"Now it is your turn to work, and mine to watch you."
"I do not want to dig," he answered, "I am going to be an officer like
papa, and have others to obey me."
Just then the gardener came by, and seeing Fanny digging away and making
herself very hot, promised her that in the evening he would put the
ground to rights. As she found that Norman was not disposed to garden,
she invited him to have a game of battledore and shuttlecock on the
lawn.
They had played for half-an-hour, and he seemed to be more amused than
he had been with anything else. While they were in the garden Mrs
Vallery had been unpacking her trunks, and wishing to show Fanny a dress
she had brought from Paris for her, called her in. Norman said he would
remain out and play by himself.
Some time was occupied in admiring the beautiful frock and in trying on
some boots and other things. How grateful did she feel to her mamma as
she kissed her again and again, and thanked her for bringing her so many
pretty things. Though she would have liked to have stopped and admired
them again and again, she did not forget Norman.
"I am afraid he will be growing dull by himself, mamma," she said, "I
will go out and try to amuse him. I see that he has gone away from the
lawn and has left the battledore on the grass."
Fanny, putting on her bonnet, went out to look for Norman. To her
surprise, after searching about for some time, she saw him digging, as
she thought, on his plot of ground.
"Oh, I am so glad that he is trying to amuse himself in that way," she
said to herself, "he will now learn to like gardening, I hope."
On reaching the spot, however, she stood aghast, for Norman, instead of
working in his own part of the ground, was digging away in hers, and had
already uprooted nearly all her beautiful flowers.
"I am going to put them into my ground," he said, when he caught sight
of her, "I do not see why you should have them all to yourself."
"But, my dear Norman, they will not bear transplanting," she answered,
almost bursting into tears, as she surveyed the havoc he had committed,
for many of her flowers were not only dug up, but broken and trampled
on, and it was evident that he intended rather to destroy than remove
them.
"Oh, do stop, Norman!" she cried out, "the gardener promised, you know,
to put some flowers into your garden, and he knows how to do it
properly."
"He may do as he likes," said Norman, throwing down his spade; "I have
taught you a lesson, Miss Selfish, your garden is not much better than
mine now."
Fanny could no longer restrain her tears.
"O Norman!" she exclaimed, "it was not from selfishness I did not plant
your garden, but I thought you would like to do it yourself, and that
you would find pleasure in seeing flowers spring up which you had put
in. Indeed, indeed, Norman, you accuse me wrongfully."
"Well, at all events, we are even now," growled out the boy, walking up
and down, and it is to be hoped feeling somewhat ashamed of himself, as
he surveyed the mischief he had done.
"Granny and mamma will be so angry with him if they see it," thought
Fanny, "I must try to put it to rights as far as I can," and while
Norman stood by with an angry frown on his brow, she began to replace
some of the least injured plants. While she was thus employed, Susan
came to tell her and her brother that it was time to get ready for
dinner, for Fanny in her agitation had not even heard the gong sound.
"Why, Miss Fanny, what has happened to your garden?" exclaimed Susan.
Fanny never told an untruth, but she was very anxious to shield her
brother, for she knew how angry Susan would be with him if she
discovered what he had done.
"Pray do not ask me, Susan," she answered, "John promised to put
Norman's garden to rights this evening, and I daresay he will do mine at
the same time, until after that we had better not look at it."
Susan guessed pretty correctly what had happened, but as Fanny had
begged her not to ask questions, she refrained for her sake from doing
so.
Fanny was going up to Norman to lead him towards the house, but he hung
back, so Susan took him by the arm.
"Come along, young gentleman," she said in the stern voice she knew how
to assume, "you will require to wash your hands well after your
gardening," and she pointed back at the ground he had upturned. "Are
you not ashamed of yourself?" she whispered. Fanny had run on a little
way lest Susan should again ask questions. "If you are not ashamed you
ought to be," continued Susan, "your sweet sister is an angel, and I
should like you just to ask yourself what you are."
Norman though he threatened Susan behind her back stood in considerable
awe of her in her presence, he therefore did not venture to reply, but
as he hung somewhat behind her as she led him on, he made faces at her,
which he knew she could not see.
Having washed his hands and brushed his hair she conducted him to the
dining-room.
"Many a worse boy deserves his dinner more than you do," she whispered,
stopping before she took him in. "Eat yours with what appetite you can,
but let me advise you to try and be sorry for the ungrateful way you
have treated your sister, who has been so kind to you since you came
into the house."
Norman snatched his hand away from her, and with a glum countenance
entered the dining-room. Walking up to the table he took his seat
eyeing Fanny, who he suspected, judging by himself, had been telling
their grandmamma and mamma what he had done. She, however, had not said
a word about the matter. They were merely looking at him, wondering
what made his countenance so sullen.
