adled
into a little bowl. Orion was provided with a similar bowl of the very
excellent liquid. The soup contained meat and vegetables, pieces of
bread and quantities of good gravy, and, as Diana and Orion were very
hungry indeed, they ate up their portions, while the gypsy children
clustered round them, coming closer and closer each minute. Diana's
eyes, however, were as black as theirs, and her manner twice as
spirited. She would not allow them to approach too close.

"You had best not take lib'ties," she said. "I is a gweat lady; I is
Diana, the biggest shot in all the world."

"Oh, lawk! hark to her," cried one of the boys. "I wonder if you could
shoot me, little miss?"

"Shoot you, boy?" cried Diana. "That I could. You would be shotted
down dead if I was to take up my bow and use my arrow."

At last the children had finished the contents of their bowls, and
rose solemnly to their feet.

"Now," said Diana, going up to Mother Bridget, "I are vedy obliged to
you; you has been kind; you has gived us good supper. We'll 'scuse
'bout the stwawberries and k'eam and the milk and cake, 'cos you
didn't know that the other big woman told lots of lies. And now,
p'ease, we are going home. We isn't glad to go home, but we is going.
P'ease tell the man to put pony to cart, and dwive us home as fast as
he can."

"Yes, indeed, my little dear," said Mother Bridget; "there aint one
moment to be lost. You just come inside the tent, though, first for a
minute."

"I don't want to go inside that dirty tent," said Diana; "I don't like
dirt. You had best not twy to take lib'ties. I is Diana, and this is
Orion, and we is both very big peoples indeed."

At that moment Mother Rodesia came forward.

"They need not go into the tent," she said to the old woman; "I can
manage better than that. Just you help lift 'em into the cart; it's a
dark night, and there'll be no stars, and we can get off as far
as----" Here she dropped her voice, and Diana could not hear the next
words.

"I'm going with them," she continued, "and Jack will drive. They are
exactly the kind of children Ben wants. Now then, little missy, jump
in. Ah, here you are! You'll be glad of the drive, won't you?"

"When will we get back to Wectory?" asked Diana.

"In about an hour, missy."

"Come 'long, Orion," said Diana, "you sit next me. Hold my hand, poor
little boy, case you is fwightened. Diana never was fwightened; that
isn't her."

Orion scrambled also into th