Chapter 3. Can You Forgive It?

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_ CHAPTER THREE. CAN YOU FORGIVE IT?

Next morning, when Norman came down to breakfast, his papa, instead of playfully addressing him, turned away his head and took no notice of his presence. Norman ate his breakfast in silence. Fanny looked very sad, she felt that her brother deserved punishment, and that it might teach him the necessity of speaking the truth. Still she could not bear the thoughts of her young brother being beaten, and from what her papa had said she believed he intended to do so. Her grandmamma had quoted the proverb of Solomon, "He that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."

"You are right, Mrs Leslie," her papa had remarked, "I acknowledge the wisdom of the great king, and must follow his advice."

After breakfast Fanny's governess arrived, and Captain Vallery took his son up into his room. What happened there Norman did not divulge, but he looked very crestfallen during the rest of the morning. When he met Fanny afterwards he told her that he did not intend to tell any more lies.

"I hope you will not do so," said Fanny, "remember that God hates them even more than papa or anybody else can do, and He knows when you tell an untruth, although no human being may find it out."

After dinner Norman appeared to have recovered his spirits, and Fanny took him out to play battledore and shuttlecock.

They were beginning to get tired, when Mrs Leslie and their mamma came out.

"Come and walk with us, my dears," said Mrs Leslie, "I want to show your mamma the pretty garden you have cultivated so nicely, Fanny."

Fanny would thankfully have prevented them from seeing her garden, for she knew that the way Norman had treated it would be discovered. Still she could not think how to avoid going, and she could only hope that the gardener had put it to rights, as he had promised to do.

Mrs Leslie, wishing to gain her grandson's confidence, called to him, and taking his hand, led him on talking to him kindly; Fanny and her mamma followed at a little distance.

Mrs Vallery interested Fanny by giving her accounts of India, but she was so anxious about her garden and the vexation her granny would feel at seeing it destroyed, that she could not listen as attentively as she otherwise would have done. She saw that Norman was walking on very unwillingly, and from time to time making an effort to escape, but his grandmamma had no intention of letting him go.

At length Mrs Leslie and Norman reached Fanny's garden.

"Why, my dear, what changes you have made!" she exclaimed, "and I see you have dug up nearly half of it."

Fanny ran forward. The gardener had begun to set it to rights, but had evidently been prevented from finishing the work. The two spades were stuck in the ground where Fanny and Norman had left them.

Fanny said nothing, she hoped that her brother would manfully confess what he had done, that she might then be better able to plead for him. Instead of doing so he snatched his hand away from that of his grandmamma and ran off along the walk. Fanny had then most reluctantly to confess that her brother had dug up her garden.

"Do not be angry with him, granny," she said, "he is very very young, and he thought I had ill-treated him by not making his garden as nice as mine was. He did not understand that I fancied he would like to arrange it himself, but John has promised to put it in order, and I hope to-morrow that mine will be as nice as ever, and that Norman's will be like it, so pray say no more to him about it."

"I will do as you wish, Fanny," answered Mrs Leslie, "but I cannot allow your brother, young as he is, to behave in the same way again."

Mrs Vallery was greatly grieved at discovering what Norman had done, at the same time she was much pleased to hear the way Fanny pleaded for her young brother, and she could not resist stooping down and kissing her again and again while the tears came into her eyes.

"O mother! you have indeed made her all I can wish," she said, turning to Mrs Leslie.

"Not I, my dear Mary, I did but what God tells us to do in His Word; I corrected her faults as I discovered them, and have ever sought guidance from Him. But His Holy Spirit has done the work which no human person could accomplish."

Norman, conscience-stricken, had hidden himself in the shrubbery. The rest of the party supposing that he had run into the house, continued their walk, and after taking a few turns in the shady avenue they went in-doors.

Mrs Norton, Fanny's governess, having just then arrived she set to work on her lessons, while her mamma and Mrs Leslie went to the drawing-room.

"I am afraid, mamma, that you must think Norman a very naughty boy," said Mrs Vallery, "I have spoken to him very often about his conduct, and as yet I see no improvement."

"I have hopes that he will at all events learn that he must not tell stories," observed Mrs Leslie, "and if your husband takes the same means that he did this morning to teach him what is wrong he will by degrees learn what he must not do. It is far more difficult to teach a child what it ought to do, though I trust the good example set by our dear Fanny will have its due effect, while we must continue to pray without ceasing that the heart of your child may be changed."

