MAGGIE AND THE GIPSIES.
After Tom and Lucy had walked away, Maggie's quick mind formed a plan
which was not so simple as that of going home. No; she would run away
and go to the gipsies, and Tom should never see her any more. She had
been often told she was like a gipsy, and "half wild;" so now she would
go and live in a little brown tent on the common.
The gipsies, she considered, would gladly receive her, and pay her much
respect on account of her superior knowledge. She had once mentioned
her views on this point to Tom, and suggested that he should stain his
face brown, and they should run away together; but Tom rejected the
scheme with contempt, observing that gipsies were thieves, and hardly
got anything to eat, and had nothing to drive but a donkey. To-day,
however, Maggie thought her misery had reached a pitch at which
gipsydom was her only refuge, and she rose from her seat on the roots
of the tree with the sense that this was a great crisis in her life.
She would run straight away till she came to Dunlow Common, where there
would certainly be gipsies; and cruel Tom, and the rest of her
relations who found fault with her, should never see her any more. She
thought of her father as she ran along, but made up her mind that she
would secretly send him a letter by a small gipsy, who would run away
without telling where she was, and just let him know that she was well
and happy, and always loved him very much.
Maggie soon got out of breath with running, but by the time that Tom
got to the pond again she was at the distance of three long fields, and
was on the edge of the lane leading to the highroad.
She presently passed through the gate into the lane, and she was soon
aware, not without trembling, that there were two men coming along the
lane in front of her.
She had not thought of meeting strangers; and, to her surprise, while
she was dreading their scolding as a runaway, one of the men stopped,
and in a half-whining, half-coaxing tone asked her if she had a copper
to give a poor fellow.
Maggie had a sixpence in her pocket--her Uncle Glegg's present--which
she drew out and gave this "poor fellow" with a polite smile. "That's
the only money I've got," she said. "Thank you, little miss," said the
man in a less grateful tone than Maggie expected, and she even saw that
he smiled and winked at his companion.
She now went on, and turning through the first gate that was not
locked, crept along by the hedgerows. She was used to wandering about
the fields by herself, and was less timid there than on the highroad.
Sometimes she had to climb over high gates, but that was a small evil;
she was getting out of reach very fast, and she should probably soon
come within sight of Dunlow Common. She hoped so, for she was getting
rather tired and hungry. It was still broad daylight, yet it seemed to
her that she had been walking a very great distance indeed, and it was
really surprising that the common did not come in sight.
At last, however, the green fields came to an end, and Maggie found
herself looking through the bars of a gate into a lane with a wide
margin of grass on each side of it. She crept through the bars of the
gate and walked on with a new spirit, and at the next bend in the lane
Maggie actually saw the little black tent with the blue smoke rising
before it which was to be her refuge. She even saw a tall female
figure by the column of smoke--doubtless the gipsy-mother, who provided
the tea and other groceries; it was astonishing to herself that she did
not feel more delighted. But it was startling to find the gipsies in a
lane after all, and not on a common--indeed, it was rather
disappointing; for a mysterious common, where there were sand-pits to
hide in, and one was out of everybody's reach, had always made part of
Maggie's picture of gipsy life.
She went on, however, and before long a tall figure, who proved to be a
young woman with a baby on her arm, walked slowly to meet her. Maggie
looked up in the new face and thought that her Aunt Pullet and the rest
were right when they called her a gipsy; for this face, with the bright
dark eyes and the long hair, was really something like what she used to
see in her own glass before she cut her hair off.
"My little lady, where are you going to?" the gipsy said.
It was delightful, and just what Maggie expected--the gipsy saw at once
that she was a little lady.
"Not any farther," said Maggie. "I'm come to stay with you, please."
"That's pritty; come, then. Why, what a nice little lady you are, to
be sure!" said the gipsy, taking her by the hand. Maggie thought her
very nice, but wished she had not been so dirty.
There was quite a group round the fire when they reached it. An old
gipsy-woman was seated on the ground nursing her knees, and poking a
skewer into the round kettle that sent forth an odorous steam; two
small, shock-headed children were lying down resting on their elbows;
and a donkey was bending his head over a tall girl, who, lying on her
back, was scratching his nose and feeding him with a bite of excellent
stolen hay.
