Norman Vallery Part 6

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 G.o.d 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.

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. f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y'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 f.a.n.n.y afterwards he told her that he did not intend to tell any more lies.

"I hope you will not do so," said f.a.n.n.y, "remember that G.o.d 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 f.a.n.n.y took him out to play battledore and shuttlec.o.c.k.

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

f.a.n.n.y 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; f.a.n.n.y and her mamma followed at a little distance.

Mrs Vallery interested f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y's garden.

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

f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y and Norman had left them.

f.a.n.n.y 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 s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand away from that of his grandmamma and ran off along the walk. f.a.n.n.y 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, f.a.n.n.y," 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 f.a.n.n.y 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 G.o.d 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, f.a.n.n.y'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 f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y 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 f.a.n.n.y 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."