He was allowed to remain in his room till he heard Fanny, who had done her lessons, calling to him. She invited him to have a game before dinner on the lawn.
When there, she produced from under her pinafore a trap and bat.
“Papa brought this yesterday in his pocket and gave it to me that I might play with you.”
Fanny put it down on the ground.
“What a strange looking thing,” exclaimed Norman, “what are we to do with it?”
“I will show you,” said Fanny, putting the ball into the trap and taking the bat in her right hand. “Now keep a little behind me, and I will force the ball up, then I will hit it with the bat and send it up into the air to a distance.”
Fanny, very adroitly, made the ball fly nearly across the lawn.
“You observe where it fell; now go there and try and catch it, and if you do so you will get me out, and you will have the right to come and play at the trap till I put you out. Or, if you roll the ball up and hit the trap you put me out.”
Fanny played for some time, but at last, finding that Norman could not catch the ball nor roll it against the trap, thought that he would become impatient, and she hit it only a little way. He ran up, and without discovering that she did this to please him, soon managed to roll the ball against the trap.
“Ah, I have put you out at last, Miss,” he exclaimed, “and now you shall see where I send the ball to, you had better go to the other side of the lawn, and try and catch me out if you can!”