"I hope you have had a happy morning, Norman," said his grandmamma, as
she offered him some minced beef.
He made no reply.
"My dear, pray answer your grandmamma," said Mrs Vallery, for she had
been directed never to order Norman to do anything.
Still he did not speak.
"My dear child do let me entreat you to make use of your tongue, your
grandmamma spoke to you and asked if you had had a happy morning."
"I never am happy, and am not likely to be with no one to try and amuse
me," growled out Norman.
"I am sure that your sister wishes to amuse you," observed Mrs Leslie,
"and I shall be very glad to read to you, or to tell you stories such as
I used to tell Fanny, when she was of your age, if you will come and sit
by me and listen."
"She is only a girl, and you are an old woman," muttered Norman
shovelling the mince meat into his mouth. "I want boys to play with
me."
"You will find plenty of boys to play with when you go to school, where
I hope your papa will soon send you," observed Mrs Leslie, "but you
will find that they do not treat you in the gentle way your sister does,
and perhaps you will often wish that you had her again as a playmate."
"We must have another game of battledore and shuttlecock on the lawn
after dinner," said Fanny, "you seem to like that, and on one side it
will be pleasant and shady."
Norman finding that Fanny had not complained of the way he had treated
her garden, became more amiable and agreed to her proposal.
Before going out, however, she persuaded him to sit quiet and listen to
a story, which she told him out of one of her picture-books.
The children were playing on the lawn, when Captain Vallery appeared
followed by a man carrying a large parcel. Norman went on throwing up
the shuttlecock, but Fanny ran to her papa to welcome him with a kiss.
"I have got something for you both, will you like to come in and see the
parcel opened," he said taking it from the man and going into the house.
Hearing his papa's remark Norman followed him and Fanny, eager to learn
what the parcel contained. Captain Vallery had placed it on a chair.
While he was speaking to his wife and Mrs Leslie, Norman ran up to it,
and although he had not even spoken to his papa, began pulling away at
the string.
"Ah, he is a zealous little fellow, he wishes to save me trouble,"
observed Captain Vallery, and Fanny hoped that such was the motive which
prompted Norman, though she wished he had shown greater pleasure at
seeing their papa come back.
Mrs Vallery at her husband's request now opened the parcel, which
Norman notwithstanding his efforts had been unable to do. Among other
articles which he had brought for her and Mrs Leslie, she drew out a
long parcel carefully done up in silver paper.
"This I think must be for Fanny," she said.
Fanny, her countenance beaming with pleasure, carefully unwrapped the
parcel, and exhibited a beautiful doll with a wax head and shoulders and
wax hands looking exactly, she thought, as if they were real flesh.
"Oh, thank you, papa, thank you," she exclaimed running up and kissing
him. "Look granny! look mamma! see what a lovely little girl she is,
with such fair soft hair and such blue bright eyes, she must surely be
able to see out of them."
Mrs Leslie and her mamma admired the doll, which was indeed a very
handsome one, and very superior to poor Nancy.
"There, Norman, you will not be ashamed to walk out with her, I am
sure," she said. "But I hope Nancy will not think that she will make me
forget her, for I should not like to hurt her feelings. What name shall
we give her? for she would not like to be called `The New Doll,' shall
it be Emma or Julia or Lucy? I think Lucy is a very pretty name--shall
she be called Lucy, granny? Norman do you like that name? it sounds so
soft and so nice for a young lady doll as she is."
Norman had been eyeing the doll with no pleasant feelings; he did not
like that his sister should receive a present when he thought that there
was none for him.
"You may call her Lucy, or whatever you fancy," he answered gruffly,
"boys like me do not care for dolls."
"He is a fine, manly, little fellow," observed Captain Vallery. "I have
not forgotten you, though, Norman. Perhaps mamma will find something
more to your taste in that large, round parcel," and Mrs Vallery drew
out the package at which her husband pointed.
"There, Norman, that is the sort of thing a boy likes," said the
Captain, handing it to him.
Norman snatched at it eagerly, and, with the assistance of his papa,
tore off the paper, and found within an enormous football covered with
leather, which he could just manage to grasp with his arms.
"There, you will be able to play with that famously on the lawn," said
Captain Vallery, "and I must come out and join you. I used to be very
fond of football when I was at school, and we must have some fine games
together."
Norman, instead of thanking his papa, hugged the football and made
towards the door, eager to go out on the lawn and kick it about. At the
same time, he looked with a jealous eye at Fanny's beautiful doll, which
she was fondly caressing. Though he had declared that he did not care
for dolls, he could not help thinking it prettier than his own great,
brown ball, and, as he had never been taught to restrain any of the evil
feelings which rose in his heart, he at once began to be jealous of his
sister, because the present she had received was of more value than his.
