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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, At the Back of the North Wind, by Elizabeth
+Lewis and George MacDonald, Illustrated by Maria L. Kirk
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: At the Back of the North Wind
+
+
+Author: Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 17, 2006  [eBook #18614]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Joseph R. Hauser, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 18614-h.htm or 18614-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1/18614/18614-h/18614-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1/18614/18614-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+Eleventh Impression
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS
+
+Each beautifully illustrated in color and tastefully bound
+
+  BY WASHINGTON IRVING
+  THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
+  RIP VAN WINKLE
+
+  SELECTED
+  TALES OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S
+  ALHAMBRA
+
+  BY JOHN RUSKIN
+  THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER
+
+  BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+  A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
+
+  SELECTED
+  HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
+
+  BY MISS MULOCK
+  THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE
+  THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE
+
+  BY EMMA GELLIBRAND
+  J. COLE
+
+  BY JOHANNA SPYRI
+  MONI THE GOAT BOY
+
+  BY OUIDA
+  MOUFFLOU AND OTHER STORIES
+  THE NÜRNBERG STOVE
+  A DOG OF FLANDERS
+
+  SELECTED
+  WONDERLAND STORIES
+  ALL TIME TALES
+
+  BY JONATHAN SWIFT
+  GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
+  (LILLIPUT LAND)
+
+  BY GEORGE MACDONALD
+  THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN
+  THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE
+  AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE
+LONG BARE ROOM                                                _Page 111_]
+
+
+
+George Macdonald
+Stories For Little Folks
+
+AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+Simplified by
+
+ELIZABETH LEWIS
+
+Author of "The Princess and the Goblin Simplified"
+
+With Six Full Page Illustrations in Color by Maria L. Kirk
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+Philadelphia and London
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+Copyright, 1914
+By J. B. Lippincott Company
+Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
+The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                              PAGE
+
+   I. DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND     9
+
+  II. DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND        20
+
+ III. NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP                         31
+
+  IV. THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND          41
+
+   V. DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT           52
+
+  VI. DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE                 62
+
+ VII. DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB                          73
+
+VIII. DIAMOND VISITS NANNY                            84
+
+  IX. THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY            93
+
+   X. DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME                        102
+
+  XI. ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND                  109
+
+ XII. NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY                119
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND
+THE LONG BARE ROOM                               _Frontispiece_
+
+AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE
+VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY                                   12
+
+IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN                         29
+
+HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND, BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST
+BE DEAD AT LAST                                          47
+
+WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE
+VERSES FOR HIMSELF                                       73
+
+HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY               78
+
+
+
+
+AT THE BACK OF THE
+NORTH WIND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND
+
+
+There was once a little boy named Diamond and he slept in a low room
+over a coach house. In fact, his room was just a loft where they kept
+hay and straw and oats for the horses. Little Diamond's father was a
+coachman and he had named his boy after a favorite horse.
+
+Diamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all around
+it, because there was so little room in their own end of the coach
+house. So when little Diamond lay there in bed, he could hear the horses
+under him munching away in the dark or moving sleepily in their dreams.
+His father put old Diamond, the horse after whom he was named, in the
+stall under the bed because he was quiet and did not go to sleep
+standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature.
+
+Little Diamond sometimes woke in the middle of the night and felt his
+bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind. Then he could not help
+wondering if the wind should blow the house down and he should fall down
+into the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew
+him in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long,
+yet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little Diamond
+knew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which
+was--to go to sleep again as fast as he could!
+
+Often there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay
+at his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there
+was none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet
+bought more. Soon they bought more, and then it was only through a
+little lane with two or three turnings in it that he could reach his bed
+at all.
+
+Sometimes when his mother undressed him in her room and told him to trot
+away to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay first.
+There he would lie, thinking how cold it was outside in the wind and how
+warm it would be inside his bed; and how he would go to his bed when he
+pleased; only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first.
+As he grew colder lying in the hay, his bed seemed to him to grow
+warmer. Then at last, he would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an
+arrow into his bed, cover himself up, snuggle down, and think what a
+happy boy he was!
+
+He had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall
+and blew about him all night. But the back of his bed was of boards only
+an inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now
+these boards were soft and crumbly, and it happened that a soft part in
+them had worn away.
+
+One night after he lay down, little Diamond found that a knot had come
+out of one of them and the wind was blowing in upon him. He jumped out
+of bed again, got a little wisp of hay, twisted it up and folded it in
+the middle. In this way, he made it into a cork and stuck it into the
+knot-hole to keep the wind out. But the wind began to blow loudly and
+angrily. Just as Diamond was falling asleep, out blew his hay cork and
+hit him on the nose!
+
+It was just hard enough to wake him up and let him hear the wind
+whistling through the hole. He searched about for his hay cork, found
+it, and stuck it in harder. He was just dropping off to sleep once more,
+when pop! with an angry whistle behind it, the cork struck him again,
+this time on the cheek. Up he rose once more, got some more hay to make
+a new cork, and stuck it into the hole as hard as ever he could. But he
+was scarcely laid down again, before pop! it came on his forehead. So he
+gave it up, drew the bed-clothes over his head, and was soon fast
+asleep.
+
+[Illustration: AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE
+QUITE DISTINCTLY]
+
+Next day, little Diamond forgot all about the hole. But his mother found
+it when she was making up his bed and pasted a piece of thick brown
+paper over it. So when Diamond snuggled down into his bed that night, he
+did not think of it at all. But before he dropped asleep, he heard a
+queer sound and lifted his head to listen. Was somebody talking to him?
+The wind was rising again and beginning to blow and whistle. Was it the
+wind? He moved about to find out who or what it was, and at last,
+happened to put his hand upon the knot-hole with the paper pasted over
+it. Against this he laid his ear and then he heard the voice quite
+distinctly.
+
+"What do you mean, little boy, by closing up my window?"
+
+"What window?" asked Diamond.
+
+"You stuffed hay into it three times last night! I had to blow it out
+again three times!"
+
+"You can't mean this little hole? It isn't a window. It is a hole in my
+bed."
+
+"I did not say _a_ window. I said it was _my_ window!"
+
+"But it can't be a window!" said Diamond. "Windows are holes to see out
+of."
+
+"Well, that is just what I made this window for."
+
+"But you are outside," answered Diamond. "You can't want a window."
+
+"You are quite mistaken. Windows are to see out of, you say. Well, I am
+in my house, and I want windows to see out of."
+
+"But you have made a window into my bed."
+
+"Well, your mother has three windows into my dancing hall, and you have
+three into my garret."
+
+"Dear me!" said Diamond. "Still you can hardly expect me to keep a
+window in my bed for you. Now, can you?"
+
+"Come!" said the voice. "You just open that window!"
+
+"Well," said Diamond, "mother says I should be obliging. Still it is
+rather hard. You see, the north wind will blow right in my face if I
+do!"
+
+"I am the North Wind!" said the voice.
+
+"O-o-oh!" said Diamond. "Then will you promise not to blow in my face if
+I open your window?"
+
+"I cannot promise that," said the North Wind.
+
+"But you will give me the tooth-ache. Mother has it already."
+
+"But what is to become of me without a window!" cried the voice.
+
+"I am sure I don't know. All I say is that it will be worse for me than
+for you."
+
+"No, it will not," replied the voice. "You shall not be the worse for
+it--I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe
+what I say, and do as I tell you."
+
+"Well, I _can_ pull the clothes over my head," said Diamond. So he felt
+around with his little sharp nails, got hold of one edge of the paper
+and tore it off. In came a long whistling stream of cold that struck his
+little naked chest. He scrambled and tumbled in under the bed-clothes
+and covered himself up. There was no paper between him and the voice
+now, and he felt--not frightened exactly--but a little queer.
+
+"What a strange person this North Wind must be," thought Diamond, "to
+live in what they call 'Out-of-Doors,' I suppose, and make windows into
+people's beds."
+
+Now the voice began again. He could hear it quite plainly, even with his
+head under the bed-clothes. It was still more gentle now, though it was
+six times as large and loud as before. And he thought it sounded a
+little like his mother's.
+
+"What is your name, little boy?" it asked.
+
+"Diamond," answered Diamond under the bed-clothes.
+
+"What a funny name!"
+
+"It is a very nice name," replied the boy.
+
+"I am not so sure of that," said the voice.
+
+"Well, I am!" returned Diamond. "I think it is a very pretty name."
+
+"Diamond is a useless thing, rather," said the voice.
+
+"That is not true. Diamond is very useful--and as big as two--and so
+quiet all night! But doesn't he make a jolly row in the morning, getting
+up on his four great legs! It is like thunder!"
+
+"You do not seem to know what a diamond is!" cried the voice.
+
+"Oh, don't I, just! Diamond is a great and good horse, and he sleeps
+right under me. He is old Diamond and I am young Diamond. Or, if you
+like it better, Mr. North Wind, if you are so particular, he is big
+Diamond and I am little Diamond. And I do not know which of us my father
+likes best!"
+
+A beautiful laugh, soft and musical, sounded somewhere near him. But the
+boy kept his head under the clothes.
+
+"I am not Mr. North Wind," said the voice.
+
+"You told me you were the North Wind," cried Diamond.
+
+"I did not say _Mr._ North Wind," said the voice.
+
+"Well, I _do_ say Mr. for my mother tells me always to be polite."
+
+"Then let me tell you that I do not think it at all polite for you to
+say Mr. to me," answered the voice.
+
+"Isn't it? Well, I am sorry then."
+
+"But you ought to know better," said the voice. "You can't think it is
+polite to lie there with your head under the bed-clothes and never look
+to see what kind of a person you are talking to! I want you to come out
+with me."
+
+"I want to go to sleep!" said Diamond.
+
+"Will you take your head out of the bed-clothes?" said the voice a
+little angrily.
+
+"No!" said Diamond crossly.
+
+The moment he said the word a fierce blast of wind crashed in the wall
+and swept the clothes off him. He started up in a fright. Leaning over
+him was the large, beautiful, pale face of a woman. Her dark eyes had
+begun to flash a little but the rest of her face was very sweet and
+beautiful. What was very strange, though, was that away from her head
+streamed out her black hair in every direction like dark clouds. Soon it
+fell down about her again and then her face came out of it like the
+moon out of the clouds.
+
+"Will you go with me now, little Diamond?" asked the North Wind bending
+over him and speaking very gently.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Diamond, stretching out his arms toward her. "Yes, I
+will go with you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit afraid. I will go!
+But," he added, "how shall I get my clothes? They are in mother's room
+and the door is locked."
+
+"Oh never mind your clothes. You will not be cold. Nobody is cold with
+the North Wind."
+
+"I thought everybody was," said Diamond.
+
+"That is a great mistake. People are not cold when they are _with_ the
+North Wind--only when they are against it. Now will you come?"
+
+"Yes, dear North Wind. You are so beautiful I am quite ready to go with
+you."
+
+"Ah, but I may not always look beautiful. If you see me with my face all
+black, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping wings like bat's
+wings, as big as the whole sky, don't be afraid. If you hear me raging,
+you must believe that I am just doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change
+into a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of me, for it
+will be I just the same. And now, come!"
+
+She turned away and went so swiftly that she was gone before Diamond was
+more than started. When he finally got down the stairs and out into the
+yard, no one did he see. And there he stood with his bare feet on the
+hard stones of the paved yard.
+
+"I dare say she is hiding somewhere to see what I will do," said
+Diamond. So around the end of the stable he went to see if he could find
+her. But at once, sharp as a knife, the wind came against his little
+chest and bare legs. And stronger and stronger the wind seemed to blow.
+It was _so_ cold! All at once, he remembered that she had said that
+people were not cold if they went _with_ the North Wind. So he turned
+his back and trotted again toward the yard and sure enough, he began to
+feel almost warm once more!
+
+On and on, North Wind blew him and, presently, she seemed to shove him
+right against a small door in a wall. It opened and she blew him through
+it and out into the very middle of the lawn of the house next door. It
+was here that Mr. Coleman lived who was his father's master and who
+owned big Diamond. So little Diamond did not feel entirely strange, and
+then, too, there was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long
+as he could see that, Diamond could not feel quite alone or lonely. But
+all at once, the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it
+was dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone
+to bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he
+burst out crying.
+
+Some one in the house heard the sound of his sobbing and came out and
+found him there. He was taken into the house and into a room which had a
+bright light and a warm fire in it. Beside this, he found Miss Coleman,
+the young lady daughter of the house, who was having her long dark hair
+brushed out before going to bed. Somehow in that state, she looked just
+like the beautiful North Wind that he had been searching for. Without
+stopping to think, he ran right into her arms for comfort.
+
+After he was warmed and comforted, they took him back home and knocked
+on the door to arouse his mother, to come and get him. She was much
+surprised to see him, you may be sure. She carried him up to his bed
+again and tucked him snugly in. And there he fell fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+Diamond awoke very early the next morning and thought what a curious
+dream he had had. But the memory of it grew brighter and brighter until
+it did not look altogether like a dream. In fact he began to doubt
+whether he had not really been abroad in the wind at night.
+
+All that week it was hard weather. The grass showed white in the morning
+with the hoar frost which clung to every blade. As Diamond's shoes were
+not good and his mother had not saved up quite enough money to get him
+the new pair she so much wanted for him, she would not let him run out.
+But at length, she brought home his new shoes. No sooner did she find
+that they fitted him, than she told him he might run out into the yard
+and amuse himself.
+
+The sun was going down when he flew from the door like a bird from its
+cage. A great fire of sunset burned over the top of the gate that led to
+the stables. Above the fire in the sky, lay a large lake of green light,
+above that a golden cloud, and over that the blue of the wintry heavens.
+Diamond thought that next to his own home, he had never seen any place
+he would like so much to live in as that sky.
+
+As he wandered about, he came to stand by the little door which opened
+upon the lawn of the house next door. That made him remember how the
+wind had driven him to this same spot on the night of his dream. So he
+thought he would just go in and see if things looked at all as they did
+then. But not a flower was to be seen in the beds on the lawn! Even the
+brave old chrysanthemums and Christmas roses had passed away before the
+frost. What? Yes! There was _one_. He ran and knelt down to look at it.
+
+It was a primrose--a tiny, tiny thing, but perfect in shape--a baby
+wonder. As he stooped his face to see it close, a little wind began to
+blow. Two or three long leaves that stood up behind the flower shook and
+wavered and quivered. But the primrose lay still in the green hollow,
+looking up at the sky and not seeming to know at all that the wind was
+blowing. It looked like a golden eye that the black wintry earth had
+opened to look at the sky with.
+
+That very same night, after Diamond had been asleep for a little, he
+awoke all at once in the dark.
+
+"Open the window, Diamond," said a voice.
+
+Now Diamond's mother had once more pasted up North Wind's window.
+
+"Are you North Wind?" said Diamond. "I do not hear you blowing."
+
+"No, but you hear me talking. Open the window for I haven't over much
+time."
+
+"Yes," said Diamond. "But please, North Wind, where's the use? You left
+me all alone last time."
+
+"That was your fault," returned North Wind. "I had work to do and you
+kept me waiting."
+
+Diamond was already scratching at the paper like ten mice and, getting
+hold of the edge of it, tore it off. The next instant a young girl
+glided across the bed and stood on the floor.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Diamond quite dismayed. "I didn't know--who are you,
+please?"
+
+"I am North Wind."
+
+"But you are no bigger than I am!"
+
+"Do you think I care how big or how little I am? And of course, I am
+little this evening! Didn't you see me behind the leaves of the
+primrose? Didn't you see them blowing? Make haste, now, if you want to
+go with me! Dress as fast as you can and I will go and shake the leaves
+of the primrose till you come!"
+
+"Don't hurt it!" said Diamond.
+
+North Wind broke out into a little laugh like the breaking of silver
+bubbles and was gone in a moment. Diamond saw the gleam of something
+vanishing down the stair. He dressed himself as fast as ever he could
+and crept out into the yard, through the door in the wall, and away to
+the primrose. Behind it stood North Wind leaning over it.
+
+"Come along!" she said jumping up and holding out her hand. She led him
+across the garden and with one bound was on top of the wall. Then she
+reached down her hand to Diamond. He gave a great spring and stood
+beside her.
+
+Another bound, and they stood in the road by the river. It was full tide
+and the stars were shining clear in its depths. But they had not walked
+beside it far before its surface was covered with ripples and the stars
+had vanished. North Wind was now as tall as a full-grown girl. Her hair
+was flying about her head and the wind was blowing a breeze down the
+river. But she turned aside and went up a narrow lane.
+
+"I have some rather disagreeable work to do to-night," she said. "And
+disagreeable work must be looked after first."
+
+So saying, she laid hold of Diamond and began to run, gliding along
+faster and faster. She made many turnings and windings. Once they ran
+through a hall where they found both the front and back doors open. At
+the foot of the stair, North Wind stood still and Diamond, hearing a
+great growl, started in terror. There, instead of North Wind, was a huge
+wolf by his side! He let go his hold and the wolf bounded up the stair.
+The windows of the house rattled and shook and there came the sound of a
+fall.
+
+"Surely," thought Diamond, "North Wind can't be eating one of the
+children!"
+
+He started to rush up after her, but she met him on the stair, took him
+by the hand and hurried him out of the house.
+
+"I hope you haven't eaten a baby, North Wind!" he said very solemnly.
+
+North Wind laughed merrily and went tripping on faster. Her grassy robe
+swept and swirled about her steps. Wherever it passed over withered
+leaves, they went fleeing and whirling away and running on their edges
+all about her feet. "No, I did not eat a baby," she said, "as you would
+know if you had not let go of me. I merely scared an ugly nurse who was
+calling a child bad names. I flew at her throat and she tumbled over
+with a crash. I had to put on a bad shape before she could see me. I put
+on a wolf's shape for that is what she is growing to be inside."
+
+They were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent. At the top, North
+Wind stood and turned her face toward London. The stars were still
+shining clear and cold overhead. There was not a cloud to be seen.
+
+"Now," said North Wind, "do not let go of me again. I might have lost
+you the last time, only I was not in a hurry then. Now I am in a hurry."
+
+As she spoke, she was growing larger and larger. Her head went up and up
+toward the stars. As she grew, her hair, longer and longer, lifted
+itself from her head and went out in black waves. She put her hands
+behind her head and began weaving and knotting her hair together. Then
+she took up Diamond in her hands and threw him over her shoulder saying,
+"I have made a place for you in my hair. Get in, Diamond."
+
+Diamond soon found the woven nest and crept into it. The next moment he
+was rising in the air. North Wind grew towering up to the place of the
+clouds. Her hair went streaming out from her till it spread like a mist
+over the stars. She flung herself abroad in space. Diamond made a little
+place through the woven meshes of her hair and peeped through that, for
+he did not dare look over the top of his nest.
+
+The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and
+water and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but
+the roofs of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and
+rocks. Chimneys fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great
+roaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea.
+Diamond, of course, at the back of North Wind, was in a calm but he
+could hear it. Around and around and around, swept North Wind, her dark
+hair rolling and flowing, sweeping the people all into their homes and
+the bad smells out of the streets.
+
+Suddenly, Diamond saw a little girl coming along a street. She was
+dreadfully blown by the wind, and a broom she was trailing behind her
+was very troublesome. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her! It
+kept worrying her and tearing at her rags. She was so lonely there!
+
+"Oh, please, North Wind," cried Diamond, "won't you help that little
+girl?"
+
+"I cannot leave my work, Diamond. But you can help her if you like.
+Only, I can't wait for you. And mind, the wind will get hold of you
+too!"
+
+"But how shall I get home again," cried Diamond, "if you don't wait for
+me?"
+
+"Well, you must think of that!" said North Wind.
+
+"Oh," cried Diamond. "I am sure the wind will blow her over! I _must_
+help her anyway! Let me go!"
+
+Without a word, North Wind dropped into the street and set him down. The
+same moment, he was caught in the coils of the blast and all but swept
+away. North Wind vanished. The wind was roaring along the street. The
+little girl was scudding before it, her hair flying, while behind her
+she dragged her broom with which she swept her crossing. Her little legs
+were going as fast as they could, to keep her from falling.
+
+"Stop! stop! little girl!" shouted Diamond, starting in pursuit.
+
+"I can't!" wailed the girl. "The wind won't let me!"
+
+Diamond ran after her and caught hold of her frock but it tore in his
+hand. Then he ran fast enough to get in front of her and turning around,
+caught her in his arms. Just then, he thought he got a glimpse of North
+Wind turning the corner in front of them. They must go with her of
+course, and sure enough, when they turned the corner after her, they
+found it quite quiet there.
+
+"Now, you must lead me," said Diamond. "You show me the way you must go
+to get home and I will take care of you."
+
+So the little girl put her free hand in his and began to lead him. They
+went around turning after turning, till they stopped at a cellar-door in
+a very dirty lane. There the little girl knocked.
+
+"What an awful place!" said Diamond. "I should not like to live here."
+
+"Oh yes, you would, if you had no where else to go!" answered the girl.
+"I only hope they'll let me in."
+
+"Don't they always let you in?" said Diamond.
+
+"No, they don't. And then I have to stay in the street all night and
+scud back to my crossing the first thing in the morning. You see they
+don't answer, now!"
+
+"Well," said Diamond, "I don't want to get in. I want to go back to my
+mother. Come with me and I will take you to my own home."
+
+The little girl thought this would be much better than sitting in the
+streets all night. So they started off. The trouble was that Diamond was
+not at all sure that he could find the way without North Wind. But the
+only thing to do was to try. So they wandered on and on, turning in this
+direction and that, without any reason for one way more than another. At
+last, they got out of the thick of the houses into a kind of waste
+place. By this time, they were both very tired, and Diamond was
+inclined to cry. For he said to himself that he had not done the little
+girl any good and he had lost his own way home. But in this, he was
+wrong for she was far happier in having him with her, and making people
+happier is one of the best ways of doing them good.
+
+[Illustration: IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN]
+
+They sat down and rested themselves a little and then went on. After a
+time, they found themselves on a rising ground that sloped rather
+steeply on the other side. The moment they reached the top, a gust of
+wind seized them and blew them down hill as fast as they could run. Nor
+could Diamond stop before he went bang! against one of the doors in a
+wall. To his dismay, it burst open. When they came to themselves, they
+peeped in. It was the back door of a garden.
+
+"Oh! oh!" cried Diamond after staring for a few moments. "I know this
+place--know it well! It is Mr. Coleman's garden and here I am at home
+again. Oh, I am so glad! Come in, little girl! Come in with me and my
+mother will give you some breakfast."
+
+"No, no! I can't!" said the little girl. "We have been so long coming.
+Look up! Don't you see that it is morning now? I must hurry back to my
+crossing and sweep it and get money to take home or they will beat me!
+I cannot stay. Good-bye, little boy, good-bye!"
+
+She started back at once, ran up the hill and disappeared behind it.
+Diamond called after her and called, but she did not even turn round. He
+was sorry to see her go but there was no help for it. So when she was
+gone quite out of sight, he shut the door of the garden as best he
+could, and ran through the kitchen garden to the stables. And wasn't he
+glad to get into his own blessed bed again!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP
+
+
+It was some time before he saw North Wind again. He saw the little girl
+before that but it was only for a moment. It happened in this way. His
+father was taking the horse, Diamond, to have new shoes put on him, and
+knowing that little Diamond, like all small boys, liked a ride, he set
+him on the horse and taking the bridle led the two Diamonds away.
+
+The blacksmith's shop was some distance away, deeper in London. As they
+crossed the angle of a square, Diamond, who was looking about to see if
+any one noticed him riding upon the big horse like a man, saw a little
+girl sweeping a crossing before a lady and holding out her hand for a
+penny. The lady had no penny and the little girl was disappointed.
+
+Diamond could not stand that. He knew the little girl and he knew that
+he had a penny in his pocket. He slid off the horse in a sort of tumble
+and ran to her, holding out the penny. She did not know him at first,
+but when he smiled at her, she did. He stuffed the penny into her hand
+and ran back, for he knew his father would not care to wait. After that,
+he did not see little Nanny for a long time.
+
+He played often now on the lawn of the house next door--Mr. Coleman's
+lawn--as the summer drew near, warm and splendid. One evening, he was
+sitting in a little summer-house at the foot of the lawn, before which
+was a bed of tulips. They were closed for the night but the wind was
+waving them slightly. All at once, out of one of them, there flew a big
+buzzing bumblebee.
+
+"There! That's something done!" said a voice--a gentle, merry, childish
+voice but _so_ tiny! "I was afraid he would have to stay there all
+night."
+
+Diamond looked all about and then he saw the _tiniest_ creature, sliding
+down the stem of the tulip.
+
+"Are you the fairy that herds the bees?" he asked kneeling down beside
+the tulip bed.
+
+"I am not a fairy," answered the little creature. "You stupid Diamond,
+have you never seen me before?"
+
+As she spoke, a moan of wind bent the tulips almost to the ground and
+then he recognized North Wind.
+
+"But there!" added the little creature, "I must not stay to chatter. I
+have to go and sink a ship to-night."
+
+"Sink a ship!" cried Diamond. "And drown the men and women in it? How
+dreadful! Still I cannot believe you are cruel, North Wind!"
+
+"No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to
+those who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry
+away to the back of the north wind--only I never saw the place."
+
+"But how can you carry them there if you never saw the place? And how is
+it that you never saw it?"
+
+"Because it is behind me. You cannot see your own back, you know. But
+run along now if you want to go with me to-night. I cannot take you till
+you have been to bed and gone to sleep. I'll look about and do something
+till you are ready. Do you see that man over there on the river in the
+boat who is just floating about? Now watch!"
+
+She flashed like a dragon-fly across the water whose surface rippled and
+puckered as she passed. The next moment, the man in the boat glanced
+about him and bent to his oars. The boat flew over the rippling water.
+The same instant almost, North Wind perched again upon the river wall.
+
+"How did you do that?" asked Diamond.
+
+"I just blew in his face and blew the mist out of him."
+
+"But what for? I don't understand!" said Diamond. Hearing no answer, he
+looked down at the wall. North Wind was gone. Away across the river
+went a long ripple--what sailors call a cat's paw. The man in the boat
+at once put up his sail. The moon was coming to herself on the edge of a
+great cloud and the sail began to shine white. Diamond rubbed his eyes
+and wondered what it was all about. But he felt that he could not know
+more till he had gone to bed, so he turned away and started for home. He
+stopped to look out of a window before going to bed. Above the moon, the
+clouds were streaming different ways, and the wind was rising as he fell
+asleep.
+
+He woke in the middle of the night and the darkness. A terrible noise
+was rumbling overhead like the rolling beat of great drums. For a while,
+he could not come quite awake. But a second peal of thunder broke over
+his head and a great blast of wind followed which tore some tiles off
+the roof and, through the hole this made, sent a spout of wind down into
+his face. At the same moment, he heard a mighty, yet musical voice say,
+"Come up, Diamond! It's all ready. I am waiting for you." Then a
+gigantic arm was reached down which drew him up and clasped him against
+North Wind's breast.
+
+"Oh, North Wind!" he murmured. But the words vanished from his lips as
+he had seen the soap bubbles, that burst too soon, vanish from the
+mouth of his pipe. The wind caught them and they were no-where.
+
+At the same moment, a peal of thunder which shook Diamond's heart
+against his side boomed out of the heavens; I cannot say, out of the
+sky, for there was no sky. Diamond had not seen the lightning for he had
+been busy trying to find the face of North Wind. Every moment, the folds
+of her garment would sweep across his eyes and blind him. But between
+them, he could just catch glimpses of the great glories of her eyes
+looking down at him through the rifts of the huge clouds over his head.
+
+"Oh dear North Wind!" cried the boy. "Why do you do like this? Must you
+go and sink the ship? It is not like you! Here you are, taking care of a
+poor little boy like me, with one arm, and there you are, sinking the
+ship with the other! No, no! It can't be like you!"
+
+"Then you must believe that I am cruel," answered the strong voice of
+North Wind, sounding about him out of the clouds.
+
+"No, dear North Wind, I can't believe that. I don't believe it. I will
+not believe it. How could you know how to put on such a beautiful face
+if you did not love me and love all the rest too? No! You may sink as
+many ships as you like--though I shall not like to see it!"
+
+"That is quite another thing!" said North Wind.
+
+As she spoke, she gave one spring from the roof and rushed up into the
+clouds. As if the clouds knew she had come, they burst into fresh
+thunderous light. Diamond seemed to be borne through an ocean of
+dazzling flame. The winds were writhing around him like a storm of
+serpents. For they were in the midst of the clouds and mists which of
+course took the shapes of the wind, eddying, and wreathing, and
+whirling, and shooting, and dashing about like gray and black water.
+
+Now it blinded him by smiting him upon the eyes. Now it deafened him by
+bellowing in his ears. But he did not mind it. He only gasped at first,
+and then laughed, for the arm of North Wind was about him and he felt
+quite safe, though he knew that they were sweeping with the speed of the
+wind itself toward the sea! But before they reached it, Diamond felt
+North Wind's hair beginning to fall down about him.
+
+"Is the storm over, North Wind?" he called out.
+
+"No, Diamond. I am only waiting for a moment to set you down. You will
+not like to see the ship sunk and I am going to give you a place to stop
+in till I come back. Look!"
+
+With one sweep of her great white arm, she flung yards deep of darkness,
+like a great curtain, from before the face of the boy. And lo! it was a
+blue night lit up with stars. Where it did not shine with stars, it
+shimmered with a milky whiteness of stars except where, just before
+them, the gray towers of a cathedral blotted out the sky.
+
+"A good place for you to wait in," said North Wind and swept down upon
+the cathedral roof. They went in through an open door in one of the
+towers. Diamond found himself at the top of a stone stair which went
+twisting away down into the darkness. North Wind held his hand, and
+after a little, led him out upon a narrow gallery which ran all around
+the central part of the church. Below him, lay the inside of the church
+like a great silent gulf hollowed in stone. On and on, they walked along
+this narrow gallery till at last they reached a much broader stairway
+leading on down and down until at length, it led them down into the
+church itself.
+
+There he felt himself clasped in the arms of North Wind who held him
+close and kissed him on the forehead. The next moment, she was gone, and
+Diamond heard a moaning about the church which grew and grew to a
+roaring. The storm was up again and he knew that North Wind's hair was
+flying.
+
+The church was dark. Only a little light came through the windows which
+were almost all of that precious old stained glass so much lovelier than
+the new. There was not enough light in the stars to show the colors in
+them. Diamond began to feel his way about the place, and for a little
+while went wandering up and down. His pattering foot-steps waked soft
+answering echoes in the stone house. It was as if the great cathedral
+somehow knew that his little self was there and went on giving back an
+answer to every step he took.
+
+At last, he gave a great sigh and said, "I am _so_ tired!" He did not
+hear the gentle echo which answered from far away over his head. For at
+that moment, he came against the lowest of a few steps that stretched
+across the church, and fell down and hurt his arm. He cried a little at
+first, and then crawled up the steps on his hands and knees. At the top,
+he came to a little bit of carpet on which he lay down. And there he lay
+staring at the dull windows that rose nearly a hundred feet above his
+head.
+
+The moon was at that moment just on the edge of the horizon. And lo!
+with the moon, lovely figures began to dawn in the windows. He lay and
+looked at them backward over his head, wondering if they would come
+down. He heard a low, soft murmuring as if they were talking to
+themselves about him. But his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired.
+His eyelids grew so heavy that they _would_ keep tumbling down over his
+eyes. He kept lifting them and lifting them. But every time, they were
+heavier than the last. It was no use! They were too much for him.
+Sometimes before he got them half way up, down they went again. At
+length, he gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast
+asleep!
+
+When his eyes came wide open again, there were no lovely figures--or
+even windows--but a dark heap of hay all about him. The small panes in
+the roof of his loft were glimmering blue in the light of the morning.
+Old Diamond was coming awake down below in the stable. In a moment more
+he was on his feet and shaking himself so that young Diamond's bed
+trembled under him.
+
+"He is grand at shaking himself!" said Diamond. "I wish I could shake
+myself like that. But then I can wash myself and he can't. What fun it
+would be to see old Diamond washing his face with his hoofs and iron
+shoes! Wouldn't it be a picture!"
+
+He dressed himself quickly and ran out. Down the stairs he went and
+through the little door out upon the lawn of Mr. Coleman's house next
+door. He wanted to see how things looked since last night. There was the
+little summer-house with the tulip bed before it where he had been
+sitting the evening before, crushed to the ground! Over it lay the great
+elm tree which the wind had broken across! As he stood looking at it, a
+gentleman who was staying at the Coleman house came out upon the lawn.
+
+"Dear me!" said the gentleman. "There has been terrible work here! This
+is the North Wind's doing! What a pity! I wish we lived at the back of
+it, I am sure!"
+
+"Where is that, sir?" asked Diamond.
+
+"Away in the Hyperborean regions," answered the gentleman. He smiled for
+he knew well enough that Diamond would not understand that big word
+which means the country away in the far, far north.
+
+"I never heard of that place," returned Diamond.
