Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Motherless families -- Juvenile fiction; Siblings -- Juvenile fiction
Meanwhile Diana, Orion, and the two little Dolman boys were in a class
by themselves, busily engaged over a geography lesson.
Diana had not the smallest wish to become acquainted with any portion
of the globe where she was not herself residing. Her thoughts were all
full of the bow and arrow which Apollo had carefully hidden in a
little dell at the entrance of the wood, on the previous night. She
was wondering when she could run off to secure the prize, and when she
would have an opportunity of punishing her enemies. She began to think
that it would be really necessary to give Miss Ramsay a prick with the
fatal arrow. Miss Ramsay was turning out to be most disagreeable.
Meanwhile, the heat of the room, and a curious giddy sensation in her
head, caused it to sink lower 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 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?"
CHAPTER XII.
A BABY'S HONOR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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