"I'm Orion," said the little boy, "and I'm stone blind." He began to
strut up and down the nursery with his eyes tightly shut.

"Apollo, please, may I get on your shoulder for a bit, and will you
lead me to that place where the first sunbeam rises in the east over
the sea?"

"Come," said Fortune, in what Diana would call a "temperish" tone, "we
can have no more of that ridiculous story-telling to-night. Miss Iris,
you'll ask them to be good, won't you?"

"Yes. Children, do be good," said Iris, in her earnest voice.

Diana trotted up to her sister and took her hand.

"I has something most 'portant to tell you," she said, in a low
whisper. "It's an awfu' sorrow, but you ought to know."

"What is it, Di?"

"Rub-a-Dub has got deaded."

"Rub-a-Dub?"

"Yes; it is quite true. I found him stark dead and stiff. I has put
him in the dead-house."

Iris said nothing.