“There are several tigers in the Zoological Gardens, but the owners would object to your shooting them, Norman,” observed Mrs Leslie. “They are safely shut up in cages.”
“I suppose the people are afraid of them,” said Norman, “I am not afraid of tigers, and when I go back to India I intend to shoot a great many.”
“You should not boast so much, Norman,” observed his mamma. “Do you not remember how frightened you were at the tame leopard which our friend Mr James kept in his bungalow, and how, when you first saw the animal, you screamed out and came running to me for protection. I was not surprised, for had its master not been with us I should have been frightened too. But I do not like to hear you boast of your valour, especially when I cannot recollect any occasion on which you have exhibited it.”
Norman held his tongue, and soon after this Captain Vallery returned from London.
Norman ran to him eagerly, expecting that he had a fresh football, or some other toy, but his papa had been too much ashamed of him to think of doing so, and Norman went out of the room grumbling at the neglect with which he was treated.
“He cares for Fanny more than me,” he muttered; “I daresay he has brought her something, but I am not going to let her boast of her beautiful doll, while I have got nothing to play with.”
Fanny did not dream that Norman would ever think of doing any harm to her doll, although every day after she had been playing with it, as it was too large to go into her doll’s house, she either put it away carefully in a drawer, or carried it into granny’s room. Norman therefore, though he looked about for Miss Lucy, could never find her.
Norman was much older than many boys, who can read well, and Mrs Leslie strongly advised Captain Vallery to have him instructed.
“He will learn in good time, and I do not like to run the risk of breaking his spirits by beginning too early,” answered Captain Vallery.
“But unless he begins to learn I do not see how he will ever be able to read, and until he does so, he cannot amuse himself, but must always be dependent upon others,” answered his grandmamma. “I will take him in hand, and when I am unable to teach him I daresay Mrs Norton will do so.”