"I fear he has a very bad heart now," sighed Mrs Vallery, "I am always in dread that he should do something wrong."

"All children have bad seeds in their hearts, and it is our duty by constant and careful weeding to root them out, and to impress also on the child from its earliest days the necessity of endeavouring to do so likewise. The child is not excused as it gains strength and knowledge if it does not perform its own part in the work," observed Mrs Leslie. "We justly believe our Fanny to be sweet and charming, but she is well aware of this, and is ever on the watch to overcome the evil she discovers within herself. Depend upon it, did she not do so she would not be the delightful creature we think her."

"Could Fanny possibly have been otherwise than delightful?" said Mrs Vallery.

"Not only possibly, but very probably so, although we, blinded by our love might have overlooked the faults of which she would certainly have been guilty," answered Mrs Leslie. "One of the chief lessons we should endeavour to impress on young people is the importance of keeping a strict watch over their mind and temper, of putting away every bad thought the instant it comes into the mind, and to suppress at once the rising of bad temper, envy, hatred, and all other evil feelings, while we teach them that Satan, like a roaring lion, is always going about seeking whom he may devour, although the aid of the Holy Spirit will never be sought in vain to drive him away."

While this conversation was going on between his grandmamma and mamma in the drawing-room Norman remained in the shrubbery. He was afraid to come out, supposing that his mamma was looking for him, and that he would be punished for destroying his sister's garden, as he had been in the morning for telling a falsehood. Growing weary he at length crept out, and hearing and seeing no one, thought he might venture into the open garden. He soon became tired of being by himself, and wished that Fanny would come out and play with him, then he felt angry with her because she did not, though he well knew that she was attending to her lessons.

At last as he wandered about his eyes fell on the covering of his football.

"That's what my fine present has come to," he muttered, "and she has got a beautiful doll all to herself; I do not see why she should be better off than I am. I wonder if anybody could make my ball round again."

He took it up.

"Perhaps the cook or John can."

He carried the leathern case in to the cook.

"Make your ball round again Master Norman!" she exclaimed, "it would be a hard job to do that, with the big slit which I see in it. You must get a fresh bladder of the proper size, and then perhaps we may be able to mend the leather case."

"Can you get me a bladder?" asked Norman.

"A bladder costs money! You must ask your papa to get one for you," answered the cook, who was not particularly willing to oblige him for the way he had treated his sister, and Susan had prevented him from gaining the goodwill of the servants.

"But I say you must get me a bladder," exclaimed Norman, "what are you? you are only a servant. I will make you do what I want."

"I tell you what young gentleman, I will pin a dish-cloth to your back, and send you out of the kitchen, if you speak to me in that way. I am busy now in preparing your grandmamma's luncheon, and I cannot attend to you."

Norman after walking about looked very angry for some minutes. Seeing, however, the cook take up a dirty cloth and draw a pin from her dress, he thought it wiser to walk off, and made his way back into the garden.

"I do not see why Fanny should have a beautiful doll and I only a stupid bit of leather," he muttered to himself. "If I can get hold of that doll of hers, I know what I will do to it, and then she won't be a bit better off than I am."

Instead of attempting to overcome the spirit of envy, which sprung up in his heart, he went on muttering to himself that he would soon spoil Miss Lucy's beauty.

He had not improved in temper, when he was summoned in to dinner.

Neither Mrs Leslie nor his mamma said anything about Fanny's garden, and he himself was not inclined to introduce the subject. His grandmamma did not speak to him, for she was anxious if possible to make him ashamed of his conduct. Discerning as she was, she was little aware of the obstinacy of his disposition, and that all he cared for, was to avoid punishment.

Fanny had talked to him and tried to amuse him after dinner; as it was still too hot to go out, she invited him to come into the drawing-room, and listen to a pretty story she would read to him out of a book.

After she had read a little time, her grandmamma invited her to sit by her side, that she might go on with some work that she was teaching her to do.

"Come with me, Norman," said Fanny, jumping up immediately, "granny will let you sit near me on a footstool, and if you hold the book, I can tell you some of the stories by merely looking at the pictures."

Norman, who liked having stories told to him, made no objection, and sat down quietly on a footstool near Fanny.

"I think Norman, you should now tell Fanny something about India," said Mrs Leslie, after Fanny had told him several stories.

"It's a finer country than this, and people do as they are told, that's one thing I know about it," observed Norman. "A very good thing too," said Mrs Leslie, "I always like little boys and girls to do as they are told."

