| The Mill on the Floss |
| A gig is a light opened two wheeled carriage. A croft is a small rented farm. 1Tom was to arrive early in the afternoon, and there was another fluttering heart besides Maggie's when it was late enough for the sound of the gig wheels to be expected; for if Mrs. Tulliver had a strong feeling, it was fondness for her boy.2 At last the sound came--the quick, light bowling of the gig wheels--and in spite of the wind, which was blowing the clouds about, and was not likely to respect Mrs. Tulliver's curls and cap strings, she came outside the door, and even held her hands on Maggie's offending head, forgetting all the griefs of the morning. 3"There he is, my sweet lad! But Lord ha' mercy! he's got no collar on; it's been lost on the road, I'll be bound, and spoilt the set." 4Mrs. Tulliver stood with her arms open; Maggie jumped first on one leg and then on the other; while Tom descended from the gig, and said, with masculine reticence as to the tender emotions, "Hullo! Yap--what, are you there?"
5Nevertheless, he submitted to being kissed willingly enough, though Maggie hung on his neck in a rather strangling fashion, while his blue-gray eyes wandered toward the croft, and the lambs, and the river, where he promised himself that he would begin to fish the first thing tomorrow morning.6He was one of those lads that grow everywhere in England, and, at twelve or thirteen years of age, look as much alike as goslings--a lad with light brown hair, cheeks of cream and roses... |