Silas Marner has to harden his heart and teach little Eppie a lesson she will remember.
Silas Marner has suffered griefs enough to break any man. His salvation has been a little girl: the bachelor had found her in his home, and her mother dead in the snow outside, one New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t easy to juggle a weaver’s work and a curious toddler. One day the artful creature found his scissors, snipped through the linen-band harness he had made for her safe-keeping, and wandered unnoticed out of the cottage.