r and Sister." The incident described in the poem,
of her brother leaving her in charge of the fishing-rod, is repeated in all
its main features in the experiences of Maggie. In the poem she describes
an encounter with a gipsy, which again recalls Maggie's encounter with some
persons of that race. The whole account of her childhood life with her
brother, her trust in him, their delight in the common pleasures of
childhood, and the impression made on her by the beauties of nature,
reappears in striking similarity in the description of the child-life of
Maggie and Tom. These elements of her early experience and observation of
life have been well described by one who knew her personally. This person
says that "Maggie Tulliver's childhood is clearly full of the most accurate
personal recollections."

Marian Evans very early became an enthusiastic reader of the best books. In
an almanac she found a portion of one of the essays of Charles Lamb, and
remembered reading it with great delight. In her seventh year a copy
of _Waverley_ was loaned to her older sister. She became herself intensely
fascinated by it, and when it was returned before she had completed it she
was thrown into much distress. The story so possessed her that she began to
complete it in writing, according to her own conception. When this was
discovered, the book was again secured for her perusal. This incident she
has described in a sonnet, which appears as the motto to the fifty-seventh
chapter of _Middlemarch_.

They numbered scarce eight summers when a name
Rose on their souls and stirred such motions there
As thrill the buds and shape their hidden frame
At penetration of the quickening air:
His name who told of loyal Evan Dhu,
Of quaint Bradwardine, and Vich Ian Vor,
Making the little world their childhood knew
Large with a land of mountain, lake and scaur,

And larger yet with wonder, love, belief,
Toward Walter Scott, who living far away
Sent them this wealth of joy and noble grief.
The book and they must part, but day by day,
In lines that thwart like portly spiders ran,
They wrote the tale, from Tully Veolan.

Not only was she a great reader, but she was also a diligent and even a
precocious student, learning easily and rapidly whatever she undertook to
acquire in the way of knowledge.

She was first sent, with her brother Isaac, to a free school in the village
of Griff. Among her mates was Willia