"But big people do as they are told, our _kitmutgars_ and _chaprassey_ ran off as quick as lightning to do anything I told them, and if not I kicked them."

"I hope that you will not do so to any one in England, my dear," said Mrs Leslie.

"I am sorry to say that Norman did sometimes attempt to do as he tells you," observed Mrs Vallery. "The people he speaks of were our servants. A _kitmutgar_ is a man who waits at table, and a _chaprassey_ is another servant, whose duty it is to run on messages, to attend on ladies when they go out, and to perform the general duties of a footman, though he does not wait at table. You must know, Fanny, in India each person has especial duties, and he considers it degrading to perform any others.

"A groom is called a _syce_, but he will not cut the grass for his own horse, and requires another man to do so. The head servant, who performs the duty of butler, and purchases all the food for the family, is called a _rhansaman_.

"A great deal of water is required in the hot weather for bathing and wetting the tatties, and one man is employed in bringing it up from the river to the bungalow in which we lived--he is called a _chestie_. A different man, however, called an _aubdar_, takes care that proper drinking water is supplied--we generally used rain water, which was collected in large sheets stretched out between four poles in the rainy season, and drained into earthen jars, where it keeps cool and sweet.

"None of those I have mentioned would clean the rooms, and, therefore, another man a _mehter_ or sweeper was employed. Our clothes were washed by a man called a _dhobie_; he used to come with his donkey, and carry them off to the river, where he beat them with a flat stick on a wooden slab over and over again till they were clean, and then dried them in the sun.

"When any out-door work was to be done, we hired labourers of the lowest caste, who were called _coolies_. Then we had a tailor, who made all my clothes as well as Norman's and his papa's, and he is called a _durize_. We had six bearers, who were employed to carry our palanquin, when we went out, and they also had to keep the punkahs at work, besides having other things to do."

"What a household," exclaimed Mrs Leslie, "I am glad we have not so many servants to attend to in England. Where did they all live?"

"Some slept rolled up in their sheets on mats in the verandah in front of the bungalow, others in huts by themselves."

"Had you no maid-servants?" asked Fanny.

"Only one, called an _ayah_, who acted as my lady's maid, and took care of Norman, but had nothing else to do," answered Mrs Vallery.

"Mamma, what are punkahs and tatties?" inquired Fanny, "I did not like to interrupt you when you spoke of them."

"The punkah is something like an enormous fan suspended to the roof, and when a breeze is required, it is drawn backwards and forwards with ropes by the bearers. Sometimes in hot weather it is kept going day and night, indeed without it at times we should scarcely have been able to bear the heat, or go to sleep at night. The tatties are mats made of a sweet-smelling grass, which are hung up on the side from which the hot wind comes, and being kept constantly wet by the _chesties_, the air passing through them is cooled by the evaporation which takes place."

"I suppose you must have lived in a very large house, as you had so many servants to attend on you," observed Fanny.

"When we were at a station up the country, we resided in a bungalow, which was a cottage, with all the rooms on the ground floor, in the centre of an enclosure called a compound. It was covered with a sloping thickly-thatched roof, to keep out the rays of the sun. In the centre was a large hall which was our sitting-room, with doors opening all round it into the bedrooms, and outside them was a broad verandah. I spoke of doors, but I should rather have called them door-ways with curtains to them, thus the air set moving by the punkahs could circulate through the house, while the sun could not penetrate into the inner room, it was therefore kept tolerably cool."

"I think we are better off in England, where even in the hottest weather we can keep cool without so much trouble being taken," observed Fanny. "How I pity the poor men who are obliged to work at the punkahs."

"They are accustomed to the heat, and it is their business," observed Mrs Vallery; "they would not have thanked us had we dismissed them, and told them that for their sakes we were ready to bear the hot stifling atmosphere, or to refrain from going out in our palanquins."

"What are palanquins, mamma?" asked Fanny.

"A palanquin may be described as a litter or sofa without legs, and with a roof over it, carried by means of long poles, one on each side, the ends resting on the shoulders of the bearers. A person travelling in one can recline at full length, and sleep comfortably during a long journey. When travelling by post, or _dak_, as it is called, fresh bearers are found ready at each stage, just as post-horses are in England.

"When we went out to pay visits for a short distance only we used a _tanjahn_, in which a person, instead of reclining, sits upright. It is somewhat like an English sedan-chair. We, however, at most of the stations where the roads were good, used open carriages sent out from England.