The slanting sunlight fell kindly upon them, and the scene was really
very pretty and comfortable, Maggie thought, only she hoped they would
soon set out the tea-cups. It was a little confusing, though, that the
young woman began to speak to the old one in a language which Maggie
did not understand, while the tall girl who was feeding the donkey sat
up and stared at her. At last the old woman said,--
"What, my pretty lady, are you come to stay with us? Sit ye down, and
tell us where you come from."
[Illustration: "My pretty lady, are you come to stay with us?"]
It was just like a story. Maggie liked to be called pretty lady and
treated in this way. She sat down and said,--
"I'm come from home because I'm unhappy, and I mean to be a gipsy.
I'll live with you, if you like, and I can teach you a great many
things."
"Such a clever little lady," said the woman with the baby, sitting down
by Maggie, and allowing baby to crawl; "and such a pritty bonnet and
frock," she added, taking off Maggie's bonnet and looking at it while
she spoke to the old woman in the unknown language. The tall girl
snatched the bonnet and put it on her own head hind-foremost with a
grin; but Maggie was determined not to show that she cared about her
bonnet.
"I don't want to wear a bonnet," she said; "I'd rather wear a red
handkerchief, like yours" (looking at her friend by her side). "My
hair was quite long till yesterday, when I cut it off; but I dare say
it will grow again very soon."
"Oh, what a nice little lady!--and rich, I'm sure," said the old woman.
"Didn't you live in a beautiful house at home?"
"Yes, my home is pretty, and I'm very fond of the river, where we go
fishing; but I'm often very unhappy. I should have liked to bring my
books with me, but I came away in a hurry, you know. But I can tell
you almost everything there is in my books, I've read them so many
times, and that will amuse you. And I can tell you something about
geography too--that's about the world we live in--very useful and
interesting. Did you ever hear about Columbus?"
"Is that where you live, my little lady?" said the old woman at the
mention of Columbus.
"Oh no!" said Maggie, with some pity. "Columbus was a very wonderful
man, who found out half the world; and they put chains on him and
treated him very badly, you know--but perhaps it's rather too long to
tell before tea. _I want my tea so_."
"Why, she's hungry, poor little lady," said the younger woman. "Give
her some o' the cold victual.--You've been walking a good way, I'll be
bound, my dear. Where's your home?"
"It's Dorlcote Mill--a good way off," said Maggie. "My father is Mr.
Tulliver; but we mustn't let him know where I am, else he'll fetch me
home again. Where does the queen of the gipsies live?"
"What! do you want to go to her, my little lady?" said the younger
woman.
"No," said Maggie; "I'm only thinking that if she isn't a very good
queen you might be glad when she died, and you could choose another.
If I was a queen, I'd be a very good queen, and kind to everybody."
"Here's a bit o' nice victual, then," said the old woman, handing to
Maggie a lump of dry bread, which she had taken from a bag of scraps,
and a piece of cold bacon.
"Thank you," said Maggie, looking at the food without taking it; "but
will you give me some bread and butter and tea instead? I don't like
bacon."
"We've got no tea nor butter," said the old woman with something like a
scowl.
"Oh, a little bread and treacle would do," said Maggie.
"We han't got no treacle," said the old woman crossly.
Meanwhile the tall girl gave a shrill cry, and presently there came
running up a rough urchin about the age of Tom. He stared at Maggie,
and she felt very lonely, and was quite sure she should begin to cry
before long. But the springing tears were checked when two rough men
came up, while a black cur ran barking up to Maggie, and threw her into
a tremor of fear.
Maggie felt that it was impossible she should ever be queen of _these_
people.
"This nice little lady's come to live with us," said the young woman.
"Aren't you glad?"
"Ay, very glad," said the younger man, who was soon examining Maggie's
silver thimble and other small matters that had been taken from her
pocket. He returned them all except the thimble to the younger woman,
and she immediately restored them to Maggie's pocket, while the men
seated themselves, and began to attack the contents of the kettle--a
stew of meat and potatoes--which had been taken off the fire and turned
out into a yellow platter.