Maggie Tries Run Away from Her Shadow
MAGGIE'S intentions, as usual, were on a larger scale than Tom had imagined. The 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 escaping opprobrium and being entirely in
harmony with circumstances, would be to live in a little brown tent on the commons: the gypsies, she
considered, would gladly receive her and pay her much respect on account 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 contempt, observing that
gypsies were thieves and hardly got anything to eat and had nothing to drive but a donkey. Today, 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 sense that this was a great crisis in her life; she would run
straight away till she came to Dunlow Common, 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 reconciled 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, reflecting that running away was not a pleasant thing until one had got quite to the common where
the 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 Dorlcote Mill to Garum
Firs, and she felt all the safer for that, because there was no chance of her being overtaken. But she
was soon aware, not without trembling, that there were two men coming 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
coming 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 bundle stopped, and in a half whining half coaxing tone
asked her if she had a copper to give a poor man. Maggie had a sixpence in her pocket - her uncle
Glegg's 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. `That's the only money I've got,' she said,
apologetically. `Thank you, little miss,' said the man in a less respectful and grateful tone than Maggie
anticipated, and she even observed that he smiled and winked at his companion. 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 look like an idiot, and it was too painful an idea to be readily forgotten.
Besides she had no sleeves on - only a cape and a bonnet. It was clear that she was not likely to make
a favourable impression on passengers, and she thought she would turn into the fields again: but not on
the same side of the lane as before, lest they should still be uncle Pullet's fields. She turned through the
first gate that was not locked, and felt a delighted sense of privacy in creeping along by the hedgerows
after her recent humiliating encounter. She was used to wandering about the fields by herself, and was
less timid there than on the high-road. Sometimes she had to climb over high gates, but that was a
small evil; she was getting out of reach very fast, and she should probably soon come within sight of
Dunlow Common, or at least of some other common, for she had heard her father say that you couldn't
go very far without coming to a common. She hoped so, for she was getting rather tired and hungry,
and until she reached the gypsies there was no definite prospect of bread-and-butter. It was still broad
daylight, for aunt Pullet, retaining the early habits of the Dodson family, took tea at half-past four by the
sun and at five by the kitchen clock; so, though it was nearly an hour since Maggie started, there was
no gathering gloom on the fields to remind her that the night would come. Still, it seemed to her that
she had been walking a very great distance indeed, and it was really surprising that the common did not
come within sight. Hitherto she had been in the rich parish of Garum where there was a great deal of
pasture-land, and she had only seen one labourer at a distance: that was fortunate in some respects, as
labourers might be too ignorant to understand the propriety of her wanting to go to Dunlow Common; yet
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