+
+"No," said the gentleman. "I suppose not. But if this tree had been
+there, it would not have been blown down. There is no wind in that
+country."
+
+"That must be the place," said Diamond to himself, "where North Wind
+said she would take the people whom she sunk with the ship. Next time I
+see her, I am going to ask her to take me to see that land, too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+One morning, Diamond's mother did not think he was feeling very well and
+when he told her that he had a little headache, she was sure of it. Now
+there was an aunt of his living at Sandwich and his mother decided to
+send him there for a change. So giving him two pence for spending money,
+she packed him off to Sandwich for a visit.
+
+He soon made great friends with an old woman who kept a toy-shop there,
+where he spent his two pence. One hot day when he had been walking about
+more than he ought and was tired, he went into the toy-shop to rest. The
+old woman had gone out but he thought it would be all right for him to
+sit down on a box and rest.
+
+All at once, he heard a gentle whirring somewhere amongst the toys.
+Among them was a whistle that had a wind-mill at the end which turned
+when you blew the whistle. No one was blowing the whistle now and yet
+the wind-mill was turning and turning and turning.
+
+"What can it mean?" said Diamond out loud after watching for a few
+moments.
+
+"It means _me_," answered the tiniest voice he had ever heard.
+
+"Who are you, please?" asked Diamond.
+
+"Well, really, I begin to be ashamed of you!" cried the voice. "You are
+as bad as a baby that doesn't know its mother in a new bonnet!"
+
+"Not quite so bad as that, dear North Wind," said Diamond. "And I am so
+glad to see you. Did you sink the ship?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And drown everybody?"
+
+"Not quite. One boat got away with six or seven men in it."
+
+"And you took the others to that queer place the gentleman spoke of,"
+said Diamond to himself. Aloud he said, "Please, North Wind, I want you
+to take me to the country at the back of the north wind."
+
+"That is not so easy," said North Wind and was silent so long that he
+thought she must have gone away. But presently she spoke again.
+
+"It is not so easy," she said thoughtfully. "But we shall see. We shall
+see. You must go home, now, my dear, for you do not seem very well."
+
+So Diamond went home. That afternoon, his head began to ache very much
+and he had to go to bed. In the middle of the night, his aunt came in to
+feel his forehead and to give him a drink of lemonade. Then he went off
+to sleep, but was awake again soon, for a burst of wind blew open his
+lattice window. The same moment, he found himself in a cloud of North
+Wind's hair, with her beautiful face, set in it like a moon, bending
+over him.
+
+"Quick! Diamond!" she said. "I have found such a chance!"
+
+"But I am not well," said Diamond.
+
+"I know. But you will be better for it."
+
+"Very well," said Diamond; and getting out of bed, he jumped into North
+Wind's arms. Sure enough, the moment he felt her arms fold about him, he
+began to feel better. It was a moonless night and very dark, with
+glimpses of stars when the clouds parted.
+
+"We shall soon get to where the waves are dashing about," said North
+Wind. And soon, Diamond looking down saw the white glimmer of breaking
+water far below him.
+
+"You see, Diamond," said North Wind, "it is very difficult to get you to
+the back of the north wind for that country lies in the very north
+itself. Now, of course, I cannot blow northwards, for then I should have
+to be South Wind. The north is where I come from--it is my home though I
+never get nearer to it than the outer door. I can only sit on the
+door-step and hear the voices in there, behind me. Since I cannot blow
+in that direction to get there, I have just to draw into myself and grow
+weaker and fainter as I go. That makes it hard for me to carry
+anything--even you--with me when I go that way. So I must get some help.
+Let me get rid of a few of these clouds. There! What do you see now?"
+
+"A boat," said Diamond.
+
+"A ship," said North Wind, "whose captain I know well. I have often
+helped him to sail his eighty miles a day northward."
+
+"He must have tacked often to do that," said Diamond who had been
+watching the ships at Sandwich.
+
+"Yes, that gave him a share in the business. It is not good at all--mind
+that, Diamond--to do everything for those you love and not give them a
+share in the doing. It is not being really kind to them. If South Wind
+had blown that ship straight north, the captain would just have smoked
+his pipe all day and got stupider and stupider. But now I am going to
+put you aboard his ship. Do you see that round thing on the deck like
+the top of a drum? Below that is where they keep their spare sails. I am
+going to blow it off and drop you through upon the sails. You will find
+it nice and warm and dry. Just coil yourself up there and go to sleep."
+
+A moment more, and he felt himself tumbled in on the heap of sails. Hour
+after hour, he lay comfortably there. He could hear the straining of the
+masts, the creaking of the boom, and the singing of the ropes with the
+roaring of the wind; also the surge of the waves past the ship's sides
+and the thud with which every now and then one would strike her.
+
+All at once arose a terrible uproar. The cover was blown off again, a
+fierce wind rushed in, snatched him up and bore him aloft into the
+clouds. Down below, he saw the little vessel, he had been in, tossing on
+the waves like a sea-bird with folded wing. Near it was a bigger ship
+which was on its way to the north pole.
+
+"That big ship will give us a lift now," said North Wind. Swooping down
+she tucked him snugly in amongst some flags. And now on and on, they
+sped toward the north. How long it was, Diamond did not know, but one
+night she whispered in his ear, "Come up on deck, Diamond."
+
+Everything looked very strange. Here and there on all sides, were huge
+masses of floating ice looking like cathedrals and castles and crags,
+and beyond them a blue sea. Some of the icebergs were drifting
+northward, one passing very near the ship. North Wind seized Diamond
+and with a single bound, lighted on it. The same instant, South Wind
+began to blow and North Wind hurried Diamond down the north side of the
+berg and into a cave. There she sat down as if weary on a ledge of ice.
+
+Diamond was enraptured with the color of the air in the cave, a deep,
+dazzling, lovely blue that was always in motion, boiling and sparkling.
+But when he looked at North Wind he was frightened.
+
+He saw that her form and face were growing, not small, but transparent
+like something dissolving away. He could see the side of the blue cave
+through her very heart. She melted slowly away till all that was left
+was a pale face with two great lucid eyes in it.
+
+"She is dying away!" he said. "Of course, as we go northward, she is
+dying away more and more."
+
+After a little, he went out and sat on the edge of his floating island
+and looked down into the green ocean. When he got tired of that, he went
+back into the blue cave. He felt as if in a dream. He was not hungry,
+but he sucked little bits of the berg at times.
+
+At length, far off on the horizon, there rose into the sky a shining
+peak, and his berg floated right toward it. Other peaks came into view
+as he went on, and at last his berg floated up to a projecting rock.
+Diamond stepped ashore and a little way before him saw a lofty ridge of
+ice with a gap in it like the opening of a valley. As he got nearer, he
+saw it was not a gap but the form of a woman, her hands in her lap and
+her hair hanging to the ground.
+
+"It is North Wind on her door-step!" said Diamond joyfully and hurried
+on.
+
+[Illustration: HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE
+DEAD AT LAST]
+
+She sat motionless with drooping head and did not move nor speak. He was
+sure it was North Wind but he thought she must be dead at last. Her face
+was white as the snow, her eyes blue as the ice cave, and she had on a
+greenish robe like the color in the hollows of a glacier.
+
+He walked toward her instantly and put out his hand to lay it on her.
+There was nothing there but intense cold. All grew white about him. He
+groped on further. The white thickened about him and he felt himself
+stumbling and falling. But as he fell, he rolled over the threshold. It
+was thus that Diamond got to the back of the north wind.
+
+And what did he find? There was no North Wind in sight nor snow nor ice.
+It was a country where even the ground smelled sweetly, though Diamond
+thought the odour must come out of the flowers. A gentle air breathed in
+his face but he was not quite sure he did not miss the wind. A river as
+clear as crystal ran not only through the grass but over it too. It
+murmured a low, sweet song as it ran. There was no sun nor moon but a
+pure cloudless light always, and the blue arch of the sky seemed like a
+harp playing the soft airs of Heaven. There were many people there and
+all the people seemed happy and yet as if they were going to be happier
+some day.
+
+Nothing ever went wrong at the back of the north wind and the only thing
+one ever missed was some one he loved who had not yet got there. But if
+one at the back of the north wind wanted to know how things were going
+with any one he loved, he had only to go to a certain tree, and climb up
+and sit down in the branches.
+
+One day, when Diamond was sitting in this tree, he began to long very
+much to get home again. And no wonder! For he saw his mother crying. Now
+if you wished anything at the back of the north wind, you could follow
+your wish if you could find the way. So Diamond knew that he must now
+find North Wind. He could not go home without her and therefore he must
+find her. He went all about searching and searching. One day as he was
+looking and looking, he thought he caught a glimpse of the ice ridge and
+the misty form of North Wind seated as he had left her. He ran as hard
+as he could. Yes, he was sure it was she. He pushed on through the
+whiteness, which began to thicken around him. It was harder and harder
+to go but he struggled on and at last reached her and sank wearily down
+at her knees. At that same moment, the country at her back vanished from
+Diamond's view.
+
+North Wind was as still as Diamond had left her. But as he touched her,
+her face began to change like that of one waking from sleep. He
+clambered up upon her breast. She gave a great sigh, slowly lifted her
+arms, and slowly folded them about him, until she clasped him close.
+
+"Have you been sitting here ever since I went through you, dear North
+Wind? It has been like a hundred years!" said Diamond.
+
+"It has been just seven days," said North Wind smiling. "Come now, we
+will go."
+
+The next moment, Diamond sat alone on the rock. North Wind had vanished.
+But something like a cockchafer flew past his face. Around and around
+him in circles it went.
+
+"Come along, Diamond," it said in his ear. "It is time we were setting
+out for Sandwich."
+
+It seemed to drop to the ground but when he looked Diamond could see
+nothing but a little spider with long legs which made its way over the
+ice toward the south. It grew and grew till Diamond discovered that it
+was not a spider but a weasel. Away glided the weasel and away went
+Diamond after it. The weasel grew and grew and grew till he saw it was
+not a weasel but a cat. Away went the cat and away went Diamond after
+it. When he came up with it, it was not a cat but a leopard. The leopard
+grew to a jaguar and the jaguar to a Bengal tiger.
+
+Of none of them was Diamond afraid for he had been at North Wind's back
+and he could be afraid of her no longer whatever she did or grew to be.
+The tiger flew over the snow in a straight line for the south, growing
+less and less to Diamond's eyes till it was only a black speck upon the
+whiteness. Then it vanished altogether.
+
+And now Diamond felt that he would rather not run any further and that
+the ice had got very rough. Besides he was near the precipices that
+bounded the sea. So he slowed up his pace to a walk and said to himself,
+"North Wind will come back for me, I know. She is just teasing me a
+little. Then, too, she _must_ get started some way to grow bigger and
+bigger all the time!"
+
+"Here I am, dear boy," said North Wind's voice behind him.
+
+Diamond turned and saw her as he liked best to see her, standing beside
+him a tall, beautiful woman.
+
+"Where is the tiger?" he said. "But of course, you were the tiger. It
+puzzles me a little. I saw it such a long way off before me, and there
+you are behind me. It is odd, you know."
+
+"None of these things is odder to me than to see you eat bread and
+butter," said North Wind.
+
+"I should just like to see a slice of bread and butter!" cried Diamond.
+"I am afraid to say how long it is since I had anything to eat!"
+
+"You shall have some soon. I am glad to find you want some!"
+
+She swept him up in her arms and bounded into the air. Her tresses began
+to lift and rise and spread and stream and flow and flutter. And North
+Wind and Diamond went flying southward. The sea slid away from under
+them like a great web of shot silk, blue shot with gray, and green shot
+with purple. The stars appeared to sail away past them, like golden
+boats on a blue sea turned upside down. Diamond himself went fast, fast,
+fast--he went fast asleep in North Wind's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT
+
+
+When he woke once more, a face was bending over him. It was not North
+Wind's, however; it was his mother's. He put out his arms to her and she
+clasped him to her heart and burst out crying.
+
+"What is the matter, mother?" cried Diamond.
+
+"Oh, Diamond dear! You have been so ill!" she said.
+
+"Why no, mother dear. I have only been at the back of the North Wind,"
+returned Diamond.
+
+"I thought you were dead," said his mother.
+
+At that moment, the doctor came in. He drew his mother aside and told
+her not to talk to Diamond. He must be kept as quiet as possible. And
+indeed, Diamond felt very strange and weak. But he soon got better with
+chicken broth and other nice things.
+
+And it was a good thing that he could get well and strong again. For
+since he had come to Sandwich, a sad thing had happened to his father.
+Mr. Coleman, his father's employer, had failed in business. It had come
+about in this way. Miss Coleman, who had looked so like North Wind that
+night on which he had seen her having her long black hair combed beside
+the fire, had a lover, a Mr. Evans. Now Mr. Evans was poor and felt
+ashamed to marry Miss Coleman until he had made more money and could
+live finely. This was a sort of false pride and it brought about great
+trouble for them all.
+
+For Mr. Coleman took Mr. Evans into partnership to help him along. As
+soon as that happened, Mr. Evans began to urge Mr. Coleman to go into
+business ventures which were not honest but in which they could make a
+great deal of money. It was not so bad at first, but as they went on, it
+became more and more dishonest.
+
+They could not seem to get out of it, however, and get back to carrying
+on their business in the right way. So North Wind had to take a hand and
+teach them better. It was Mr. Coleman's ship she sank that night when
+she carried Diamond into the cathedral to wait for her. In the one
+boat-load of people which North Wind drove off to a desert island, was
+Mr. Evans. He had gone along on the ship to manage the business. Now he
+found that it would have been better to have been poor and stayed at
+home to marry Miss Coleman than to be ship-wrecked and have to live on a
+desert island because he longed so to be rich.
+
+The loss of the ship ruined Mr. Coleman. He had to sell off his house
+and his horses, old Diamond among them, and go and live in a poor little
+house in a much less pleasant place. He had to begin again to work and
+learn how much better it is to be honest and contented than to try to
+get rich quickly. And poor Miss Coleman thought her lover was drowned
+and was very, very unhappy.
+
+Nobody suffers alone. When old Diamond was sold, young Diamond's father
+was thrown out of work. Then he had no way to earn money to keep Diamond
+and his mother and the new little baby brother who had come to them. How
+Diamond did wish he was big enough to do something! But of course, he
+could think of nothing he could do. Besides he had to get well and
+strong first, anyway. His father sent word that he and his mother were
+to stay down at Sandwich until he found something to do and a place
+where he could make a home for them. It was a very fortunate thing that
+Diamond's aunt was glad to keep them with her as long as ever they were
+willing to stay.
+
+One day when Diamond was getting strong enough to go out, his mother got
+his aunt's husband, who had a little pony cart, to carry them down to
+the sea-shore. A whiff of sea air, she said, would do them both good.
+They sat down on the edge of the rough grass which bordered the sand.
+Away before them stretched the sparkling waters of the ocean, every wave
+of which flashed out its delight in the face of the great sun. On each
+hand, the shore rounded outward, forming a little bay. Dry sand was
+about their feet, and under them thin wiry grass.
+
+After a time, his mother stretched out her hand for the basket which she
+had brought with her and she and Diamond had their dinner. Diamond _did_
+enjoy it, the drive and the fresh air had made him so hungry! But he was
+sorry that his mother looked so sad and depressed. He knew she was
+thinking about his father and how they now had no home. But there was
+nothing for him to do. So he lay down on the sand again, feeling sleepy,
+and gazed sleepily out over the sand. "What is that, mother!" he said.
+
+"Only a bit of paper," she answered looking where he pointed.
+
+"It flutters more than a bit of paper would, I think," said Diamond.
+
+"I'll go and see if you like," said his mother.
+
+She rose and went and found that it was a little book partly buried in
+the sand. Several of its leaves were clear of the sand and these the
+wind kept blowing about in a very fluttering manner. She took it up and
+brought it to Diamond.
+
+"What is it, mother?" he asked.
+
+"Rhymes, I think," said she.
+
+"I am so sleepy," he said. "Do read some of them to me."
+
+"Well, I will," she said and began one. "But this is such nonsense," she
+said again. "I will try to find a better one."
+
+She turned the leaves, searching, but three times with sudden puffs the
+wind blew the leaves rustling back to the same verses.
+
+"I wonder if that is North Wind," said Diamond to himself. To his mother
+he said, "Do read that one. It sounded very nice. I am sure it is a good
+one."
+
+His mother thought it might amuse him although she could not find any
+sense in it. So she read on like this:
+
+          I know a river
+          whose waters run asleep,
+          run, run ever,
+          singing in the shallows,
+          dumb in the hollows
+          sleeping so deep;
+          and all the swallows
+          that dip their feathers
+          in the hollows
+          or in the shallows
+          are the merriest swallows of all!
+
+"Why!" whispered Diamond to himself sleepily, "that is what the river
+sang when I was at the back of the north wind."
+
+          And so with the daisies
+          the little white daisies
+          they grow and they blow
+          and they spread out their crown
+          and they praise the sun;
+          and when he goes down
+          their praising is done
+          and they fold up their crown
+          till over the plain
+          he is rising amain
+          and they're at it again!
+          praising and praising
+          such low songs raising
+          that no one hears them
+          but the sun who rears them!
+          and the sheep that bite them
+          awake or asleep
+          are the quietest sheep
+          with the merriest bleat!
+          and the little lambs
+          are the merriest lambs!
+          they forget to eat
+          for the frolic in their feet!
+
+"Merriest, merriest, merriest," murmured Diamond as he sank deeper and
+deeper in sleep. "That is what the song of the river is telling me.
+Even I can be merry and cheerful--and that will help some. And so I
+will--when--I--wake--up--again." And he went off sound asleep.
+
+It was not very long after this that Diamond and his mother could go
+home again. His father had now found something to do and this is how it
+came about. He one day met a cabman who was a friend of his and this
+friend said to him, "Why don't you set up as a cabman yourself--and buy
+a cab?"
+
+"I haven't enough money to buy a horse with--and a cab," said Diamond's
+father.
+
+"Look here," answered his friend. "I just bought an old horse the other
+day, cheap. He is no good for the hansom I drive, for when folks take a
+hansom, they want to drive like the wind. But for a four-wheeler that
+takes families and their luggage, he's the very horse. I bought him
+cheap and I'll sell him cheap."
+
+"Oh, I don't want him," said Diamond's father.
+
+"Well, come and see him anyway," said his friend. So he went.
+
+What was his delight on going into the stable to find that the horse was
+no other than his own old Diamond! Diamond, grown very thin and bony and
+long-legged. The horse hearing his master's voice, turned his long
+neck. And when his old friend went up to him and laid his hand on his
+side, he whinnied for joy and laid his big head on his master's breast.
+This settled the matter. Diamond's father put his arms around old
+Diamond's neck and fairly cried.
+
+The end of it was that Diamond's father bought old Diamond again,
+together with a four-wheeled cab. As there were some rooms to be had
+over the stable, he took them, wrote to his wife to come home, and set
+up as a cabman.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when Diamond and his mother and the baby
+reached London. His father was waiting for them with his own cab but
+they had not told Diamond who the horse was. For his father wanted to
+enjoy the pleasure of his surprise when he found it out. He got in with
+his mother without looking at the horse and was quite proud of riding
+home in his father's cab.
+
+When he got to the stables where their rooms were he could not help
+being a little dismayed at first. But he thought of the song of the
+river at the back of the north wind and just looked about for things
+that were pleasant. He said to himself that it was a fine thing that all
+their old furniture was there. Then he began to search out the
+advantages of the place.
+
+A thick, dull rain was falling and that was depressing. But the weather
+would change and there was a good fire burning in the room, which a
+neighbor had made for them. The tea things were put out and the kettle
+was boiling on the fire. And with a good fire and tea and bread and
+butter, things cannot be so _very_ bad.
+
+But Diamond's father and mother were rather miserable and Diamond began
+to feel a kind of darkness spreading over him. At the same moment, he
+said, "This will never do! I can't give in to this. I've been at the
+back of the north wind. Things go right there and they must be made to
+go right here!"
+
+So he said out loud, "What nice bread and butter this is!" And when he
+had eaten it, he began to amuse the baby who was soon shrieking with
+laughter. His father and mother had to laugh too and things began to
+look better.
+
+It was indeed a change for them all, not only from Sandwich but from
+their old place. Instead of the great river where the huge barges with
+their brown and yellow sails went up and down, their windows now looked
+out upon a dirty paved yard. There was no garden more for Diamond to run
+into when he pleased, with gay flowers about his feet, and lofty trees
+over his head.
+
+Neither was there a wooden wall at the back of his bed with a hole in
+it for North Wind to come in at when she liked. Indeed, there was such a
+high wall that North Wind seldom got into the place. And the wall at the
+head of Diamond's new bed only divided it from the room where a cabman
+lived who drank too much beer and came home to quarrel with and abuse
+his wife. It was dreadful for Diamond to hear the scolding and the
+crying. But he was determined it should not make him miserable for he
+had been at the back of the north wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE
+
+
+The wind blew loudly all night long, the first night Diamond slept in
+his new home, but he did not hear it. My own belief is that when Diamond
+slept too soundly to remember anything about it in the morning, he had
+been all night at the back of the north wind. Sometimes something did
+seem to remain in his mind like the low far-off murmur of the river
+singing its song. He sometimes tried to hold on to the words it sung.
+But ever as he came _awaker_--as he would say--one line faded away and
+then another. At last there was nothing left but the sense that
+everything went right there and could--and must--be made to go right
+here.
+
+That was how he awoke that first morning and he jumped up at once
+saying, "I've been ill a long time and given a great deal of trouble.
+Now let's see how I can help my mother."
+
+When he went into her room, he found her lighting the fire and his
+father just getting up. So he took up the baby who was awake too and
+cared for him till his mother had the breakfast ready. She was looking
+gloomy and his father too was silent. Diamond felt that in a few
+minutes, he would be just as miserable. But he tried with all his might
+to be jolly with the baby and presently his mother just had to smile.
+
+"Why, Diamond, child!" she said at last. "You are as good to your mother
+as if you were a girl--nursing the baby and toasting the bread, and
+sweeping up the hearth. I declare a body would think you had been among
+the fairies."
+
+"I've been at the back of the north wind," said Diamond to himself
+happily.
+
+And now his father was more cheerful too. "Won't you come out and see
+the cab, Diamond?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, father, in just a minute after I put the baby down."
+
+So his father went on ahead. When Diamond got out into the yard, the
+horse was between the shafts. Diamond went around to look at him. The
+sight of him made him feel very queer. He could not make it out. What
+horse was it that looked so familiar? When he came around in front and
+the old horse put out his long neck and began rubbing against him,
+Diamond saw it could be no other than old Diamond and he just put his
+arms around his neck and cried.
+
+"Isn't it jolly, father!" he said. "Was there ever anybody so lucky as
+we! Dear old Diamond!" He hugged the horse again and kissed both his
+big, hairy cheeks. He could only manage one at a time, however--the
+other cheek was so far off on the other side of old Diamond's big head.
+And now his father took up the reins to drive off.
+
+"Oh, father, do let me drive a bit!" cried Diamond jumping up on the box
+beside him. His father put the reins into his hands and began to show
+him how to drive. He let Diamond drive quite a little way and then the
+boy jumped down and ran gaily back to his mother.
+
+Now it happened that the man who sold old Diamond back to his father,
+saw how delighted little Diamond was to learn to drive. And that
+evening, shortly before Diamond's father came home, the man asked
+Diamond's mother if the boy might not go a little way with him.
+
+"He cannot go far," said his mother, "for he is not very strong yet."
+
+"I will take him only as far as the square," said the man.
+
+Diamond's mother said he might go as far as that. Dancing with delight,
+Diamond ran to get his cap and in a few minutes was jumping into the
+cab. The man gave him the reins and showed him how to drive safely
+through the gate and Diamond got along famously. Just as they were
+turning into the square, they had an adventure. It was getting quite
+dusky. A cab was coming rapidly from the other direction, and Diamond
+pulling aside and the other driver pulling up, they just escaped a
+collision. And there was his father!
+
+"Why, Diamond, it is a bad beginning to run into your own father," he
+said.
+
+"But, father, wouldn't it have been a bad ending for you to run into
+your own son!" answered the boy. And both men laughed heartily.
+
+"He is a good little driver, though," said the man. "He would be fit to
+drive on his own hook in a week or two. But he had better go back with
+you now."
+
+"Come along then, Diamond," said his father. Diamond jumped across into
+the other cab and they drove away home.
+
+It was not long before Diamond was a great favorite with all the men
+about the stables--he was so jolly! It was not the best place in the
+world for him to be brought up in and at first he did hear a good many
+rough and bad words. But as he did not like them, he never learned to
+say them and they did him little harm. Before long, the men grew rather
+ashamed to use them. One would nudge the other to remind him that the
+boy was within hearing and the words choked themselves before they got
+any further.
+
+One day, they gave him a curry comb and brush to try his hand on old
+Diamond's coat. He used them deftly and thoroughly as far as he could
+reach.
+
+"You must make haste and grow," the men told him. "It won't do to clean
+a horse half way up and leave his back dirty, you know."
+
+"Put me up," said Diamond. In a moment he was on the old horse's back
+with the comb and brush. There he combed and brushed and combed and
+brushed. Every now and then, old Diamond would whisk his tail and once
+he sent the comb flying out of the stable door to the great amusement of
+the men. But they brought it back to him and Diamond finished his task.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Diamond, when he had done. "I'm so tired!" And he laid
+himself down at full length on old Diamond's back. The men were much
+amused and from that time were always ready to teach him to drive.
+
+So in one way and another, he did learn to drive all sorts of horses,
+and through the most crowded streets in London city. One day his father
+took him on his own cab and as they were standing waiting for a
+passenger, his father left him alone for a few minutes. Hearing a noise,
+Diamond looked around to see what it was. There was a crossing near the
+cab-stand where a girl was sweeping. Some young roughs had picked a
+quarrel with her and were now trying to pull her broom away from her.
+Diamond was off his box in a moment and running to the help of the girl.
+The roughs began to act worse than ever. Just then Diamond's father came
+back and sent them flying. The girl thanked Diamond and began sweeping
+again as if nothing had happened.
+
+She did not forget her friends, however. A moment after, she came
+running up with her broom over her shoulder, calling "Cab, there! Cab!"
+And when Diamond's father reached the curbstone, who should it be but
+Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman! Diamond and his father were very happy to
+see them again and gladly drove them home. When they wanted to pay for
+it, Diamond's father would not hear of it, but jumped on his box and
+drove away.
+
+It was a long time since Diamond had seen North Wind or even thought
+much about her. Now, as his father drove along, he was thinking not
+about her but about the crossing sweeper. He was wondering what made him
+feel as if he knew her quite well when he could not remember anything of
+her. But a picture arose in his mind of a little girl running before
+the wind, and dragging her broom after her. From that, he recalled the
+whole adventure of the night when he had gone out with North Wind and
+made her put him down in a London street.
+
+A few nights after this, Diamond woke up suddenly, believing he heard
+the north wind thundering along. But it was something quite different.
+South Wind was moaning around the chimneys, to be sure, for she was not
+very happy that night. But it was not her voice that had wakened
+Diamond. It was a loud angry voice, now growling like that of a beast,
+now raving like that of a madman. It was the voice of the drunken cabman
+whose room was just through the wall at the back of Diamond's bed.
+
+At length, there came a cry from the woman and a scream from the baby.
+Diamond thought it was time somebody did something. He jumped up and
+went to see. The voice of the crying baby guided him to the right door
+and he peeped in. The drunken cabman had dropped into a chair, his wife
+lay sobbing on the bed, and the baby was wailing in its cradle.
+
+Diamond's first thought was to run away from the misery of it. But he
+remembered at once that he had been at the back of the north wind.
+People who had been there must always try to destroy misery wherever
+they saw it. But what could he do? Well, there was the baby. He stole in
+and lifted it into his arms and soon had it on his knee, smiling at the
+light that came in from the street lamp. He began to sing to it in a low
+voice--the song of the river as it ran over the soft grass and among the
+flowers in the country at the back of the north wind. He sang on till
+the baby went sound asleep. He himself got sleepier and sleepier, though
+the cabman and his wife only got wider awake all the time. At length,
+Diamond found himself nodding. He got up and laid the baby gently in its
+cradle and stole quietly out and home again to his own bed.
+
+"Wife," said the cabman, "did you see that angel?"
+
+"Yes," answered his wife, "it is little Diamond who lives in the next
+yard."
+
+She knew him well enough. She was the neighbor who had the fire lighted
+and the tea ready for them when Diamond and his mother came home from
+Sandwich on that rainy, gloomy night. Her husband was somehow very sorry
+now and ashamed of the misery he had caused--was it the song of the
+river which Diamond had sung that caused it? He tried hard to forget
+where the drink shop stood and for a good many weeks managed to keep
+away from it.
+
+One day when their cab was waiting for a fare, Diamond jumped down to
+run a little and stretch his legs. He strolled up to the crossing where
+Nanny and her broom were to be found in all weathers. Just as he was
+going to speak to her a tall gentleman stepped upon the crossing. He was
+glad to find it clean and he gave the girl a penny. When she made him a
+courtesy, he looked at her again and said, "Where do you live, my
+child?"
+
+"Paradise Row," she answered. "Next door to the Adam and Eve--down the
+area."
+
+"Whom do you live with?" he asked.
+
+"My wicked old granny," she replied.
+
+"You should not call your granny wicked," said the gentleman.
+
+"But she is!" said Nanny. "If you don't believe me, you can come and
+take a look at her."
+
+The gentleman looked very grave at hearing her. It was not a nice way
+for a little girl to talk. He was turning away, when he saw the face of
+Diamond looking up into his own.
+
+"Please," said Diamond, "her granny is very cruel to her sometimes--and
+shuts her out in the streets at night if she happens to be late."
+
+"So, my little man. And what can you do?" asked the gentleman turning
+towards him.
+
+"Drive a cab," said Diamond proudly.
+
+"Anything else?" asked the gentleman smiling.
+
+"Take care of the baby," said Diamond; "clean father's boots and make
+him a bit of toast for his tea."
+
+"You are a useful little man," said the gentleman. "Can you read?"
+
+"No, but father and mother can and they are going to teach me soon."
+
+"Well, here is a penny for you, and when you learn to read, come to me
+and I will give you six-pence and a book with fine pictures in it."
+
+He gave Diamond a card with his address on it. "Thank you," said Diamond
+and put the card into his pocket. The gentleman walked away but he saw
+Diamond give the penny to Nanny and say, "I have a father and mother and
+little brother and you have nothing but a wicked old granny. You may
+have my penny."
+
+The girl put the penny in her pocket and Diamond asked, "Is she as cruel
+as ever?"
+
+"Just the same. But I get more coppers, so I can buy myself some food.
+She is so blind that she doesn't see that I do not eat her old scraps. I
+hide them in my pocket."
+
+"What do you want them for?"
+
+"To give to cripple Jim. His leg was broken when he was young, so he
+isn't good for much. But I love Jim. I always keep something for him."
+
+"Diamond! Diamond!" called his father, just then.
+
+So Diamond ran back and told him about the gentleman and showed him the
+card he had given him.
+
+"Why, it is not many doors from our stables!" cried his father looking
+at the address. "Take care of it, Diamond. One needs all the friends he
+can get in this world."
+
+"We've got many friends," said Diamond. "Haven't we? There's mother and
+the baby and old Diamond--and the man next door who drinks--and his wife
+and baby--and Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman--and--and a many!"
+
+His father just laughed and drove off.
+
+[Illustration: WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE
+VERSES FOR HIMSELF]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB
+
+
+The question of the tall gentleman as to whether Diamond could read or
+not, set his father to thinking it was high time he could. As soon as
+old Diamond was fed and bedded, he began the task of teaching him that
+very night. It was not much of a task to Diamond for his father took for
+the lesson book the same one which North Wind had waved the leaves of on
+the sands at Sandwich. Within a month, he was able to spell out most of
+the verses for himself. But he never found in it the river song which he
+thought his mother had read from it. Could it have been North Wind doing
+the reading in his mother's voice?
+
+It was not long before Diamond managed with many blunders to read all
+the rhymes in his book to his mother. Then he said, "In a week or so, I
+shall be able to go to the tall gentleman and tell him I can read." But
+before the week was out he had another reason for going to the
+gentleman, whose name he found out was Mr. Raymond. For three days,
+Nanny had not been at her crossing. Diamond was quite anxious about her,
+fearing she must be ill. On the fourth day not seeing her yet, he said
+to his father, "I want to go and look after Nanny. She can't be well."
+
+"All right," said his father. "Only take care of yourself, Diamond."
+
+So Diamond set off to find his way to Nanny's home. It was a long
+distance and he had to ask his way over and over again. But he kept on
+without getting discouraged and at last he came to it.
+
+Happily for Diamond, the ugly old granny had gone out. He laid his ear
+to the door and thought he heard a moaning within. He tried the door and
+found it was not locked. It was a dreary place indeed--and very dark,
+for the window was below the level of the street and was covered with
+mud. And the smell in the room was dreadful!
