, went into Fanny's bed-chamber.
There on the bed lay Miss Lucy. Taking her up he silently came
downstairs, and made his way by the back door into the garden, hoping
that no one observed him.

"I will pay Fanny off for laughing at me," he muttered, as he ran
quickly, with Lucy in his arms, towards the plot of ground at the
farthest end, near Fanny's garden which had remained uncultivated. He
had left Fanny's spade there the day before. Picking it up and hiding
the doll in the shrubbery, he began digging away in the soft ground till
he had made a large and deep hole. Not caring how much the earth would
spoil Miss Lucy's wax face and pretty dress, he placed her in it, and
then covered her completely over, smoothing the ground so that, as he
thought, no one would discover that he had been digging there.

"Now though my football is spoilt, Fanny will never get her doll again,
and so we are equal," he muttered to himself, as he went towards the
tool-house to leave the spade there.

Just then he caught sight of Trusty running along the path. The dog
never came near him if he could help it.

Norman put the spade where he had intended, and returning to the lawn,
began playing with his trap and ball. He soon grew tired of being by
himself, so going to the drawing-room window, he shouted out--

"Fanny I want you to come and play with me."

"You may go out, and try and amuse your little brother," said Mrs
Vallery, "he should not be left so much by himself."

Fanny, though she wanted to finish her work, without a word of
remonstrance, put it aside, and ran out to the lawn.

"Now, Fanny, just try and catch the ball if you can, I have got the
trap, so I intend to be in first," said Norman striking the trap with
his bat.

Fanny did as her brother asked her.

For some time, though she might easily often have put him out, wishing
to afford him all the amusement in her power, she refrained from doing
so. When she proposed stopping, he, in his usual style, ordered her to
go on. She did so a few minutes longer, and, as he now managed to hit
the ball to a considerable distance, she had to run about a great deal.
At last she began to lose patience, and, rolling the ball against the
trap, she told him that he must now give up the bat to her. On this he
threw it down, declaring he had played long enough.

"That is not fair," she exclaimed. "You ought to go and look out for
me."

He refused to do so, and walked away; wh