"Your papa used occasionally, also, to go out hunting tigers on the back of an elephant. He did not, however, bestride it as he would a horse, but sat with one or two other persons in a sort of box, called a _howdah_, fastened on the animal's back. The huge creature was guided by a man called a _mahout_, seated on its neck, with a sharp-pointed stick in his hand. To get into the _howdah_ a ladder is placed against the animal's side, which stands perfectly quiet, till ordered by the _mahout_ to move on.

"I have on several occasions travelled on the back of an elephant in a much larger _howdah_ than is used for hunting, when I had a _chattah_ or umbrella held over my head."

"But do the huge elephants gallop after the tigers?" asked Fanny.

"I should think not," observed Norman, now speaking for the first time. "Papa used to carry a gun, and beaters and dogs went into the jungle to drive out the tigers, and then he used to shoot them. He has often told me about it, and promised to take me when I am big enough. I should like to shoot a tiger."

"You would not like to see a tiger spring up at the _howdah_, and try to drag you out of it, as happened when your papa was out shooting one day, and the poor _mahout_ was so dreadfully torn that he died?" observed Mrs Vallery. "Tiger shooting is a _very_ dangerous amusement, and I was always anxious till your papa came back safe. It was no amusement to me in the meantime."

"Women are silly things, and are always being afraid," said Norman, with an impudent look.

"That was not a proper remark, Norman, and it was especially rude in you to make it in our presence," observed Mrs Leslie.

"When I am big I intend to go out tiger shooting, and if other people are afraid, I shall not be," persisted Norman.

His grandmamma made no further remark, but she cast a look of pity at the boy.

"But are not the elephants frightened, mamma, when they see the tigers?" asked Fanny, anxious to draw off attention from her brother.

"They are wise creatures, and seem to know that their riders have the means of defending them, so that they very seldom run away," answered Mrs Vallery, "occasionally they take flight. Nothing can be more uncomfortable than having to sit on the back of an elephant under such circumstances. The creature sticks out its trunk and screams as it rushes onward, trampling down everything in its way. Should it pass under trees, it happens occasionally that a branch sweeps its riders with their _howdah_ from its back. Elephants are, however, generally so well-trained, that I never felt any fear when seated on the back of one. They are, indeed, wonderfully sensible creatures, and can be taught to do anything. They sometimes convey luggage and even light guns over rough country, which wheels cannot traverse. With their trunks they lift up enormous logs of wood, and place them exactly as directed when roads are being formed, and they will even build up piles of logs, placing each with the greatest exactness. I have heard of elephants taking up children in their trunks and playing with them, and putting them down again, without doing them the slightest injury. They can, as the natives say, do everything but talk, indeed they seem to understand what is said to them, and I have seen a _mahout_ whisper in his elephant's ear, when the creature immediately obeyed him, though he possibly may have used some other sign which I did not observe."

"I should like to travel on the back of one of the well-trained elephants you speak of, mamma, because I could then look about and see the country, though I think that I should at first be somewhat afraid until I got accustomed to it," remarked Fanny.

"You may be able to try how you like riding on the back of one of them at the Zoological Gardens, where perhaps your papa will take you some day," said Mrs Leslie, "it is among the places I thought you would like to see, and I told him that I was sure you would be very much interested in going there?"

"I will go too, and take care of you," said Norman, with a patronising air, "I have ridden on an elephant in India, and if there are any tigers we will shoot them."

"There are several tigers in the Zoological Gardens, but the owners would object to your shooting them, Norman," observed Mrs Leslie. "They are safely shut up in cages."

"I suppose the people are afraid of them," said Norman, "I am not afraid of tigers, and when I go back to India I intend to shoot a great many."

"You should not boast so much, Norman," observed his mamma. "Do you not remember how frightened you were at the tame leopard which our friend Mr James kept in his bungalow, and how, when you first saw the animal, you screamed out and came running to me for protection. I was not surprised, for had its master not been with us I should have been frightened too. But I do not like to hear you boast of your valour, especially when I cannot recollect any occasion on which you have exhibited it."

Norman held his tongue, and soon after this Captain Vallery returned from London.

Norman ran to him eagerly, expecting that he had a fresh football, or some other toy, but his papa had been too much ashamed of him to think of doing so, and Norman went out of the room grumbling at the neglect with which he was treated.

"He cares for Fanny more than me," he muttered; "I daresay he has brought her something, but I am not going to let her boast of her beautiful doll, while I have got nothing to play with."

