"Dublin Bay," replied Diana, with avidity.
"You are a very naughty child. How can you tell me you know your lesson? See, I will ask you one more question. What is the capital of Scotland?"
"Ireland," answered Diana, in an earnest voice.
Miss Ramsay shut the book with a bang. Diana looked calmly at her.
"I thought I knew it," she said. "I's sossy. I don't think I care to go on learning jog-aphy; it don't suit me." She stretched herself, gave utterance to a big yawn, and half turned her back on her teacher. "You is getting in temper," she continued, "and that isn't wight; I don't care to learn jog-aphy."
What serious consequences might not have arisen at that moment it is hard to tell, had not Orion caused a sudden diversion. He fell off his chair in a heap on the floor.
Iris sprang from her seat and ran to the rescue.
"I'm drefful sick," said Orion; "I think it was the lollipops and ginger-beer. Please let me go to bed."
"Lollipops and ginger-beer!" cried Miss Ramsay in alarm. "What does the child mean?"
When Miss Ramsay repeated Orion's words there was a dead silence for a full half minute in the schoolroom. Had anyone noticed them, they might have observed Philip and Conrad turn very pale; but all eyes were directed to little Orion, who was lying on the floor, pressing his hand to his stomach and moaning bitterly.
"I'm drefful sick," he said; "I wish I had not taken that horrid ginger-beer."
"But where did you get ginger-beer?" said Miss Ramsay, finding her voice at last. "Get up this minute, Orion, and come to me.
"Really," continued the good lady to herself, "there must be something uncanny in those outlandish names; I don't think I can manage these children. Orion is as bad as Diana, and she is the greatest handful I ever came across.
"Come here, Orion," continued the governess, "and tell me what is the matter with your stomach."
"Pain," answered the little boy, "crampy pain. It's the ginger-beer. I'm drefful sick; I can't do no more lessons."
"Let me put him to bed," said Diana; "let me go nurse him. I'll sit on his bed and talk to him. He is a very naughty boy, but I know how to manage him. Come 'long, Orion; come 'long wid sister Di." She grasped the little boy firmly with one of her own stout little hands, and pulled him up on to his feet.