A Little Mother to the Others by L. T. Meade (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📕

name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126] and lower, until finally it rested on her book, and little Diana was off in the land of dreams.

A sharp tap on her shoulders roused her with a start. Miss Ramsay was standing over her, looking very angry.

"Come, Diana! this will never do," she cried. "How dare you go to sleep! Do you know your geography?"

"P'ease, I doesn't know what jog-aphy is," said Diana.

"What a very naughty little girl you are! Have not I been taking pains to explain it all to you? You will have to stay in the schoolroom when lessons are over for quite five minutes. Now, stand up on your chair, hold your book in your hands, don't look out of the window, keep your eyes fixed on your book, and then you will soon learn what is required of you."

Diana obeyed this mandate with a very grave face.

In about ten minutes Miss Ramsay called her to her side.

"Well, do you know your lesson?" she asked.

"Kite perfect," replied Diana.

"Well, let me hear you. What is the capital of England?"

"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[127] 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?"

[128]

CHAPTER XII. A BABY'S HONOR.

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."[129] She grasped the little boy firmly with one of her own stout little hands, and pulled him up on to his feet.

"Diana, you are not to interfere," said Miss Ramsay. "Come, Orion; come and explain what is the matter."

"Lollipops," moaned Orion, "and ginger-beer. Oh, I did like the lollipops, and I was so thirsty I thought I'd never leave off drinking ginger-beer."

"But where did you get lollipops and ginger-beer? Mrs. Dolman never allows the children to take such unwholesome things. What can you mean? Where did you get them?"

To this question Orion refused to make any reply. Baby as he was, he had a confused sort of idea of honor. Philip and Conrad had told him that he was on no account whatever to mention the fact that they had gone away fishing on the previous afternoon, that they had visited a little shop and spent some of Orion's own money. Philip and Conrad had no money of their own, but before he parted with the children, Mr. Delaney had given the two elder ones five shillings apiece, and the two younger ones half a crown, and Orion's half-crown had seemed great wealth to Philip and Conrad, and had accordingly induced them to treat the little fellow with marked consideration. The whole of the money was now gone. How, Orion had not the slightest idea. He only knew that his pockets were empty and that he felt very sick and very miserable.

He shut up his little lips now and raised his eyes, with a sort of scowl in their expression, to Miss Ramsay's face.

"Where did you get the lollipops and ginger-beer?" repeated the governess.[130]

"That's my own business," said Orion. "I'm drefful sick; I want to go to bed."

"You are a very naughty little boy," said Miss Ramsay.

"I think him a brick," whispered Philip to Conrad.

"Hush, for goodness' sake!" whispered back Conrad.

"I want to go to bed," repeated Orion. "I'm drefful sick; I'm quite tired of telling you. I have got a headache and a pain in my tumtum." Again he pressed his hand to his stomach and looked imploringly around him.

"What's all this fuss?" here burst from Diana. "Why can't Orion go to bed? New teacher, you has a very queer way of managing sildrens. When we was at home we went to bed when we had pains. I can't underland you, not one little bit."

"Come with me this moment, Orion," said Miss Ramsay. "Diana, if you speak a word except in the French tongue, you shall be kept in during all the afternoon."

Orion and Miss Ramsay left the room, and the other children stared at one another. The three Dolman girls sat down to their books. Philip and Conrad thought it best to follow their example. Iris and Apollo looked wistfully from one to the other, but did not dare to speak; but Diana, walking boldly over to the nearest window, amused herself by touching each fly in turn with the tip of her small fat finger.

"They don't like it, poor darlin's," she said to herself, "but I don't mean to hurt 'em. I wonder now if I could get away to the wood and get hold of my bow and arrow. Miss Wamsay must be shotted as well as the others. It's awful what I has got to do."[131]

Apollo sank dejectedly down before the account of the Spanish Armada, and Iris, with tears slowly rising to her eyes, turned over her lesson books. At last the impulse to do something was more than she could stand, and, rising from her seat, she edged her way to the door. Mary called after her in French to know what she was going to do, but Iris would make no reply. She reached the door, opened it, and then ran as fast as she could to the nursery.

There she found Simpson putting Orion to bed. The little boy was crying bitterly.

"As soon as ever you lie down, master, you have got to drink off this medicine," said Simpson.

"I won't touch it—horrid stuff!" said Orion.

