the garden path.

"It's a most beautiful night," she said, after a pause. "It's going to
be a starful night; isn't it, father?"

"Starful?" said Mr. Delaney.

"Yes; and when it is a starful night Orion can't sleep well, 'cos he
is a star hisself; isn't he, father?"

"Good gracious, child, no! He is a little boy!"

"No, no, father! You are awfu' mistook. Mother called him a star. I'll
show you him up in the sky if it really comes to be a starful night.
May I, father?"

"Some time, my darling; but now you must hurry in, for I have to get
ready for dinner. Kiss me, Di. Good-night. God bless you, little one!"

"B'ess you too, father," said Diana. "I love 'oo awfu' well."

She raised her rosebud lips, fixed her black eyes on her parent's
face, kissed him solemnly, and trotted away into the house. When she
got close to it, a great sob came up from her little chest. She
thought again of the dead Rub-a-Dub, but then the chance of his having
a public funeral consoled her. She longed to find Iris.

Full of this thought, her little heart beating more quickly than
usual, she rushed up the front stairs, and was turning down the
passage which led to the nursery, when she was confronted by a short,