+
+He could see next to nothing at first but he heard the moaning plainly
+enough now. Soon he found his friend lying with closed eyes and a white
+suffering face on a heap of rags in a corner. He went up to her and
+spoke but she made him no answer. She did not even hear him. Taking out
+a lump of barley sugar candy he had brought for her he laid it down
+beside her and hurried away. He was going to find Mr. Raymond and see if
+he could not do something for Nanny.
+
+It was a long walk to Mr. Raymond's door but he got there at last. Yet
+after all, the servant was not going to let him in, only Mr. Raymond
+came out into the hall just then and saw him and recognized him at once.
+
+"Come in, my little man," he said. "I suppose you have come to claim
+your six-pence."
+
+"No, sir, not that."
+
+"What! Can't you read yet?"
+
+"Yes," said Diamond. "I can now a little. But I've come to tell you
+about Nanny--the little girl at the crossing."
+
+"Oh, yes, I remember her," said Mr. Raymond. "What is it about Nanny?"
+
+Diamond told him all about her--how she was sick, and how dark it was
+where she lived and with bad smells. Now, Mr. Raymond was one of the
+kindest men in London and was well known at the children's hospital. He
+hurried there now, and some one went from there at once to find Nanny.
+Before night, they sent a litter for her and soon the little girl was
+lying in a nice clean bed, though she was too sick to know anything
+about it.
+
+Diamond overheard a doctor say to Mr. Raymond, "How do you suppose the
+little chap knew what to do about Nanny?"
+
+"He doesn't know that I have been at the back of the north wind," he
+said to himself. "If you have once been there, it just comes to you how
+to do a little to help."
+
+After Nanny had been well seen to, Mr. Raymond took the boy home with
+him and they soon settled the matter of the six-pence between them.
+
+"And now, what will you do with it?" the gentleman asked him.
+
+"Take it home to my mother," answered Diamond. "She has a tea-pot with a
+broken spout and she keeps all her money in it. It isn't much but she
+saves it up to buy shoes for me. And there's the baby--he'll want shoes
+soon. And every six-pence is something, isn't it?"
+
+"To be sure, my little man. And here is the book for you, full of
+pictures and stories."
+
+There were poems in it too, and Diamond at once began to puzzle out one
+of them which ran like this:
+
+          I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;
+          My one foot stands but never goes.
+          I have many arms and they are mighty, all;
+          And hundreds of fingers large and small.
+          From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows,
+          I breathe with my hair and I drink with my toes.
+          In the summer, with song I shake and quiver,
+          But in winter, I fast and groan and shiver.
+
+When Diamond ran home with his new book in his hand, he found his father
+at home already. He was sitting by the fire and looking rather miserable
+for his head ached and he looked sick. The next day, he had to stay in
+bed while his wife nursed him, and Diamond took care of the baby. By the
+next day, he was very ill indeed. And it was not long before their money
+was all gone.
+
+Diamond's mother could not help crying over it but she came into
+Diamond's room so that the poor sick father should not hear it. Diamond
+was frightened when he heard her sobbing and said, "Is father worse?"
+
+"No, no," said his mother, "he is better. But the money is all gone and
+what are we to do?"
+
+"Don't cry," said Diamond. "We'll get along some how. Let me read to you
+out of North Wind's book."
+
+So he read a little story about the early bird that caught the nice fat
+worm.
+
+"I wish you were like that little bird, dear," said his mother, "and
+could catch something to eat!"
+
+After she was gone away, Diamond lay thinking and somehow he seemed to
+hear the murmur of North Wind's river blowing through his thoughts and
+telling him about something he could do. The next morning he got up as
+soon as he heard the men moving in the yard. When he went down, the
+stable was just opened. "I'm the early bird, I think," he said to
+himself, "and I hope I'll catch the worm."
+
+[Illustration: HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY]
+
+He would not ask any one to help him because he was afraid he would be
+kept from doing what he wanted. With the aid of an old chair, he got the
+harness on old Diamond. The dear old horse opened his mouth for the bit
+just as if Diamond was giving him an apple. He fastened the cheek-strap
+very carefully, and got all the pieces of harness on and buckled. By
+this time some of the men were watching him to see if he would get it
+all done by himself. And when he put old Diamond between the shafts, got
+his whip, and jumped up on the box, the men broke into a cheer.
+
+The cheer brought his mother to the window and when she saw her little
+boy setting out all alone in the cab, she called "Diamond! Diamond!" But
+Diamond did not hear her for the rattle of the cab and so he drove away.
+He was very much afraid no one would hire him because he was such a
+little driver. But before he got to his regular stand, he was hailed by
+a man who wanted to catch a train and was in too great a hurry to
+think about the driver. He got a good fare for that and reached the
+cab-stand the first one after all. As the other cabmen came, he told
+them about his father and said that he was going to drive the cab in his
+place.
+
+"Well, you are a plucky one!" they all said. "And you shall have a fair
+chance with the rest."
+
+And he did, for another gentleman came up very soon for him. When he saw
+the boy, he was much astonished. "Are you the driver of this cab?" he
+asked. "Yes, sir," answered Diamond, showing his father's badge of which
+he was proud.
+
+"You are the youngest cabman I ever saw!" said the gentleman greatly
+amused. "But I believe I'll risk you!"
+
+He jumped in and soon found that Diamond got him over the ground very
+well. The trip was one of several miles and the gentleman paid him three
+shillings for the drive. When Diamond got back, he stopped at a stand
+where he had never been before and got down to put on old Diamond's
+nose-bag of oats. The men there did not treat him very nicely and a
+group of rough boys came up and began to torment him. But who do you
+think came to his rescue? Why, the drunken cabman whose room was next
+to Diamond's and whose baby Diamond had once rocked and put to sleep.
+
+"What is up here?" the cabman asked.
+
+"Do you see this young snip?" the boys cried, "He pretends to drive a
+cab!"
+
+"Yes, I do see him," said the cabman. "I see you, too. You'd better take
+yourselves away from here or you won't find me very agreeable!"
+
+And they went in a hurry!
+
+When Diamond went home that night, he carried one pound, one shilling
+and six-pence. His mother had grown very anxious and was almost afraid
+to look when she heard his cab coming at last. But there was the old
+horse, and there was the cab, all right! And there was Diamond on the
+box his face as triumphant as a full moon! One of the men took the horse
+to put him up and Diamond ran into the house and into the arms of his
+mother!
+
+"See! See!" he cried. "Here is the worm I caught!" He poured out the
+six-pences and shillings into her lap. His mother burst out crying
+again, but with joy this time and ran to show his father. Then how
+pleased _he_ was! And Diamond snatched up the baby and began to sing and
+dance, he was so happy!
+
+The next morning, Diamond was up almost as early as before. But the men
+would not let him do the harnessing any more. They got the cab all ready
+for him and sent him in to eat all the breakfast he could and get well
+bundled up. His first passenger was a young woman to be taken to the
+docks. When he started back some roughs came along and tried to steal
+his fare. But a pale-faced man came up and beat them off with his stick,
+and told Diamond to drive away. Diamond begged him to get into the cab
+and ride. The man said he could not spare the money to ride--he was too
+poor.
+
+"Oh, do come!" said Diamond. "I don't want the money. You helped me. Let
+me help you."
+
+"Well," said the man, "if you will take me to Chiswick, I can pay for
+that. Drive to the Wilderness--Mr. Coleman's place. I'll show you when
+we get there."
+
+Now Diamond had been thinking he had seen the gentleman before and when
+he said this, it flashed upon him that it was Mr. Evans who had been
+going to marry Miss Coleman. North Wind had sunk his and Mr. Coleman's
+ship because their business was not honest and was making bad men of
+them. She had carried Mr. Evans away to a desert island. He had just
+got back again and was poor now and humble and willing to begin to work
+again in an honest way.
+
+It was plain he did not know that Mr. Coleman had been ruined too and
+had been forced to sell the Wilderness and move into a poor house in the
+city. But Diamond knew, and as he drove along he was thinking what he
+ought to do. The gentleman would not find Miss Coleman at the
+Wilderness. And if he told him where she lived now, perhaps he would not
+go to see her because he would be so ashamed of having brought all this
+trouble on her by trying so hard to be rich.
+
+Still he must want to see her very much and she must want to see him. So
+Diamond made up his mind to drive straight to where Miss Coleman lived
+now, and then they could explain to each other. So on he went.
+
+Now the wind was blowing furiously and when old Diamond finally got to
+Miss Coleman's house and held back to stop, one of the straps of the
+harness broke. Diamond jumped down and opened the cab door and asked the
+gentleman if he would not step into this house where friends of his
+lived and wait while he mended the strap. Then he ran and rang the bell
+and whispered to the maid who came to call Miss Coleman. A few minutes
+later, he was not at all sure he had done the right thing. For suddenly
+there came the sound of a great cry and then a running to and fro in the
+house. But after a little while, they came and called him in and Miss
+Coleman put her arms around him and hugged him tight!
+
+The rest of the day, he did very well. And what a story he had to tell
+his father and mother that night about Mr. Evans and the Colemans. They
+were sure he had done right and he was so glad!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DIAMOND VISITS NANNY
+
+
+For a fortnight, Diamond went on driving his cab and helping his family.
+Some people began to know him and to look for him to drive them where
+they wanted to go. One old gentleman who lived near the stables hired
+him to carry him into the city every morning at a certain hour. And
+Diamond was as regular as clock work. After that fortnight, his father
+was able to go out again. Then Diamond began to think about little Nanny
+and went off to inquire about her.
+
+The first day his father took up his work again, Diamond went with him
+as usual. In the afternoon, however, his father went home and left
+Diamond to drive the cab for the rest of the day. It was hard for old
+Diamond to do all the work but they could not afford to have another
+horse. They saved him as much as they could and fed him well and he did
+bravely.
+
+The next morning, his father was so much stronger that Diamond thought
+he might go and ask Mr. Raymond to take him to see Nanny. Mr. Raymond
+was quite willing to go and so they walked over to the hospital which
+was close at hand.
+
+When Diamond followed Mr. Raymond into the room where those children lay
+who had got over the worst of their illness, and were growing better, he
+saw a number of little iron beds. Each one of them stood with its head
+to the wall and in each one was a child whose face showed just how far
+it had left the pain behind and was getting well. Diamond looked all
+around but he could see no Nanny. He turned to Mr. Raymond with a
+question in his eyes.
+
+"Well?" said Mr. Raymond.
+
+"Nanny's not here," said Diamond.
+
+"Oh, yes, she is."
+
+"I don't see her!"
+
+"I do, though. There she is."
+
+He pointed to a bed right in front of where Diamond was standing.
+
+"That's not Nanny!" cried Diamond.
+
+"Yes, it _is_ Nanny. I have seen her a great many times since you have,
+and that is she."
+
+So Diamond looked again and looked hard. "If that is Nanny," said
+Diamond to himself, "then she must have been at the back of the north
+wind. That is why she looks so different." He said nothing aloud, only
+stared. And as he stared, something of the face of the old Nanny began
+to come out in the face of the new Nanny. The old Nanny had been
+somewhat rough in her speech, her face rather hard, and she had not
+kept herself clean--how could she! Now, in her fresh white bed, she
+looked sweet and gentle and refined.
+
+"Surely North Wind has had something to do with it," thought Diamond. In
+her weeks of sickness, had North Wind carried Nanny to the country at
+her back--as she once had carried him--and changed her from a rough girl
+to a gentle maiden? As he gazed, the best of the old face, the good and
+true part of the old Nanny, dawned upon him like the moon coming out of
+a cloud. He saw that it was Nanny, indeed--but very worn and grown
+almost beautiful.
+
+He went up to her and she smiled. He had heard her laugh, but he had
+never seen her smile before. "Nanny, do you know me?" asked Diamond. She
+only smiled again. She was not likely to forget him. To be sure, she did
+not know that it was he who had got her there. But he was the only boy
+except cripple Jim who had ever been kind to her.
+
+Mr. Raymond walked about talking to the other children, while Diamond
+visited with Nanny. Then after a time, he stood in the middle of the
+room and told them a nice fairy story. He often did that and the
+children watched for his visits. After he finished the story, he had to
+go. Diamond took leave of Nanny and promised to go and see her again
+soon and went away with Mr. Raymond.
+
+Now Mr. Raymond had been turning over in his mind what he could do for
+Diamond and for Nanny. He knew Diamond's father somewhat. But he wanted
+to find out better what sort of a man he was and whether he was worth
+doing anything for. He decided to see if he would do anything for any
+body else. For that would be the very best way to find out if it were
+worth while to do anything for _him_. So as they walked away together,
+he said to little Diamond, "Nanny must leave the hospital soon, Diamond.
+They cannot keep her as long as they would like. They cannot keep her
+till she is quite strong. There are always so many sick children they
+want to take in and make better. The question is what will she do when
+they send her out again?"
+
+"That is just what I can't tell," said Diamond, "though I've been
+thinking it over and over. Her crossing was taken long ago. I couldn't
+bear to see Nanny fighting for it, especially with the poor lame boy who
+has taken it. Besides she has no better right to it than he has. Nobody
+gave it to her. She just took it and now he has taken it."
+
+"She would get sick again, anyway," said Mr. Raymond, "if she went to
+sweeping again right away in the wet. If somebody could only teach her
+something to do it would be better. Perhaps if she could be taught to be
+nice and clean and to speak only gentle words----"
+
+"Mother could teach her that!" interrupted Diamond.
+
+"And to dress babies and feed them and take care of them," Mr. Raymond
+went on, "she might get a place as nurse maid somewhere. People would
+give her money for that."
+
+"Why, I'll ask mother!" cried Diamond. "She could learn to dress our
+baby, you know, with me to show her how!"
+
+"But you will have to give her food then. And your father, not being
+strong, has enough to do already without that."
+
+"Still there am I!" said Diamond. "I'll help him out with it. When he
+gets tired of driving, up I get. And I could drive more if Nanny was at
+home to help mother."
+
+"Now I wonder," said Mr. Raymond, "if you couldn't do better with two
+horses. I am going away for a few months and I am willing to let your
+father have my horse while I am gone. He is nearly as old as your
+Diamond. I don't want to part with him and yet I don't want him to be
+idle. Nobody ought to be idle, not even a horse. Still I do not want him
+to be worked hard. Will you tell your father what I say and see if he
+wants to take charge of him?"
+
+"Yes, I will," said Diamond. "And he will come and see you about it."
+
+So when Diamond went home, he told his father all about it. But when his
+father went to see about it, he found that he must agree to work the
+horse only six hours a day. Then too he must take Nanny from the
+hospital and feed her, and teach her to be useful and keep her as long
+as he had Mr. Raymond's horse. Diamond's father could not help thinking
+that it was a pretty close bargain and so it was. Mr. Raymond wanted to
+find out if Diamond's father was the kind of man who was willing to help
+some one else without getting any advantage out of it for himself. Then
+it would be worth while to help _him_. Diamond's father was that kind of
+a man. So when he heard all about Nanny, he decided to accept Mr.
+Raymond's offer and do the best he could.
+
+Nanny was not fit to be moved for some time yet and Diamond went to see
+her as often as he could. But he went out to drive old Diamond every day
+now for a few hours at least. Then he had to help mind his baby brother
+for part of the time. So he did not go to the hospital as often as he
+would have liked. When he did go, he sat by Nanny's bed and told her all
+that had happened to him since he had been there before. In her turn
+Nanny would tell him of what went on in the hospital--what visitors they
+had and things like that.
+
+"Day before yesterday," said Nanny one day, "a lady came to see us. She
+was a very beautiful lady. She sat down beside my bed and let me stroke
+her hand. She had on a most beautiful ring with a rich red stone in it.
+When she saw me looking at it, she slipped it off her finger and put it
+on mine. She said I might wear her lovely ruby for a little while if it
+would make me happy."
+
+"Her ruby!" cried Diamond. "How funny that is! Our new horse's name is
+Ruby. And we took him so that we could take you to live with us, while
+you are getting strong again. I do believe a ruby is for good luck!"
+
+"It did me good right then," said Nanny. "For that night I had such a
+lovely dream. It began with a red sunset like my darling ruby ring. Then
+somehow a wind came out of it and blew me along out of the dirty streets
+into a yard with a lovely lawn of soft grass."
+
+"That was North Wind, I know!" cried Diamond. "That is what she does to
+me."
+
+"I do not know what you mean," said Nanny. "I do not know anything about
+North Wind. But all at once there was no more ruby sunset but a great
+golden moon hanging very low and seeming to be shining just to be good
+to me. It was easy, I suppose, for me to dream about the moon. I've
+always been used to watching her. She was the only thing worth looking
+at in our street, at night."
+
+"Don't call it your street," said Diamond. "You are not going back to
+it. You are coming to us, you know."
+
+"That is too good to be true!" said Nanny.
+
+"No, no!" cried Diamond. "How could anything be too good to be true? To
+be true is to be the very best thing of all. It sounds like your wicked
+old granny to say that!"
+
+"Do you know, Diamond," said Nanny, "I do not think my old granny is my
+real old granny at all. I don't think she was ever any one's granny or
+mother. That was why she was not good to me. Perhaps she never had any
+mother when she was little to be good to her. And somebody must first be
+good to you, don't you think, before you can learn how to be good to any
+body else? Isn't that so? But where was I in my dream? Oh yes, the big
+yellow moon came down closer and closer to the grass in front of me.
+Then somehow, it seemed to be my ruby lady. She reached out soft warm
+arms of golden light and took me up. I sank against her breast into very
+downy, golden clouds and went to sleep and left off having pain. And yet
+I didn't sleep but knew it all the time, and just swung softly there all
+night long."
+
+"Wasn't it really North Wind?" said Diamond to himself. "Perhaps it
+_was_ North Wind though she doesn't know it. Maybe the moon does just
+the same. What if it should some day carry her to that same country--at
+the back of _my_ North Wind! Who knows?"
+
+The nurse now came and told him it was time to go. Nanny had closed her
+eyes as if she were tired or asleep. So Diamond arose quietly and
+tip-toed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY
+
+
+It was a great delight to Diamond, when at length Nanny was well enough
+to leave the hospital and go to their house. She was not strong yet but
+Diamond's mother was very careful of her. She took care she should have
+nothing to do that she was not fit for. If Nanny had been taken straight
+from the street, it is pretty sure she would not have been so pleasant
+in a nice house nor so easy to teach. But the kindness they had shown
+her in the hospital while she was ill so long had changed her quite a
+little.
+
+As she got better, the colour came back to her cheeks, her step grew
+lighter and quicker, her smile shone out more readily, and it was clear
+she would soon be a treasure of help. It was great fun to see Diamond
+teaching her how to hold the baby and wash and dress him. Nanny had
+never had a little brother or sister to care for and she and Diamond
+often had to laugh over her awkwardness. But she was soon able to do it
+all as well as Diamond himself.
+
+Things, however, did not go very well with Diamond's father from the
+first coming of the horse, Ruby. It almost seemed as if the red beast
+brought bad luck with him. The fares were fewer and the pay less.
+Ruby's work did indeed make the week's income at first a little more
+than it used to be. But then there were two more to feed. After the
+first month, however, he fell lame, and for the whole of the next month,
+Diamond's father did not dare work him at all. It cost just as much to
+feed him and all he did was to stand in the stable and grow fat.
+
+And after he got well again, it was not much better. Times had then
+become hard and fewer and fewer people felt that they could afford to
+ride in cabs. The cabmen got fewer and fewer shillings to live on.
+Diamond's household had less and less to buy food and clothing with.
+Then too, Diamond's mother was poorly for a new baby was coming.
+
+Diamond's father began to feel gloomier and gloomier and if Diamond had
+not made himself remember that he had been at the back of the north
+wind, he would have been gloomy himself. But when his father came home,
+Diamond would get out his book and show him how well he could read.
+Besides he taught Nanny how to read and as she was a very clever little
+girl, she picked it up very fast. Nanny was such a comfort about the
+house that Diamond's father just had to cheer up a little when he came
+home at night and the dull day's work was over.
+
+After the new baby came, Diamond sang to her and of course he had to
+make up new songs to sing to her because she was a little sister baby.
+It would never do, he said, to sing the little brother songs to her.
+While he sang, his father and mother could not help listening and
+forgetting for the time how bad things were getting to be.
+
+The three months Mr. Raymond had spoken of were now gone and Diamond's
+father was very anxious for him to come back and take Ruby off his
+hands, for he did not seem to work enough to pay for his keep. Then he
+was so lazy and fat, while poor old Diamond had got so thin he was just
+skin and bones! For Diamond's father was an honest man and felt that he
+must stick to his promise to feed Ruby while he kept him, whether old
+Diamond got enough to eat or not. But he _did_ wish Mr. Raymond would
+come, though when he looked at Nanny he felt that he would be sorry to
+lose her. For it was understood that a place as a nurse girl would be
+found for her when Ruby was taken away.
+
+Mr. Raymond did not come, however, and things got worse and worse.
+Diamond could do little but drive old Diamond in the cab whenever he
+could be of help that way, and sing to the two babies at home. At last,
+one week was worse than anything they had yet had. They were almost
+without bread before it was over.
+
+It was Friday night, and Diamond like the rest of the household had had
+very little to eat that day. His mother would always pay the week's rent
+before she spent anything even for food. His father had been very
+gloomy--so gloomy that he was very cross. It had been a stormy winter
+and even now that spring had come, the north wind often blew. When
+Diamond went to his bed, which was in a tiny room in the roof, he heard
+it like the sea, moaning. As he fell asleep, he still heard the moaning,
+and presently, he heard the voice of North Wind calling him. His heart
+beat very fast, it was such a long time since he had heard that voice!
+He jumped out of bed, but did not see her. Yet she kept on calling.
+
+"Diamond, come here! Diamond, come here!" the voice repeated again and
+again.
+
+"Dear North Wind," said Diamond, "I want so much to come to you but I
+can't tell where to find you."
+
+"Come here, Diamond!" was all her answer.
+
+So he opened his door and trotted down the long stair and out into the
+yard. A great puff of wind at once came against him. He turned and went
+with it, and it blew him up to the stable door and kept on blowing.
+
+"She wants me to go into the stable," said Diamond. "But the door is
+locked."
+
+Just then, a great blast of wind brought down the key upon the stones at
+his feet from where it was kept hanging high above his head. He picked
+it up, opened the door, and went in without much noise. And what did he
+hear? He heard the two horses, Diamond and Ruby, talking to each other.
+They talked in a strange language, yet somehow he could understand it.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," old Diamond was saying, "sleek
+and fat as _you_ are, and so lazy you get along no faster than a big
+dray-horse that is pulling tons!"
+
+"Oh, I like to be fat and lazy!" said Ruby.
+
+"And you like to hear master abused on account of you, too, I dare say,"
+replied old Diamond angrily. "Why don't you get up a little speed, while
+you are drawing a fare, at least! The abuse master gets for your sake is
+quite shameful! No wonder he doesn't get many fares when he has you!"
+
+"Well, if I worked as hard as I could, I'd be a bag of bones like you!"
+
+"I'm proud to work!" said old Diamond. "I wouldn't be as fat as you, not
+for all you're worth. You are a disgrace! Look at the horse next you.
+_He_ is something _like_ a horse--all skin and bones. He knows he has
+got his master's wife and children to support and he works _like_ a
+horse!"
+
+"I might get lamed again, if I didn't go slowly and carefully," said
+Ruby.
+
+"Lame again!" snorted old Diamond. "It's my belief you lamed yourself on
+purpose so you could stay in the stable and stuff yourself and grow fat!
+You selfish beast!"
+
+"I might get angry at you," said Ruby, "if I didn't know a little better
+than you do how things are coming out. What do you think my master would
+say if he were to come back--and he may come any day now--and find me
+all worn down to a rack of bones and lamed into the bargain? Do you
+think anything would make him believe that your master had used me right
+and as he promised he would? And isn't it better he should live a little
+hard himself and prove himself to be an honest man who does what he says
+he'll do? You don't know everything, old Diamond. You would not probably
+believe me if I told you that enduring bad things is often just a way
+for bringing good things about. But you'll see!"
+
+Old Diamond just snorted sleepily in reply and gave all his attention to
+doubling up his knees and getting down upon the floor to go to sleep.
+The racket he made gave young Diamond a start. With a shiver, he seemed
+to come awake and see the stable door standing open. He trotted out of
+it, back up the long stairs, and tumbled into bed. But Ruby's words kept
+sounding in his head.
+
+"Is it like what's in my book?" he said to himself sleepily,--"that
+about a blessing in disguise, when things look bad but are working out
+all right--like things at the back of the north wind?" He got sleepier,
+however, as he tried to think and was fast asleep before he knew it. The
+next morning, he sang to the baby more cheerily than ever and here is
+part of the song he sung:
+
+          Where did you come from, Baby dear?
+          Out of everywhere into here.
+
+          Where did you get your eyes so blue?
+          Out of the sky as I came through.
+
+          Where did you get this pearly ear?
+          God spoke and it came out to hear.
+
+          But how did you come to us, you dear?
+          God thought of you and so I am here.
+
+"You never made that song, Diamond," said his mother.
+
+"No, mother. But it's mine just the same, for I love it."
+
+"Does loving a thing make it yours?"
+
+"I think so, mother. Baby's mine because I love her, and so are you.
+Love makes the only _my-ness_, doesn't it, mother?"
+
+"Perhaps so, Diamond. Yes, I think it does," said his mother.
+
+When his father came home for his dinner he looked very sad. He had not
+got a single fare the whole morning.
+
+"We shall just have to go to the work-house," he said and dropped into a
+chair in despair. Just then, came a knock at the door and in walked Mr.
+Raymond! Of course, he wanted to see the horses at once. And when he saw
+how fat Ruby was and how poor was faithful old Diamond--and when,
+moreover, he remembered how poor and starved the family looked though
+Nanny was still there and kindly treated--he knew that Diamond's father
+had been stanch and true to his bargain, though it had turned out to be
+a hard one. He was a man worth helping--that was clear! And Mr. Raymond
+was now ready to help him as much as he needed.
+
+He first pointed out that old Diamond needed only to be fattened up and
+Ruby thinned down to make of them a fine pair of horses for his country
+home to which he was now going. And Diamond's father should go along as
+coachman. There would be regular wages again and a much more comfortable
+home in the country.
+
+"And now, will you sell me old Diamond?" asked Mr. Raymond. "If you
+will, here are twenty pounds for him, if you think that is enough."
+
+"I will sell him to you, sir," answered Diamond's father, "if you
+promise to let me buy him back if I can, if you ever wish to sell him. I
+could _not_ part with him without that. Though as to who calls him his,
+that is nothing. For I believe it's true what my little Diamond
+says--that it's loving a thing that makes it yours."
+
+"You shall have that chance," said Mr. Raymond. So the bargain was made.
+How Diamond capered about at the thought of going to the beautiful
+country to live and having a yard and grass to play on! It would be like
+the old home at Mr. Coleman's--perhaps even nicer than that. How he
+danced the baby and sang to it!
+
+"And North Wind told me, Baby dear! She sang in my ears how bad things
+are just a chance to make good things come!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME
+
+
+Before the end of the month, Ruby had got a great deal thinner and old
+Diamond a good deal fatter. They really began to look fit to go in
+double harness. Diamond's father and mother got their things all packed
+up and were ready to go into the country at the shortest notice. They
+were now so peaceful, and so happy over the prospect that they believed
+it worth all the trouble and worry they had gone through.
+
+Nanny had been so happy since she left the hospital and had been living
+with Diamond's family that she did not think the country would make her
+any happier. Besides she would have to leave cripple Jim behind and
+maybe never see him again. She had known cripple Jim much longer than
+she had known Diamond and he had no one else to care about him.
+
+Diamond had taken a great deal of time and trouble to find Jim. For Jim
+had moved his home and had not heard of Nanny's illness till long after
+she was taken to the hospital. He was much too shy to go and inquire
+about her there. But when at length she went to live with Diamond's
+family, Jim was willing enough to go and see her. It was after one of
+his visits during which he and Nanny had talked things over that Diamond
+found out that Nanny thought it would not be so very pleasant to go to
+the country. The sun and the moon and the trees and the flowers did not
+seem much to Nanny without Jim.
+
+Diamond thought it over and that same night he went to see Mr. Raymond.
+He wanted to tell him about Jim and Nanny and ask him what they could do
+about it. "Jim can shine shoes very well indeed, sir," said Diamond. "If
+you could take Jim into the country too, to clean your shoes and do
+other odd jobs, then Nanny would like it better. She is so fond of Jim."
+
+Mr. Raymond thought it all over and finally decided that there would be
+something for Jim to do.
+
+So on a certain day, Diamond's father took his mother and Diamond
+himself and his little brother and sister and Nanny and Jim down by
+train to a place called "The Mound," where Mr. Raymond was to live. He
+went back to London that same night. The next day, he drove Ruby and
+Diamond down with the carriage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a lady
+in the carriage. For Mr. Raymond was now married. And the moment Nanny
+saw Mrs. Raymond, she recognized her as the lady who had let her wear
+the beautiful ruby ring when she was ill in the hospital.
+
+The weather was very hot at first, and the woods very shadowy, and the
+wild flowers mainly gone. But there were plenty of the loveliest grass
+and daisies about the house. Diamond's chief pleasure seemed to be to
+lie among them and breathe the pure air. As he lay there, he dreamed
+often of the country at the back of the north wind and tried to remember
+the songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at the
+back of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it. But
+though he did lie happily in the grass and dream of her, of North Wind
+herself, he neither saw nor heard anything for some months.
+
+Mr. Raymond's house was called "The Mound" because it stood upon a steep
+little knoll that had been made on purpose. It was built for Queen
+Elizabeth as a hunting tower--a place, that is, from the top of which
+you could see the country for miles on all sides. From a window the
+Queen was able to follow with her eyes the flying deer, and the hunters
+in the chase. The mound had been cast up so as to give the house an
+outlook over the neighboring heights and woods.
+
+Diamond's father and mother lived in a little cottage a short distance
+from the house. It was a real cottage with a roof of thick thatch which,
+in June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals of
+the rose tree climbing up the walls. But Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted
+Diamond to be a page in their own house. So he was dressed in the little
+blue suit of a page and lived at "The Mound" itself.
+
+"Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
+"There is a little room at the top of the house--all alone. Perhaps you
+would not mind sleeping there."
+
+"I can sleep anywhere," said Diamond. "And I like best to be high up.
+Should I be able to see out?"
+
+"I will show you the place," she answered, and taking him by the hand,
+she led him up and up the oval winding stair into one of the two towers
+that were on the house. Near the top, they entered a tiny room with two
+windows from which you could see all over the country. Diamond clapped
+his hands with delight!
+
+"You would like this room, then, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
+
+"It is the grandest room in the house!" he answered. "I shall be near
+the stars and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That is just what
+I like!"
+
+I daresay he thought also that it would be a nice place for North Wind
+to call at, in passing. Below him spread a lake of green leaves with
+glimpses of grass here and there at the bottom. As he looked down, he
+saw a squirrel appear suddenly and as suddenly vanish among the top-most
+branches.
+
+"Aha! Mr. Squirrel!" he cried. "My nest is built higher than yours!"
+
+"I will have a bell hung at your door which I can ring when I want you,"
+said his mistress. And so Diamond became a little page in the house.
+
+But after all, his master and mistress seemed to want to keep him out of
+doors as much as possible. And his father and mother sometimes looked at
+him very anxiously. Diamond thought that no one seemed to ask him to do
+much. Often they gave him a story book and sent him out to sit in the
+sweet air and sunshine at the foot of a big beech tree.
+
+He did not see much of Nanny and Jim. Somehow they liked to slip off
+together when their work was over. They did not understand the many
+fancies that Diamond talked about, but they could understand each other
+very well. They were never unkind to him but they liked better to go off
+by themselves. Diamond did not mind much. He was never lonely. And then
+he had a beautiful place where he went and where he saw lovely things
+that no one else saw.
+
+He called this place his nest. He went to it by going up a little rope
+ladder that hung from a branch of the big beech tree. When he reached
+the limb the rope hung from, he went on climbing higher and higher. Up
+among the leafy branches and away at the top, out of sight, he found a
+safe and comfortable seat which he called his nest.
+
+"What do you see up there, Diamond," some one asked him once.
+
+"I can see the first star peeping out of the sky. I don't see anything
+more except a few leaves and the big sky over me. It goes swinging
+about. The earth is all behind my back. There comes another star! The
+wind with its kisses makes me feel as if I were in North Wind's arms."
+
+He thought he would be quite happy if only he could remember some of the
+songs the river sang to him when he was in the country at the back of
+the north wind. They seemed to be murmuring in his ear most of the time.
+Yet somehow they were just far enough off so that he could not catch the
+words.
+
+His little brother and baby sister often played about on the grass with
+him and often he made up songs to sing to the baby. But these never
+seemed to be just like the river's songs after all. One of them was
+about his nest up in the beech tree and it ran like this:
+
+          What would you see if I took you up
+          To my little nest in the air?
+          You would see the sky like a clean blue cup
+          Turned upside downwards there.
+
+          What would you do if I took you there,
+          To my little nest in the tree?
+          My child with cries would trouble the air
+          To get what she could but see.
