The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot [rocket ebook reader txt] 📗

is not at home yet, Bob,” said Maggie; “he is always at St. Ogg’s in the daytime.”

“Well, Miss,” said Bob, “I should be glad to see Mr. Tom, but that isn’t just what I’m come for⁠—look here!”

Bob was in the act of depositing his pack on the doorstep, and with it a row of small books fastened together with string.

Apparently, however, they were not the object to which he wished to call Maggie’s attention, but rather something which he had carried under his arm, wrapped in a red handkerchief.

“See here!” he said again, laying the red parcel on the others and unfolding it; “you won’t think I’m a-makin’ too free, Miss, I hope, but I lighted on these books, and I thought they might make up to you a bit for them as you’ve lost; for I heared you speak o’ picturs⁠—an’ as for picturs, look here!”

The opening of the red handkerchief had disclosed a superannuated “Keepsake” and six or seven numbers of a “Portrait Gallery,” in royal octavo; and the emphatic request to look referred to a portrait of George the Fourth in all the majesty of his depressed cranium and voluminous neckcloth.

“There’s all sorts o’ genelmen here,” Bob went on, turning over the leaves with some excitement, “wi’ all sorts o’ nones⁠—an’ some bald an’ some wi’ wigs⁠—Parlament genelmen, I reckon. An’ here,” he added, opening the “Keepsake,”⁠—“here’s ladies for you, some wi’ curly hair and some wi’ smooth, an’ some a-smiling wi’ their heads o’ one side, an’ some as if they were goin’ to cry⁠—look here⁠—a-sittin’ on the ground out o’ door, dressed like the ladies I’n seen get out o’ the carriages at the balls in th’ Old Hall there. My eyes! I wonder what the chaps wear as go a-courtin’ ’em! I sot up till the clock was gone twelve last night, a-lookin’ at ’em⁠—I did⁠—till they stared at me out o’ the picturs as if they’d know when I spoke to ’em. But, lors! I shouldn’t know what to say to ’em. They’ll be more fittin’ company for you, Miss; and the man at the bookstall, he said they banged iverything for picturs; he said they was a fust-rate article.”

“And you’ve bought them for me, Bob?” said Maggie, deeply touched by this simple kindness. “How very, very good of you! But I’m afraid you gave a great deal of money for them.”

“Not me!” said Bob. “I’d ha’ gev three times the money if they’ll make up to you a bit for them as was sold away from you, Miss. For I’n niver forgot how you looked when you fretted about the books bein’ gone; it’s stuck by me as if it was a pictur hingin’ before me. An’ when I see’d the book open upo’ the stall, wi’ the lady lookin’ out of it wi’ eyes a bit like your’n when you was frettin’⁠—you’ll excuse my takin’ the liberty, Miss⁠—I thought I’d make free to buy it for you, an’ then I bought the books full o’ genelmen to match; an’ then”⁠—here Bob took up the small stringed packet of books⁠—“I thought you might like a bit more print as well as the picturs, an’ I got these for a sayso⁠—they’re cram-full o’ print, an’ I thought they’d do no harm comin’ along wi’ these bettermost books. An’ I hope you won’t say me nay, an’ tell me as you won’t have ’em, like Mr. Tom did wi’ the suvreigns.”

“No, indeed, Bob,” said Maggie, “I’m very thankful to you for thinking of me, and being so good to me and Tom. I don’t think anyone ever did such a kind thing for me before. I haven’t many friends who care for me.”

“Hev a dog, Miss!⁠—they’re better friends nor any Christian,” said Bob, laying down his pack again, which he had taken up with the intention of hurrying away; for he felt considerable shyness in talking to a young lass like Maggie, though, as he usually said of himself, “his tongue overrun him” when he began to speak. “I can’t give you Mumps, ’cause he’d break his heart to go away from me⁠—eh, Mumps, what do you say, you riffraff?” (Mumps declined to express himself more diffusely than by a single affirmative movement of his tail.) “But I’d get you a pup, Miss, an’ welcome.”

“No, thank you, Bob. We have a yard dog, and I mayn’t keep a dog of my own.”

“Eh, that’s a pity; else there’s a pup⁠—if you didn’t mind about it not being thoroughbred; its mother acts in the Punch show⁠—an uncommon sensible bitch; she means more sense wi’ her bark nor half the chaps can put into their talk from breakfast to sundown. There’s one chap carries pots⁠—a poor, low trade as any on the road⁠—he says, ‘Why Toby’s nought but a mongrel; there’s nought to look at in her.’ But I says to him, ‘Why, what are you yoursen but a mongrel? There wasn’t much pickin’ o’ your feyther an’ mother, to look at you.’ Not but I like a bit o’ breed myself, but I can’t abide to see one cur grinnin’ at another. I wish you good evenin’, Miss,” said Bob, abruptly taking up his pack again, under the consciousness that his tongue was acting in an undisciplined manner.

“Won’t you come in the evening some time, and see my brother, Bob?” said Maggie.

“Yes, Miss, thank you⁠—another time. You’ll give my duty to him, if you please. Eh, he’s a fine growed chap, Mr. Tom is; he took to growin’ i’ the legs, an’ I didn’t.”

The pack was down again, now, the hook of the stick having somehow gone wrong.

“You don’t call Mumps a cur, I suppose?” said Maggie, divining that any interest she showed in Mumps would be gratifying to his master.

“No, Miss, a fine way off that,” said Bob, with pitying smile; “Mumps is as fine a cross as you’ll see anywhere along the Floss, an’ I’n been up it wi’ the barge times enow. Why, the gentry stops to