"Here, then, my man," said Mr. Tulliver, taking out five shillings. "It's the best day's work _you_ ever did. I couldn't afford to lose the little wench; here, lift her up before me." "Why, Maggie, how's this, how's this?" he said, as they rode along, while she laid her head against her father and sobbed. "How came you to be rambling about and lose yourself?" "Oh, father," sobbed Maggie, "I ran away because I was so unhappy; Tom was so angry with me. I couldn't bear it." "Pooh, pooh," said Mr. Tulliver, soothingly, "you mustn't think o' running away from father. What 'ud father do without his little wench?" "Oh, no, I never will again, father--never." Mr. Tulliver spoke his mind very strongly when he reached home that evening; and the effect was seen in the remarkable fact that Maggie never heard one reproach from her mother, or one taunt from Tom, about this foolish business of her running away to the gypsies. Maggie was rather awe-stricken by this unusual treatment, and sometimes thought that her conduct had been too wicked to be alluded to. Of the three children who are presented to us in these chapters, Tom, Maggie and little Lucy, which is the most attractive to you? Do you think the author meant us to receive this impression? Is Maggie proud? Is she impetuous? Is she highly sensitive? Find as many passages as you can which prove your answers to these questions. Do these qualities usually make a person attractive? What is the mainspring of Maggie's character--the motive for most of her actions? Does Tom seem to you worthy of the intense affection she bestows upon him? Do you think a person with Maggie's nature would be likely to live a happy or an unhappy life? Few writers have ever been able to draw as distinct, lifelike a picture of a child as we have of Maggie Tulliver in _The Mill on the Floss_. This is to be in part accounted for by the fact that it is herself as a child that George Eliot is describing. A GORILLA HUNT _By_ PAUL DU CHAILLU