om, severely, 'and I'm sorry I bought you the fish-line. I don't love you.' 'O Tom, it's very cruel,' sobbed Maggie. 'I'd forgive you, ifyou forgot anything - I wouldn't mind what you did - I'd forgive you and love you.' 'Yes, you're a silly. But I never do forget things, I don't.' 'O, please forgive me, Tom; my heart will break,' said Maggie, shaking with sobs, clinging to Tom's arm, and laying her wet cheek on his shoulder. Tom shook her off, and stopped again, saying in a peremptory tone, 'Now, Maggie, you just listen. Aren't I a good brother to you?' 'Ye-ye-es,' sobbed Maggie, her chin rising and falling convulsedly. 'Didn't I think about your fish-line all this quarter, and mean to buy it, and saved my money o' purpose, and wouldn't go halves in the toffee, and Spouncer fought me because I wouldn't?' 'Ye-ye-es . . . and I . . . lo-lo-love you so, Tom.' 'But you're a naughty girl. Last holidays you licked the paint off my lozenge-box, and the holidays before that, you let the boat drag my fish-line down when I'd set you to watch it, and you pushed your head through my kite all for nothing.' 'But I didn't mean,' said Maggie. 'I couldn't help it.' 'Yes, you could,' said Tom, 'if you'd minded what you were doing. And you're a naughty girl, and you shan't go fishing with me to-morrow.' With this terrible conclusion, Tom ran away from Maggie towards the mill, meaning to greet Luke there, and complain to him of Harry. Maggie stood motionless, except from her sobs, for a minute or two; then she turned round and ran into the house and up to her attic, where she sat on the floor and laid her head against the worm-eaten shelf, with a crushing sense of misery. Tom was come home and she had thought how --------------------------------------------------------------------------------page 89 happy she should be - and now he was cruel to her. What use was anything if Tom didn't love her? O, he was very cruel! Hadn't she wanted to give him the money...
