ing my face," answered the
ungrateful little boy.

"Oh, how can you say that, Norman?" exclaimed Fanny, ready to burst into
tears at the unfeeling observation. "I would have told mamma that I
slapped you, but then I knew that that would have shown what you had
done; but I did tell Mrs Norton, and she said I was wrong, and I knew I
was, and I want you to forgive me for that."

"I do not know what you mean by `forgive,'" said Norman.

"That you do not feel angry or vexed, or wish to slap my face, or do me
any harm, and that you love me as much as you did before, and will try
to forget all about it," answered Fanny. "That is what I think is the
meaning of forgiving, and that is what I know I ought to do about the
way you treated Miss Lucy. I wish there would not be the ugly mark on
her neck, which I am afraid she always will have, even when Mrs Norton
gets her head put on, as she has promised to do; but I must try and make
her a high frock with a frill, which will come under her chin, and hide
it, and then I shall not see the mark, and so I hope I shall soon forget
what you did to her."

Norman opened his large eyes, and fixed them on his sister.

"I think I know better than I did before what to forgive means," he
observed; "I wish, Fanny, I was more like you."

Just then Susan, who had been looking for the children to get them ready
for tea, came in, and led off Norman. Unfortunately she had discovered
how he had treated Miss Lucy, and she thought fit to give him another
scolding. This made him angry, and he entirely forgot all that Fanny in
her gentle way had told him about forgiveness. Once more he hardened
his heart and thought that now he was equal with Fanny, as he had lost
his football, and her doll had lost its head.

Captain Vallery returned home later than usual. Norman, who heard his
ring at the door, ran down to meet him, and was much disappointed to
find that he had not brought a new football.

"I thought, papa, that you would have remembered that my football is
spoilt," he exclaimed, "and would have brought another."

"But who spoilt it, let me ask?" said Captain Vallery. "As you spoilt
the football, you should be the person to mend it, and you should not
expect me to bring you a new one."

"But I cannot mend it, papa," said Norman.

"People often find that they cannot remedy the harm they have done,"
observed his papa.

Norman, who was afraid that his papa might hear of the way he had