"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 at the little fellow. "I intend to wring a confession out of you."
"What's to wring?" asked Orion.
"I am going to get you to tell me where you got the lollipops and ginger-beer."
"I promised not to tell, and I aren't going to," answered Orion.