I don't like her." Exit Maggie, dragging her bonnet by the string, while Mr.Tulliver laughs audibly.
"I wonder at you, as you'll laugh at her, Mr.Tulliver," said the mother, with feeble fretfulness in her tone.

"You encourage her i' naughtiness.

An' her aunts will have it as it's me spoils her." Mrs.Tulliver was what is called a good-tempered person,--never cried, when she was a baby, on any slighter ground than hunger and pins; and from the cradle upward had been healthy, fair, plump, and dull-witted; in short, the flower of her family for beauty and amiability.

But milk and mildness are not the best things for keeping, and when they turn only a little sour, they may disagree with young stomachs seriously.

I have often wondered whether those early Madonnas of Raphael, with the blond faces and somewhat stupid expression, kept their placidity undisturbed when their strong-limbed, strong-willed boys got a little too old to do without clothing.