satisfy  herself  by  a
sight  of  that  fatal  child,  while  Tom  walked — ^not
very  quickly — on  his  way  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  be  brought  in  dead  and
drownded  some  day.  I  wish  that  river  was  far
enough."

But  when  she  not  only  failed  to  discern  Maggie,
but  presently  saw  Tom  returning  from  the  pool  alone,


THE  MILL  ON   THE  FLOSS.  191

this  hovering  fear  entered  and  took  complete  pos-
session of  her,  and  she  hurried  to  meet  him.
