cted little orphan, and that she came
begging at the door one day, and as she had no one to look after her, I
took her in, and that is the reason she has so many knocks and bruises."

Fanny, as she spoke, drew out a small doll, dressed in a cotton frock,
from the doll's house, and held it up to Norman.

"It does look just like a wretched beggar child," he observed; "I wonder
you can care for such a thing. If I were you I should throw it out of
the window, and tell papa he must get another much prettier, dressed
like a fine lady, who would be fit to walk out with you, and you need
not be ashamed of, as I should think you must be of Nancy, as you call
her."

"Oh, but I love Nancy very much," said Fanny; "she and I have known each
other very many years, and I would not throw her away on any account.
If I ever get a finer doll, I can let Nancy attend on her, I am sure she
will be very glad to do that, for she is not a bit proud, and wishes, I
am sure, to be a good girl and please everybody."

"You may think more of her than I do," remarked Norman, "and now, as I
am not a baby, and do not care about dolls, won't you show me some of
the other things you talk of?"

"Oh yes!" said Fanny, "I will take you to my poultry-yard, but I must
carry Nancy with me as she has not been out all day, and she will like
to see me feed my hens. They are all very fond of me, and I hope they
will learn to know you, Norman, too, and come when you call them, and
eat out of your hand, as they do out of mine, especially Thisbe, who is
the tamest of all, and the fondest of me."

"I do not know that I care about cocks and hens and those sort of
creatures, but I will go with you," answered Norman, tucking his whip
under his arm and accompanying Fanny.

"O Miss Fanny," said Susan, whom they met on the way with a china vase
in her hand, "your grandmamma says that your papa is fond of flowers,
and that we ought to have put some on the mantelpiece of his
dressing-room. Will you come and help me to pick them, and will you
arrange them, as you can do so beautifully?"

Fanny gladly undertook to do as Susan asked her, and told Norman that
after she had picked the flowers she would take him into the
poultry-yard. Putting down her doll with her back against a clump of
box, she, with a smile at her own conceit, begged him while she was
engaged to try and amuse Nancy by telling her something about India or
his voyage home. "Stuff!" he replied in a gru