Fanny did not dream that Norman would ever think of doing any harm to her doll, although every day after she had been playing with it, as it was too large to go into her doll's house, she either put it away carefully in a drawer, or carried it into granny's room. Norman therefore, though he looked about for Miss Lucy, could never find her.

Norman was much older than many boys, who can read well, and Mrs Leslie strongly advised Captain Vallery to have him instructed.

"He will learn in good time, and I do not like to run the risk of breaking his spirits by beginning too early," answered Captain Vallery.

"But unless he begins to learn I do not see how he will ever be able to read, and until he does so, he cannot amuse himself, but must always be dependent upon others," answered his grandmamma. "I will take him in hand, and when I am unable to teach him I daresay Mrs Norton will do so."

Captain Vallery at last consented that Norman should begin learning.

Mrs Leslie found him a very refractory pupil, for although he evidently could learn, he would not attend to what she told him, and she was therefore glad to give him over to Mrs Norton. That lady had no idea of allowing a little boy to have his own way, so she kept Master Norman every morning close by her side till he had finished the task she set him. In a few days he knew all the letters, and could soon read short words without difficulty. He however did not feel at all as grateful as he ought to have done, for the instruction given him, and gladly escaped from the schoolroom when Mrs Norton devoted her attention to Fanny.

One day his grandmamma had driven out with his papa and mamma, to call on some friends, when Norman having finished his lessons, Mrs Norton said to him, "You may go out and play on the lawn for an hour, till I call you in again."

Norman ran off, well pleased to be at liberty, but not knowing exactly what to do with himself.

"If I had my football I might kick it about, and have some fun," he thought, "no one has taken the trouble to mend it. I should think Fanny, who is so nimble with her fingers as granny says, might have done so. I must have a game at battledore and shuttlecock, I can play that alone."

He went into the drawing-room to get one of the battledores, which were kept in an Indian cabinet. No sooner had he opened the door than his eye fell on Miss Lucy, seated in a large arm-chair, where Fanny, who had brought her down to try on a new frock which her mamma had made, had incautiously left her.

"You are there, are you!" said Norman, slowly approaching, "you look as if you were laughing at me. I should like to know what business Fanny has with you, when I have not my football to play with."

He stopped for a minute or more, looking at the doll with his fists clenched; and instead of trying to drive away the evil thought which had entered his mind, took a pleasure in encouraging it. Still, he did not touch the doll. "I will carry you out, and hide you in a bush, where Fanny cannot find you," he muttered.

Then he thought that he must take out a battledore and shuttlecock and play with it, or what he proposed doing would be suspected. He went to the cabinet, and opening it, there he saw on an upper shelf the very knife with which he had made the hole in his football.

A dreadful idea seized him, he took the knife and advanced with it towards poor Miss Lucy. Dragging her from the chair, he threw her on the ground and began to cut away at her wax neck with his knife. As the chief part of the edge was blunted, he did not at first make much impression; but, drawing it rapidly backwards till the sharp part towards the point reached the doll's neck, in one instant off rolled the head. Others who do wicked deeds often injure themselves, so Norman, whose finger was under the point cut a deep gash in it. As he felt the pain, and saw the blood spurting forth, he jumped up, crying lustily for some one to come and help him, utterly regardless of the mischief he had done.

He gazed at his finger, and thought that all the blood in his body would run out.

"Oh, what shall I do? what shall I do?" he screamed out. "Is nobody coming to help me?" Then he looked at the doll.

"It was all your fault, you nasty thing," he exclaimed kicking the doll's body away from its head, "I wish that I had let you alone. What business had Fanny to leave you in the chair, looking so impudently at me, and if you had your head on, you would be laughing at me still?" then he again looked at his finger, which smarted very much, and as he saw the blood dropping down on the carpet, he bawled louder than ever.

Fanny, during a pause in her reading, heard him. "What can be the matter with Norman?" she exclaimed, "may I run down and see?"

"Yes, my dear, and call me if he has really hurt himself," said Mrs Norton, "but from the way in which he is crying, I do not think there is anything very serious."

Fanny ran downstairs. She entered the drawing-room. For a moment, she stood aghast, as the first object which met her sight, was her dear, pretty Miss Lucy's head, lying some way apart from her body, with a huge knife near it, and Norman standing not far off.

Fanny, as we have seen was a very sweet amiable girl, but, she had a spirit and a temper, though she generally restrained the latter, when inclined to give way to it. She saw at once that the cruel deed, had been done by Norman, and her heart swelling with indignation, she rushed forward, and gave him a box on the ear. She then threw herself down by the side of her doll, and burst into tears. Then picking it up, she endeavoured to fit on the head.

