Norman felt indignant, as he liked to be treated as a big boy. He was, however, in spite of his curiosity, glad to swallow his porridge, and to eat some bacon, with a slice or two of bread and preserves, which Mr Maclean placed in succession upon his plate.
At last he could no longer restrain his anxiety to know what his papa had brought. Fanny also thought she should like to know, but had refrained from saying anything.
“What have you brought for us there?” he asked at length, pointing towards them.
“You may bring them and we will see,” answered his papa.
Norman jumped up, and, seizing the parcels, began tearing them open.
“Stop, stop!” cried his grandmamma, who observed him. “You do not know which is for you; and your papa told you to bring them.”
Norman paid but little attention to what Mrs Leslie said, and had almost torn one of them open before his papa took them.
“We must look at the one for Fanny first, as she is a young lady,” observed Captain Vallery, feeling the parcels, and undoing one, he presented Fanny with a box which had a glass top, and inside of it was a white swan with three gaily-coloured fish.
“If we had a basin of water we should be able to make the swan and fish swim about,” said Captain Vallery; “I never saw anything of the sort before, and was sure Fanny would like it.”
Now Fanny had not only seen but possessed a magnetic toy similar to the one her papa had brought her. She had, however, given it away to a young friend who had expressed a wish to possess it; and Fanny had assured her that she found no great amusement in it herself.