o forgive him all the harm he had done. He awoke much refreshed
and happier than he had been for a long time.

"Here is papa! here is Captain Vallery!" he heard several voices
exclaim.

Directly afterwards Captain Vallery entered the drawing-room with his
mamma and Fanny who had run out to meet him. Norman jumped up from the
sofa.

"Why, my dear boy, you look rosy and well and fat, as if the Highland
air agreed with you," said his papa, stooping down and kissing him.
"Why mamma, how grown he is. You will soon be a big boy, and able to
play at cricket and football, and fish and shoot."

"I can answer for it that he will soon be able to fish if he follows my
directions," observed the laird. "He already has some notion of
throwing a fly, and I hope in the course of a year or two that he will
turn out a good fisher."

"I hope he will turn out a good boy," observed Mrs Leslie, "for that is
of more consequence, and I trust that he will become some day all we can
desire."

"No fear of that, granny, I hope," observed Captain Vallery; "Norman is
my son, and I intend that my son shall become a first-rate fellow."

Norman felt proud of hearing his father speak of him in that way. At
the same time he was afraid that somehow or other he might hear of his
misdeeds, and be inclined to change his opinion. If his grandmamma and
Fanny did not say what he had done, his mamma might, or Mrs Maclean, or
the laird, or perhaps some of the servants, for he had never taken any
pains to ingratiate himself with them.

This prevented him from feeling as happy as he otherwise might have
been.

The laird insisted that the children should come down to dessert.

In consequence of their papa's arrival, dinner was much later than
usual.

Fanny would only accept a little fruit and a small cake, but Norman, who
was hungry, and liked good things, eagerly gobbled up as many cakes and
as much fruit as the laird, near whom he sat, offered him. When he had
finished, without asking anybody's leave, he put out his hand and helped
himself to a peach which was in a plate temptingly near. Having
finished it, he looked towards the dish of cakes which was at a little
distance.

"I should like some of those, now," he said, pointing at them.

"Ye are a braw laddie, ye tak' your meat," observed the laird. "Pray,
Mrs Vallery, hand me the cakes."

His mamma made signs to Norman that he should not have asked for them,
but he did not attend to her