Norman seemed determined to make her angry, for after they had gone a little way he again hit her with the end of his stick. Suddenly turning round, she snatched it from him, and, breaking it in two, threw it to a distance. Norman was afraid of getting out, lest his sister should run off with the carriage, and as she could not now be struck, she dragged it home as fast as she could go. Mr Maclean seemed somewhat surprised to see his young friends return so soon. Norman lost his excursion, and Fanny, in her kindness, thinking that he was sufficiently punished, did not say how he had treated her. CHAPTER FIVE. IN THE HIGHLANDS. "I hope you had a pleasant excursion, my dears, on the moor," said Mrs Maclean, when they entered the house. "Oh, we had very good fun, and we should have had more if Fanny would have gone farther," answered Norman. "She cannot stand jokes, and because I just touched her with my stick she would not go on." Fanny cast a reproachful glance at Norman. She had determined not to complain of him, and now he was trying to make it appear that he had come back through her want of temper. This was very hard indeed to bear, but she did not attempt to defend herself, for she knew that her granny would be aware of the truth, and that satisfied her, and she was unwilling to make her little brother appear to disadvantage in the eyes of their hostess. "I shall be very happy to take Norman out again whenever he likes, and I hope that I shall be able to draw him farther than I did to-day," she said quietly. Mrs Maclean was a very kind lady, an old friend of their granny's, and Fanny thought her very like her; she had the same quiet, but yet firm, manner, and she seemed to take an interest in what she and Norman said and did, and to be anxious to amuse them. Mr Maclean was a Highland gentleman who preferred spending his days among his native moors and heathery hills, to living in a town and mixing in the world. Norman whispered to Fanny that he thought he was an old farmer, when he first saw him in his tartan shooting-coat and trowsers, with a bonnet on his head, a plaid over his shoulders, and a thick stick in his hand. Old as he was, however, he could walk many a mile over those heathery hills he loved so well, and not only Norman, but Norman's papa, might have had some difficulty in keeping up with him. He was as kind as Mrs Maclean, and soon took a great fancy to Fanny; Norman discovered that, somehow or other, he did not stand so well in his opinion. The laird, as he was called, now entered the room--"Well, young people, you took but a short excursion to-day," he observed; "perhaps, Mistress Fanny, you found the carriage rather heavy to drag, and if you have a fancy for a row on the loch, as I am going down after luncheon to try and catch a few trout for dinner, I shall be glad to take you with me." "Oh, thank you, Mr Maclean, I should so like to go," answered Fanny. "May we, mamma? may we, granny?"