CHAPTER 14: Summary
Molly was forgotten. The village women could not stop talking about Silas’s decision to keep the child. They pity the foolish man who could not possibly know what it was like to tend to a two-year-old child. Dolly Winthrop actually tried to help out. She brought over her children’s old clothes and helped bathe the little girl.
Silas would not let her help too much, because he wanted the child to love him. Silas had a plan for what to do when the child grew older and more active. He would tie her to the loom so she could not wander and get into trouble. Dolly insisted that Silas took her to church and have her christened. Silas didn’t actually understand what she meant. In his chapel, they only baptised. He agreed and decided to name her after his mother and sister Hephzibah. Dolly was a little hesitant. She was not sure if it was a Christian name, and anyway it was hard to pronounce. Silas assured her that it came from a Bible, and they could call her Eppie. Everything was set. Eppie was christened, Dolly agreed to do her laundry, and Silas went to church for the very first time.
As Eppie grew up, Silas’s life improved dramatically. He and Eppie picked flowers, listened to the birds, visited the neighbours, and spend all their time together. Sometimes, Eppie got into trouble. One day, she grabbed Silas’s scissors, cut the ribbon that bound her to Silas’s loom, and ran out the door before he noticed. When he finally found her playing in the mud, he was so overjoyed that he forgot to punish her until she was home and cleaned up. Taking Dolly’s advice, he told Eppie that, because she had been naughty, she had to go into the coal room. Eppie loved the game and the punishment totally failed. After he brought her out and cleaned her up, he turned around to find that she had happily crawled back into it by herself: “Eppie in de total-hole!” Since that punishment failed, Silas resolved never to punish her again. So Eppie grew up, with all the neighbours as her friends.
Servant girls took her to look at the chickens; little boys and girls kissed her pretty lips. Everyone loved Eppie so they started to love Silas. As Eppie’s life unfolded itself, Silas’ soul seemed to be coming out from “a cold narrow prison” where it lay so “long stupefied”.
 The gold had isolated Silas, but Eppie became a bridge between him and the rest of the world. Not only did she return his affection in a way that his guineas never could, but her desire and curiosity about the world ignited similar feelings in Silas.
Q1. Why did Dolly want Eppie to be christened? Why did Silas agree?
 Ans. Dolly only knew religion the way Raveloe preached it. Her knowledge of the church, its teachings, and its customs was limited, but she was devoted and pious. Silas understood that Dolly, as with other Raveloe villagers, was representative of the Raveloe church and appreciated her kindness, but did not agree with her view of religion.
 Dolly advised Silas to have Eppie christened, as babies always are in Raveloe. Silas questioned the christening, but he went along with the idea because Dolly assures him that christening Eppie would do her good. Silas only had Eppie’s welfare in mind. Silas’s agreement to christen Eppie shows that he had started beginning to accept Raveloe customs.
 Silas now began to come out of his self-imposed isolation and self-denial. His soul has been compared to a metamorphosing butterfly or budding flower, unfolding and “trembling gradually into full consciousness.”
