Norman Vallery; or, How to Overcome Evil with GoodKingston, William Henry Giles
General
Norman Vallery; or, How to Overcome Evil with Good
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Siblings -- Juvenile fiction
They had another game in the afternoon, though Fanny could with
difficulty play.
When she was putting on her frock in the evening to go down to dessert,
Susan observed that her shoulder was very black.
"What have you done to your shoulder, Miss Fanny?" she asked; "I must
put something to it."
Fanny had to confess that Norman had thrown the bat at her, but begged
Susan not to scold him.
"I cannot promise, Miss, not to do that," she answered, "I am so angry
with him. He is a regular little tyrant. Trusty knows it, if nobody
else does, for, from the day the young gentleman came into the house he
has kept away from him, and I think he ought to be whipped for many
other things besides telling stories."
Fanny again pleaded in her usual way for her young brother, though she
could not help confessing to herself that Susan was right.
At dessert Fanny sat next to her grandmamma, but her hurt shoulder was
turned away from her and was towards Norman, who saw the black mark and
remembering how it must have been caused, was in a great fright all the
time he was eating the dish of strawberries his papa gave him, lest some
one else would discover it. It might possibly have prevented him from
enjoying his dessert as much as he otherwise would have done. Their
mamma was sitting opposite, and saw the mark, but thought it was a
shadow cast on Fanny's shoulder, and thus no one said anything on the
subject.
Norman congratulated himself when he and Fanny went up to bed, that his
violent act had escaped detection. Susan, however, who had undertaken
to put him to bed, asked him how he had dared to strike his sister in
the way he had done.
"I did not strike her, she held my arms and pinched me too much for
that."
"What do you call throwing a bat at her and hitting her with it, then?"
asked Susan.
"If you ask me questions I will strike you, you tiresome thing,"
exclaimed Norman, tearing off his clothes as fast as he could, in the
hopes of getting Susan quickly out of the room.
"You had better not, young gentleman," said Susan; "your grandmamma does
not allow anybody to be struck in this house, and I should hold you a
good deal tighter than your sister did."
Norman never dared to answer Susan when she spoke in that tone of voice,
and so he held his tongue till she had washed him and put him into bed,
when his mamma came upstairs to hear him say his prayers. I am afraid
that Norman merely uttered the words, for his heart was certainly not
right towards God, nor did he even feel sorry for what he had done.
The next day, when Mrs Norton arrived, Norman saw that she had
something wrapped up in her shawl. As she unfolded it, there was Miss
Lucy, with a high dress, and frill round her neck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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