+
+          What would you get in the top of the tree,
+          For all your crying and grief?
+          Not a star would you clutch of all you see--
+          You could only gather a leaf.
+
+          But when you had lost your greedy grief
+          Content to see from afar,
+          You would find in your hand a withering leaf,
+          In your heart a shining star!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND
+
+
+One night when he reached his own room, he opened both his windows, one
+of which looked to the north and the other to the east, to find how the
+wind blew. It blew right in at the north window. Diamond was glad for he
+thought perhaps North Wind herself would come now. But as she always
+came of herself and never when he was looking for her, and, indeed,
+almost never when he was thinking of her, he shut the east window and
+went to bed.
+
+He awoke in the dim blue night. The moon had vanished from that side of
+the house. He thought he heard a knocking at his door.
+
+"Somebody wants me!" he said, and jumping out of bed ran to open the
+door.
+
+But there was no one there. He closed it again, and the noise still
+going on, found that another door in the room was rattling. It belonged
+to a closet he thought, but he had never been able to open it. The wind
+blowing in at the window must be shaking it. He would go and see if that
+was it.
+
+The door now opened quite easily. To his surprise, instead of a closet
+he found a long narrow room. The moon, which was sinking in the west,
+shone in at an open window at the other end. This room had a low ceiling
+and spread the whole length of the house close under the roof. It was
+quite empty. The yellow light of the half moon streamed over the dark
+floor.
+
+He was so delighted to find this strange moonlit place close to his own
+snug little room that he began to dance and skip about the floor. The
+wind came in through the door he had left open. It blew about him as he
+danced and he kept turning toward it that it might blow in his face.
+
+He kept picturing to himself the many places, lovely and desolate, the
+hill sides and farm yards and tree-tops and meadows, over which it had
+blown on its way to "The Mound." As he danced he grew more and more
+delighted with the motion and the wind. His feet grew stronger and his
+body lighter. At length, it seemed as if he were borne up on the air and
+could almost fly.
+
+So strong did this feeling become that at last he began to doubt whether
+he was not in one of those precious dreams he so often had, in which he
+floated about on the wind at will. Then something made him look up. To
+his unspeakable delight, he found his uplifted hands lying in those of
+North Wind! Yes, North Wind was dancing with him round and round the
+long bare room, her hair now falling to the floor, now floating to the
+ceiling. The sweetest of smiles was playing about her beautiful mouth.
+She did not stoop in order to dance with him but held his hands high in
+hers.
+
+When he saw her, he gave one spring and his arms were about her neck and
+her arms holding him to her breast. The same moment, she swept with him
+out of the open window through which the moon was shining. Making a wide
+and sweeping circuit, she settled with him in his own little nest at the
+top of the big beech tree. Diamond was so entirely happy that he did not
+care to speak a word. But presently, he felt as if he were going to
+sleep and that would be to lose so much that he was not willing to do
+it.
+
+"Please, dear North Wind," said he, "I am so happy that I am afraid it
+is a dream. How am I to know that it is not a dream?"
+
+"What does it matter?" returned North Wind. "The dream--if it _is_ a
+dream--is a pleasant one, is it not?"
+
+"That is just why I want it to be true! It is not for the dream
+itself--I mean it is not for the pleasure of it," answered Diamond, "for
+I have that whether it is a dream or not. It is for _you_, North Wind! I
+cannot bear to find it a dream because then I should lose _you_! You
+would be nobody then and I could not bear that. You are not just a
+dream, dear North Wind, are you? Do say _no_, for I shall not dare dream
+of you again if you are nobody at all."
+
+"Either I am not a dream, or there is something better which is not a
+dream, Diamond," said North Wind in a rather sorrowful tone.
+
+"But it is not something better, it is _you_ I want, North Wind," he
+persisted.
+
+She made no answer but rose with him in her arms and sailed away over
+the tree-tops till they came to a meadow where a flock of sheep was
+feeding.
+
+"Do you remember the song you made up here in this meadow to sing to the
+baby?" asked North Wind, "about Bo-peep's sheep that ran away from her
+to follow after the sun? And when she went after them, she could not
+find the old sheep at all--only some lambs--twice as many new lambs?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Diamond. "But I do not like that song. It seems to say
+that one is just as good as another--or that two new ones are better
+than the one old one you had before. But somehow when once you have
+looked into anybody's eyes--deep down into them, I mean--no one else
+will do for you any more. Nobody ever so beautiful or so good will make
+up to you for that one going out of sight. So you see, North Wind, I
+cannot help being frightened to think that perhaps I am only dreaming
+and that you are nowhere at all! Do tell me that you are my own real
+beautiful North Wind!"
+
+Again she rose and shot high up into the air. Diamond lay quiet in her
+arms waiting for her to speak. He tried to see up into her face, for he
+was dreadfully afraid she did not answer him because she could not tell
+him she was not a dream. But her hair fell all over her face so that he
+could not see it. This frightened him still more.
+
+"Do speak, North Wind!" he said at last.
+
+"I am thinking what I can say," said North Wind slowly. "And say it so
+that a little boy like you can understand."
+
+As she spoke, she was settling quietly down on a grassy hill side in the
+midst of a wild, furzy common. There was a rabbit warren underneath.
+Some of the rabbits came out of their holes in the moonlight. They
+looked very sober and wise, like patriarchs standing in their tent doors
+and looking about them before going to bed. When they saw North Wind,
+instead of turning around and vanishing again with a thump of their
+heels, they cantered slowly up to her. They snuffed all about her with
+their long upper lips which moved every way at once. That was their way
+of kissing her. Every now and then, she stroked down their long furry
+backs or lifted and played with their long ears.
+
+"I think," she said to Diamond after they had been sitting silent for a
+long time, "that if I were only a dream, you would not have been able to
+love me so. You love me when you are not with me, don't you?"
+
+"Indeed I do!" answered Diamond stroking her hand. "I see! I see! How
+could I be able to love you as I do if you were not there at all, you
+know? Besides I would not be able to dream anything half so beautiful
+all out of my own head. Or if I did, I could not love a fancy of my own
+like that, could I?"
+
+"I think not. Besides, would you not have forgotten me wholly when you
+woke again? People almost always forget their dreams. But you have seen
+me in many shapes, Diamond. You remember I was a wolf once--don't you?"
+
+"Yes, a good wolf that frightened a bad, wicked nurse!"
+
+"Well, if I were to turn to an ugly shape again, would you still wish I
+were not a dream?"
+
+"Yes, for I should know you were still beautiful inside, and that you
+loved me still. I should not like you to look ugly, you know. And I
+shouldn't believe it was really you a bit!"
+
+"That's my own Diamond! Then I will try to tell you all I know about it.
+I don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape myself
+in various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People
+call me by dreadful names and think they know all about me. But they
+don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune or Evil Chance or Ruin--as Mr.
+Evans did when I sank his ship. Then people have another name for me
+which they think the most dreadful of all."
+
+"What is that?" asked Diamond smiling up in her face. "And does it only
+mean another way in which you do them good though they think you are
+doing them ill?"
+
+"Yes," answered North Wind, "it is just like that. But I will not tell
+you that name--not just now. Only will you always remember, if you
+should hear it, not to be the least afraid of it--or of me? Will you
+promise, Diamond?"
+
+"Yes, North Wind, I promise," said Diamond. "I will never be afraid of
+you."
+
+"Do you remember having to go through me to get into the country at my
+back?" asked North Wind, "after the long, long, long ride in the ship
+and the journey on the iceberg?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I do! How tired you were, North Wind, when we got at last on
+to the iceberg and South Wind began to blow! And how thin and weak you
+grew in the beautiful blue cave in the side of the ice. Afterward when I
+landed and found you in the cleft in the ice ridge, sitting on your own
+door-step, how cold you were, North Wind! And so white, all but your
+lovely eyes! When I went up close to you, my own heart grew like a lump
+of ice. And when I tried to clasp you, the white grew so thick all about
+me, and then I forgot for a while."
+
+"You were very near then, Diamond, to knowing what my other name is. But
+did I hurt you at all, dear boy? Would you be afraid of me if you had to
+go through me again?"
+
+"No. Why should I? It was delicious to forget like that! It was like
+going into the softest and sweetest sleep! I should be glad enough to do
+it again, if it was only to get another peep at the country at your
+back."
+
+"But you did not then see the real country at the back of the north
+wind, Diamond," said North Wind.
+
+"Didn't I, North Wind? Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought I did. What did I
+see?"
+
+"Only a picture of it--a sort of vision of it--and only while you seemed
+to be asleep. The real country at my real back is ever so much more
+beautiful than that. You shall see it one day--perhaps before very
+long."
+
+"Do they sing songs there?" asked Diamond.
+
+"Yes," replied North Wind. "You have not forgotten the lovely river as
+clear as glass that ran over and through the grass and flowers, have
+you? Nor the soft sweet songs it was always singing?"
+
+"No," said Diamond. "I remember that best of all. But I could not keep
+the words of any one of its songs in mind, do what I would. And I did
+try."
+
+"That was my fault," said North Wind.
+
+"How was that?" asked the little boy.
+
+"Because I could not hear it plainly enough myself to teach it to you.
+But you will hear the very song itself when you get to the back of----"
+
+"My own dear North Wind," said Diamond, finishing the sentence for her,
+and stroking the arm that held him leaning against her.
+
+"And now, I will take you home again," said North Wind. "It won't do to
+tire you too much."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" pleaded Diamond. "I am not in the least tired."
+
+"It is better, though," said North Wind.
+
+"Very well; if you wish it," yielded Diamond, but with a sigh.
+
+"You are a dear boy," said North Wind. "I will come for you again
+to-morrow night and take you out for a longer time. We shall make a
+little journey together, in fact. We shall start earlier, and as the
+moon will be somewhat later, we shall have clear moonlight all the way."
+
+She rose in air and swept over the meadow and the trees. In a few
+minutes, "The Mound" appeared below them. She sank down to the house and
+floated in at the window of Diamond's room. There she laid him on his
+bed and covered him over. In a moment, he had sunk into a dreamless
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY
+
+
+The next night, Diamond was tired, but was waiting eagerly for the
+promised visit of North Wind. He was seated by his open window, with his
+head on his hand and rather afraid he could not sleep. Suddenly, he
+started and found he had already been asleep. He looked out of the
+window and saw something white against his beech tree. It was North
+Wind. Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the
+tree whose top was swaying about while the other trees were quite still.
+
+"Are you ready, Diamond?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Diamond, "quite ready."
+
+In a moment, she was at the window and her arms came in and took him.
+She sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but the
+speed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went rushing
+past. Soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely with mottled
+clouds all about the moon on which she threw faint colours like those of
+an opal.
+
+The night was warm and in North Wind's arms he did not feel the wind
+which down below was making waves in the ripe grain and ripples on the
+rivers and lakes. At length, they came down just where a little spring
+bubbled out of a hill side.
+
+"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind. "I am
+not needed for anything else to-night and we will just have a lovely
+little time."
+
+She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
+surface of it glided along, level with its flow, as it ran down the
+hill. The song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears and grew and
+grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond to be singing the
+story of its life to him. And so it was. It began with a musical tinkle
+which changed to a babble and then to a gentle rushing.
+
+Sometimes its song would almost cease. Then it broke out again, tinkle,
+babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom of the hill, they came to a
+small river into which the brook flowed with a muffled but merry sound.
+Along the surface of the river, darkly clear in the moonlight below
+them, they floated. Now, where it widened out into a little lake, they
+would hover for a moment over a bed of water-lilies. They watched them
+swing about, folded in sleep, as the water on which they leaned swayed
+in the presence of North Wind. Now they would watch the fishes asleep
+among their roots below.
+
+Sometimes, North Wind held Diamond over a deep hollow curving into the
+bank and let him look far into its cool stillness. Sometimes she would
+leave the river and sweep across a clover field. The bees were all at
+home and the clover was asleep. Then she would return and follow the
+river. Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush from
+the opposite bank. Now the willows would dip low branches into its still
+waters. Now it would lead them through stately trees and grassy banks
+into a lovely garden where the roses and lilies were asleep and the
+flowers folded up, or only a few awake sending out strong, sweet odours.
+
+Wider and wider grew the stream until they came upon boats lying along
+its banks which rocked a little in the flutter of North Wind's garments.
+Then came houses on the banks, each standing in a lovely lawn with grand
+trees. In parts, the river was so high that some of the grass and some
+of the roots of the trees were under water. As they glided through the
+stems, Diamond could see the grass at the bottom of the water. How like
+it was to the river which ran through the country at the back of the
+north wind! And now he seemed to hear more and more clearly its
+murmured song till at last the words came out plainly.
+
+          The sun is gone down,
+          And the moon's in the sky.
+          But the sun will come up
+          And the moon be laid by.
+
+          The flower is asleep
+          But it is not dead.
+          When the morning shines
+          It will lift its head.
+
+          When winter comes
+          Will it die? Oh, no!
+          It will only hide
+          From the frost and snow.
+
+          Sure is the summer,
+          Sure is the sun.
+          The night and the winter
+          Are shadows that run!
+
+They left the river and began to float about and over the houses one
+after another--beautiful rich houses which like fine trees had taken
+hundreds of years to grow. Scarcely a light was to be seen, and not a
+movement to be heard. All the people lay fast asleep in dreams.
+
+But a little later they came floating past a window in which a light
+was burning. Diamond heard a moan coming from it and looked up anxiously
+into North Wind's face. By a shaded lamp, a lady in a soft white wrapper
+sat trying to read and forget the pain which made her moan softly while
+she read. North Wind seemed to read Diamond's thought and floated
+silently in at the window. Diamond began singing softly the song of the
+river with its soothing murmuring strain. When he finished, out of the
+window they slipped away and floated on.
+
+"Did she hear, North Wind?" said Diamond. "Did she know we were trying
+to help her--and will it help her?"
+
+"She heard you," answered North Wind. "She heard with her heart, though,
+and not with her ears. She will not forget, but she will never
+understand till----"
+
+"Till she gets to the back of the north wind," said Diamond.
+
+North Wind smiled. Then she turned so that he could look down at the
+place over which they were passing.
+
+"Oh!" he cried out suddenly. "I know where we are now. This is my old
+home before we moved into the city. Do let me get down and go into the
+old garden, North Wind, and run into mother's room, and into old
+Diamond's stall. I wonder if the hole is at the back of my bed
+still--your window, you know. Oh, I should like to stay here all the
+rest of the night! It won't take you long to get home from here, will
+it, North Wind?"
+
+"No," she answered; "you shall stay as long as you like."
+
+"Oh, how jolly!" cried Diamond.
+
+North Wind sailed over the house with him and set him down on the lawn
+at the back. Diamond ran about the lawn for a little while in the
+moonlight. He found part of it cut up into flower beds and the small
+summer house and great elm tree were gone. It was so changed! He didn't
+like it and ran into the stable. There were no horses there at all. He
+ran upstairs but the rooms were all empty. The only thing left that he
+cared about was the hole in the wall where his little bed had stood. All
+besides was desolate. He turned and ran down the stairs again and out
+upon the lawn. There he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all
+so dreary and lost!
+
+"I liked the place so much!" he thought to himself. "But now--there is
+nothing left to like. I suppose it is only the people in a place that
+make you like it and when they are gone there is nothing left to like.
+It's as if it were dead! North Wind told me I might stop as long as I
+wanted to, but I have stopped too long already! Oh, North Wind!" he
+cried aloud turning his face up toward the sky.
+
+The moon was under a cloud and all was looking dull and dismal. A star
+shot from the sky. It fell in the grass beside him. The moment it
+lighted, there stood North Wind!
+
+"Oh!" cried Diamond joyfully. "Were you the shooting star?"
+
+"Yes," said North Wind.
+
+"And did you hear me call?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"As high up as that?"
+
+"Yes, I heard you quite well."
+
+"Take me home, North Wind. Take me home!"
+
+"Have you had enough of your old home already?"
+
+"Yes. It is not home here any more."
+
+"Why is that, do you think?" asked North Wind.
+
+"Is it because its soul is gone? Yes, that must be it, is it not, North
+Wind?"
+
+"Yes, Diamond, that is it. Its soul is gone," said North Wind.
+
+She lifted him into her arms to bear him away. How long they floated
+about he did not know. But presently all was changed. He was in his own
+room again. And there was North Wind in the doorway of the long narrow
+room that opened out of his room, and in which the night before he was
+dancing when he looked up to find his lifted hands clasped in hers and
+saw her lovely face smiling down upon him.
+
+Now she was a different North Wind. She was just as he had seen her
+sitting on her own door-step in the far, far north. She was as white as
+snow and her eyes as blue as the heart of an iceberg.
+
+"That's how she would look when she thought I might be afraid of her,"
+he said to himself. Then he spoke aloud. "I am not afraid of you, dear
+North Wind," he cried. "See! I am not a bit afraid of you!" Stretching
+out both his hands to clasp her he pressed up close against her and laid
+his head upon her breast. And then he fell asleep.
+
+In the morning, they found little Diamond lying on the floor of the big
+attic room--fast asleep, as they thought, and with such a happy smile on
+his face. But when they took him up, they found he was not asleep. He
+had gone to that lovely country at the back of the north wind--to stay.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+   Page 25, "litle" changed to "little." (made a little place)
+
+   One instance each of "no-where" and "nowhere" were retained.
+
+   The frontispiece original says that the text is found on page 334.
+   It is actually located on page 111 and has been edited to reflect
+   this.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 18614-8.txt or 18614-8.zip *******
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of At the Back of the North Wind, by Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald</title>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, At the Back of the North Wind, by Elizabeth
+Lewis and George MacDonald, Illustrated by Maria L. Kirk</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: At the Back of the North Wind</p>
+<p>Author: Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 17, 2006  [eBook #18614]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Joseph R. Hauser, Emmy,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h1>AT THE BACK OF THE<br />NORTH WIND</h1>
+
+<div class='center'><span class="smcap">eleventh impression</span></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">Each beautifully illustrated in color and tastefully bound</div>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<div class="center">BY WASHINGTON IRVING<br />
+<big>THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW</big><br />
+<big>RIP VAN WINKLE</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">selected</span><br />
+<big>TALES OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S</big><br />
+<big>ALHAMBRA</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY JOHN RUSKIN<br />
+<big>THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON<br />
+<big>A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">selected</span><br />
+<big>HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY MISS MULOCK<br />
+<big>THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE</big><br />
+<big>THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY EMMA GELLIBRAND<br />
+<big>J. COLE</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY JOHANNA SPYRI<br />
+<big>MONI THE GOAT BOY</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY OUIDA<br />
+<big>MOUFFLOU AND OTHER STORIES</big><br />
+<big>THE N&Uuml;RNBERG STOVE</big><br />
+<big>A DOG OF FLANDERS</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center"><span class="smcap">selected</span><br />
+<big>WONDERLAND STORIES</big><br />
+<big>ALL TIME TALES</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY JONATHAN SWIFT<br />
+<big>GULLIVER'S TRAVELS</big><br />
+(LILLIPUT LAND)<br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">BY GEORGE MACDONALD<br />
+<big>THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN</big><br />
+<big>THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE</big><br />
+<big>AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND</big><br /><br /></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 272px;"><a name="front" id="front"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-001.jpg" width="272" height="400" alt="NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE LONG BARE ROOM" title="NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE LONG BARE ROOM" />
+<span class="caption">NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE LONG BARE ROOM&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href='#Page_111'><i>Page 111</i></a></span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+<h2>George Macdonald<br />Stories For Little Folks</h2>
+
+<h1>AT THE BACK OF THE<br />NORTH WIND</h1>
+
+<h3>SIMPLIFIED BY</h3>
+
+<h2>ELIZABETH LEWIS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>AUTHOR OF "THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN SIMPLIFIED"<br /><br />
+
+<i>WITH SIX FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY</i>
+<br />
+MARIA L. KIRK</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 193px;">
+<img src="images/title.png" width="193" height="200" alt="emblem" title="emblem" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><span class="smcap">philadelphia and london</span><br />
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY<br /><br /></div></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+<div class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1914<br />
+BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY<br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="center"><i>Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company<br />
+The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.</i>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">chapter</span></td><td align='left'></td><td align='center'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond Makes the Acquaintance of North Wind</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond's First Trip With the North Wind</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_20'>20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">North Wind Sinks a Ship</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Land at the Back of the North Wind</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond's Father Loses His Employment</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_52'>52</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond Learns to Drive a Horse</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_62'>62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond Drives the Cab</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond Visits Nanny</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Things Go Hard With Diamond's Family</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Diamond in His New Home</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Another Visit From North Wind</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">North Wind Carries Diamond Away</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_119'>119</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>nothing</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">North Wind, Who Was Dancing With Him, Round and Round the Long Bare Room</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#front'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Against This He Laid His Ear, and Then He Heard the Voice Quite Distinctly</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#against'>12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">It Was the Back Door of a Garden</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#it'>29</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">He Was Sure it Was North Wind, But He Thought She Must Be Dead at Last</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#he'>47</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Within a Month He Was Able to Spell Out Most of the Verses For Himself</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#within'>73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">He Fastened the Cheek-strap Very Carefully</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#fastened'>78</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>AT THE BACK OF THE<br />NORTH WIND</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond Makes the Acquaintance of North Wind</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>There was once a little boy named Diamond and he slept in a low room
+over a coach house. In fact, his room was just a loft where they kept
+hay and straw and oats for the horses. Little Diamond's father was a
+coachman and he had named his boy after a favorite horse.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all around
+it, because there was so little room in their own end of the coach
+house. So when little Diamond lay there in bed, he could hear the horses
+under him munching away in the dark or moving sleepily in their dreams.
+His father put old Diamond, the horse after whom he was named, in the
+stall under the bed because he was quiet and did not go to sleep
+standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature.</p>
+
+<p>Little Diamond sometimes woke in the middle of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>the night and felt his
+bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind. Then he could not help
+wondering if the wind should blow the house down and he should fall down
+into the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew
+him in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long,
+yet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little Diamond
+knew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which
+was&mdash;to go to sleep again as fast as he could!</p>
+
+<p>Often there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay
+at his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there
+was none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet
+bought more. Soon they bought more, and then it was only through a
+little lane with two or three turnings in it that he could reach his bed
+at all.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes when his mother undressed him in her room and told him to trot
+away to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay first.
+There he would lie, thinking how cold it was outside in the wind and how
+warm it would be inside his bed; and how he would go to his bed when he
+pleased; only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first.
+As he grew colder lying in the hay, his bed seemed to him to grow
+warmer. Then at last, he would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>scramble out of the hay, shoot like an
+arrow into his bed, cover himself up, snuggle down, and think what a
+happy boy he was!</p>
+
+<p>He had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall
+and blew about him all night. But the back of his bed was of boards only
+an inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now
+these boards were soft and crumbly, and it happened that a soft part in
+them had worn away.</p>
+
+<p>One night after he lay down, little Diamond found that a knot had come
+out of one of them and the wind was blowing in upon him. He jumped out
+of bed again, got a little wisp of hay, twisted it up and folded it in
+the middle. In this way, he made it into a cork and stuck it into the
+knot-hole to keep the wind out. But the wind began to blow loudly and
+angrily. Just as Diamond was falling asleep, out blew his hay cork and
+hit him on the nose!</p>
+
+<p>It was just hard enough to wake him up and let him hear the wind
+whistling through the hole. He searched about for his hay cork, found
+it, and stuck it in harder. He was just dropping off to sleep once more,
+when pop! with an angry whistle behind it, the cork struck him again,
+this time on the cheek. Up he rose once more, got some more hay to make
+a new cork, and stuck it into the hole as hard as ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>he could. But he
+was scarcely laid down again, before pop! it came on his forehead. So he
+gave it up, drew the bed-clothes over his head, and was soon fast
+asleep.</p>
+<div><a name="against" id="against"></a></div>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 276px;">
+<img src="images/illus-002.jpg" width="276" height="400" alt="AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY" title="AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY" />
+<span class="caption">AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Next day, little Diamond forgot all about the hole. But his mother found
+it when she was making up his bed and pasted a piece of thick brown
+paper over it. So when Diamond snuggled down into his bed that night, he
+did not think of it at all. But before he dropped asleep, he heard a
+queer sound and lifted his head to listen. Was somebody talking to him?
+The wind was rising again and beginning to blow and whistle. Was it the
+wind? He moved about to find out who or what it was, and at last,
+happened to put his hand upon the knot-hole with the paper pasted over
+it. Against this he laid his ear and then he heard the voice quite
+distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, little boy, by closing up my window?"</p>
+
+<p>"What window?" asked Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"You stuffed hay into it three times last night! I had to blow it out
+again three times!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't mean this little hole? It isn't a window. It is a hole in my
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say <i>a</i> window. I said it was <i>my</i> window!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But it can't be a window!" said Diamond. "Windows are holes to see out
+of."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is just what I made this window for."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are outside," answered Diamond. "You can't want a window."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite mistaken. Windows are to see out of, you say. Well, I am
+in my house, and I want windows to see out of."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have made a window into my bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your mother has three windows into my dancing hall, and you have
+three into my garret."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" said Diamond. "Still you can hardly expect me to keep a
+window in my bed for you. Now, can you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" said the voice. "You just open that window!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Diamond, "mother says I should be obliging. Still it is
+rather hard. You see, the north wind will blow right in my face if I
+do!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the North Wind!" said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"O-o-oh!" said Diamond. "Then will you promise not to blow in my face if
+I open your window?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot promise that," said the North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"But you will give me the tooth-ache. Mother has it already."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But what is to become of me without a window!" cried the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I don't know. All I say is that it will be worse for me than
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it will not," replied the voice. "You shall not be the worse for
+it&mdash;I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe
+what I say, and do as I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <i>can</i> pull the clothes over my head," said Diamond. So he felt
+around with his little sharp nails, got hold of one edge of the paper
+and tore it off. In came a long whistling stream of cold that struck his
+little naked chest. He scrambled and tumbled in under the bed-clothes
+and covered himself up. There was no paper between him and the voice
+now, and he felt&mdash;not frightened exactly&mdash;but a little queer.</p>
+
+<p>"What a strange person this North Wind must be," thought Diamond, "to
+live in what they call 'Out-of-Doors,' I suppose, and make windows into
+people's beds."</p>
+
+<p>Now the voice began again. He could hear it quite plainly, even with his
+head under the bed-clothes. It was still more gentle now, though it was
+six times as large and loud as before. And he thought it sounded a
+little like his mother's.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is your name, little boy?" it asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Diamond," answered Diamond under the bed-clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"What a funny name!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very nice name," replied the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure of that," said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am!" returned Diamond. "I think it is a very pretty name."</p>
+
+<p>"Diamond is a useless thing, rather," said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not true. Diamond is very useful&mdash;and as big as two&mdash;and so
+quiet all night! But doesn't he make a jolly row in the morning, getting
+up on his four great legs! It is like thunder!"</p>
+
+<p>"You do not seem to know what a diamond is!" cried the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't I, just! Diamond is a great and good horse, and he sleeps
+right under me. He is old Diamond and I am young Diamond. Or, if you
+like it better, Mr. North Wind, if you are so particular, he is big
+Diamond and I am little Diamond. And I do not know which of us my father
+likes best!"</p>
+
+<p>A beautiful laugh, soft and musical, sounded somewhere near him. But the
+boy kept his head under the clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not Mr. North Wind," said the voice.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You told me you were the North Wind," cried Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say <i>Mr.</i> North Wind," said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <i>do</i> say Mr. for my mother tells me always to be polite."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let me tell you that I do not think it at all polite for you to
+say Mr. to me," answered the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it? Well, I am sorry then."</p>
+
+<p>"But you ought to know better," said the voice. "You can't think it is
+polite to lie there with your head under the bed-clothes and never look
+to see what kind of a person you are talking to! I want you to come out
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go to sleep!" said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you take your head out of the bed-clothes?" said the voice a
+little angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Diamond crossly.</p>
+
+<p>The moment he said the word a fierce blast of wind crashed in the wall
+and swept the clothes off him. He started up in a fright. Leaning over
+him was the large, beautiful, pale face of a woman. Her dark eyes had
+begun to flash a little but the rest of her face was very sweet and
+beautiful. What was very strange, though, was that away from her head
+streamed out her black hair in every direction like dark clouds. Soon it
+fell down about her again and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>then her face came out of it like the
+moon out of the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go with me now, little Diamond?" asked the North Wind bending
+over him and speaking very gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes!" cried Diamond, stretching out his arms toward her. "Yes, I
+will go with you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit afraid. I will go!
+But," he added, "how shall I get my clothes? They are in mother's room
+and the door is locked."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh never mind your clothes. You will not be cold. Nobody is cold with
+the North Wind."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought everybody was," said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a great mistake. People are not cold when they are <i>with</i> the
+North Wind&mdash;only when they are against it. Now will you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear North Wind. You are so beautiful I am quite ready to go with
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but I may not always look beautiful. If you see me with my face all
+black, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping wings like bat's
+wings, as big as the whole sky, don't be afraid. If you hear me raging,
+you must believe that I am just doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change
+into a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of me, for it
+will be I just the same. And now, come!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She turned away and went so swiftly that she was gone before Diamond was
+more than started. When he finally got down the stairs and out into the
+yard, no one did he see. And there he stood with his bare feet on the
+hard stones of the paved yard.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say she is hiding somewhere to see what I will do," said
+Diamond. So around the end of the stable he went to see if he could find
+her. But at once, sharp as a knife, the wind came against his little
+chest and bare legs. And stronger and stronger the wind seemed to blow.
+It was <i>so</i> cold! All at once, he remembered that she had said that
+people were not cold if they went <i>with</i> the North Wind. So he turned
+his back and trotted again toward the yard and sure enough, he began to
+feel almost warm once more!</p>
+
+<p>On and on, North Wind blew him and, presently, she seemed to shove him
+right against a small door in a wall. It opened and she blew him through
+it and out into the very middle of the lawn of the house next door. It
+was here that Mr. Coleman lived who was his father's master and who
+owned big Diamond. So little Diamond did not feel entirely strange, and
+then, too, there was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long
+as he could see that, Diamond could not feel quite alone or lonely. But
+all at once, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it
+was dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone
+to bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he
+burst out crying.</p>
+
+<p>Some one in the house heard the sound of his sobbing and came out and
+found him there. He was taken into the house and into a room which had a
+bright light and a warm fire in it. Beside this, he found Miss Coleman,
+the young lady daughter of the house, who was having her long dark hair
+brushed out before going to bed. Somehow in that state, she looked just
+like the beautiful North Wind that he had been searching for. Without
+stopping to think, he ran right into her arms for comfort.</p>
+
+<p>After he was warmed and comforted, they took him back home and knocked
+on the door to arouse his mother, to come and get him. She was much
+surprised to see him, you may be sure. She carried him up to his bed
+again and tucked him snugly in. And there he fell fast asleep.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond's First Trip With the North Wind</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Diamond awoke very early the next morning and thought what a curious
+dream he had had. But the memory of it grew brighter and brighter until
+it did not look altogether like a dream. In fact he began to doubt
+whether he had not really been abroad in the wind at night.</p>
+
+<p>All that week it was hard weather. The grass showed white in the morning
+with the hoar frost which clung to every blade. As Diamond's shoes were
+not good and his mother had not saved up quite enough money to get him
+the new pair she so much wanted for him, she would not let him run out.
+But at length, she brought home his new shoes. No sooner did she find
+that they fitted him, than she told him he might run out into the yard
+and amuse himself.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was going down when he flew from the door like a bird from its
+cage. A great fire of sunset burned over the top of the gate that led to
+the stables. Above the fire in the sky, lay a large lake of green light,
+above that a golden cloud, and over that the blue of the wintry heavens.
