"Put your mouse down now," he said, "and come along back with me to the house at once. You ought to have been in bed long ago."
Diana laid the mouse sorrowfully down in the midst of its dead brethren, shut the door of the dead-house, and followed her father up the garden path.
"It's a most beautiful night," she said, after a pause. "It's going to be a starful night; isn't it, father?"
"Starful?" said Mr. Delaney.
"Yes; and when it is a starful night Orion can't sleep well, 'cos he is a star hisself; isn't he, father?"
"Good gracious, child, no! He is a little boy!"
"No, no, father! You are awfu' mistook. Mother called him a star. I'll show you him up in the sky if it really comes to be a starful night. May I, father?"
"Some time, my darling; but now you must hurry in, for I have to get ready for dinner. Kiss me, Di. Good-night. God bless you, little one!"
"B'ess you too, father," said Diana. "I love 'oo awfu' well."
She raised her rosebud lips, fixed her black eyes on her parent's face, kissed him solemnly, and trotted away into the house. When she got close to it, a great sob came up from her little chest. She thought again of the dead Rub-a-Dub, but then the chance of his having a public funeral consoled her. She longed to find Iris.