ce o' their uncles and aunts? That wasn't
the way when _I_ was a little gell."

"Go and speak to your aunts and uncles, my dears," said Mrs. Tulliver.
She wanted also to whisper to Maggie a command to go and have her hair
brushed.

"Well, and how do you do? And I hope you're good children--are you?"
said Aunt Glegg, in the same loud way, as she took their hands, hurting
them with her large rings, and kissing their cheeks, much against their
desire. "Look up, Tom, look up. Boys as go to boarding-schools should
hold their heads up. Look at me now." Tom would not do so, and tried
to draw his hand away. "Put your hair behind your ears, Maggie, and
keep your frock on your shoulder."

Aunt Glegg always spoke to them in this loud way, as if she thought
them quite deaf, or perhaps rather silly.

"Well, my dears," said Aunt Pullet sadly, "you grow wonderful fast.--I
doubt they'll outgrow their strength," she added, looking over their
heads at their mother. "I think the gell has too much hair. I'd have
it thinned and cut shorter, sister, if I was you. It isn't good for
her health. It's that as makes her skin so brown, I shouldn't
wonder.--Don't you think so, Sister Deane?"

"I can't say, I'm sure, sister," said Mrs. Deane.

"No, no," said Mr. Tulliver, "the child's healthy enough--there's
nothing ails her. There's red wheat as well as white, for that matter,
and some like the dark grain best. But it 'ud be as well if Bessy 'ud
have the child's hair cut, so as it 'ud lie smooth."

Maggie now wished to learn from her Aunt Deane whether she would leave
Lucy behind to stay at the mill. Aunt Deane would hardly ever let Lucy
come to see them, to Maggie's great regret.

"You wouldn't like to stay behind without mother, should you, Lucy?"
she said to her little daughter.

"Yes, please, mother," said Lucy timidly, blushing very pink all over
her little neck.

"Well done, Lucy!--Let her stay, Mrs. Deane, let her stay," said Mr.
Deane, a large man, who held a silver snuff-box very tightly in his
hand, and now and then exchanged a pinch with Mr. Tulliver.

"Maggie," said Mrs. Tulliver, beckoning Maggie to her, and whispering
in her ear, as soon as this point of Lucy's staying was settled, "go
and get your hair brushed--do, for shame. I told you not to come in
without going to Martha first; you know I did."

"Tom, come out with me," whispered Maggie, pulling his sleeve as she
passed him; and Tom followed willingl