Maggie Behaves Worse than She Expected
THE startling object which thus made an epoch for uncle Pullet was no other than little Lucy, with one side of her person, from her small foot to her bo-, wet and discoloured with mud, holding out two tiny blaed hands and making a very piteous face. To at for this unpreted apparition in aunt Pullets parlour, we must return to the moment whehree childreo play out of doors and the small demons who had taken possession of Maggies soul at an early period of the day had returned in all the greater force after a temporary absence. All the disagreeable recolles of the m were thick upon her, when Tom, whose displeasure towards her had been siderably refreshed by her foolish trick of causing him to upset his cowslip wine, said, `Here, Lucy, you e along with me, and walked off to the area where the toads were, as if there were no Maggie ience. Seeing this Maggie li a distance looking like a small Medusa with her snakes cropped. Lucy was naturally pleased that cousin Tom was so good to her, and it was very amusing to see him tig a fat toad with a piece of string wheoad was safe down the area with an iron grating over him. Still Lucy wished Maggie to enjoy the spectacle also, especially as she would doubtless find a name for the toad and say what had been his past history; for Lucy had a delighted semi-belief in Maggies stories about the live things they came upon by act - how Mrs Earwig had a wash at home, and one of her children had fallen into the hot copper, for which reason, she was running so fast to fetch the doctor. Tom had a profound pt for this nonsense of Maggies, smashing the earwig at once as a superfluous yet easy means of proving the entire uy of such a story; but Lucy, for the life of her, could not help fang there was something in it, and at all events thought it was very pretty make-believe. So now the desire to know the history of a very portly toad, added to her habitual affeateness, made her run baaggie and say, `O, there is such a big, funny toad, Maggie! Do e and see. Maggie said nothing, but turned away from her with a deeper frown. As long as Tom seemed to prefer Lucy to her, Lucy made part of his unkindness. Maggie would have thought a little while ago that she could never be cross with pretty little Lucy, any more than she could be cruel to a little white mouse; but then, Tom had always been quite indifferent to Lucy before, and it had beeo Maggie to pet and make much of her. As it was, she was actually beginning to think that she should like to make Lucy cry, by slapping or ping her, especially as it might vex Tom, whom it was of no use to slap even if she dared, because he didnt mind it. And if Lucy hadhere, Maggie was sure he would have got friends with her sooner.
Tig a fat toad who is not highly sensitive is an amusement that it is possible to exhaust, and Tom by-and-by began to look round for some other mode of passing the time. But in so prim a gardehey were not to go off the paved walks, there was not a great choice of sport. The only great pleasure such a restri allowed was the pleasure of breaking it, and Tom began to meditate an insurreary visit to the pond, about a fields length beyond the garden.
`I say, Lucy, he began, nodding his head up and down with great significe as he coiled up his string again. `What do you think I mean to do?
`What, Tom? said Lucy, with curiosity.
`I mean to go to the pond, and look at the pike. You may go with