+Diamond <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>thought that next to his own home, he had never seen any place
+he would like so much to live in as that sky.</p>
+
+<p>As he wandered about, he came to stand by the little door which opened
+upon the lawn of the house next door. That made him remember how the
+wind had driven him to this same spot on the night of his dream. So he
+thought he would just go in and see if things looked at all as they did
+then. But not a flower was to be seen in the beds on the lawn! Even the
+brave old chrysanthemums and Christmas roses had passed away before the
+frost. What? Yes! There was <i>one</i>. He ran and knelt down to look at it.</p>
+
+<p>It was a primrose&mdash;a tiny, tiny thing, but perfect in shape&mdash;a baby
+wonder. As he stooped his face to see it close, a little wind began to
+blow. Two or three long leaves that stood up behind the flower shook and
+wavered and quivered. But the primrose lay still in the green hollow,
+looking up at the sky and not seeming to know at all that the wind was
+blowing. It looked like a golden eye that the black wintry earth had
+opened to look at the sky with.</p>
+
+<p>That very same night, after Diamond had been asleep for a little, he
+awoke all at once in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the window, Diamond," said a voice.</p>
+
+<p>Now Diamond's mother had once more pasted up North Wind's window.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you North Wind?" said Diamond. "I do not hear you blowing."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but you hear me talking. Open the window for I haven't over much
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Diamond. "But please, North Wind, where's the use? You left
+me all alone last time."</p>
+
+<p>"That was your fault," returned North Wind. "I had work to do and you
+kept me waiting."</p>
+
+<p>Diamond was already scratching at the paper like ten mice and, getting
+hold of the edge of it, tore it off. The next instant a young girl
+glided across the bed and stood on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" said Diamond quite dismayed. "I didn't know&mdash;who are you,
+please?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am North Wind."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are no bigger than I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I care how big or how little I am? And of course, I am
+little this evening! Didn't you see me behind the leaves of the
+primrose? Didn't you see them blowing? Make haste, now, if you want to
+go with me! Dress as fast as you can and I will go and shake the leaves
+of the primrose till you come!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't hurt it!" said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>North Wind broke out into a little laugh like the breaking of silver
+bubbles and was gone in a moment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> Diamond saw the gleam of something
+vanishing down the stair. He dressed himself as fast as ever he could
+and crept out into the yard, through the door in the wall, and away to
+the primrose. Behind it stood North Wind leaning over it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along!" she said jumping up and holding out her hand. She led him
+across the garden and with one bound was on top of the wall. Then she
+reached down her hand to Diamond. He gave a great spring and stood
+beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Another bound, and they stood in the road by the river. It was full tide
+and the stars were shining clear in its depths. But they had not walked
+beside it far before its surface was covered with ripples and the stars
+had vanished. North Wind was now as tall as a full-grown girl. Her hair
+was flying about her head and the wind was blowing a breeze down the
+river. But she turned aside and went up a narrow lane.</p>
+
+<p>"I have some rather disagreeable work to do to-night," she said. "And
+disagreeable work must be looked after first."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, she laid hold of Diamond and began to run, gliding along
+faster and faster. She made many turnings and windings. Once they ran
+through a hall where they found both the front and back doors open.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> At
+the foot of the stair, North Wind stood still and Diamond, hearing a
+great growl, started in terror. There, instead of North Wind, was a huge
+wolf by his side! He let go his hold and the wolf bounded up the stair.
+The windows of the house rattled and shook and there came the sound of a
+fall.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," thought Diamond, "North Wind can't be eating one of the
+children!"</p>
+
+<p>He started to rush up after her, but she met him on the stair, took him
+by the hand and hurried him out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you haven't eaten a baby, North Wind!" he said very solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>North Wind laughed merrily and went tripping on faster. Her grassy robe
+swept and swirled about her steps. Wherever it passed over withered
+leaves, they went fleeing and whirling away and running on their edges
+all about her feet. "No, I did not eat a baby," she said, "as you would
+know if you had not let go of me. I merely scared an ugly nurse who was
+calling a child bad names. I flew at her throat and she tumbled over
+with a crash. I had to put on a bad shape before she could see me. I put
+on a wolf's shape for that is what she is growing to be inside."</p>
+
+<p>They were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent. At the top, North
+Wind stood and turned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>her face toward London. The stars were still
+shining clear and cold overhead. There was not a cloud to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said North Wind, "do not let go of me again. I might have lost
+you the last time, only I was not in a hurry then. Now I am in a hurry."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she was growing larger and larger. Her head went up and up
+toward the stars. As she grew, her hair, longer and longer, lifted
+itself from her head and went out in black waves. She put her hands
+behind her head and began weaving and knotting her hair together. Then
+she took up Diamond in her hands and threw him over her shoulder saying,
+"I have made a place for you in my hair. Get in, Diamond."</p>
+
+<p>Diamond soon found the woven nest and crept into it. The next moment he
+was rising in the air. North Wind grew towering up to the place of the
+clouds. Her hair went streaming out from her till it spread like a mist
+over the stars. She flung herself abroad in space. Diamond made a little
+place through the woven meshes of her hair and peeped through that, for
+he did not dare look over the top of his nest.</p>
+
+<p>The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and
+water and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but
+the roofs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and
+rocks. Chimneys fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great
+roaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea.
+Diamond, of course, at the back of North Wind, was in a calm but he
+could hear it. Around and around and around, swept North Wind, her dark
+hair rolling and flowing, sweeping the people all into their homes and
+the bad smells out of the streets.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, Diamond saw a little girl coming along a street. She was
+dreadfully blown by the wind, and a broom she was trailing behind her
+was very troublesome. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her! It
+kept worrying her and tearing at her rags. She was so lonely there!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please, North Wind," cried Diamond, "won't you help that little
+girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot leave my work, Diamond. But you can help her if you like.
+Only, I can't wait for you. And mind, the wind will get hold of you
+too!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how shall I get home again," cried Diamond, "if you don't wait for
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you must think of that!" said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," cried Diamond. "I am sure the wind will blow her over! I <i>must</i>
+help her anyway! Let me go!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Without a word, North Wind dropped into the street and set him down. The
+same moment, he was caught in the coils of the blast and all but swept
+away. North Wind vanished. The wind was roaring along the street. The
+little girl was scudding before it, her hair flying, while behind her
+she dragged her broom with which she swept her crossing. Her little legs
+were going as fast as they could, to keep her from falling.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! stop! little girl!" shouted Diamond, starting in pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't!" wailed the girl. "The wind won't let me!"</p>
+
+<p>Diamond ran after her and caught hold of her frock but it tore in his
+hand. Then he ran fast enough to get in front of her and turning around,
+caught her in his arms. Just then, he thought he got a glimpse of North
+Wind turning the corner in front of them. They must go with her of
+course, and sure enough, when they turned the corner after her, they
+found it quite quiet there.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, you must lead me," said Diamond. "You show me the way you must go
+to get home and I will take care of you."</p>
+
+<p>So the little girl put her free hand in his and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>began to lead him. They
+went around turning after turning, till they stopped at a cellar-door in
+a very dirty lane. There the little girl knocked.</p>
+
+<p>"What an awful place!" said Diamond. "I should not like to live here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, you would, if you had no where else to go!" answered the girl.
+"I only hope they'll let me in."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't they always let you in?" said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"No, they don't. And then I have to stay in the street all night and
+scud back to my crossing the first thing in the morning. You see they
+don't answer, now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Diamond, "I don't want to get in. I want to go back to my
+mother. Come with me and I will take you to my own home."</p>
+
+<div><a name="it" id="it"></a></div>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 275px;">
+<img src="images/illus-003.jpg" width="275" height="400" alt="IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN" title="IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN" />
+<span class="caption">IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN</span>
+</div>
+<p>The little girl thought this would be much better than sitting in the
+streets all night. So they started off. The trouble was that Diamond was
+not at all sure that he could find the way without North Wind. But the
+only thing to do was to try. So they wandered on and on, turning in this
+direction and that, without any reason for one way more than another. At
+last, they got out of the thick of the houses into a kind of waste
+place. By this time, they were both <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>very tired, and Diamond was
+inclined to cry. For he said to himself that he had not done the little
+girl any good and he had lost his own way home. But in this, he was
+wrong for she was far happier in having him with her, and making people
+happier is one of the best ways of doing them good.</p>
+
+<p>They sat down and rested themselves a little and then went on. After a
+time, they found themselves on a rising ground that sloped rather
+steeply on the other side. The moment they reached the top, a gust of
+wind seized them and blew them down hill as fast as they could run. Nor
+could Diamond stop before he went bang! against one of the doors in a
+wall. To his dismay, it burst open. When they came to themselves, they
+peeped in. It was the back door of a garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! oh!" cried Diamond after staring for a few moments. "I know this
+place&mdash;know it well! It is Mr. Coleman's garden and here I am at home
+again. Oh, I am so glad! Come in, little girl! Come in with me and my
+mother will give you some breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! I can't!" said the little girl. "We have been so long coming.
+Look up! Don't you see that it is morning now? I must hurry back to my
+crossing and sweep it and get money to take home or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>they will beat me!
+I cannot stay. Good-bye, little boy, good-bye!"</p>
+
+<p>She started back at once, ran up the hill and disappeared behind it.
+Diamond called after her and called, but she did not even turn round. He
+was sorry to see her go but there was no help for it. So when she was
+gone quite out of sight, he shut the door of the garden as best he
+could, and ran through the kitchen garden to the stables. And wasn't he
+glad to get into his own blessed bed again!</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">North Wind Sinks a Ship</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It was some time before he saw North Wind again. He saw the little girl
+before that but it was only for a moment. It happened in this way. His
+father was taking the horse, Diamond, to have new shoes put on him, and
+knowing that little Diamond, like all small boys, liked a ride, he set
+him on the horse and taking the bridle led the two Diamonds away.</p>
+
+<p>The blacksmith's shop was some distance away, deeper in London. As they
+crossed the angle of a square, Diamond, who was looking about to see if
+any one noticed him riding upon the big horse like a man, saw a little
+girl sweeping a crossing before a lady and holding out her hand for a
+penny. The lady had no penny and the little girl was disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond could not stand that. He knew the little girl and he knew that
+he had a penny in his pocket. He slid off the horse in a sort of tumble
+and ran to her, holding out the penny. She did not know him at first,
+but when he smiled at her, she did. He stuffed the penny into her hand
+and ran back, for he knew his father would not care to wait. After that,
+he did not see little Nanny for a long time.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He played often now on the lawn of the house next door&mdash;Mr. Coleman's
+lawn&mdash;as the summer drew near, warm and splendid. One evening, he was
+sitting in a little summer-house at the foot of the lawn, before which
+was a bed of tulips. They were closed for the night but the wind was
+waving them slightly. All at once, out of one of them, there flew a big
+buzzing bumblebee.</p>
+
+<p>"There! That's something done!" said a voice&mdash;a gentle, merry, childish
+voice but <i>so</i> tiny! "I was afraid he would have to stay there all
+night."</p>
+
+<p>Diamond looked all about and then he saw the <i>tiniest</i> creature, sliding
+down the stem of the tulip.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you the fairy that herds the bees?" he asked kneeling down beside
+the tulip bed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a fairy," answered the little creature. "You stupid Diamond,
+have you never seen me before?"</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, a moan of wind bent the tulips almost to the ground and
+then he recognized North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"But there!" added the little creature, "I must not stay to chatter. I
+have to go and sink a ship to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Sink a ship!" cried Diamond. "And drown the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>men and women in it? How
+dreadful! Still I cannot believe you are cruel, North Wind!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to
+those who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry
+away to the back of the north wind&mdash;only I never saw the place."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can you carry them there if you never saw the place? And how is
+it that you never saw it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is behind me. You cannot see your own back, you know. But
+run along now if you want to go with me to-night. I cannot take you till
+you have been to bed and gone to sleep. I'll look about and do something
+till you are ready. Do you see that man over there on the river in the
+boat who is just floating about? Now watch!"</p>
+
+<p>She flashed like a dragon-fly across the water whose surface rippled and
+puckered as she passed. The next moment, the man in the boat glanced
+about him and bent to his oars. The boat flew over the rippling water.
+The same instant almost, North Wind perched again upon the river wall.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you do that?" asked Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"I just blew in his face and blew the mist out of him."</p>
+
+<p>"But what for? I don't understand!" said Diamond. Hearing no answer, he
+looked down at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>wall. North Wind was gone. Away across the river
+went a long ripple&mdash;what sailors call a cat's paw. The man in the boat
+at once put up his sail. The moon was coming to herself on the edge of a
+great cloud and the sail began to shine white. Diamond rubbed his eyes
+and wondered what it was all about. But he felt that he could not know
+more till he had gone to bed, so he turned away and started for home. He
+stopped to look out of a window before going to bed. Above the moon, the
+clouds were streaming different ways, and the wind was rising as he fell
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p>He woke in the middle of the night and the darkness. A terrible noise
+was rumbling overhead like the rolling beat of great drums. For a while,
+he could not come quite awake. But a second peal of thunder broke over
+his head and a great blast of wind followed which tore some tiles off
+the roof and, through the hole this made, sent a spout of wind down into
+his face. At the same moment, he heard a mighty, yet musical voice say,
+"Come up, Diamond! It's all ready. I am waiting for you." Then a
+gigantic arm was reached down which drew him up and clasped him against
+North Wind's breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, North Wind!" he murmured. But the words vanished from his lips as
+he had seen the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>soap bubbles, that burst too soon, vanish from the
+mouth of his pipe. The wind caught them and they were no-where.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment, a peal of thunder which shook Diamond's heart
+against his side boomed out of the heavens; I cannot say, out of the
+sky, for there was no sky. Diamond had not seen the lightning for he had
+been busy trying to find the face of North Wind. Every moment, the folds
+of her garment would sweep across his eyes and blind him. But between
+them, he could just catch glimpses of the great glories of her eyes
+looking down at him through the rifts of the huge clouds over his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear North Wind!" cried the boy. "Why do you do like this? Must you
+go and sink the ship? It is not like you! Here you are, taking care of a
+poor little boy like me, with one arm, and there you are, sinking the
+ship with the other! No, no! It can't be like you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must believe that I am cruel," answered the strong voice of
+North Wind, sounding about him out of the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear North Wind, I can't believe that. I don't believe it. I will
+not believe it. How could you know how to put on such a beautiful face
+if you did not love me and love all the rest too? No! You <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>may sink as
+many ships as you like&mdash;though I shall not like to see it!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite another thing!" said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she gave one spring from the roof and rushed up into the
+clouds. As if the clouds knew she had come, they burst into fresh
+thunderous light. Diamond seemed to be borne through an ocean of
+dazzling flame. The winds were writhing around him like a storm of
+serpents. For they were in the midst of the clouds and mists which of
+course took the shapes of the wind, eddying, and wreathing, and
+whirling, and shooting, and dashing about like gray and black water.</p>
+
+<p>Now it blinded him by smiting him upon the eyes. Now it deafened him by
+bellowing in his ears. But he did not mind it. He only gasped at first,
+and then laughed, for the arm of North Wind was about him and he felt
+quite safe, though he knew that they were sweeping with the speed of the
+wind itself toward the sea! But before they reached it, Diamond felt
+North Wind's hair beginning to fall down about him.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the storm over, North Wind?" he called out.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Diamond. I am only waiting for a moment to set you down. You will
+not like to see the ship sunk and I am going to give you a place to stop
+in till I come back. Look!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With one sweep of her great white arm, she flung yards deep of darkness,
+like a great curtain, from before the face of the boy. And lo! it was a
+blue night lit up with stars. Where it did not shine with stars, it
+shimmered with a milky whiteness of stars except where, just before
+them, the gray towers of a cathedral blotted out the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"A good place for you to wait in," said North Wind and swept down upon
+the cathedral roof. They went in through an open door in one of the
+towers. Diamond found himself at the top of a stone stair which went
+twisting away down into the darkness. North Wind held his hand, and
+after a little, led him out upon a narrow gallery which ran all around
+the central part of the church. Below him, lay the inside of the church
+like a great silent gulf hollowed in stone. On and on, they walked along
+this narrow gallery till at last they reached a much broader stairway
+leading on down and down until at length, it led them down into the
+church itself.</p>
+
+<p>There he felt himself clasped in the arms of North Wind who held him
+close and kissed him on the forehead. The next moment, she was gone, and
+Diamond heard a moaning about the church which grew and grew to a
+roaring. The storm was up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>again and he knew that North Wind's hair was
+flying.</p>
+
+<p>The church was dark. Only a little light came through the windows which
+were almost all of that precious old stained glass so much lovelier than
+the new. There was not enough light in the stars to show the colors in
+them. Diamond began to feel his way about the place, and for a little
+while went wandering up and down. His pattering foot-steps waked soft
+answering echoes in the stone house. It was as if the great cathedral
+somehow knew that his little self was there and went on giving back an
+answer to every step he took.</p>
+
+<p>At last, he gave a great sigh and said, "I am <i>so</i> tired!" He did not
+hear the gentle echo which answered from far away over his head. For at
+that moment, he came against the lowest of a few steps that stretched
+across the church, and fell down and hurt his arm. He cried a little at
+first, and then crawled up the steps on his hands and knees. At the top,
+he came to a little bit of carpet on which he lay down. And there he lay
+staring at the dull windows that rose nearly a hundred feet above his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was at that moment just on the edge of the horizon. And lo!
+with the moon, lovely figures began to dawn in the windows. He lay and
+looked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>at them backward over his head, wondering if they would come
+down. He heard a low, soft murmuring as if they were talking to
+themselves about him. But his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired.
+His eyelids grew so heavy that they <i>would</i> keep tumbling down over his
+eyes. He kept lifting them and lifting them. But every time, they were
+heavier than the last. It was no use! They were too much for him.
+Sometimes before he got them half way up, down they went again. At
+length, he gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast
+asleep!</p>
+
+<p>When his eyes came wide open again, there were no lovely figures&mdash;or
+even windows&mdash;but a dark heap of hay all about him. The small panes in
+the roof of his loft were glimmering blue in the light of the morning.
+Old Diamond was coming awake down below in the stable. In a moment more
+he was on his feet and shaking himself so that young Diamond's bed
+trembled under him.</p>
+
+<p>"He is grand at shaking himself!" said Diamond. "I wish I could shake
+myself like that. But then I can wash myself and he can't. What fun it
+would be to see old Diamond washing his face with his hoofs and iron
+shoes! Wouldn't it be a picture!"</p>
+
+<p>He dressed himself quickly and ran out. Down the stairs he went and
+through the little door out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>upon the lawn of Mr. Coleman's house next
+door. He wanted to see how things looked since last night. There was the
+little summer-house with the tulip bed before it where he had been
+sitting the evening before, crushed to the ground! Over it lay the great
+elm tree which the wind had broken across! As he stood looking at it, a
+gentleman who was staying at the Coleman house came out upon the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" said the gentleman. "There has been terrible work here! This
+is the North Wind's doing! What a pity! I wish we lived at the back of
+it, I am sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is that, sir?" asked Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Away in the Hyperborean regions," answered the gentleman. He smiled for
+he knew well enough that Diamond would not understand that big word
+which means the country away in the far, far north.</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard of that place," returned Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the gentleman. "I suppose not. But if this tree had been
+there, it would not have been blown down. There is no wind in that
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"That must be the place," said Diamond to himself, "where North Wind
+said she would take the people whom she sunk with the ship. Next time I
+see her, I am going to ask her to take me to see that land, too."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Land at the Back of the North Wind</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>One morning, Diamond's mother did not think he was feeling very well and
+when he told her that he had a little headache, she was sure of it. Now
+there was an aunt of his living at Sandwich and his mother decided to
+send him there for a change. So giving him two pence for spending money,
+she packed him off to Sandwich for a visit.</p>
+
+<p>He soon made great friends with an old woman who kept a toy-shop there,
+where he spent his two pence. One hot day when he had been walking about
+more than he ought and was tired, he went into the toy-shop to rest. The
+old woman had gone out but he thought it would be all right for him to
+sit down on a box and rest.</p>
+
+<p>All at once, he heard a gentle whirring somewhere amongst the toys.
+Among them was a whistle that had a wind-mill at the end which turned
+when you blew the whistle. No one was blowing the whistle now and yet
+the wind-mill was turning and turning and turning.</p>
+
+<p>"What can it mean?" said Diamond out loud after watching for a few
+moments.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It means <i>me</i>," answered the tiniest voice he had ever heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, please?" asked Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, I begin to be ashamed of you!" cried the voice. "You are
+as bad as a baby that doesn't know its mother in a new bonnet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite so bad as that, dear North Wind," said Diamond. "And I am so
+glad to see you. Did you sink the ship?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And drown everybody?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite. One boat got away with six or seven men in it."</p>
+
+<p>"And you took the others to that queer place the gentleman spoke of,"
+said Diamond to himself. Aloud he said, "Please, North Wind, I want you
+to take me to the country at the back of the north wind."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not so easy," said North Wind and was silent so long that he
+thought she must have gone away. But presently she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so easy," she said thoughtfully. "But we shall see. We shall
+see. You must go home, now, my dear, for you do not seem very well."</p>
+
+<p>So Diamond went home. That afternoon, his head began to ache very much
+and he had to go to bed. In the middle of the night, his aunt came in to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>feel his forehead and to give him a drink of lemonade. Then he went off
+to sleep, but was awake again soon, for a burst of wind blew open his
+lattice window. The same moment, he found himself in a cloud of North
+Wind's hair, with her beautiful face, set in it like a moon, bending
+over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick! Diamond!" she said. "I have found such a chance!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I am not well," said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"I know. But you will be better for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Diamond; and getting out of bed, he jumped into North
+Wind's arms. Sure enough, the moment he felt her arms fold about him, he
+began to feel better. It was a moonless night and very dark, with
+glimpses of stars when the clouds parted.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall soon get to where the waves are dashing about," said North
+Wind. And soon, Diamond looking down saw the white glimmer of breaking
+water far below him.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, Diamond," said North Wind, "it is very difficult to get you to
+the back of the north wind for that country lies in the very north
+itself. Now, of course, I cannot blow northwards, for then I should have
+to be South Wind. The north is where I come from&mdash;it is my home though I
+never get nearer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>to it than the outer door. I can only sit on the
+door-step and hear the voices in there, behind me. Since I cannot blow
+in that direction to get there, I have just to draw into myself and grow
+weaker and fainter as I go. That makes it hard for me to carry
+anything&mdash;even you&mdash;with me when I go that way. So I must get some help.
+Let me get rid of a few of these clouds. There! What do you see now?"</p>
+
+<p>"A boat," said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"A ship," said North Wind, "whose captain I know well. I have often
+helped him to sail his eighty miles a day northward."</p>
+
+<p>"He must have tacked often to do that," said Diamond who had been
+watching the ships at Sandwich.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that gave him a share in the business. It is not good at all&mdash;mind
+that, Diamond&mdash;to do everything for those you love and not give them a
+share in the doing. It is not being really kind to them. If South Wind
+had blown that ship straight north, the captain would just have smoked
+his pipe all day and got stupider and stupider. But now I am going to
+put you aboard his ship. Do you see that round thing on the deck like
+the top of a drum? Below that is where they keep their spare sails. I am
+going to blow it off and drop you through upon the sails.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> You will find
+it nice and warm and dry. Just coil yourself up there and go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>A moment more, and he felt himself tumbled in on the heap of sails. Hour
+after hour, he lay comfortably there. He could hear the straining of the
+masts, the creaking of the boom, and the singing of the ropes with the
+roaring of the wind; also the surge of the waves past the ship's sides
+and the thud with which every now and then one would strike her.</p>
+
+<p>All at once arose a terrible uproar. The cover was blown off again, a
+fierce wind rushed in, snatched him up and bore him aloft into the
+clouds. Down below, he saw the little vessel, he had been in, tossing on
+the waves like a sea-bird with folded wing. Near it was a bigger ship
+which was on its way to the north pole.</p>
+
+<p>"That big ship will give us a lift now," said North Wind. Swooping down
+she tucked him snugly in amongst some flags. And now on and on, they
+sped toward the north. How long it was, Diamond did not know, but one
+night she whispered in his ear, "Come up on deck, Diamond."</p>
+
+<p>Everything looked very strange. Here and there on all sides, were huge
+masses of floating ice looking like cathedrals and castles and crags,
+and beyond them a blue sea. Some of the icebergs were drifting
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>northward, one passing very near the ship. North Wind seized Diamond
+and with a single bound, lighted on it. The same instant, South Wind
+began to blow and North Wind hurried Diamond down the north side of the
+berg and into a cave. There she sat down as if weary on a ledge of ice.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond was enraptured with the color of the air in the cave, a deep,
+dazzling, lovely blue that was always in motion, boiling and sparkling.
+But when he looked at North Wind he was frightened.</p>
+
+<p>He saw that her form and face were growing, not small, but transparent
+like something dissolving away. He could see the side of the blue cave
+through her very heart. She melted slowly away till all that was left
+was a pale face with two great lucid eyes in it.</p>
+
+<p>"She is dying away!" he said. "Of course, as we go northward, she is
+dying away more and more."</p>
+
+<p>After a little, he went out and sat on the edge of his floating island
+and looked down into the green ocean. When he got tired of that, he went
+back into the blue cave. He felt as if in a dream. He was not hungry,
+but he sucked little bits of the berg at times.</p>
+
+<p>At length, far off on the horizon, there rose into the sky a shining
+peak, and his berg floated right toward it. Other peaks came into view
+as he went on, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>and at last his berg floated up to a projecting rock.
+Diamond stepped ashore and a little way before him saw a lofty ridge of
+ice with a gap in it like the opening of a valley. As he got nearer, he
+saw it was not a gap but the form of a woman, her hands in her lap and
+her hair hanging to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"It is North Wind on her door-step!" said Diamond joyfully and hurried
+on.</p>
+<div><a name="he" id="he"></a></div>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 281px;">
+<img src="images/illus-004.jpg" width="281" height="400" alt="HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE DEAD AT LAST" title="HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE DEAD AT LAST" />
+<span class="caption">HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE DEAD AT LAST</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>She sat motionless with drooping head and did not move nor speak. He was
+sure it was North Wind but he thought she must be dead at last. Her face
+was white as the snow, her eyes blue as the ice cave, and she had on a
+greenish robe like the color in the hollows of a glacier.</p>
+
+<p>He walked toward her instantly and put out his hand to lay it on her.
+There was nothing there but intense cold. All grew white about him. He
+groped on further. The white thickened about him and he felt himself
+stumbling and falling. But as he fell, he rolled over the threshold. It
+was thus that Diamond got to the back of the north wind.</p>
+
+<p>And what did he find? There was no North Wind in sight nor snow nor ice.
+It was a country where even the ground smelled sweetly, though Diamond
+thought the odour must come out of the flowers. A gentle air breathed in
+his face but he was not quite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>sure he did not miss the wind. A river as
+clear as crystal ran not only through the grass but over it too. It
+murmured a low, sweet song as it ran. There was no sun nor moon but a
+pure cloudless light always, and the blue arch of the sky seemed like a
+harp playing the soft airs of Heaven. There were many people there and
+all the people seemed happy and yet as if they were going to be happier
+some day.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing ever went wrong at the back of the north wind and the only thing
+one ever missed was some one he loved who had not yet got there. But if
+one at the back of the north wind wanted to know how things were going
+with any one he loved, he had only to go to a certain tree, and climb up
+and sit down in the branches.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when Diamond was sitting in this tree, he began to long very
+much to get home again. And no wonder! For he saw his mother crying. Now
+if you wished anything at the back of the north wind, you could follow
+your wish if you could find the way. So Diamond knew that he must now
+find North Wind. He could not go home without her and therefore he must
+find her. He went all about searching and searching. One day as he was
+looking and looking, he thought he caught a glimpse of the ice ridge and
+the misty form of North Wind seated as he had left <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>her. He ran as hard
+as he could. Yes, he was sure it was she. He pushed on through the
+whiteness, which began to thicken around him. It was harder and harder
+to go but he struggled on and at last reached her and sank wearily down
+at her knees. At that same moment, the country at her back vanished from
+Diamond's view.</p>
+
+<p>North Wind was as still as Diamond had left her. But as he touched her,
+her face began to change like that of one waking from sleep. He
+clambered up upon her breast. She gave a great sigh, slowly lifted her
+arms, and slowly folded them about him, until she clasped him close.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been sitting here ever since I went through you, dear North
+Wind? It has been like a hundred years!" said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been just seven days," said North Wind smiling. "Come now, we
+will go."</p>
+
+<p>The next moment, Diamond sat alone on the rock. North Wind had vanished.
+But something like a cockchafer flew past his face. Around and around
+him in circles it went.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, Diamond," it said in his ear. "It is time we were setting
+out for Sandwich."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to drop to the ground but when he looked Diamond could see
+nothing but a little spider <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>with long legs which made its way over the
+ice toward the south. It grew and grew till Diamond discovered that it
+was not a spider but a weasel. Away glided the weasel and away went
+Diamond after it. The weasel grew and grew and grew till he saw it was
+not a weasel but a cat. Away went the cat and away went Diamond after
+it. When he came up with it, it was not a cat but a leopard. The leopard
+grew to a jaguar and the jaguar to a Bengal tiger.</p>
+
+<p>Of none of them was Diamond afraid for he had been at North Wind's back
+and he could be afraid of her no longer whatever she did or grew to be.
+The tiger flew over the snow in a straight line for the south, growing
+less and less to Diamond's eyes till it was only a black speck upon the
+whiteness. Then it vanished altogether.</p>
+
+<p>And now Diamond felt that he would rather not run any further and that
+the ice had got very rough. Besides he was near the precipices that
+bounded the sea. So he slowed up his pace to a walk and said to himself,
+"North Wind will come back for me, I know. She is just teasing me a
+little. Then, too, she <i>must</i> get started some way to grow bigger and
+bigger all the time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here I am, dear boy," said North Wind's voice behind him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Diamond turned and saw her as he liked best to see her, standing beside
+him a tall, beautiful woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the tiger?" he said. "But of course, you were the tiger. It
+puzzles me a little. I saw it such a long way off before me, and there
+you are behind me. It is odd, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"None of these things is odder to me than to see you eat bread and
+butter," said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"I should just like to see a slice of bread and butter!" cried Diamond.
+"I am afraid to say how long it is since I had anything to eat!"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have some soon. I am glad to find you want some!"</p>
+
+<p>She swept him up in her arms and bounded into the air. Her tresses began
+to lift and rise and spread and stream and flow and flutter. And North
+Wind and Diamond went flying southward. The sea slid away from under
+them like a great web of shot silk, blue shot with gray, and green shot
+with purple. The stars appeared to sail away past them, like golden
+boats on a blue sea turned upside down. Diamond himself went fast, fast,
+fast&mdash;he went fast asleep in North Wind's arms.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond's Father Loses His Employment</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>When he woke once more, a face was bending over him. It was not North
+Wind's, however; it was his mother's. He put out his arms to her and she
+clasped him to her heart and burst out crying.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, mother?" cried Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Diamond dear! You have been so ill!" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why no, mother dear. I have only been at the back of the North Wind,"
+returned Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were dead," said his mother.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, the doctor came in. He drew his mother aside and told
+her not to talk to Diamond. He must be kept as quiet as possible. And
+indeed, Diamond felt very strange and weak. But he soon got better with
+chicken broth and other nice things.</p>
+
+<p>And it was a good thing that he could get well and strong again. For
+since he had come to Sandwich, a sad thing had happened to his father.
+Mr. Coleman, his father's employer, had failed in business. It had come
+about in this way. Miss Coleman, who had looked so like North Wind that
+night on which he had seen her having her long black hair <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>combed beside
+the fire, had a lover, a Mr. Evans. Now Mr. Evans was poor and felt
+ashamed to marry Miss Coleman until he had made more money and could
+live finely. This was a sort of false pride and it brought about great
+trouble for them all.</p>
+
+<p>For Mr. Coleman took Mr. Evans into partnership to help him along. As
+soon as that happened, Mr. Evans began to urge Mr. Coleman to go into
+business ventures which were not honest but in which they could make a
+great deal of money. It was not so bad at first, but as they went on, it
+became more and more dishonest.</p>
+
+<p>They could not seem to get out of it, however, and get back to carrying
+on their business in the right way. So North Wind had to take a hand and
+teach them better. It was Mr. Coleman's ship she sank that night when
+she carried Diamond into the cathedral to wait for her. In the one
+boat-load of people which North Wind drove off to a desert island, was
+Mr. Evans. He had gone along on the ship to manage the business. Now he
+found that it would have been better to have been poor and stayed at
+home to marry Miss Coleman than to be ship-wrecked and have to live on a
+desert island because he longed so to be rich.</p>
+
+<p>The loss of the ship ruined Mr. Coleman. He had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>to sell off his house
+and his horses, old Diamond among them, and go and live in a poor little
+house in a much less pleasant place. He had to begin again to work and
+learn how much better it is to be honest and contented than to try to
+get rich quickly. And poor Miss Coleman thought her lover was drowned
+and was very, very unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody suffers alone. When old Diamond was sold, young Diamond's father
+was thrown out of work. Then he had no way to earn money to keep Diamond
+and his mother and the new little baby brother who had come to them. How
+Diamond did wish he was big enough to do something! But of course, he
+could think of nothing he could do. Besides he had to get well and
+strong first, anyway. His father sent word that he and his mother were
+to stay down at Sandwich until he found something to do and a place
+where he could make a home for them. It was a very fortunate thing that
+Diamond's aunt was glad to keep them with her as long as ever they were
+willing to stay.</p>
+
+<p>One day when Diamond was getting strong enough to go out, his mother got
+his aunt's husband, who had a little pony cart, to carry them down to
+the sea-shore. A whiff of sea air, she said, would do them both good.
+They sat down on the edge of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>rough grass which bordered the sand.