Still, he thought he should like to have a game with his ball, which,
his papa told him, he was to kick from one end of the lawn to the other.
Getting his hat, therefore, he told Fanny she must leave her doll, and
come and play with him.
Fanny, ever anxious to please her brother, though longing to take Miss
Lucy upstairs and introduce her to Nancy and to her doll's house, at
once consented to go out with him into the garden. Placing her doll,
therefore, carefully in her own little chair, and telling her she must
sit very patiently and be a good girl till she came back, she put on her
hat, which hung up in the hall, and ran out into the garden.
Norman had already put the ball on the grass, and had begun to kick at
it. He kicked and kicked away utterly regardless of his sister, and
when she attempted to join him, he told her to wait till he was tired.
"But papa said you were to kick it from one side, and I was to kick it
from the other," she observed, "so we ought both to play at the same
time."
Norman at last allowed her to kick the ball, and was angry because she
sent it away from him, and he had to run after it before he could get
another kick. Still, Fanny did not remonstrate, and tried to send the
ball so that Norman could easily reach it.
At last Captain Vallery came out.
"I am glad to see you play so nicely together," he said; "pray go on."
"Oh do, papa, take my place," exclaimed Fanny, "it will be much better
fun for Norman, and you will show him how to play."
Captain Vallery accordingly kicked the ball, and sent it flying high up
into the air. Norman shouted with delight.
"That's much better than Fanny can do," he exclaimed, as his papa sent
the ball up several times.
"What makes it fly up like that?"
"My feet, in the first place; but as it is filled with wind, it is very
light, and rises easily," answered the Captain. "You, in time, will be
able to make it fly as high."
"I should like to see the wind in it," said Norman; and his papa laughed
at his remark, which he thought very witty.
They continued playing for some time; Captain Vallery, proud of having a
son to instruct, showing Norman how to kick the ball, and explaining the
way in which real football is played by big boys.
"I wish I was a big boy, and I soon shall be, I hope, for then I shall
have some one else besides a stupid girl to play with," exclaimed
Norman. "I would rather have her than you, though, because you kick the
ball about more than I like, and I want to kick it all by myself."
"You are an independent little fellow," observed his father approvingly,
instead of rebuking him for his rude remark.
Captain Vallery stood by, allowing Norman to kick the ball backwards and
forwards, which he did for some time, declaring on each occasion that if
it reached either one side of the shrubbery or the other he had won the
game--not a very difficult matter, considering that he had no one to
oppose him.
At length, the gong sounding, Captain Vallery went in to dress for
dinner, and Norman was left to play by himself, for, Fanny finding she
was not wanted, had entered the house, and, after exhibiting her doll to
Susan, had gone to her room to introduce Miss Lucy to Nancy and to her
future abode.
Norman soon grew weary of being by himself, and with his big ball in his
arms, wandered into the house. Making his way into the drawing-room, he
there found among a number of Indian curiosities which had just been
unpacked, and which his papa intended to hang up against the wall, a
long knife. Though Norman was very forward in some things, and could
talk better than many boys older than he was, yet he was very ignorant
in others, but of that, like many more ignorant people, he was not
aware. "I should like to see the wind papa told me was inside this big
ball," he said to himself; "perhaps there is something else besides
wind, it feels pretty soft--I daresay I could easily cut it open with
this knife and see." He took the knife and examined it, "I must not do
it here though, or they may be coming downstairs and stop me," so
tucking the knife under one arm, and holding the big ball in the other,
he went along the passage and out at the garden door. He at first
proposed going to the further end of the garden, where he need have no
fear of being interrupted, then he recollected his performance of the
morning, and thought that the gardener might be there, and would scold
him for digging up Fanny's plants, so instead of going there, he made
his way along the side of the house, till he reached another door, which
led to the larder.
"The cook won't be coming in here at this hour, as she is serving up the
dinner, so I shall have the place all to myself!" he observed, thinking
how clever he was.
He accordingly went in and closed the door.
"Now I shall soon find out what is inside my ball," he said chuckling
and placing it on the ground. Putting one foot on it, to hold it
steady, he began cutting away with the huge knife. The part of the
weapon he used was not very sharp, and as the leather yielded, he at
first made no impression; at last he made a dig at the ball with the
point of the knife, which quickly penetrated it, producing a wide gash.
Out rushed the wind faster and faster, as he pressed down his foot, till
the coating of leather and the thin bladder inside had become perfectly
flat. He took it up wondering at the result, and shook it and told it
to get fat again, but all to no purpose. He felt very much inclined to
cry, when somehow or other he discovered, that he had done a very
foolish thing, but he was not accustomed to blame himself.
