“I fear he has a very bad heart now,” sighed Mrs Vallery, “I am always in dread that he should do something wrong.”
“All children have bad seeds in their hearts, and it is our duty by constant and careful weeding to root them out, and to impress also on the child from its earliest days the necessity of endeavouring to do so likewise. The child is not excused as it gains strength and knowledge if it does not perform its own part in the work,” observed Mrs Leslie. “We justly believe our Fanny to be sweet and charming, but she is well aware of this, and is ever on the watch to overcome the evil she discovers within herself. Depend upon it, did she not do so she would not be the delightful creature we think her.”
“Could Fanny possibly have been otherwise than delightful?” said Mrs Vallery.
“Not only possibly, but very probably so, although we, blinded by our love might have overlooked the faults of which she would certainly have been guilty,” answered Mrs Leslie. “One of the chief lessons we should endeavour to impress on young people is the importance of keeping a strict watch over their mind and temper, of putting away every bad thought the instant it comes into the mind, and to suppress at once the rising of bad temper, envy, hatred, and all other evil feelings, while we teach them that Satan, like a roaring lion, is always going about seeking whom he may devour, although the aid of the Holy Spirit will never be sought in vain to drive him away.”
While this conversation was going on between his grandmamma and mamma in the drawing-room Norman remained in the shrubbery. He was afraid to come out, supposing that his mamma was looking for him, and that he would be punished for destroying his sister’s garden, as he had been in the morning for telling a falsehood. Growing weary he at length crept out, and hearing and seeing no one, thought he might venture into the open garden. He soon became tired of being by himself, and wished that Fanny would come out and play with him, then he felt angry with her because she did not, though he well knew that she was attending to her lessons.
At last as he wandered about his eyes fell on the covering of his football.
“That’s what my fine present has come to,” he muttered, “and she has got a beautiful doll all to herself; I do not see why she should be better off than I am. I wonder if anybody could make my ball round again.”
He took it up.
“Perhaps the cook or John can.”
He carried the leathern case in to the cook.