Episode 2

Mr Tulliver of Dorlcote Mill, Declares His Resolution about Tom WHAT I want, you know,' said Mr Tulliver,what I want, is to give Tom a good eddication: an eddication as'll be a bread to him.That was what I was thinking on when I gave notice for him to leave th' Academy at Ladyday.I mean to put him to a downright good school at Midsummer.

The two years at th' Academy 'ud ha' done well enough, if I'd meant to make a miller and farmer of him, for he's had a fine sight more schoolin'

nor I ever got: all the learnin' my father ever paid for was a bit o' birch at one end and the alphabet at th' other.But I should like Tom to be a bit of scholard, so as he might be up to the tricks o'these fellows as talk fine and write wi' a flourish.It 'ud be a help to me wi'

these law-suits and arbitrations and things.I wouldn't make a downright lawyer o' the lad - I should be sorry for him to be a raskill - but a sort o' engineer, or a surveyor, or an auctioneer and vallyer, like Riley, or one o'them smartish businesses as are all profits and no outlay, only for a big watch-chain and a high stool.They're pretty nigh all one, and they're not far off being even wi' the law, I believe; for Riley looks Lawyer Wakem i' the face as hard as one cat looks another.He's none frighted at him.' Mr Tulliver was speaking to his wife, a blond comely woman in a fan-shaped cap.(I am afraid to think how long it is since fan-shaped caps were worn - they must be so near coming in again.At that time, when Mrs Tulliver was nearly forty, they were new at St Ogg's and considered sweet things.)`Well, Mr Tulliver, you know best: I've no objections.But hadn't I better kill a couple o' fowl and have th' aunts and uncles to dinner next week, so as you may hear what Sister Glegg and Sister Pullet have got to say about it? There's a couple o' fowl wants killing!'

`You may kill every fowl i' the yard, if you like, Bessy; but I shall ask neither aunt nor uncle what I'm to do wi'my own lad,' said Mr Tulliver, defiantly.

Dear heart,' said Mrs Tulliver, shocked at this sanguinary rhetoric,how can you talk so, Mr Tulliver? But it's your way to speak disrespectful o' my family, and Sister Glegg throws all the blame upo' me, though I'm sure I'm as innocent as the babe unborn.For nobody's ever heard me say as it wasn't lucky for my children to have aunts and uncles as can live independent.Howiver, if Tom's to go to a new school, I should like him to go where I can wash him and mend him; else he might as well have calico as linen, for they'd be one as yallow as th' other before they'd been washed half-a-dozen times.And then, when the box is goin'backards and forrards, I could send the lad a cake, or a pork-pie, or an apple;for he can do with an extry bit, bless him, whether they stint him at the meals or no.My children can eat as much victuals as most, thank God.'

Well, well, we won't send him out o' reach o' the carrier's cart, if other things fit in,' said Mr Tulliver.But you mustn't put a spoke i'

the wheel about the washin', if we can't get a school near enough.That's the fault I have to find wi' you, Bessy: if you see a stick i' the road, you're allays thinkin' you can't step over it.You'd want me not to hire a good waggoner, 'cause he'd got a mole on his face.'

Dear heart!' said Mrs Tulliver, in mild surprise,when did I iver make objections to a man, because he'd got a mole on his face? I'm sure I'm rether fond o' the moles, for my brother, as is dead an' gone, had a mole on his brow.But I can't remember your iver offering to hire a waggoner with a mole, Mr Tulliver.There was John Gibbs hadn't a mole on his face no more nor you have, an' I was all for having you hire him ; an'

so you did hire him, an' if he hadn't died o' th' inflammation, as we paid Dr Turnbull for attending him, he'd very like ha' been driving the waggon now.He might have a mole somewhere out o' sight, but how was I to know that, Mr Tulliver?'

`No, no, Bessy; I didn't mean justly the mole; I meant it to stand for summat else; but niver mind - it's puzzling work, talking is.What I'm thinking on, is how to find the right sort o' school to send Tom to, for I might be ta'en in again, as I've been wi' the 'Cademy.I'll have nothing to do wi' a 'Cademy again: whativer school I send Tom to, it shan't be a 'Cademy.It shall be a place where the lads spend their time i' summat else besides blacking the family's shoes, and getting up the potatoes.

It's an uncommon puzzling thing to know what school to pick.'

Mr Tulliver paused a minute or two, and dived with both hands into his breeches' pockets as if he hoped to find some suggestion there.Apparently he was not disappointed, for he presently said, `I know what I'll do -I'll talk it over wi'Riley: he's coming to-morrow, t' arbitrate about the dam.'

`Well, Mr Tulliver, I've put the sheets out for the best bed, and Kezia's got 'em hanging at the fire.They aren't the best sheets, but they're good enough for anybody to sleep in, be he who he will; for as for them best Holland sheets, I should repent buying 'em, only they'll do to lay us out in.An' if you was to die to-morrow, Mr Tulliver, they're mangled beautiful, an' all ready, an' smell o' lavender as it 'ud be a pleasure to lay 'em out.An' they lie at the left-hand corner o' the big oak linen-chest, at the back: not as I should trust anybody to look 'em out but myself.'

As Mrs Tulliver uttered the last sentence she drew a bright bunch of keys from her pocket, and single out one, rubbing her thumb and finger up and down it with a placid smile, while she looked at the clear fire.

If Mr Tulliver had been a susceptible man in his conjugal relations, he might have supposed that she drew out the key to aid her imagination in anticipating the moment when he would be in a state to justify the production of the best Holland sheets.Happily he was not so: he was only susceptible in respect of his right to water-power; moreover, he had the marital habit of not listening very closely, and, since his mention of Mr Riley, had been apparently occupied in a tactile examination of his woollen stockings.