"Papa ought to have brought me a different sort of ball, which would not
grow thin just because I happen to stick a knife into it," he muttered
to himself.
Again he threw down what had once been a ball, and stamped on it, and
abused it for not doing as he told it. At last he began to think that
the knife, which he supposed was his grandmamma's, might be missed and
that she would scold him for carrying it away. Taking up the leather
therefore, and finding that no one was near, he returned. On his way
seeing a thick bush, he threw the case into it--for he was somewhat
ashamed of letting his father know the folly of which he had been
guilty.
As no one had yet come down, he replaced the knife among the articles
from which he had taken it, and ran up to his room. When he came back
he found Fanny in the drawing-room reading, she told him that their
granny and papa and mamma had gone in to dinner.
"Cannot you do something to amuse me?" he asked.
"Willingly," she answered, putting aside her own book, and she read some
stories to him out of one of the picture-books.
Susan came shortly to call the children to their tea, and they then went
down to dessert in the dining-room.
"Well, my boy, are you inclined to have another game at football before
you go to bed?" asked Captain Vallery.
"No," answered Norman, not liking the question, "I do not want to play
any more to-day."
"I thought you seemed so pleased with your football, that you would
never get tired of it," observed Mrs Vallery.
Norman made no answer.
The ladies rose from the table, and Captain Vallery soon joined them in
the drawing-room, they then strolled out on to the lawn to enjoy the
cool air of that lovely summer evening.
"Go and get your football, Norman," said Captain Vallery, "though you do
not wish to play, I shall enjoy kicking it about to remind me of my
schoolboy days."
Norman did not move.
"Go and get it, my dear, as your papa tells you," said Mrs Leslie,
vexed at her grandson's disobedience.
"I will go and get it--where did you leave it, Norman," said Fanny.
"I do not know," he answered.
"I daresay I shall find it," said Fanny, supposing that her brother had
left it in his room, or else in the hall.
She soon came back saying that she had hunted everywhere, but could not
find it.
"I suppose the somebody who stole my whip, has taken that," growled
Norman.
"My dear, no one in this house would I am sure steal anything," said
Mrs Leslie, "but a friend, who considered that you would make a bad use
of your whip, has undoubtedly put it out of your way. Do not let me
bear you make that remark again."
"There are thieves everywhere," muttered Norman.
At that moment, Trusty was seen coming along one of the walks, dragging
something brown, and tossing it playfully about. On he came till he
reached the lawn.
"Why, Norman, I believe the dog has got your football, though he has
managed to let the wind out of it," exclaimed Captain Vallery.
"Oh, the thief, beat him, papa!" cried Norman.
"Oh, pray not!" exclaimed Fanny, "I am sure Trusty did not intend to
hurt Norman's ball," cried Fanny, running forward and catching Trusty.
"Give it up, sir, give it up, you do not know the mischief you have
done," she added.
"Oh, but he must have stolen it, and see he has made a great hole in it
with his teeth!" exclaimed Norman.
Captain Vallery took up the football and examined it.
"The dog did not do this," he said, pointing to the slit in the leather.
"This was done by a sharp knife; we must not wrongfully accuse the dog,
he must have found it in this condition; somebody else cut the hole."
Norman grew very red; his papa looked at him.
"I suspect somebody wanted to see the wind which I told him was within
it," he observed.
Norman grew redder still.
"I thought so," said Captain Vallery. "Did you cut the hole in your
ball, Norman?" he asked sternly.
"I wanted to see the wind in it," murmured Norman.
Now Captain Vallery, though he held some wrong ideas about education,
was a highly honourable man, and as every honourable man must do, he
hated a falsehood, or any approach to a falsehood. He considered that
what some people call white lies are black notwithstanding, and he knew
in his heart that God hates them.
"Why did you say, then, that the dog had torn your ball, when you knew
that you yourself cut it?" he asked. "I have never before punished you,
but I intend to do so. I will not have a son of mine become a liar."
"My dear," he said, turning to his wife, "take Norman in and put him to
bed. I cannot look at him any more to-night."
Mrs Vallery took Norman by the hand and led him into the house.
Mrs Leslie said nothing, but she was glad to find that her son-in-law
considered it necessary to try and put a stop to one of the bad ways of
his son. Perhaps he might in time find out that there were other bad
ways of his which it would be as well to check.
Captain Vallery walked up and down on the lawn by himself for some time,
considering how he should treat his son, and he began to reflect whether
after all his system of allowing a boy to have his own way was likely to
prove the best.