"But you must, sir. I'll allow no 'won'ts' in my nursery. Little boys have got to do what they are told. If you make any fuss I'll just hold your nose and then you'll be obliged to open your mouth, and down the medicine will go. Come, come, sir, none of those tears. You have been a very naughty little boy, and the pain is sent you as a punishment."

"Oh, there you are, Iris!" said Orion. "Oh, Iris! I am so glad. Please be a mother to me—please put your arms round me—please kiss me, Iris."

Iris flew to the little fellow, clasped him in her arms, and held his hot little forehead against her cheek.

"Simpson," she said, turning to the nurse, "I know quite well how to manage him. Won't you let me do it?"

"I am sure, Miss Iris, I'd be only too thankful," said the perplexed woman. "There's Miss Ramsay and my mistress in no end of a state, and Master Orion as obstinate as a boy can be. There's some[132]thing gone wrong in this house since you four children arrived, and I really don't know how I am to stand it much longer. Not that I have any special fault to find with you, Miss Iris, nor, indeed, for that matter, with Master Apollo; but it's the two younger ones. They are handfuls, and no mistake."

"I like being a handfu' 'cept when I'm sick," said Orion. "I don't want to be a handfu' to-day. Please, Iris, don't mek me take that horrid medicine."

"He must take it, Miss Iris; he won't be better till he do," said the nurse, lifting up the glass as she spoke and stirring the contents with a spoon. "Come, now, sir, be a brave boy. Just open your mouth and get it down. Then you'll drop asleep, and when you wake you will probably be quite well."

Orion pressed his lips very tightly together.

"You'll take the medicine for me, Orion?" said Iris.

"No, I can't," he moaned.

"Oh, but, darling! just try and think. Remember you are a giant—a grand, great giant, with your girdle and your sword, and this medicine is just an enemy that you have got to conquer. Here now; open your mouth and get it down. Think of mother, Orion. She would like you to take it."

Orion still kept his mouth very firmly shut, but he opened his sweet, dark eyes and looked full at his sister.

"Would mother really like it?" he said at last, in a whisper.

"Of course; it would make her ever so happy."

"And will she know about it, Iris?"

"I think she will. Maybe she is in the room with us just now."[133]

"Oh, lor'! what awful talk to say to the child," murmured Simpson to herself.

"If I really thought mother could see, and if I really thought—" began the little boy.

"Yes, yes, she can see!" said Iris, going on her knees and clasping both the little fellow's hands in one of hers. "She can see, she does know, and she wants her own brave giant to be a giant to the end. Now, here is the enemy; open your mouth, conquer it at one gulp."

"Well, to be sure," whispered Simpson.

Orion, however, did not glance at Simpson. He gazed solemnly round the room as if he really saw someone; then he fixed his brown eyes on his sister's face, then he opened his mouth very wide. She instantly took the cup and held it to the little lips. Orion drained off the nauseous draught and lay back, panting, on his pillow.

"It was a big thing to conquer. I am a fine giant," he said, when he returned the empty cup to Iris.

"Yes, you are a splendid old chap," she replied.

At that moment Mrs. Dolman and Miss Ramsay entered the room.

"Has Orion taken his medicine?" said Mrs. Dolman. "Iris, my dear, what are you doing here?"

"I am very sorry, Aunt Jane," replied Iris, "but I had to come. He would never have taken his medicine but for me. I had to remind him—"

"To remind him of his duty. He certainly wanted to be reminded. So he has taken the medicine. I am glad of that; but all the same, Iris, you did very wrong to leave the schoolroom."[134]

"Please forgive me this one time, Aunt Jane."

"I really think Iris does try to be a good child," interrupted Miss Ramsay.

"And she certainly can manage her little brother, ma'am," said Simpson, speaking for the first time. "He would not touch his medicine for me—no, not for anything I could do; but he drank it off when Miss Iris talked some gibberish, all about giants and belts and swords."

"'Tisn't gibberish," said Orion, starting up from his pillow; "it's the truest thing in all the world. I am a giant, and I has got a belt and a sword. You can look up in the sky on starful nights and you can see me. 'Tisn't gibberish."

"Well, lie down now, child, and go to sleep. I am afraid he is a bit feverish, ma'am."

"No, that I aren't," said Orion. "Only I'm drefful sick," he added.

"Listen to me, Orion," said Mrs. Dolman, seating herself on the edge of the bed and gazing very sternly