The unexpected blow, from his usually gentle sister, so astonished Norman, that for a moment he ceased his shrieks.

"You naughty, naughty, boy," I wish papa had whipped you twice as much as he did, and I hope, he may whip you again, she exclaimed, rising, and about to give him another slap, but just then, her eye fell on his bleeding hand, and he recommenced his shrieks and cries. She stopped, looking at him with alarm.

"Oh, what is the matter? oh, what is the matter?" she cried out.

"Send for the doctor, send for the doctor," shrieked Norman.

"Come with me to Mrs Norton, she will know what to do," said Fanny, wrapping his hand up in her handkerchief. "Mamma and granny are out, or they would attend to you."

"No, no, no, I must have a doctor, I shall die, I know I shall," cried Norman again and again.

Fanny cast a piteous glance at poor Miss Lucy which she had let fall, and though feeling sure that Norman had cut off her head, she was so much alarmed about him, that without stopping to ask him, with her young heart full of sorrow, she led him up to Mrs Norton. She hoped he had done it by accident, or in play, for she would not allow herself to suppose, that he had been prompted by a spirit of envy and jealousy. Believing too, that he was severely injured, she felt sorry she had lost her temper, and struck him.

"Let me look at your finger, young gentleman," said Mrs Norton, examining his hand. "Is this a cut to make so much fuss about? Go into your room, and a little water and sticking plaster will soon set it all to rights."

Mrs Norton having bound up Norman's finger, asked Fanny how it had happened. Fanny, instead of replying, burst into tears.

"Oh, do not ask me, do not ask me," she said at length. "I am sure he could not have intended to hurt Miss Lucy, but, O Mrs Norton, he has cut off her head, and I, when I saw what he had done, boxed his ears. I am so very sorry, but I did not see how much he had hurt himself."

Mrs Norton gave a look at Norman, which ought to have made him ashamed of what he had done.

His answer betrayed the evil spirit which had prompted him to do the deed.

"You should not have had a pretty doll to play with, while I have only an empty football," he said, in the growling muttering way in which he too often spoke.

"Sit down there, your heart must be a very bad one, to let you indulge in such a feeling," said Mrs Norton, placing Norman in the large chair, which stood in his room.

Taking Fanny's hand, she led her downstairs. At first, Mrs Norton said she should leave the doll and knife on the ground to show Mrs Leslie and her mamma how he had behaved, but Fanny entreated her not to do so, and putting the knife back into the cabinet, she took up her doll, over which her tears fell fast, while she tried to replace its head.

"We will try and mend the doll, Fanny," said Mrs Norton, "but I am afraid an ugly mark must always remain, and though we may succeed in putting on its head, nothing can excuse your brother's behaviour."

"Oh, but he is very young, pleaded Fanny," and it will make granny and mamma, and I am afraid papa also so angry with him, but pray, do not tell them if you can help it. And I ought to have remembered what a little boy he is--and I should not have lost my temper and hit him--it was very naughty in me. "Oh dear, oh dear, how sorry I am," and Fanny again, gave way to her tears.

Mrs Norton acknowledged that Fanny should not have lost her temper, at the same time she tried to comfort her.

Mrs Norton then told Fanny, that she would take the doll home to try and fix on its head.

"I shall be so much obliged to you, though I do not deserve it," said Fanny.

"I am glad that you do not feel angry with your little brother, naughty as he has been. It is a blessed thing to forgive an injury, and we are following our Lord and Master's precept in doing so."

"I am sure that I should be doing what is very wrong, if I did not forgive him," answered Fanny, "because I pray to be forgiven as I forgive others, and as he has hurt himself so much, I hope no one else will be angry with him."

"I trust that the way he has hurt himself will be a lesson to him," said Mrs Norton, as having wrapped up the doll in her shawl, she accompanied her pupil back to the schoolroom. She allowed Norman to remain sitting in the chair by himself, but before she left the house, she begged Susan to go and attend to him.

As soon as Fanny saw her granny and mamma returning from their drive, she ran down to meet them.

"Norman has cut his finger," she said, "but Mrs Norton does not think it is very bad, and I want you not to ask me how he did it; pray do this, I shall be so much happier, if you will."

They said "yes."

"Thank you, dear granny; thank you, mamma," exclaimed Fanny, kissing them both.

I think Fanny Vallery had pleasanter dreams than her brother Norman that night. _

Read next: Chapter 4. Hard To Endure

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