+Away before them stretched the sparkling waters of the ocean, every wave
+of which flashed out its delight in the face of the great sun. On each
+hand, the shore rounded outward, forming a little bay. Dry sand was
+about their feet, and under them thin wiry grass.</p>
+
+<p>After a time, his mother stretched out her hand for the basket which she
+had brought with her and she and Diamond had their dinner. Diamond <i>did</i>
+enjoy it, the drive and the fresh air had made him so hungry! But he was
+sorry that his mother looked so sad and depressed. He knew she was
+thinking about his father and how they now had no home. But there was
+nothing for him to do. So he lay down on the sand again, feeling sleepy,
+and gazed sleepily out over the sand. "What is that, mother!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a bit of paper," she answered looking where he pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"It flutters more than a bit of paper would, I think," said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go and see if you like," said his mother.</p>
+
+<p>She rose and went and found that it was a little book partly buried in
+the sand. Several of its leaves were clear of the sand and these the
+wind kept blowing about in a very fluttering manner. She took it up and
+brought it to Diamond.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is it, mother?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Rhymes, I think," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sleepy," he said. "Do read some of them to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will," she said and began one. "But this is such nonsense," she
+said again. "I will try to find a better one."</p>
+
+<p>She turned the leaves, searching, but three times with sudden puffs the
+wind blew the leaves rustling back to the same verses.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if that is North Wind," said Diamond to himself. To his mother
+he said, "Do read that one. It sounded very nice. I am sure it is a good
+one."</p>
+
+<p>His mother thought it might amuse him although she could not find any
+sense in it. So she read on like this:</p>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+I know a river<br />
+whose waters run asleep,<br />
+run, run ever,<br />
+singing in the shallows,<br />
+dumb in the hollows<br />
+sleeping so deep;<br />
+and all the swallows<br />
+that dip their feathers<br />
+in the hollows<br />
+or in the shallows<br />
+are the merriest swallows of all!<br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<p>"Why!" whispered Diamond to himself sleepily, "that is what the river
+sang when I was at the back of the north wind."</p>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+And so with the daisies<br />
+the little white daisies<br />
+they grow and they blow<br />
+and they spread out their crown<br />
+and they praise the sun;<br />
+and when he goes down<br />
+their praising is done<br />
+and they fold up their crown<br />
+till over the plain<br />
+he is rising amain<br />
+and they're at it again!<br />
+praising and praising<br />
+such low songs raising<br />
+that no one hears them<br />
+but the sun who rears them!<br />
+and the sheep that bite them<br />
+awake or asleep<br />
+are the quietest sheep<br />
+with the merriest bleat!<br />
+and the little lambs<br />
+are the merriest lambs!<br />
+they forget to eat<br />
+for the frolic in their feet!<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"Merriest, merriest, merriest," murmured Diamond as he sank deeper and
+deeper in sleep. "That <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>is what the song of the river is telling me.
+Even I can be merry and cheerful&mdash;and that will help some. And so I
+will&mdash;when&mdash;I&mdash;wake&mdash;up&mdash;again." And he went off sound asleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was not very long after this that Diamond and his mother could go
+home again. His father had now found something to do and this is how it
+came about. He one day met a cabman who was a friend of his and this
+friend said to him, "Why don't you set up as a cabman yourself&mdash;and buy
+a cab?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't enough money to buy a horse with&mdash;and a cab," said Diamond's
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," answered his friend. "I just bought an old horse the other
+day, cheap. He is no good for the hansom I drive, for when folks take a
+hansom, they want to drive like the wind. But for a four-wheeler that
+takes families and their luggage, he's the very horse. I bought him
+cheap and I'll sell him cheap."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't want him," said Diamond's father.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come and see him anyway," said his friend. So he went.</p>
+
+<p>What was his delight on going into the stable to find that the horse was
+no other than his own old Diamond! Diamond, grown very thin and bony and
+long-legged. The horse hearing his master's voice, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>turned his long
+neck. And when his old friend went up to him and laid his hand on his
+side, he whinnied for joy and laid his big head on his master's breast.
+This settled the matter. Diamond's father put his arms around old
+Diamond's neck and fairly cried.</p>
+
+<p>The end of it was that Diamond's father bought old Diamond again,
+together with a four-wheeled cab. As there were some rooms to be had
+over the stable, he took them, wrote to his wife to come home, and set
+up as a cabman.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the afternoon when Diamond and his mother and the baby
+reached London. His father was waiting for them with his own cab but
+they had not told Diamond who the horse was. For his father wanted to
+enjoy the pleasure of his surprise when he found it out. He got in with
+his mother without looking at the horse and was quite proud of riding
+home in his father's cab.</p>
+
+<p>When he got to the stables where their rooms were he could not help
+being a little dismayed at first. But he thought of the song of the
+river at the back of the north wind and just looked about for things
+that were pleasant. He said to himself that it was a fine thing that all
+their old furniture was there. Then he began to search out the
+advantages of the place.</p>
+
+<p>A thick, dull rain was falling and that was de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>pressing. But the weather
+would change and there was a good fire burning in the room, which a
+neighbor had made for them. The tea things were put out and the kettle
+was boiling on the fire. And with a good fire and tea and bread and
+butter, things cannot be so <i>very</i> bad.</p>
+
+<p>But Diamond's father and mother were rather miserable and Diamond began
+to feel a kind of darkness spreading over him. At the same moment, he
+said, "This will never do! I can't give in to this. I've been at the
+back of the north wind. Things go right there and they must be made to
+go right here!"</p>
+
+<p>So he said out loud, "What nice bread and butter this is!" And when he
+had eaten it, he began to amuse the baby who was soon shrieking with
+laughter. His father and mother had to laugh too and things began to
+look better.</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed a change for them all, not only from Sandwich but from
+their old place. Instead of the great river where the huge barges with
+their brown and yellow sails went up and down, their windows now looked
+out upon a dirty paved yard. There was no garden more for Diamond to run
+into when he pleased, with gay flowers about his feet, and lofty trees
+over his head.</p>
+
+<p>Neither was there a wooden wall at the back of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>his bed with a hole in
+it for North Wind to come in at when she liked. Indeed, there was such a
+high wall that North Wind seldom got into the place. And the wall at the
+head of Diamond's new bed only divided it from the room where a cabman
+lived who drank too much beer and came home to quarrel with and abuse
+his wife. It was dreadful for Diamond to hear the scolding and the
+crying. But he was determined it should not make him miserable for he
+had been at the back of the north wind.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond Learns To Drive a Horse</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The wind blew loudly all night long, the first night Diamond slept in
+his new home, but he did not hear it. My own belief is that when Diamond
+slept too soundly to remember anything about it in the morning, he had
+been all night at the back of the north wind. Sometimes something did
+seem to remain in his mind like the low far-off murmur of the river
+singing its song. He sometimes tried to hold on to the words it sung.
+But ever as he came <i>awaker</i>&mdash;as he would say&mdash;one line faded away and
+then another. At last there was nothing left but the sense that
+everything went right there and could&mdash;and must&mdash;be made to go right
+here.</p>
+
+<p>That was how he awoke that first morning and he jumped up at once
+saying, "I've been ill a long time and given a great deal of trouble.
+Now let's see how I can help my mother."</p>
+
+<p>When he went into her room, he found her lighting the fire and his
+father just getting up. So he took up the baby who was awake too and
+cared for him till his mother had the breakfast ready. She was looking
+gloomy and his father too was silent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> Diamond felt that in a few
+minutes, he would be just as miserable. But he tried with all his might
+to be jolly with the baby and presently his mother just had to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Diamond, child!" she said at last. "You are as good to your mother
+as if you were a girl&mdash;nursing the baby and toasting the bread, and
+sweeping up the hearth. I declare a body would think you had been among
+the fairies."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been at the back of the north wind," said Diamond to himself
+happily.</p>
+
+<p>And now his father was more cheerful too. "Won't you come out and see
+the cab, Diamond?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, father, in just a minute after I put the baby down."</p>
+
+<p>So his father went on ahead. When Diamond got out into the yard, the
+horse was between the shafts. Diamond went around to look at him. The
+sight of him made him feel very queer. He could not make it out. What
+horse was it that looked so familiar? When he came around in front and
+the old horse put out his long neck and began rubbing against him,
+Diamond saw it could be no other than old Diamond and he just put his
+arms around his neck and cried.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it jolly, father!" he said. "Was there ever anybody so lucky as
+we! Dear old Diamond!" He hugged the horse again and kissed both his
+big, hairy cheeks. He could only manage one at a time, however&mdash;the
+other cheek was so far off on the other side of old Diamond's big head.
+And now his father took up the reins to drive off.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, father, do let me drive a bit!" cried Diamond jumping up on the box
+beside him. His father put the reins into his hands and began to show
+him how to drive. He let Diamond drive quite a little way and then the
+boy jumped down and ran gaily back to his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Now it happened that the man who sold old Diamond back to his father,
+saw how delighted little Diamond was to learn to drive. And that
+evening, shortly before Diamond's father came home, the man asked
+Diamond's mother if the boy might not go a little way with him.</p>
+
+<p>"He cannot go far," said his mother, "for he is not very strong yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take him only as far as the square," said the man.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond's mother said he might go as far as that. Dancing with delight,
+Diamond ran to get his cap and in a few minutes was jumping into the
+cab.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> The man gave him the reins and showed him how to drive safely
+through the gate and Diamond got along famously. Just as they were
+turning into the square, they had an adventure. It was getting quite
+dusky. A cab was coming rapidly from the other direction, and Diamond
+pulling aside and the other driver pulling up, they just escaped a
+collision. And there was his father!</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Diamond, it is a bad beginning to run into your own father," he
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"But, father, wouldn't it have been a bad ending for you to run into
+your own son!" answered the boy. And both men laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a good little driver, though," said the man. "He would be fit to
+drive on his own hook in a week or two. But he had better go back with
+you now."</p>
+
+<p>"Come along then, Diamond," said his father. Diamond jumped across into
+the other cab and they drove away home.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before Diamond was a great favorite with all the men
+about the stables&mdash;he was so jolly! It was not the best place in the
+world for him to be brought up in and at first he did hear a good many
+rough and bad words. But as he did not like them, he never learned to
+say them and they did him little harm. Before long, the men grew rather
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>ashamed to use them. One would nudge the other to remind him that the
+boy was within hearing and the words choked themselves before they got
+any further.</p>
+
+<p>One day, they gave him a curry comb and brush to try his hand on old
+Diamond's coat. He used them deftly and thoroughly as far as he could
+reach.</p>
+
+<p>"You must make haste and grow," the men told him. "It won't do to clean
+a horse half way up and leave his back dirty, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Put me up," said Diamond. In a moment he was on the old horse's back
+with the comb and brush. There he combed and brushed and combed and
+brushed. Every now and then, old Diamond would whisk his tail and once
+he sent the comb flying out of the stable door to the great amusement of
+the men. But they brought it back to him and Diamond finished his task.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" said Diamond, when he had done. "I'm so tired!" And he laid
+himself down at full length on old Diamond's back. The men were much
+amused and from that time were always ready to teach him to drive.</p>
+
+<p>So in one way and another, he did learn to drive all sorts of horses,
+and through the most crowded streets in London city. One day his father
+took him on his own cab and as they were standing waiting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>for a
+passenger, his father left him alone for a few minutes. Hearing a noise,
+Diamond looked around to see what it was. There was a crossing near the
+cab-stand where a girl was sweeping. Some young roughs had picked a
+quarrel with her and were now trying to pull her broom away from her.
+Diamond was off his box in a moment and running to the help of the girl.
+The roughs began to act worse than ever. Just then Diamond's father came
+back and sent them flying. The girl thanked Diamond and began sweeping
+again as if nothing had happened.</p>
+
+<p>She did not forget her friends, however. A moment after, she came
+running up with her broom over her shoulder, calling "Cab, there! Cab!"
+And when Diamond's father reached the curbstone, who should it be but
+Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman! Diamond and his father were very happy to
+see them again and gladly drove them home. When they wanted to pay for
+it, Diamond's father would not hear of it, but jumped on his box and
+drove away.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long time since Diamond had seen North Wind or even thought
+much about her. Now, as his father drove along, he was thinking not
+about her but about the crossing sweeper. He was wondering what made him
+feel as if he knew her quite well when he could not remember anything of
+her. But a picture <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>arose in his mind of a little girl running before
+the wind, and dragging her broom after her. From that, he recalled the
+whole adventure of the night when he had gone out with North Wind and
+made her put him down in a London street.</p>
+
+<p>A few nights after this, Diamond woke up suddenly, believing he heard
+the north wind thundering along. But it was something quite different.
+South Wind was moaning around the chimneys, to be sure, for she was not
+very happy that night. But it was not her voice that had wakened
+Diamond. It was a loud angry voice, now growling like that of a beast,
+now raving like that of a madman. It was the voice of the drunken cabman
+whose room was just through the wall at the back of Diamond's bed.</p>
+
+<p>At length, there came a cry from the woman and a scream from the baby.
+Diamond thought it was time somebody did something. He jumped up and
+went to see. The voice of the crying baby guided him to the right door
+and he peeped in. The drunken cabman had dropped into a chair, his wife
+lay sobbing on the bed, and the baby was wailing in its cradle.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond's first thought was to run away from the misery of it. But he
+remembered at once that he had been at the back of the north wind.
+People who had been there must always try to destroy misery <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>wherever
+they saw it. But what could he do? Well, there was the baby. He stole in
+and lifted it into his arms and soon had it on his knee, smiling at the
+light that came in from the street lamp. He began to sing to it in a low
+voice&mdash;the song of the river as it ran over the soft grass and among the
+flowers in the country at the back of the north wind. He sang on till
+the baby went sound asleep. He himself got sleepier and sleepier, though
+the cabman and his wife only got wider awake all the time. At length,
+Diamond found himself nodding. He got up and laid the baby gently in its
+cradle and stole quietly out and home again to his own bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Wife," said the cabman, "did you see that angel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered his wife, "it is little Diamond who lives in the next
+yard."</p>
+
+<p>She knew him well enough. She was the neighbor who had the fire lighted
+and the tea ready for them when Diamond and his mother came home from
+Sandwich on that rainy, gloomy night. Her husband was somehow very sorry
+now and ashamed of the misery he had caused&mdash;was it the song of the
+river which Diamond had sung that caused it? He tried hard to forget
+where the drink shop stood and for a good many weeks managed to keep
+away from it.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One day when their cab was waiting for a fare, Diamond jumped down to
+run a little and stretch his legs. He strolled up to the crossing where
+Nanny and her broom were to be found in all weathers. Just as he was
+going to speak to her a tall gentleman stepped upon the crossing. He was
+glad to find it clean and he gave the girl a penny. When she made him a
+courtesy, he looked at her again and said, "Where do you live, my
+child?"</p>
+
+<p>"Paradise Row," she answered. "Next door to the Adam and Eve&mdash;down the
+area."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom do you live with?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"My wicked old granny," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not call your granny wicked," said the gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"But she is!" said Nanny. "If you don't believe me, you can come and
+take a look at her."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman looked very grave at hearing her. It was not a nice way
+for a little girl to talk. He was turning away, when he saw the face of
+Diamond looking up into his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Please," said Diamond, "her granny is very cruel to her sometimes&mdash;and
+shuts her out in the streets at night if she happens to be late."</p>
+
+<p>"So, my little man. And what can you do?" asked the gentleman turning
+towards him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Drive a cab," said Diamond proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything else?" asked the gentleman smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care of the baby," said Diamond; "clean father's boots and make
+him a bit of toast for his tea."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a useful little man," said the gentleman. "Can you read?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but father and mother can and they are going to teach me soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here is a penny for you, and when you learn to read, come to me
+and I will give you six-pence and a book with fine pictures in it."</p>
+
+<p>He gave Diamond a card with his address on it. "Thank you," said Diamond
+and put the card into his pocket. The gentleman walked away but he saw
+Diamond give the penny to Nanny and say, "I have a father and mother and
+little brother and you have nothing but a wicked old granny. You may
+have my penny."</p>
+
+<p>The girl put the penny in her pocket and Diamond asked, "Is she as cruel
+as ever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just the same. But I get more coppers, so I can buy myself some food.
+She is so blind that she doesn't see that I do not eat her old scraps. I
+hide them in my pocket."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want them for?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To give to cripple Jim. His leg was broken when he was young, so he
+isn't good for much. But I love Jim. I always keep something for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Diamond! Diamond!" called his father, just then.</p>
+
+<p>So Diamond ran back and told him about the gentleman and showed him the
+card he had given him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is not many doors from our stables!" cried his father looking
+at the address. "Take care of it, Diamond. One needs all the friends he
+can get in this world."</p>
+
+<p>"We've got many friends," said Diamond. "Haven't we? There's mother and
+the baby and old Diamond&mdash;and the man next door who drinks&mdash;and his wife
+and baby&mdash;and Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman&mdash;and&mdash;and a many!"</p>
+
+<p>His father just laughed and drove off.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond Drives the Cab</span></h3>
+
+
+<div><a name="within" id="within"></a></div>
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 274px;">
+<img src="images/illus-005.jpg" width="274" height="400" alt="WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE VERSES FOR HIMSELF" title="WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE VERSES FOR HIMSELF" />
+<span class="caption">WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE VERSES FOR HIMSELF</span>
+</div><p>The question of the tall gentleman as to whether Diamond could read or
+not, set his father to thinking it was high time he could. As soon as
+old Diamond was fed and bedded, he began the task of teaching him that
+very night. It was not much of a task to Diamond for his father took for
+the lesson book the same one which North Wind had waved the leaves of on
+the sands at Sandwich. Within a month, he was able to spell out most of
+the verses for himself. But he never found in it the river song which he
+thought his mother had read from it. Could it have been North Wind doing
+the reading in his mother's voice?</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before Diamond managed with many blunders to read all
+the rhymes in his book to his mother. Then he said, "In a week or so, I
+shall be able to go to the tall gentleman and tell him I can read." But
+before the week was out he had another reason for going to the
+gentleman, whose name he found out was Mr. Raymond. For three days,
+Nanny had not been at her crossing. Diamond was quite anxious about her,
+fearing she must be ill. On the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>fourth day not seeing her yet, he said
+to his father, "I want to go and look after Nanny. She can't be well."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said his father. "Only take care of yourself, Diamond."</p>
+
+<p>So Diamond set off to find his way to Nanny's home. It was a long
+distance and he had to ask his way over and over again. But he kept on
+without getting discouraged and at last he came to it.</p>
+
+<p>Happily for Diamond, the ugly old granny had gone out. He laid his ear
+to the door and thought he heard a moaning within. He tried the door and
+found it was not locked. It was a dreary place indeed&mdash;and very dark,
+for the window was below the level of the street and was covered with
+mud. And the smell in the room was dreadful!</p>
+
+<p>He could see next to nothing at first but he heard the moaning plainly
+enough now. Soon he found his friend lying with closed eyes and a white
+suffering face on a heap of rags in a corner. He went up to her and
+spoke but she made him no answer. She did not even hear him. Taking out
+a lump of barley sugar candy he had brought for her he laid it down
+beside her and hurried away. He was going to find Mr. Raymond and see if
+he could not do something for Nanny.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a long walk to Mr. Raymond's door but he got there at last. Yet
+after all, the servant was not going to let him in, only Mr. Raymond
+came out into the hall just then and saw him and recognized him at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, my little man," he said. "I suppose you have come to claim
+your six-pence."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, not that."</p>
+
+<p>"What! Can't you read yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Diamond. "I can now a little. But I've come to tell you
+about Nanny&mdash;the little girl at the crossing."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I remember her," said Mr. Raymond. "What is it about Nanny?"</p>
+
+<p>Diamond told him all about her&mdash;how she was sick, and how dark it was
+where she lived and with bad smells. Now, Mr. Raymond was one of the
+kindest men in London and was well known at the children's hospital. He
+hurried there now, and some one went from there at once to find Nanny.
+Before night, they sent a litter for her and soon the little girl was
+lying in a nice clean bed, though she was too sick to know anything
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond overheard a doctor say to Mr. Raymond, "How do you suppose the
+little chap knew what to do about Nanny?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't know that I have been at the back of the north wind," he
+said to himself. "If you have once been there, it just comes to you how
+to do a little to help."</p>
+
+<p>After Nanny had been well seen to, Mr. Raymond took the boy home with
+him and they soon settled the matter of the six-pence between them.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, what will you do with it?" the gentleman asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Take it home to my mother," answered Diamond. "She has a tea-pot with a
+broken spout and she keeps all her money in it. It isn't much but she
+saves it up to buy shoes for me. And there's the baby&mdash;he'll want shoes
+soon. And every six-pence is something, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure, my little man. And here is the book for you, full of
+pictures and stories."</p>
+
+<p>There were poems in it too, and Diamond at once began to puzzle out one
+of them which ran like this:</p>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;<br />
+My one foot stands but never goes.<br />
+I have many arms and they are mighty, all;<br />
+And hundreds of fingers large and small.<br />
+From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows,<br />
+I breathe with my hair and I drink with my toes.<br />
+In the summer, with song I shake and quiver,<br />
+But in winter, I fast and groan and shiver.<br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<p>When Diamond ran home with his new book in his hand, he found his father
+at home already. He was sitting by the fire and looking rather miserable
+for his head ached and he looked sick. The next day, he had to stay in
+bed while his wife nursed him, and Diamond took care of the baby. By the
+next day, he was very ill indeed. And it was not long before their money
+was all gone.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond's mother could not help crying over it but she came into
+Diamond's room so that the poor sick father should not hear it. Diamond
+was frightened when he heard her sobbing and said, "Is father worse?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said his mother, "he is better. But the money is all gone and
+what are we to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't cry," said Diamond. "We'll get along some how. Let me read to you
+out of North Wind's book."</p>
+
+<p>So he read a little story about the early bird that caught the nice fat
+worm.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you were like that little bird, dear," said his mother, "and
+could catch something to eat!"</p>
+
+<p>After she was gone away, Diamond lay thinking and somehow he seemed to
+hear the murmur of North Wind's river blowing through his thoughts and
+tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>ing him about something he could do. The next morning he got up as
+soon as he heard the men moving in the yard. When he went down, the
+stable was just opened. "I'm the early bird, I think," he said to
+himself, "and I hope I'll catch the worm."</p>
+<div><a name="fastened" id="fastened"></a></div>
+<div class="figright" style="width: 281px;">
+<img src="images/illus-006.jpg" width="281" height="400" alt="HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY" title="HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY" />
+<span class="caption">HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>He would not ask any one to help him because he was afraid he would be
+kept from doing what he wanted. With the aid of an old chair, he got the
+harness on old Diamond. The dear old horse opened his mouth for the bit
+just as if Diamond was giving him an apple. He fastened the cheek-strap
+very carefully, and got all the pieces of harness on and buckled. By
+this time some of the men were watching him to see if he would get it
+all done by himself. And when he put old Diamond between the shafts, got
+his whip, and jumped up on the box, the men broke into a cheer.</p>
+
+<p>The cheer brought his mother to the window and when she saw her little
+boy setting out all alone in the cab, she called "Diamond! Diamond!" But
+Diamond did not hear her for the rattle of the cab and so he drove away.
+He was very much afraid no one would hire him because he was such a
+little driver. But before he got to his regular stand, he was hailed by
+a man who wanted to catch a train and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>was in too great a hurry to
+think about the driver. He got a good fare for that and reached the
+cab-stand the first one after all. As the other cabmen came, he told
+them about his father and said that he was going to drive the cab in his
+place.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are a plucky one!" they all said. "And you shall have a fair
+chance with the rest."</p>
+
+<p>And he did, for another gentleman came up very soon for him. When he saw
+the boy, he was much astonished. "Are you the driver of this cab?" he
+asked. "Yes, sir," answered Diamond, showing his father's badge of which
+he was proud.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the youngest cabman I ever saw!" said the gentleman greatly
+amused. "But I believe I'll risk you!"</p>
+
+<p>He jumped in and soon found that Diamond got him over the ground very
+well. The trip was one of several miles and the gentleman paid him three
+shillings for the drive. When Diamond got back, he stopped at a stand
+where he had never been before and got down to put on old Diamond's
+nose-bag of oats. The men there did not treat him very nicely and a
+group of rough boys came up and began to torment him. But who do you
+think came to his rescue? Why, the drunken cabman whose room was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>next
+to Diamond's and whose baby Diamond had once rocked and put to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"What is up here?" the cabman asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see this young snip?" the boys cried, "He pretends to drive a
+cab!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do see him," said the cabman. "I see you, too. You'd better take
+yourselves away from here or you won't find me very agreeable!"</p>
+
+<p>And they went in a hurry!</p>
+
+<p>When Diamond went home that night, he carried one pound, one shilling
+and six-pence. His mother had grown very anxious and was almost afraid
+to look when she heard his cab coming at last. But there was the old
+horse, and there was the cab, all right! And there was Diamond on the
+box his face as triumphant as a full moon! One of the men took the horse
+to put him up and Diamond ran into the house and into the arms of his
+mother!</p>
+
+<p>"See! See!" he cried. "Here is the worm I caught!" He poured out the
+six-pences and shillings into her lap. His mother burst out crying
+again, but with joy this time and ran to show his father. Then how
+pleased <i>he</i> was! And Diamond snatched up the baby and began to sing and
+dance, he was so happy!</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next morning, Diamond was up almost as early as before. But the men
+would not let him do the harnessing any more. They got the cab all ready
+for him and sent him in to eat all the breakfast he could and get well
+bundled up. His first passenger was a young woman to be taken to the
+docks. When he started back some roughs came along and tried to steal
+his fare. But a pale-faced man came up and beat them off with his stick,
+and told Diamond to drive away. Diamond begged him to get into the cab
+and ride. The man said he could not spare the money to ride&mdash;he was too
+poor.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do come!" said Diamond. "I don't want the money. You helped me. Let
+me help you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the man, "if you will take me to Chiswick, I can pay for
+that. Drive to the Wilderness&mdash;Mr. Coleman's place. I'll show you when
+we get there."</p>
+
+<p>Now Diamond had been thinking he had seen the gentleman before and when
+he said this, it flashed upon him that it was Mr. Evans who had been
+going to marry Miss Coleman. North Wind had sunk his and Mr. Coleman's
+ship because their business was not honest and was making bad men of
+them. She had carried Mr. Evans away to a desert island. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>had just
+got back again and was poor now and humble and willing to begin to work
+again in an honest way.</p>
+
+<p>It was plain he did not know that Mr. Coleman had been ruined too and
+had been forced to sell the Wilderness and move into a poor house in the
+city. But Diamond knew, and as he drove along he was thinking what he
+ought to do. The gentleman would not find Miss Coleman at the
+Wilderness. And if he told him where she lived now, perhaps he would not
+go to see her because he would be so ashamed of having brought all this
+trouble on her by trying so hard to be rich.</p>
+
+<p>Still he must want to see her very much and she must want to see him. So
+Diamond made up his mind to drive straight to where Miss Coleman lived
+now, and then they could explain to each other. So on he went.</p>
+
+<p>Now the wind was blowing furiously and when old Diamond finally got to
+Miss Coleman's house and held back to stop, one of the straps of the
+harness broke. Diamond jumped down and opened the cab door and asked the
+gentleman if he would not step into this house where friends of his
+lived and wait while he mended the strap. Then he ran and rang the bell
+and whispered to the maid who came to call Miss Coleman. A few minutes
+later, he was not at all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>sure he had done the right thing. For suddenly
+there came the sound of a great cry and then a running to and fro in the
+house. But after a little while, they came and called him in and Miss
+Coleman put her arms around him and hugged him tight!</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day, he did very well. And what a story he had to tell
+his father and mother that night about Mr. Evans and the Colemans. They
+were sure he had done right and he was so glad!</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond Visits Nanny</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>For a fortnight, Diamond went on driving his cab and helping his family.
+Some people began to know him and to look for him to drive them where
+they wanted to go. One old gentleman who lived near the stables hired
+him to carry him into the city every morning at a certain hour. And
+Diamond was as regular as clock work. After that fortnight, his father
+was able to go out again. Then Diamond began to think about little Nanny
+and went off to inquire about her.</p>
+
+<p>The first day his father took up his work again, Diamond went with him
+as usual. In the afternoon, however, his father went home and left
+Diamond to drive the cab for the rest of the day. It was hard for old
+Diamond to do all the work but they could not afford to have another
+horse. They saved him as much as they could and fed him well and he did
+bravely.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, his father was so much stronger that Diamond thought
+he might go and ask Mr. Raymond to take him to see Nanny. Mr. Raymond
+was quite willing to go and so they walked over to the hospital which
+was close at hand.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Diamond followed Mr. Raymond into the room where those children lay
+who had got over the worst of their illness, and were growing better, he
+saw a number of little iron beds. Each one of them stood with its head
+to the wall and in each one was a child whose face showed just how far
+it had left the pain behind and was getting well. Diamond looked all
+around but he could see no Nanny. He turned to Mr. Raymond with a
+question in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Mr. Raymond.</p>
+
+<p>"Nanny's not here," said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, she is."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see her!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do, though. There she is."</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to a bed right in front of where Diamond was standing.</p>
+
+<p>"That's not Nanny!" cried Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it <i>is</i> Nanny. I have seen her a great many times since you have,
+and that is she."</p>
+
+<p>So Diamond looked again and looked hard. "If that is Nanny," said
+Diamond to himself, "then she must have been at the back of the north
+wind. That is why she looks so different." He said nothing aloud, only
+stared. And as he stared, something of the face of the old Nanny began
+to come out in the face of the new Nanny. The old Nanny had been
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>somewhat rough in her speech, her face rather hard, and she had not
+kept herself clean&mdash;how could she! Now, in her fresh white bed, she
+looked sweet and gentle and refined.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely North Wind has had something to do with it," thought Diamond. In
+her weeks of sickness, had North Wind carried Nanny to the country at
+her back&mdash;as she once had carried him&mdash;and changed her from a rough girl
+to a gentle maiden? As he gazed, the best of the old face, the good and
+true part of the old Nanny, dawned upon him like the moon coming out of
+a cloud. He saw that it was Nanny, indeed&mdash;but very worn and grown
+almost beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>He went up to her and she smiled. He had heard her laugh, but he had
+never seen her smile before. "Nanny, do you know me?" asked Diamond. She
+only smiled again. She was not likely to forget him. To be sure, she did
+not know that it was he who had got her there. But he was the only boy
+except cripple Jim who had ever been kind to her.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Raymond walked about talking to the other children, while Diamond
+visited with Nanny. Then after a time, he stood in the middle of the
+room and told them a nice fairy story. He often did that and the
+children watched for his visits. After he finished <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>the story, he had to
+go. Diamond took leave of Nanny and promised to go and see her again
+soon and went away with Mr. Raymond.</p>
+
+<p>Now Mr. Raymond had been turning over in his mind what he could do for
+Diamond and for Nanny. He knew Diamond's father somewhat. But he wanted
+to find out better what sort of a man he was and whether he was worth
+doing anything for. He decided to see if he would do anything for any
+body else. For that would be the very best way to find out if it were
+worth while to do anything for <i>him</i>. So as they walked away together,
+he said to little Diamond, "Nanny must leave the hospital soon, Diamond.
+They cannot keep her as long as they would like. They cannot keep her
+till she is quite strong. There are always so many sick children they
+want to take in and make better. The question is what will she do when
+they send her out again?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what I can't tell," said Diamond, "though I've been
+thinking it over and over. Her crossing was taken long ago. I couldn't
+bear to see Nanny fighting for it, especially with the poor lame boy who
+has taken it. Besides she has no better right to it than he has. Nobody
+gave it to her. She just took it and now he has taken it."</p>
+
+<p>"She would get sick again, anyway," said Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> Raymond, "if she went to
+sweeping again right away in the wet. If somebody could only teach her
+something to do it would be better. Perhaps if she could be taught to be
+nice and clean and to speak only gentle words&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother could teach her that!" interrupted Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"And to dress babies and feed them and take care of them," Mr. Raymond
+went on, "she might get a place as nurse maid somewhere. People would
+give her money for that."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I'll ask mother!" cried Diamond. "She could learn to dress our
+baby, you know, with me to show her how!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you will have to give her food then. And your father, not being
+strong, has enough to do already without that."</p>
+
+<p>"Still there am I!" said Diamond. "I'll help him out with it. When he
+gets tired of driving, up I get. And I could drive more if Nanny was at
+home to help mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I wonder," said Mr. Raymond, "if you couldn't do better with two
+horses. I am going away for a few months and I am willing to let your
+father have my horse while I am gone. He is nearly as old as your
+Diamond. I don't want to part with him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>and yet I don't want him to be
+idle. Nobody ought to be idle, not even a horse. Still I do not want him
+to be worked hard. Will you tell your father what I say and see if he
+wants to take charge of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will," said Diamond. "And he will come and see you about it."</p>
+
+<p>So when Diamond went home, he told his father all about it. But when his
+father went to see about it, he found that he must agree to work the
+horse only six hours a day. Then too he must take Nanny from the
+hospital and feed her, and teach her to be useful and keep her as long
+as he had Mr. Raymond's horse. Diamond's father could not help thinking
+that it was a pretty close bargain and so it was. Mr. Raymond wanted to
+find out if Diamond's father was the kind of man who was willing to help
+some one else without getting any advantage out of it for himself. Then
+it would be worth while to help <i>him</i>. Diamond's father was that kind of
+a man. So when he heard all about Nanny, he decided to accept Mr.
