Norman Vallery Part 8

"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 f.a.n.n.y 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."

f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y.

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 f.a.n.n.y, who is so nimble with her fingers as granny says, might have done so. I must have a game at battledore and shuttlec.o.c.k, 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 f.a.n.n.y, 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 f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y cannot find you," he muttered.

Then he thought that he must take out a battledore and shuttlec.o.c.k 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 l.u.s.tily 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 n.o.body 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 f.a.n.n.y 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.

f.a.n.n.y, 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."

f.a.n.n.y 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.

f.a.n.n.y, 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 f.a.n.n.y, 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.

f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y how it had happened. f.a.n.n.y, 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 f.a.n.n.y'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 f.a.n.n.y 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, f.a.n.n.y," 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 f.a.n.n.y," 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 f.a.n.n.y again, gave way to her tears.

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

Mrs Norton then told f.a.n.n.y, 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 f.a.n.n.y.

"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 f.a.n.n.y, "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 f.a.n.n.y saw her granny and mamma returning from their drive, she ran down to meet them.