Maggie Tries Run Away from Her Shadow
MAGGIES iions, as usual, were on a larger scale than Tom had imagihe resolution that gathered in her mind, after Tom and Lucy had walked away, was not so simple as that of going home. No! she would run away and go to the gypsies, and Tom should never see her any more. That was by no means a new idea to Maggie: she had been so often told she was like a gypsy and `half wild that when she was miserable it seemed to her the only way of esg opprobrium and beiirely in harmony with circumstances, would be to live in a little brow on the ons: the gypsies, she sidered, would gladly receive her and pay her much respe at 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 pt, that gypsies were thieves and hardly got anything to eat and had nothing to drive but a dooday, however, Maggie thought her misery had reached a pitch at which gypsydom was her only refuge, and she rose from her seat on the roots of the tree with the sehat this was a great crisis in her life; she would run straight away till she came to Dunlow on, where there would certainly be gypsies, 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 she reciled herself to the idea of parting with him, by determining that she would secretly send him a letter by a small gypsy 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 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 high road. She stopped to pant a little, refleg that running away was not a pleasant thing until one had got quite to the ohe gypsies were, but her resolution had not abated: she presently passed through the gate into the lane, not knowing where it would lead her, for it was not this way that they came from Dorlill to Garum Firs, and she felt all the safer for that, because there was no ce of her being overtaken. But she was soon aware, not without trembling, that there were two men ing along the lane in front of her: she had not thought of meeting strangers - she had been too much occupied with the idea of her friends ing after her. The formidable strangers were two shabby-looking men with flushed faces, one of them carrying a bundle on a stick over his shoulder: but to her surprise, while she was dreading their disapprobation as a runaway, the man with the buopped, and in a half whining half coaxing tone asked her if she had a copper to give a poor man. Maggie had a sixpen her pocket - her uncle Gleggs present - which she immediately drew out and gave this poor man with a polite smile, hoping he would feel very kindly towards her as a generous person. `Thats the only money Ive got, she said, apologetically. `Thank you, little miss, said the man in a less respectful and grateful tohan Maggie anticipated, and she even observed that he smiled and wi his panion. She walked on hurriedly, but was aware that the two men were standing still, probably to look after her, and she presently heard them laughing loudly. Suddenly it occurred to her that they might think she was an idiot: - Tom had said that her cropped hair made her lo