+Raymond's offer and do the best he could.</p>
+
+<p>Nanny was not fit to be moved for some time yet and Diamond went to see
+her as often as he could. But he went out to drive old Diamond every day
+now for a few hours at least. Then he had to help mind his baby brother
+for part of the time. So he did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>go to the hospital as often as he
+would have liked. When he did go, he sat by Nanny's bed and told her all
+that had happened to him since he had been there before. In her turn
+Nanny would tell him of what went on in the hospital&mdash;what visitors they
+had and things like that.</p>
+
+<p>"Day before yesterday," said Nanny one day, "a lady came to see us. She
+was a very beautiful lady. She sat down beside my bed and let me stroke
+her hand. She had on a most beautiful ring with a rich red stone in it.
+When she saw me looking at it, she slipped it off her finger and put it
+on mine. She said I might wear her lovely ruby for a little while if it
+would make me happy."</p>
+
+<p>"Her ruby!" cried Diamond. "How funny that is! Our new horse's name is
+Ruby. And we took him so that we could take you to live with us, while
+you are getting strong again. I do believe a ruby is for good luck!"</p>
+
+<p>"It did me good right then," said Nanny. "For that night I had such a
+lovely dream. It began with a red sunset like my darling ruby ring. Then
+somehow a wind came out of it and blew me along out of the dirty streets
+into a yard with a lovely lawn of soft grass."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That was North Wind, I know!" cried Diamond. "That is what she does to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what you mean," said Nanny. "I do not know anything about
+North Wind. But all at once there was no more ruby sunset but a great
+golden moon hanging very low and seeming to be shining just to be good
+to me. It was easy, I suppose, for me to dream about the moon. I've
+always been used to watching her. She was the only thing worth looking
+at in our street, at night."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call it your street," said Diamond. "You are not going back to
+it. You are coming to us, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"That is too good to be true!" said Nanny.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" cried Diamond. "How could anything be too good to be true? To
+be true is to be the very best thing of all. It sounds like your wicked
+old granny to say that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Diamond," said Nanny, "I do not think my old granny is my
+real old granny at all. I don't think she was ever any one's granny or
+mother. That was why she was not good to me. Perhaps she never had any
+mother when she was little to be good to her. And somebody must first be
+good to you, don't you think, before you can learn how to be good to any
+body else? Isn't that so? But where <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>was I in my dream? Oh yes, the big
+yellow moon came down closer and closer to the grass in front of me.
+Then somehow, it seemed to be my ruby lady. She reached out soft warm
+arms of golden light and took me up. I sank against her breast into very
+downy, golden clouds and went to sleep and left off having pain. And yet
+I didn't sleep but knew it all the time, and just swung softly there all
+night long."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it really North Wind?" said Diamond to himself. "Perhaps it
+<i>was</i> North Wind though she doesn't know it. Maybe the moon does just
+the same. What if it should some day carry her to that same country&mdash;at
+the back of <i>my</i> North Wind! Who knows?"</p>
+
+<p>The nurse now came and told him it was time to go. Nanny had closed her
+eyes as if she were tired or asleep. So Diamond arose quietly and
+tip-toed away.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Things Go Hard with Diamond's Family</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a great delight to Diamond, when at length Nanny was well enough
+to leave the hospital and go to their house. She was not strong yet but
+Diamond's mother was very careful of her. She took care she should have
+nothing to do that she was not fit for. If Nanny had been taken straight
+from the street, it is pretty sure she would not have been so pleasant
+in a nice house nor so easy to teach. But the kindness they had shown
+her in the hospital while she was ill so long had changed her quite a
+little.</p>
+
+<p>As she got better, the colour came back to her cheeks, her step grew
+lighter and quicker, her smile shone out more readily, and it was clear
+she would soon be a treasure of help. It was great fun to see Diamond
+teaching her how to hold the baby and wash and dress him. Nanny had
+never had a little brother or sister to care for and she and Diamond
+often had to laugh over her awkwardness. But she was soon able to do it
+all as well as Diamond himself.</p>
+
+<p>Things, however, did not go very well with Diamond's father from the
+first coming of the horse, Ruby. It almost seemed as if the red beast
+brought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>bad luck with him. The fares were fewer and the pay less.
+Ruby's work did indeed make the week's income at first a little more
+than it used to be. But then there were two more to feed. After the
+first month, however, he fell lame, and for the whole of the next month,
+Diamond's father did not dare work him at all. It cost just as much to
+feed him and all he did was to stand in the stable and grow fat.</p>
+
+<p>And after he got well again, it was not much better. Times had then
+become hard and fewer and fewer people felt that they could afford to
+ride in cabs. The cabmen got fewer and fewer shillings to live on.
+Diamond's household had less and less to buy food and clothing with.
+Then too, Diamond's mother was poorly for a new baby was coming.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond's father began to feel gloomier and gloomier and if Diamond had
+not made himself remember that he had been at the back of the north
+wind, he would have been gloomy himself. But when his father came home,
+Diamond would get out his book and show him how well he could read.
+Besides he taught Nanny how to read and as she was a very clever little
+girl, she picked it up very fast. Nanny was such a comfort about the
+house that Diamond's father just had to cheer up a little when he came
+home at night and the dull day's work was over.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After the new baby came, Diamond sang to her and of course he had to
+make up new songs to sing to her because she was a little sister baby.
+It would never do, he said, to sing the little brother songs to her.
+While he sang, his father and mother could not help listening and
+forgetting for the time how bad things were getting to be.</p>
+
+<p>The three months Mr. Raymond had spoken of were now gone and Diamond's
+father was very anxious for him to come back and take Ruby off his
+hands, for he did not seem to work enough to pay for his keep. Then he
+was so lazy and fat, while poor old Diamond had got so thin he was just
+skin and bones! For Diamond's father was an honest man and felt that he
+must stick to his promise to feed Ruby while he kept him, whether old
+Diamond got enough to eat or not. But he <i>did</i> wish Mr. Raymond would
+come, though when he looked at Nanny he felt that he would be sorry to
+lose her. For it was understood that a place as a nurse girl would be
+found for her when Ruby was taken away.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Raymond did not come, however, and things got worse and worse.
+Diamond could do little but drive old Diamond in the cab whenever he
+could be of help that way, and sing to the two babies at home. At last,
+one week was worse than anything they had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>yet had. They were almost
+without bread before it was over.</p>
+
+<p>It was Friday night, and Diamond like the rest of the household had had
+very little to eat that day. His mother would always pay the week's rent
+before she spent anything even for food. His father had been very
+gloomy&mdash;so gloomy that he was very cross. It had been a stormy winter
+and even now that spring had come, the north wind often blew. When
+Diamond went to his bed, which was in a tiny room in the roof, he heard
+it like the sea, moaning. As he fell asleep, he still heard the moaning,
+and presently, he heard the voice of North Wind calling him. His heart
+beat very fast, it was such a long time since he had heard that voice!
+He jumped out of bed, but did not see her. Yet she kept on calling.</p>
+
+<p>"Diamond, come here! Diamond, come here!" the voice repeated again and
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear North Wind," said Diamond, "I want so much to come to you but I
+can't tell where to find you."</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, Diamond!" was all her answer.</p>
+
+<p>So he opened his door and trotted down the long stair and out into the
+yard. A great puff of wind at once came against him. He turned and went
+with it, and it blew him up to the stable door and kept on blowing.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She wants me to go into the stable," said Diamond. "But the door is
+locked."</p>
+
+<p>Just then, a great blast of wind brought down the key upon the stones at
+his feet from where it was kept hanging high above his head. He picked
+it up, opened the door, and went in without much noise. And what did he
+hear? He heard the two horses, Diamond and Ruby, talking to each other.
+They talked in a strange language, yet somehow he could understand it.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," old Diamond was saying, "sleek
+and fat as <i>you</i> are, and so lazy you get along no faster than a big
+dray-horse that is pulling tons!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I like to be fat and lazy!" said Ruby.</p>
+
+<p>"And you like to hear master abused on account of you, too, I dare say,"
+replied old Diamond angrily. "Why don't you get up a little speed, while
+you are drawing a fare, at least! The abuse master gets for your sake is
+quite shameful! No wonder he doesn't get many fares when he has you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I worked as hard as I could, I'd be a bag of bones like you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm proud to work!" said old Diamond. "I wouldn't be as fat as you, not
+for all you're worth. You are a disgrace! Look at the horse next you.
+<i>He</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> is something <i>like</i> a horse&mdash;all skin and bones. He knows he has
+got his master's wife and children to support and he works <i>like</i> a
+horse!"</p>
+
+<p>"I might get lamed again, if I didn't go slowly and carefully," said
+Ruby.</p>
+
+<p>"Lame again!" snorted old Diamond. "It's my belief you lamed yourself on
+purpose so you could stay in the stable and stuff yourself and grow fat!
+You selfish beast!"</p>
+
+<p>"I might get angry at you," said Ruby, "if I didn't know a little better
+than you do how things are coming out. What do you think my master would
+say if he were to come back&mdash;and he may come any day now&mdash;and find me
+all worn down to a rack of bones and lamed into the bargain? Do you
+think anything would make him believe that your master had used me right
+and as he promised he would? And isn't it better he should live a little
+hard himself and prove himself to be an honest man who does what he says
+he'll do? You don't know everything, old Diamond. You would not probably
+believe me if I told you that enduring bad things is often just a way
+for bringing good things about. But you'll see!"</p>
+
+<p>Old Diamond just snorted sleepily in reply and gave all his attention to
+doubling up his knees and getting down upon the floor to go to sleep.
+The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>racket he made gave young Diamond a start. With a shiver, he seemed
+to come awake and see the stable door standing open. He trotted out of
+it, back up the long stairs, and tumbled into bed. But Ruby's words kept
+sounding in his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it like what's in my book?" he said to himself sleepily,&mdash;"that
+about a blessing in disguise, when things look bad but are working out
+all right&mdash;like things at the back of the north wind?" He got sleepier,
+however, as he tried to think and was fast asleep before he knew it. The
+next morning, he sang to the baby more cheerily than ever and here is
+part of the song he sung:</p>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Where did you come from, Baby dear?<br />
+Out of everywhere into here.<br />
+<br />
+Where did you get your eyes so blue?<br />
+Out of the sky as I came through.<br />
+<br />
+Where did you get this pearly ear?<br />
+God spoke and it came out to hear.<br />
+<br />
+But how did you come to us, you dear?<br />
+God thought of you and so I am here.<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>"You never made that song, Diamond," said his mother.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, mother. But it's mine just the same, for I love it."</p>
+
+<p>"Does loving a thing make it yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, mother. Baby's mine because I love her, and so are you.
+Love makes the only <i>my-ness</i>, doesn't it, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps so, Diamond. Yes, I think it does," said his mother.</p>
+
+<p>When his father came home for his dinner he looked very sad. He had not
+got a single fare the whole morning.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall just have to go to the work-house," he said and dropped into a
+chair in despair. Just then, came a knock at the door and in walked Mr.
+Raymond! Of course, he wanted to see the horses at once. And when he saw
+how fat Ruby was and how poor was faithful old Diamond&mdash;and when,
+moreover, he remembered how poor and starved the family looked though
+Nanny was still there and kindly treated&mdash;he knew that Diamond's father
+had been stanch and true to his bargain, though it had turned out to be
+a hard one. He was a man worth helping&mdash;that was clear! And Mr. Raymond
+was now ready to help him as much as he needed.</p>
+
+<p>He first pointed out that old Diamond needed only to be fattened up and
+Ruby thinned down to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>make of them a fine pair of horses for his country
+home to which he was now going. And Diamond's father should go along as
+coachman. There would be regular wages again and a much more comfortable
+home in the country.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, will you sell me old Diamond?" asked Mr. Raymond. "If you
+will, here are twenty pounds for him, if you think that is enough."</p>
+
+<p>"I will sell him to you, sir," answered Diamond's father, "if you
+promise to let me buy him back if I can, if you ever wish to sell him. I
+could <i>not</i> part with him without that. Though as to who calls him his,
+that is nothing. For I believe it's true what my little Diamond
+says&mdash;that it's loving a thing that makes it yours."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have that chance," said Mr. Raymond. So the bargain was made.
+How Diamond capered about at the thought of going to the beautiful
+country to live and having a yard and grass to play on! It would be like
+the old home at Mr. Coleman's&mdash;perhaps even nicer than that. How he
+danced the baby and sang to it!</p>
+
+<p>"And North Wind told me, Baby dear! She sang in my ears how bad things
+are just a chance to make good things come!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Diamond in His New Home</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Before the end of the month, Ruby had got a great deal thinner and old
+Diamond a good deal fatter. They really began to look fit to go in
+double harness. Diamond's father and mother got their things all packed
+up and were ready to go into the country at the shortest notice. They
+were now so peaceful, and so happy over the prospect that they believed
+it worth all the trouble and worry they had gone through.</p>
+
+<p>Nanny had been so happy since she left the hospital and had been living
+with Diamond's family that she did not think the country would make her
+any happier. Besides she would have to leave cripple Jim behind and
+maybe never see him again. She had known cripple Jim much longer than
+she had known Diamond and he had no one else to care about him.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond had taken a great deal of time and trouble to find Jim. For Jim
+had moved his home and had not heard of Nanny's illness till long after
+she was taken to the hospital. He was much too shy to go and inquire
+about her there. But when at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>length she went to live with Diamond's
+family, Jim was willing enough to go and see her. It was after one of
+his visits during which he and Nanny had talked things over that Diamond
+found out that Nanny thought it would not be so very pleasant to go to
+the country. The sun and the moon and the trees and the flowers did not
+seem much to Nanny without Jim.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond thought it over and that same night he went to see Mr. Raymond.
+He wanted to tell him about Jim and Nanny and ask him what they could do
+about it. "Jim can shine shoes very well indeed, sir," said Diamond. "If
+you could take Jim into the country too, to clean your shoes and do
+other odd jobs, then Nanny would like it better. She is so fond of Jim."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Raymond thought it all over and finally decided that there would be
+something for Jim to do.</p>
+
+<p>So on a certain day, Diamond's father took his mother and Diamond
+himself and his little brother and sister and Nanny and Jim down by
+train to a place called "The Mound," where Mr. Raymond was to live. He
+went back to London that same night. The next day, he drove Ruby and
+Diamond down with the carriage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a lady
+in the carriage. For Mr. Raymond was now <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>married. And the moment Nanny
+saw Mrs. Raymond, she recognized her as the lady who had let her wear
+the beautiful ruby ring when she was ill in the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was very hot at first, and the woods very shadowy, and the
+wild flowers mainly gone. But there were plenty of the loveliest grass
+and daisies about the house. Diamond's chief pleasure seemed to be to
+lie among them and breathe the pure air. As he lay there, he dreamed
+often of the country at the back of the north wind and tried to remember
+the songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at the
+back of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it. But
+though he did lie happily in the grass and dream of her, of North Wind
+herself, he neither saw nor heard anything for some months.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Raymond's house was called "The Mound" because it stood upon a steep
+little knoll that had been made on purpose. It was built for Queen
+Elizabeth as a hunting tower&mdash;a place, that is, from the top of which
+you could see the country for miles on all sides. From a window the
+Queen was able to follow with her eyes the flying deer, and the hunters
+in the chase. The mound had been cast up so as to give the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>house an
+outlook over the neighboring heights and woods.</p>
+
+<p>Diamond's father and mother lived in a little cottage a short distance
+from the house. It was a real cottage with a roof of thick thatch which,
+in June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals of
+the rose tree climbing up the walls. But Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted
+Diamond to be a page in their own house. So he was dressed in the little
+blue suit of a page and lived at "The Mound" itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
+"There is a little room at the top of the house&mdash;all alone. Perhaps you
+would not mind sleeping there."</p>
+
+<p>"I can sleep anywhere," said Diamond. "And I like best to be high up.
+Should I be able to see out?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will show you the place," she answered, and taking him by the hand,
+she led him up and up the oval winding stair into one of the two towers
+that were on the house. Near the top, they entered a tiny room with two
+windows from which you could see all over the country. Diamond clapped
+his hands with delight!</p>
+
+<p>"You would like this room, then, Diamond?" asked his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the grandest room in the house!" he answered. "I shall be near
+the stars and yet not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>far from the tops of the trees. That is just what
+I like!"</p>
+
+<p>I daresay he thought also that it would be a nice place for North Wind
+to call at, in passing. Below him spread a lake of green leaves with
+glimpses of grass here and there at the bottom. As he looked down, he
+saw a squirrel appear suddenly and as suddenly vanish among the top-most
+branches.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! Mr. Squirrel!" he cried. "My nest is built higher than yours!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will have a bell hung at your door which I can ring when I want you,"
+said his mistress. And so Diamond became a little page in the house.</p>
+
+<p>But after all, his master and mistress seemed to want to keep him out of
+doors as much as possible. And his father and mother sometimes looked at
+him very anxiously. Diamond thought that no one seemed to ask him to do
+much. Often they gave him a story book and sent him out to sit in the
+sweet air and sunshine at the foot of a big beech tree.</p>
+
+<p>He did not see much of Nanny and Jim. Somehow they liked to slip off
+together when their work was over. They did not understand the many
+fancies that Diamond talked about, but they could understand each other
+very well. They were never unkind to him but they liked better to go off
+by themselves. Diamond did not mind much. He was never lonely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> And then
+he had a beautiful place where he went and where he saw lovely things
+that no one else saw.</p>
+
+<p>He called this place his nest. He went to it by going up a little rope
+ladder that hung from a branch of the big beech tree. When he reached
+the limb the rope hung from, he went on climbing higher and higher. Up
+among the leafy branches and away at the top, out of sight, he found a
+safe and comfortable seat which he called his nest.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you see up there, Diamond," some one asked him once.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see the first star peeping out of the sky. I don't see anything
+more except a few leaves and the big sky over me. It goes swinging
+about. The earth is all behind my back. There comes another star! The
+wind with its kisses makes me feel as if I were in North Wind's arms."</p>
+
+<p>He thought he would be quite happy if only he could remember some of the
+songs the river sang to him when he was in the country at the back of
+the north wind. They seemed to be murmuring in his ear most of the time.
+Yet somehow they were just far enough off so that he could not catch the
+words.</p>
+
+<p>His little brother and baby sister often played about on the grass with
+him and often he made up songs to sing to the baby. But these never
+seemed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>to be just like the river's songs after all. One of them was
+about his nest up in the beech tree and it ran like this:</p>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+What would you see if I took you up<br />
+To my little nest in the air?<br />
+You would see the sky like a clean blue cup<br />
+Turned upside downwards there.<br />
+<br />
+What would you do if I took you there,<br />
+To my little nest in the tree?<br />
+My child with cries would trouble the air<br />
+To get what she could but see.<br />
+<br />
+What would you get in the top of the tree,<br />
+For all your crying and grief?<br />
+Not a star would you clutch of all you see&mdash;<br />
+You could only gather a leaf.<br />
+<br />
+But when you had lost your greedy grief<br />
+Content to see from afar,<br />
+You would find in your hand a withering leaf,<br />
+In your heart a shining star!<br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Another Visit From North Wind</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>One night when he reached his own room, he opened both his windows, one
+of which looked to the north and the other to the east, to find how the
+wind blew. It blew right in at the north window. Diamond was glad for he
+thought perhaps North Wind herself would come now. But as she always
+came of herself and never when he was looking for her, and, indeed,
+almost never when he was thinking of her, he shut the east window and
+went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>He awoke in the dim blue night. The moon had vanished from that side of
+the house. He thought he heard a knocking at his door.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody wants me!" he said, and jumping out of bed ran to open the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no one there. He closed it again, and the noise still
+going on, found that another door in the room was rattling. It belonged
+to a closet he thought, but he had never been able to open it. The wind
+blowing in at the window must be shaking it. He would go and see if that
+was it.</p>
+
+<p>The door now opened quite easily. To his surprise, instead of a closet
+he found a long narrow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>room. The moon, which was sinking in the west,
+shone in at an open window at the other end. This room had a low ceiling
+and spread the whole length of the house close under the roof. It was
+quite empty. The yellow light of the half moon streamed over the dark
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>He was so delighted to find this strange moonlit place close to his own
+snug little room that he began to dance and skip about the floor. The
+wind came in through the door he had left open. It blew about him as he
+danced and he kept turning toward it that it might blow in his face.</p>
+
+<p>He kept picturing to himself the many places, lovely and desolate, the
+hill sides and farm yards and tree-tops and meadows, over which it had
+blown on its way to "The Mound." As he danced he grew more and more
+delighted with the motion and the wind. His feet grew stronger and his
+body lighter. At length, it seemed as if he were borne up on the air and
+could almost fly.</p>
+
+<p>So strong did this feeling become that at last he began to doubt whether
+he was not in one of those precious dreams he so often had, in which he
+floated about on the wind at will. Then something made him look up. To
+his unspeakable delight, he found his uplifted hands lying in those of
+North Wind!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> Yes, North Wind was dancing with him round and round the
+long bare room, her hair now falling to the floor, now floating to the
+ceiling. The sweetest of smiles was playing about her beautiful mouth.
+She did not stoop in order to dance with him but held his hands high in
+hers.</p>
+
+<p>When he saw her, he gave one spring and his arms were about her neck and
+her arms holding him to her breast. The same moment, she swept with him
+out of the open window through which the moon was shining. Making a wide
+and sweeping circuit, she settled with him in his own little nest at the
+top of the big beech tree. Diamond was so entirely happy that he did not
+care to speak a word. But presently, he felt as if he were going to
+sleep and that would be to lose so much that he was not willing to do
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, dear North Wind," said he, "I am so happy that I am afraid it
+is a dream. How am I to know that it is not a dream?"</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter?" returned North Wind. "The dream&mdash;if it <i>is</i> a
+dream&mdash;is a pleasant one, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just why I want it to be true! It is not for the dream
+itself&mdash;I mean it is not for the pleasure of it," answered Diamond, "for
+I have that whether it is a dream or not. It is for <i>you</i>, North Wind! I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>cannot bear to find it a dream because then I should lose <i>you!</i> You
+would be nobody then and I could not bear that. You are not just a
+dream, dear North Wind, are you? Do say <i>no</i>, for I shall not dare dream
+of you again if you are nobody at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Either I am not a dream, or there is something better which is not a
+dream, Diamond," said North Wind in a rather sorrowful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not something better, it is <i>you</i> I want, North Wind," he
+persisted.</p>
+
+<p>She made no answer but rose with him in her arms and sailed away over
+the tree-tops till they came to a meadow where a flock of sheep was
+feeding.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember the song you made up here in this meadow to sing to the
+baby?" asked North Wind, "about Bo-peep's sheep that ran away from her
+to follow after the sun? And when she went after them, she could not
+find the old sheep at all&mdash;only some lambs&mdash;twice as many new lambs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," said Diamond. "But I do not like that song. It seems to say
+that one is just as good as another&mdash;or that two new ones are better
+than the one old one you had before. But somehow when once you have
+looked into anybody's eyes&mdash;deep down into them, I mean&mdash;no one else
+will do for you any more. Nobody ever so beautiful or so good will make
+up to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>you for that one going out of sight. So you see, North Wind, I
+cannot help being frightened to think that perhaps I am only dreaming
+and that you are nowhere at all! Do tell me that you are my own real
+beautiful North Wind!"</p>
+
+<p>Again she rose and shot high up into the air. Diamond lay quiet in her
+arms waiting for her to speak. He tried to see up into her face, for he
+was dreadfully afraid she did not answer him because she could not tell
+him she was not a dream. But her hair fell all over her face so that he
+could not see it. This frightened him still more.</p>
+
+<p>"Do speak, North Wind!" he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"I am thinking what I can say," said North Wind slowly. "And say it so
+that a little boy like you can understand."</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, she was settling quietly down on a grassy hill side in the
+midst of a wild, furzy common. There was a rabbit warren underneath.
+Some of the rabbits came out of their holes in the moonlight. They
+looked very sober and wise, like patriarchs standing in their tent doors
+and looking about them before going to bed. When they saw North Wind,
+instead of turning around and vanishing again with a thump of their
+heels, they cantered slowly up to her. They snuffed all about her with
+their long upper lips <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>which moved every way at once. That was their way
+of kissing her. Every now and then, she stroked down their long furry
+backs or lifted and played with their long ears.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she said to Diamond after they had been sitting silent for a
+long time, "that if I were only a dream, you would not have been able to
+love me so. You love me when you are not with me, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do!" answered Diamond stroking her hand. "I see! I see! How
+could I be able to love you as I do if you were not there at all, you
+know? Besides I would not be able to dream anything half so beautiful
+all out of my own head. Or if I did, I could not love a fancy of my own
+like that, could I?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not. Besides, would you not have forgotten me wholly when you
+woke again? People almost always forget their dreams. But you have seen
+me in many shapes, Diamond. You remember I was a wolf once&mdash;don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a good wolf that frightened a bad, wicked nurse!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I were to turn to an ugly shape again, would you still wish I
+were not a dream?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for I should know you were still beautiful inside, and that you
+loved me still. I should not like <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>you to look ugly, you know. And I
+shouldn't believe it was really you a bit!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's my own Diamond! Then I will try to tell you all I know about it.
+I don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape myself
+in various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People
+call me by dreadful names and think they know all about me. But they
+don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune or Evil Chance or Ruin&mdash;as Mr.
+Evans did when I sank his ship. Then people have another name for me
+which they think the most dreadful of all."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" asked Diamond smiling up in her face. "And does it only
+mean another way in which you do them good though they think you are
+doing them ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered North Wind, "it is just like that. But I will not tell
+you that name&mdash;not just now. Only will you always remember, if you
+should hear it, not to be the least afraid of it&mdash;or of me? Will you
+promise, Diamond?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, North Wind, I promise," said Diamond. "I will never be afraid of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember having to go through me to get into the country at my
+back?" asked North Wind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> "after the long, long, long ride in the ship
+and the journey on the iceberg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, I do! How tired you were, North Wind, when we got at last on
+to the iceberg and South Wind began to blow! And how thin and weak you
+grew in the beautiful blue cave in the side of the ice. Afterward when I
+landed and found you in the cleft in the ice ridge, sitting on your own
+door-step, how cold you were, North Wind! And so white, all but your
+lovely eyes! When I went up close to you, my own heart grew like a lump
+of ice. And when I tried to clasp you, the white grew so thick all about
+me, and then I forgot for a while."</p>
+
+<p>"You were very near then, Diamond, to knowing what my other name is. But
+did I hurt you at all, dear boy? Would you be afraid of me if you had to
+go through me again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Why should I? It was delicious to forget like that! It was like
+going into the softest and sweetest sleep! I should be glad enough to do
+it again, if it was only to get another peep at the country at your
+back."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did not then see the real country at the back of the north
+wind, Diamond," said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I, North Wind? Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought I did. What did I
+see?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Only a picture of it&mdash;a sort of vision of it&mdash;and only while you seemed
+to be asleep. The real country at my real back is ever so much more
+beautiful than that. You shall see it one day&mdash;perhaps before very
+long."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they sing songs there?" asked Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied North Wind. "You have not forgotten the lovely river as
+clear as glass that ran over and through the grass and flowers, have
+you? Nor the soft sweet songs it was always singing?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Diamond. "I remember that best of all. But I could not keep
+the words of any one of its songs in mind, do what I would. And I did
+try."</p>
+
+<p>"That was my fault," said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"How was that?" asked the little boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I could not hear it plainly enough myself to teach it to you.
+But you will hear the very song itself when you get to the back of&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My own dear North Wind," said Diamond, finishing the sentence for her,
+and stroking the arm that held him leaning against her.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, I will take you home again," said North Wind. "It won't do to
+tire you too much."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no!" pleaded Diamond. "I am not in the least tired."</p>
+
+<p>"It is better, though," said North Wind.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Very well; if you wish it," yielded Diamond, but with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a dear boy," said North Wind. "I will come for you again
+to-morrow night and take you out for a longer time. We shall make a
+little journey together, in fact. We shall start earlier, and as the
+moon will be somewhat later, we shall have clear moonlight all the way."</p>
+
+<p>She rose in air and swept over the meadow and the trees. In a few
+minutes, "The Mound" appeared below them. She sank down to the house and
+floated in at the window of Diamond's room. There she laid him on his
+bed and covered him over. In a moment, he had sunk into a dreamless
+sleep.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">North Wind Carries Diamond Away</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The next night, Diamond was tired, but was waiting eagerly for the
+promised visit of North Wind. He was seated by his open window, with his
+head on his hand and rather afraid he could not sleep. Suddenly, he
+started and found he had already been asleep. He looked out of the
+window and saw something white against his beech tree. It was North
+Wind. Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the
+tree whose top was swaying about while the other trees were quite still.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready, Diamond?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Diamond, "quite ready."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment, she was at the window and her arms came in and took him.
+She sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but the
+speed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went rushing
+past. Soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely with mottled
+clouds all about the moon on which she threw faint colours like those of
+an opal.</p>
+
+<p>The night was warm and in North Wind's arms <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>he did not feel the wind
+which down below was making waves in the ripe grain and ripples on the
+rivers and lakes. At length, they came down just where a little spring
+bubbled out of a hill side.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind. "I am
+not needed for anything else to-night and we will just have a lovely
+little time."</p>
+
+<p>She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
+surface of it glided along, level with its flow, as it ran down the
+hill. The song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears and grew and
+grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond to be singing the
+story of its life to him. And so it was. It began with a musical tinkle
+which changed to a babble and then to a gentle rushing.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes its song would almost cease. Then it broke out again, tinkle,
+babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom of the hill, they came to a
+small river into which the brook flowed with a muffled but merry sound.
+Along the surface of the river, darkly clear in the moonlight below
+them, they floated. Now, where it widened out into a little lake, they
+would hover for a moment over a bed of water-lilies. They watched them
+swing about, folded in sleep, as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>water on which they leaned swayed
+in the presence of North Wind. Now they would watch the fishes asleep
+among their roots below.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, North Wind held Diamond over a deep hollow curving into the
+bank and let him look far into its cool stillness. Sometimes she would
+leave the river and sweep across a clover field. The bees were all at
+home and the clover was asleep. Then she would return and follow the
+river. Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush from
+the opposite bank. Now the willows would dip low branches into its still
+waters. Now it would lead them through stately trees and grassy banks
+into a lovely garden where the roses and lilies were asleep and the
+flowers folded up, or only a few awake sending out strong, sweet odours.</p>
+
+<p>Wider and wider grew the stream until they came upon boats lying along
+its banks which rocked a little in the flutter of North Wind's garments.
+Then came houses on the banks, each standing in a lovely lawn with grand
+trees. In parts, the river was so high that some of the grass and some
+of the roots of the trees were under water. As they glided through the
+stems, Diamond could see the grass at the bottom of the water. How like
+it was to the river which ran through the country at the back of the
+north wind!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> And now he seemed to hear more and more clearly its
+murmured song till at last the words came out plainly.</p>
+
+
+<div class='poem'>
+The sun is gone down,<br />
+And the moon's in the sky.<br />
+But the sun will come up<br />
+And the moon be laid by.<br />
+<br />
+The flower is asleep<br />
+But it is not dead.<br />
+When the morning shines<br />
+It will lift its head.<br />
+<br />
+When winter comes<br />
+Will it die? Oh, no!<br />
+It will only hide<br />
+From the frost and snow.<br />
+<br />
+Sure is the summer,<br />
+Sure is the sun.<br />
+The night and the winter<br />
+Are shadows that run!<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>They left the river and began to float about and over the houses one
+after another&mdash;beautiful rich houses which like fine trees had taken
+hundreds of years to grow. Scarcely a light was to be seen, and not a
+movement to be heard. All the people lay fast asleep in dreams.</p>
+
+<p>But a little later they came floating past a window <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>in which a light
+was burning. Diamond heard a moan coming from it and looked up anxiously
+into North Wind's face. By a shaded lamp, a lady in a soft white wrapper
+sat trying to read and forget the pain which made her moan softly while
+she read. North Wind seemed to read Diamond's thought and floated
+silently in at the window. Diamond began singing softly the song of the
+river with its soothing murmuring strain. When he finished, out of the
+window they slipped away and floated on.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she hear, North Wind?" said Diamond. "Did she know we were trying
+to help her&mdash;and will it help her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She heard you," answered North Wind. "She heard with her heart, though,
+and not with her ears. She will not forget, but she will never
+understand till&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Till she gets to the back of the north wind," said Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>North Wind smiled. Then she turned so that he could look down at the
+place over which they were passing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" he cried out suddenly. "I know where we are now. This is my old
+home before we moved into the city. Do let me get down and go into the
+old garden, North Wind, and run into mother's room, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>and into old
+Diamond's stall. I wonder if the hole is at the back of my bed
+still&mdash;your window, you know. Oh, I should like to stay here all the
+rest of the night! It won't take you long to get home from here, will
+it, North Wind?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered; "you shall stay as long as you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how jolly!" cried Diamond.</p>
+
+<p>North Wind sailed over the house with him and set him down on the lawn
+at the back. Diamond ran about the lawn for a little while in the
+moonlight. He found part of it cut up into flower beds and the small
+summer house and great elm tree were gone. It was so changed! He didn't
+like it and ran into the stable. There were no horses there at all. He
+ran upstairs but the rooms were all empty. The only thing left that he
+cared about was the hole in the wall where his little bed had stood. All
+besides was desolate. He turned and ran down the stairs again and out
+upon the lawn. There he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all
+so dreary and lost!</p>
+
+<p>"I liked the place so much!" he thought to himself. "But now&mdash;there is
+nothing left to like. I suppose it is only the people in a place that
+make you like it and when they are gone there is nothing left to like.
+It's as if it were dead! North Wind told <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>me I might stop as long as I
+wanted to, but I have stopped too long already! Oh, North Wind!" he
+cried aloud turning his face up toward the sky.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was under a cloud and all was looking dull and dismal. A star
+shot from the sky. It fell in the grass beside him. The moment it
+lighted, there stood North Wind!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Diamond joyfully. "Were you the shooting star?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you hear me call?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"As high up as that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I heard you quite well."</p>
+
+<p>"Take me home, North Wind. Take me home!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you had enough of your old home already?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It is not home here any more."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is that, do you think?" asked North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it because its soul is gone? Yes, that must be it, is it not, North
+Wind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Diamond, that is it. Its soul is gone," said North Wind.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted him into her arms to bear him away. How long they floated
+about he did not know. But presently all was changed. He was in his own
+room <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>again. And there was North Wind in the doorway of the long narrow
+room that opened out of his room, and in which the night before he was
+dancing when he looked up to find his lifted hands clasped in hers and
+saw her lovely face smiling down upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Now she was a different North Wind. She was just as he had seen her
+sitting on her own door-step in the far, far north. She was as white as
+snow and her eyes as blue as the heart of an iceberg.</p>
+
+<p>"That's how she would look when she thought I might be afraid of her,"
+he said to himself. Then he spoke aloud. "I am not afraid of you, dear
+North Wind," he cried. "See! I am not a bit afraid of you!" Stretching
+out both his hands to clasp her he pressed up close against her and laid
+his head upon her breast. And then he fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning, they found little Diamond lying on the floor of the big
+attic room&mdash;fast asleep, as they thought, and with such a happy smile on
+his face. But when they took him up, they found he was not asleep. He
+had gone to that lovely country at the back of the north wind&mdash;to stay.<br /><br /></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p>
+
+<p>Page 25, "litle" changed to "little." (made a little place)</p>
+
+<p>One instance each of "no-where" and "nowhere" were retained.</p>
+<p>The frontispiece original says that the text is found on page 334. It is actually located on page 111 and has been edited to reflect this.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 18614-h.txt or 18614-h.zip *******</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, At the Back of the North Wind, by Elizabeth
+Lewis and George MacDonald, Illustrated by Maria L. Kirk
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: At the Back of the North Wind
+
+
+Author: Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 17, 2006  [eBook #18614]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Joseph R. Hauser, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 18614-h.htm or 18614-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1/18614/18614-h/18614-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1/18614/18614-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+Eleventh Impression
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS
+
+Each beautifully illustrated in color and tastefully bound
+
+  BY WASHINGTON IRVING
+  THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
+  RIP VAN WINKLE
+
+  SELECTED
+  TALES OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S
+  ALHAMBRA
+
+  BY JOHN RUSKIN
+  THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER
+
+  BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+  A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
+
+  SELECTED
+  HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
+
+  BY MISS MULOCK
+  THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE
+  THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE
+
+  BY EMMA GELLIBRAND
+  J. COLE
+
+  BY JOHANNA SPYRI
+  MONI THE GOAT BOY
+
+  BY OUIDA
+  MOUFFLOU AND OTHER STORIES
+  THE NUeRNBERG STOVE
+  A DOG OF FLANDERS
+
+  SELECTED
+  WONDERLAND STORIES
+  ALL TIME TALES
+
+  BY JONATHAN SWIFT
+  GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
+  (LILLIPUT LAND)
+
+  BY GEORGE MACDONALD
+  THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN
+  THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE
+  AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+[Illustration: NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE
+LONG BARE ROOM                                                _Page 111_]
+
+
+
+George Macdonald
+Stories For Little Folks
+
+AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+Simplified by
+
+ELIZABETH LEWIS
+
+Author of "The Princess and the Goblin Simplified"
+
+With Six Full Page Illustrations in Color by Maria L. Kirk
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+Philadelphia and London
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+Copyright, 1914
+By J. B. Lippincott Company
+Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
+The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                              PAGE
+
+   I. DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND     9
+
+  II. DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND        20
+
+ III. NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP                         31
+
+  IV. THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND          41
+
+   V. DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT           52
+
+  VI. DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE                 62
+
+ VII. DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB                          73
+
+VIII. DIAMOND VISITS NANNY                            84
+
+  IX. THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY            93
+
+   X. DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME                        102
+
+  XI. ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND                  109
+
+ XII. NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY                119
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND
+THE LONG BARE ROOM                               _Frontispiece_
+
+AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE
+VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY                                   12
+
+IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN                         29
+
+HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND, BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST
+BE DEAD AT LAST                                          47
+
+WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE
+VERSES FOR HIMSELF                                       73
+
+HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY               78
+
+
+
+
+AT THE BACK OF THE
+NORTH WIND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND
+
+
+There was once a little boy named Diamond and he slept in a low room
+over a coach house. In fact, his room was just a loft where they kept
+hay and straw and oats for the horses. Little Diamond's father was a
+coachman and he had named his boy after a favorite horse.
+
+Diamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all around
+it, because there was so little room in their own end of the coach
+house. So when little Diamond lay there in bed, he could hear the horses
+under him munching away in the dark or moving sleepily in their dreams.
+His father put old Diamond, the horse after whom he was named, in the
+stall under the bed because he was quiet and did not go to sleep
+standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature.
+
+Little Diamond sometimes woke in the middle of the night and felt his
+bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind. Then he could not help
+wondering if the wind should blow the house down and he should fall down
+into the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew
+him in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long,
+yet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little Diamond
+knew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which
+was--to go to sleep again as fast as he could!
+
+Often there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay
+at his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there
+was none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet
+bought more. Soon they bought more, and then it was only through a
+little lane with two or three turnings in it that he could reach his bed
+at all.
+
+Sometimes when his mother undressed him in her room and told him to trot
+away to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay first.
+There he would lie, thinking how cold it was outside in the wind and how
+warm it would be inside his bed; and how he would go to his bed when he
+pleased; only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first.
+As he grew colder lying in the hay, his bed seemed to him to grow
+warmer. Then at last, he would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an
+arrow into his bed, cover himself up, snuggle down, and think what a
+happy boy he was!
+
+He had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall
+and blew about him all night. But the back of his bed was of boards only
+an inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now
+these boards were soft and crumbly, and it happened that a soft part in
+them had worn away.
+
+One night after he lay down, little Diamond found that a knot had come
+out of one of them and the wind was blowing in upon him. He jumped out
+of bed again, got a little wisp of hay, twisted it up and folded it in
+the middle. In this way, he made it into a cork and stuck it into the
+knot-hole to keep the wind out. But the wind began to blow loudly and
+angrily. Just as Diamond was falling asleep, out blew his hay cork and
+hit him on the nose!
+
+It was just hard enough to wake him up and let him hear the wind
+whistling through the hole. He searched about for his hay cork, found
+it, and stuck it in harder. He was just dropping off to sleep once more,
+when pop! with an angry whistle behind it, the cork struck him again,
+this time on the cheek. Up he rose once more, got some more hay to make
+a new cork, and stuck it into the hole as hard as ever he could. But he
+was scarcely laid down again, before pop! it came on his forehead. So he
+gave it up, drew the bed-clothes over his head, and was soon fast
+asleep.
+
+[Illustration: AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE
+QUITE DISTINCTLY]
+
+Next day, little Diamond forgot all about the hole. But his mother found
+it when she was making up his bed and pasted a piece of thick brown
+paper over it. So when Diamond snuggled down into his bed that night, he
+did not think of it at all. But before he dropped asleep, he heard a
+queer sound and lifted his head to listen. Was somebody talking to him?
+The wind was rising again and beginning to blow and whistle. Was it the
+wind? He moved about to find out who or what it was, and at last,
+happened to put his hand upon the knot-hole with the paper pasted over
+it. Against this he laid his ear and then he heard the voice quite
+distinctly.
+
+"What do you mean, little boy, by closing up my window?"
+
+"What window?" asked Diamond.
+
+"You stuffed hay into it three times last night! I had to blow it out
+again three times!"
+
+"You can't mean this little hole? It isn't a window. It is a hole in my
+bed."
+
+"I did not say _a_ window. I said it was _my_ window!"
+
+"But it can't be a window!" said Diamond. "Windows are holes to see out
+of."
+
+"Well, that is just what I made this window for."
+
+"But you are outside," answered Diamond. "You can't want a window."
+
+"You are quite mistaken. Windows are to see out of, you say. Well, I am
+in my house, and I want windows to see out of."
+
+"But you have made a window into my bed."
+
+"Well, your mother has three windows into my dancing hall, and you have
+three into my garret."
+
+"Dear me!" said Diamond. "Still you can hardly expect me to keep a
+window in my bed for you. Now, can you?"
+
+"Come!" said the voice. "You just open that window!"
+
+"Well," said Diamond, "mother says I should be obliging. Still it is
+rather hard. You see, the north wind will blow right in my face if I
+do!"
+
+"I am the North Wind!" said the voice.
+
+"O-o-oh!" said Diamond. "Then will you promise not to blow in my face if
+I open your window?"
+
+"I cannot promise that," said the North Wind.
+
+"But you will give me the tooth-ache. Mother has it already."
+
+"But what is to become of me without a window!" cried the voice.
+
+"I am sure I don't know. All I say is that it will be worse for me than
+for you."
+
+"No, it will not," replied the voice. "You shall not be the worse for
+it--I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe
+what I say, and do as I tell you."
+
+"Well, I _can_ pull the clothes over my head," said Diamond. So he felt
+around with his little sharp nails, got hold of one edge of the paper
+and tore it off. In came a long whistling stream of cold that struck his
+little naked chest. He scrambled and tumbled in under the bed-clothes
+and covered himself up. There was no paper between him and the voice
+now, and he felt--not frightened exactly--but a little queer.
+
+"What a strange person this North Wind must be," thought Diamond, "to
+live in what they call 'Out-of-Doors,' I suppose, and make windows into
+people's beds."
+
+Now the voice began again. He could hear it quite plainly, even with his
+head under the bed-clothes. It was still more gentle now, though it was
+six times as large and loud as before. And he thought it sounded a
+little like his mother's.
+
+"What is your name, little boy?" it asked.
+
+"Diamond," answered Diamond under the bed-clothes.
+
+"What a funny name!"
+
+"It is a very nice name," replied the boy.
+
+"I am not so sure of that," said the voice.
+
+"Well, I am!" returned Diamond. "I think it is a very pretty name."
+
+"Diamond is a useless thing, rather," said the voice.
+
+"That is not true. Diamond is very useful--and as big as two--and so
+quiet all night! But doesn't he make a jolly row in the morning, getting
+up on his four great legs! It is like thunder!"
+
+"You do not seem to know what a diamond is!" cried the voice.
+
+"Oh, don't I, just! Diamond is a great and good horse, and he sleeps
+right under me. He is old Diamond and I am young Diamond. Or, if you
+like it better, Mr. North Wind, if you are so particular, he is big
+Diamond and I am little Diamond. And I do not know which of us my father
+likes best!"
+
+A beautiful laugh, soft and musical, sounded somewhere near him. But the
+boy kept his head under the clothes.
+
+"I am not Mr. North Wind," said the voice.
+
+"You told me you were the North Wind," cried Diamond.
+
+"I did not say _Mr._ North Wind," said the voice.
+
+"Well, I _do_ say Mr. for my mother tells me always to be polite."
+
+"Then let me tell you that I do not think it at all polite for you to
+say Mr. to me," answered the voice.
+
+"Isn't it? Well, I am sorry then."
+
+"But you ought to know better," said the voice. "You can't think it is
+polite to lie there with your head under the bed-clothes and never look
+to see what kind of a person you are talking to! I want you to come out
+with me."
+
+"I want to go to sleep!" said Diamond.
+
+"Will you take your head out of the bed-clothes?" said the voice a
+little angrily.
+
+"No!" said Diamond crossly.
+
+The moment he said the word a fierce blast of wind crashed in the wall
+and swept the clothes off him. He started up in a fright. Leaning over
+him was the large, beautiful, pale face of a woman. Her dark eyes had
+begun to flash a little but the rest of her face was very sweet and
+beautiful. What was very strange, though, was that away from her head
+streamed out her black hair in every direction like dark clouds. Soon it
+fell down about her again and then her face came out of it like the
+moon out of the clouds.
+
+"Will you go with me now, little Diamond?" asked the North Wind bending
+over him and speaking very gently.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Diamond, stretching out his arms toward her. "Yes, I
+will go with you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit afraid. I will go!
+But," he added, "how shall I get my clothes? They are in mother's room
+and the door is locked."
+
+"Oh never mind your clothes. You will not be cold. Nobody is cold with
+the North Wind."
+
+"I thought everybody was," said Diamond.
+
+"That is a great mistake. People are not cold when they are _with_ the
+North Wind--only when they are against it. Now will you come?"
+
+"Yes, dear North Wind. You are so beautiful I am quite ready to go with
+you."
+
+"Ah, but I may not always look beautiful. If you see me with my face all
+black, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping wings like bat's
+wings, as big as the whole sky, don't be afraid. If you hear me raging,
+you must believe that I am just doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change
+into a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of me, for it
+will be I just the same. And now, come!"
+
+She turned away and went so swiftly that she was gone before Diamond was
+more than started. When he finally got down the stairs and out into the
+yard, no one did he see. And there he stood with his bare feet on the
+hard stones of the paved yard.
+
+"I dare say she is hiding somewhere to see what I will do," said
+Diamond. So around the end of the stable he went to see if he could find
+her. But at once, sharp as a knife, the wind came against his little
+chest and bare legs. And stronger and stronger the wind seemed to blow.
+It was _so_ cold! All at once, he remembered that she had said that
+people were not cold if they went _with_ the North Wind. So he turned
+his back and trotted again toward the yard and sure enough, he began to
+feel almost warm once more!
+
+On and on, North Wind blew him and, presently, she seemed to shove him
+right against a small door in a wall. It opened and she blew him through
+it and out into the very middle of the lawn of the house next door. It
+was here that Mr. Coleman lived who was his father's master and who
+owned big Diamond. So little Diamond did not feel entirely strange, and
+then, too, there was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long
+as he could see that, Diamond could not feel quite alone or lonely. But
+all at once, the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it
+was dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone
+to bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he
+burst out crying.
+
+Some one in the house heard the sound of his sobbing and came out and
+found him there. He was taken into the house and into a room which had a
+bright light and a warm fire in it. Beside this, he found Miss Coleman,
+the young lady daughter of the house, who was having her long dark hair
+brushed out before going to bed. Somehow in that state, she looked just
+like the beautiful North Wind that he had been searching for. Without
+stopping to think, he ran right into her arms for comfort.
+
+After he was warmed and comforted, they took him back home and knocked
+on the door to arouse his mother, to come and get him. She was much
+surprised to see him, you may be sure. She carried him up to his bed
+again and tucked him snugly in. And there he fell fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+Diamond awoke very early the next morning and thought what a curious
+dream he had had. But the memory of it grew brighter and brighter until
+it did not look altogether like a dream. In fact he began to doubt
+whether he had not really been abroad in the wind at night.
+
+All that week it was hard weather. The grass showed white in the morning
+with the hoar frost which clung to every blade. As Diamond's shoes were
+not good and his mother had not saved up quite enough money to get him
+the new pair she so much wanted for him, she would not let him run out.
+But at length, she brought home his new shoes. No sooner did she find
+that they fitted him, than she told him he might run out into the yard
+and amuse himself.
+
+The sun was going down when he flew from the door like a bird from its
+cage. A great fire of sunset burned over the top of the gate that led to
+the stables. Above the fire in the sky, lay a large lake of green light,
+above that a golden cloud, and over that the blue of the wintry heavens.
+Diamond thought that next to his own home, he had never seen any place
+he would like so much to live in as that sky.
+
+As he wandered about, he came to stand by the little door which opened
+upon the lawn of the house next door. That made him remember how the
+wind had driven him to this same spot on the night of his dream. So he
+thought he would just go in and see if things looked at all as they did
+then. But not a flower was to be seen in the beds on the lawn! Even the
+brave old chrysanthemums and Christmas roses had passed away before the
+frost. What? Yes! There was _one_. He ran and knelt down to look at it.
+
+It was a primrose--a tiny, tiny thing, but perfect in shape--a baby
+wonder. As he stooped his face to see it close, a little wind began to
+blow. Two or three long leaves that stood up behind the flower shook and
+wavered and quivered. But the primrose lay still in the green hollow,
+looking up at the sky and not seeming to know at all that the wind was
+blowing. It looked like a golden eye that the black wintry earth had
+opened to look at the sky with.
+
+That very same night, after Diamond had been asleep for a little, he
+awoke all at once in the dark.
+
+"Open the window, Diamond," said a voice.
+
+Now Diamond's mother had once more pasted up North Wind's window.
+
+"Are you North Wind?" said Diamond. "I do not hear you blowing."
+
+"No, but you hear me talking. Open the window for I haven't over much
+time."
+
+"Yes," said Diamond. "But please, North Wind, where's the use? You left
+me all alone last time."
+
+"That was your fault," returned North Wind. "I had work to do and you
+kept me waiting."
+
+Diamond was already scratching at the paper like ten mice and, getting
+hold of the edge of it, tore it off. The next instant a young girl
+glided across the bed and stood on the floor.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Diamond quite dismayed. "I didn't know--who are you,
+please?"
+
+"I am North Wind."
+
+"But you are no bigger than I am!"
+
+"Do you think I care how big or how little I am? And of course, I am
+little this evening! Didn't you see me behind the leaves of the
+primrose? Didn't you see them blowing? Make haste, now, if you want to
+go with me! Dress as fast as you can and I will go and shake the leaves
+of the primrose till you come!"
+
+"Don't hurt it!" said Diamond.
+
+North Wind broke out into a little laugh like the breaking of silver
+bubbles and was gone in a moment. Diamond saw the gleam of something
+vanishing down the stair. He dressed himself as fast as ever he could
+and crept out into the yard, through the door in the wall, and away to
+the primrose. Behind it stood North Wind leaning over it.
+
+"Come along!" she said jumping up and holding out her hand. She led him
+across the garden and with one bound was on top of the wall. Then she
+reached down her hand to Diamond. He gave a great spring and stood
+beside her.
+
+Another bound, and they stood in the road by the river. It was full tide
+and the stars were shining clear in its depths. But they had not walked
+beside it far before its surface was covered with ripples and the stars
+had vanished. North Wind was now as tall as a full-grown girl. Her hair
+was flying about her head and the wind was blowing a breeze down the
+river. But she turned aside and went up a narrow lane.
+
+"I have some rather disagreeable work to do to-night," she said. "And
+disagreeable work must be looked after first."
+
+So saying, she laid hold of Diamond and began to run, gliding along
+faster and faster. She made many turnings and windings. Once they ran
+through a hall where they found both the front and back doors open. At
+the foot of the stair, North Wind stood still and Diamond, hearing a
+great growl, started in terror. There, instead of North Wind, was a huge
+wolf by his side! He let go his hold and the wolf bounded up the stair.
+The windows of the house rattled and shook and there came the sound of a
+fall.
+
+"Surely," thought Diamond, "North Wind can't be eating one of the
+children!"
+
+He started to rush up after her, but she met him on the stair, took him
+by the hand and hurried him out of the house.
+
+"I hope you haven't eaten a baby, North Wind!" he said very solemnly.
+
+North Wind laughed merrily and went tripping on faster. Her grassy robe
+swept and swirled about her steps. Wherever it passed over withered
+leaves, they went fleeing and whirling away and running on their edges
+all about her feet. "No, I did not eat a baby," she said, "as you would
+know if you had not let go of me. I merely scared an ugly nurse who was
+calling a child bad names. I flew at her throat and she tumbled over
+with a crash. I had to put on a bad shape before she could see me. I put
+on a wolf's shape for that is what she is growing to be inside."
+
+They were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent. At the top, North
+Wind stood and turned her face toward London. The stars were still
+shining clear and cold overhead. There was not a cloud to be seen.
+
+"Now," said North Wind, "do not let go of me again. I might have lost
+you the last time, only I was not in a hurry then. Now I am in a hurry."
+
+As she spoke, she was growing larger and larger. Her head went up and up
+toward the stars. As she grew, her hair, longer and longer, lifted
+itself from her head and went out in black waves. She put her hands
+behind her head and began weaving and knotting her hair together. Then
+she took up Diamond in her hands and threw him over her shoulder saying,
+"I have made a place for you in my hair. Get in, Diamond."
+
+Diamond soon found the woven nest and crept into it. The next moment he
+was rising in the air. North Wind grew towering up to the place of the
+clouds. Her hair went streaming out from her till it spread like a mist
+over the stars. She flung herself abroad in space. Diamond made a little
+place through the woven meshes of her hair and peeped through that, for
+he did not dare look over the top of his nest.
+
+The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and
+water and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but
+the roofs of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and
+rocks. Chimneys fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great
+roaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea.
+Diamond, of course, at the back of North Wind, was in a calm but he
+could hear it. Around and around and around, swept North Wind, her dark
+hair rolling and flowing, sweeping the people all into their homes and
+the bad smells out of the streets.
+
+Suddenly, Diamond saw a little girl coming along a street. She was
+dreadfully blown by the wind, and a broom she was trailing behind her
+was very troublesome. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her! It
+kept worrying her and tearing at her rags. She was so lonely there!
+
+"Oh, please, North Wind," cried Diamond, "won't you help that little
+girl?"
+
+"I cannot leave my work, Diamond. But you can help her if you like.
+Only, I can't wait for you. And mind, the wind will get hold of you
+too!"
+
+"But how shall I get home again," cried Diamond, "if you don't wait for
+me?"
+
+"Well, you must think of that!" said North Wind.
+
+"Oh," cried Diamond. "I am sure the wind will blow her over! I _must_
+help her anyway! Let me go!"
+
+Without a word, North Wind dropped into the street and set him down. The
+same moment, he was caught in the coils of the blast and all but swept
+away. North Wind vanished. The wind was roaring along the street. The
+little girl was scudding before it, her hair flying, while behind her
+she dragged her broom with which she swept her crossing. Her little legs
+were going as fast as they could, to keep her from falling.
+
+"Stop! stop! little girl!" shouted Diamond, starting in pursuit.
+
+"I can't!" wailed the girl. "The wind won't let me!"
+
+Diamond ran after her and caught hold of her frock but it tore in his
+hand. Then he ran fast enough to get in front of her and turning around,
+caught her in his arms. Just then, he thought he got a glimpse of North
+Wind turning the corner in front of them. They must go with her of
+course, and sure enough, when they turned the corner after her, they
+found it quite quiet there.
+
+"Now, you must lead me," said Diamond. "You show me the way you must go
+to get home and I will take care of you."
+
+So the little girl put her free hand in his and began to lead him. They
+went around turning after turning, till they stopped at a cellar-door in
+a very dirty lane. There the little girl knocked.
+
+"What an awful place!" said Diamond. "I should not like to live here."
+
+"Oh yes, you would, if you had no where else to go!" answered the girl.
+"I only hope they'll let me in."
+
+"Don't they always let you in?" said Diamond.
+
+"No, they don't. And then I have to stay in the street all night and
+scud back to my crossing the first thing in the morning. You see they
+don't answer, now!"
+
+"Well," said Diamond, "I don't want to get in. I want to go back to my
+mother. Come with me and I will take you to my own home."
+
+The little girl thought this would be much better than sitting in the
+streets all night. So they started off. The trouble was that Diamond was
+not at all sure that he could find the way without North Wind. But the
+only thing to do was to try. So they wandered on and on, turning in this
+direction and that, without any reason for one way more than another. At
+last, they got out of the thick of the houses into a kind of waste
+place. By this time, they were both very tired, and Diamond was
+inclined to cry. For he said to himself that he had not done the little
+girl any good and he had lost his own way home. But in this, he was
+wrong for she was far happier in having him with her, and making people
+happier is one of the best ways of doing them good.
+
+[Illustration: IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN]
+
+They sat down and rested themselves a little and then went on. After a
+time, they found themselves on a rising ground that sloped rather
+steeply on the other side. The moment they reached the top, a gust of
+wind seized them and blew them down hill as fast as they could run. Nor
+could Diamond stop before he went bang! against one of the doors in a
+wall. To his dismay, it burst open. When they came to themselves, they
+peeped in. It was the back door of a garden.
+
+"Oh! oh!" cried Diamond after staring for a few moments. "I know this
+place--know it well! It is Mr. Coleman's garden and here I am at home
+again. Oh, I am so glad! Come in, little girl! Come in with me and my
+mother will give you some breakfast."
+
+"No, no! I can't!" said the little girl. "We have been so long coming.
+Look up! Don't you see that it is morning now? I must hurry back to my
+crossing and sweep it and get money to take home or they will beat me!
+I cannot stay. Good-bye, little boy, good-bye!"
+
+She started back at once, ran up the hill and disappeared behind it.
+Diamond called after her and called, but she did not even turn round. He
+was sorry to see her go but there was no help for it. So when she was
+gone quite out of sight, he shut the door of the garden as best he
+could, and ran through the kitchen garden to the stables. And wasn't he
+glad to get into his own blessed bed again!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP
+
+
+It was some time before he saw North Wind again. He saw the little girl
+before that but it was only for a moment. It happened in this way. His
+father was taking the horse, Diamond, to have new shoes put on him, and
+knowing that little Diamond, like all small boys, liked a ride, he set
+him on the horse and taking the bridle led the two Diamonds away.
+
+The blacksmith's shop was some distance away, deeper in London. As they
+crossed the angle of a square, Diamond, who was looking about to see if
+any one noticed him riding upon the big horse like a man, saw a little
+girl sweeping a crossing before a lady and holding out her hand for a
+penny. The lady had no penny and the little girl was disappointed.
+
+Diamond could not stand that. He knew the little girl and he knew that
+he had a penny in his pocket. He slid off the horse in a sort of tumble
+and ran to her, holding out the penny. She did not know him at first,
+but when he smiled at her, she did. He stuffed the penny into her hand
+and ran back, for he knew his father would not care to wait. After that,
+he did not see little Nanny for a long time.
+
+He played often now on the lawn of the house next door--Mr. Coleman's
+lawn--as the summer drew near, warm and splendid. One evening, he was
+sitting in a little summer-house at the foot of the lawn, before which
+was a bed of tulips. They were closed for the night but the wind was
+waving them slightly. All at once, out of one of them, there flew a big
+buzzing bumblebee.
+
+"There! That's something done!" said a voice--a gentle, merry, childish
+voice but _so_ tiny! "I was afraid he would have to stay there all
+night."
+
+Diamond looked all about and then he saw the _tiniest_ creature, sliding
+down the stem of the tulip.
+
+"Are you the fairy that herds the bees?" he asked kneeling down beside
+the tulip bed.
+
+"I am not a fairy," answered the little creature. "You stupid Diamond,
+have you never seen me before?"
+
+As she spoke, a moan of wind bent the tulips almost to the ground and
+then he recognized North Wind.
+
+"But there!" added the little creature, "I must not stay to chatter. I
+have to go and sink a ship to-night."
+
+"Sink a ship!" cried Diamond. "And drown the men and women in it? How
+dreadful! Still I cannot believe you are cruel, North Wind!"
+
+"No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to
+those who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry
+away to the back of the north wind--only I never saw the place."
+
+"But how can you carry them there if you never saw the place? And how is
+it that you never saw it?"
+
+"Because it is behind me. You cannot see your own back, you know. But
+run along now if you want to go with me to-night. I cannot take you till
+you have been to bed and gone to sleep. I'll look about and do something
+till you are ready. Do you see that man over there on the river in the
+boat who is just floating about? Now watch!"
+
+She flashed like a dragon-fly across the water whose surface rippled and
+puckered as she passed. The next moment, the man in the boat glanced
+about him and bent to his oars. The boat flew over the rippling water.
+The same instant almost, North Wind perched again upon the river wall.
+
+"How did you do that?" asked Diamond.
+
+"I just blew in his face and blew the mist out of him."
+
+"But what for? I don't understand!" said Diamond. Hearing no answer, he
+looked down at the wall. North Wind was gone. Away across the river
+went a long ripple--what sailors call a cat's paw. The man in the boat
+at once put up his sail. The moon was coming to herself on the edge of a
+great cloud and the sail began to shine white. Diamond rubbed his eyes
+and wondered what it was all about. But he felt that he could not know
+more till he had gone to bed, so he turned away and started for home. He
+stopped to look out of a window before going to bed. Above the moon, the
+clouds were streaming different ways, and the wind was rising as he fell
+asleep.
+
+He woke in the middle of the night and the darkness. A terrible noise
+was rumbling overhead like the rolling beat of great drums. For a while,
+he could not come quite awake. But a second peal of thunder broke over
+his head and a great blast of wind followed which tore some tiles off
+the roof and, through the hole this made, sent a spout of wind down into
+his face. At the same moment, he heard a mighty, yet musical voice say,
+"Come up, Diamond! It's all ready. I am waiting for you." Then a
+gigantic arm was reached down which drew him up and clasped him against
+North Wind's breast.
+
+"Oh, North Wind!" he murmured. But the words vanished from his lips as
+he had seen the soap bubbles, that burst too soon, vanish from the
+mouth of his pipe. The wind caught them and they were no-where.
+
+At the same moment, a peal of thunder which shook Diamond's heart
+against his side boomed out of the heavens; I cannot say, out of the
+sky, for there was no sky. Diamond had not seen the lightning for he had
+been busy trying to find the face of North Wind. Every moment, the folds
+of her garment would sweep across his eyes and blind him. But between
+them, he could just catch glimpses of the great glories of her eyes
+looking down at him through the rifts of the huge clouds over his head.
+
+"Oh dear North Wind!" cried the boy. "Why do you do like this? Must you
+go and sink the ship? It is not like you! Here you are, taking care of a
+poor little boy like me, with one arm, and there you are, sinking the
+ship with the other! No, no! It can't be like you!"
+
+"Then you must believe that I am cruel," answered the strong voice of
+North Wind, sounding about him out of the clouds.
+
+"No, dear North Wind, I can't believe that. I don't believe it. I will
+not believe it. How could you know how to put on such a beautiful face
+if you did not love me and love all the rest too? No! You may sink as
+many ships as you like--though I shall not like to see it!"
+
+"That is quite another thing!" said North Wind.
+
+As she spoke, she gave one spring from the roof and rushed up into the
+clouds. As if the clouds knew she had come, they burst into fresh
+thunderous light. Diamond seemed to be borne through an ocean of
+dazzling flame. The winds were writhing around him like a storm of
+serpents. For they were in the midst of the clouds and mists which of
+course took the shapes of the wind, eddying, and wreathing, and
+whirling, and shooting, and dashing about like gray and black water.
+
+Now it blinded him by smiting him upon the eyes. Now it deafened him by
+bellowing in his ears. But he did not mind it. He only gasped at first,
+and then laughed, for the arm of North Wind was about him and he felt
+quite safe, though he knew that they were sweeping with the speed of the
+wind itself toward the sea! But before they reached it, Diamond felt
+North Wind's hair beginning to fall down about him.
+
+"Is the storm over, North Wind?" he called out.
+
+"No, Diamond. I am only waiting for a moment to set you down. You will
+not like to see the ship sunk and I am going to give you a place to stop
+in till I come back. Look!"
+
+With one sweep of her great white arm, she flung yards deep of darkness,
+like a great curtain, from before the face of the boy. And lo! it was a
+blue night lit up with stars. Where it did not shine with stars, it
+shimmered with a milky whiteness of stars except where, just before
+them, the gray towers of a cathedral blotted out the sky.
+
+"A good place for you to wait in," said North Wind and swept down upon
+the cathedral roof. They went in through an open door in one of the
+towers. Diamond found himself at the top of a stone stair which went
+twisting away down into the darkness. North Wind held his hand, and
+after a little, led him out upon a narrow gallery which ran all around
+the central part of the church. Below him, lay the inside of the church
+like a great silent gulf hollowed in stone. On and on, they walked along
+this narrow gallery till at last they reached a much broader stairway
+leading on down and down until at length, it led them down into the
+church itself.
+
+There he felt himself clasped in the arms of North Wind who held him
+close and kissed him on the forehead. The next moment, she was gone, and
+Diamond heard a moaning about the church which grew and grew to a
+roaring. The storm was up again and he knew that North Wind's hair was
+flying.
+
+The church was dark. Only a little light came through the windows which
+were almost all of that precious old stained glass so much lovelier than
+the new. There was not enough light in the stars to show the colors in
+them. Diamond began to feel his way about the place, and for a little
+while went wandering up and down. His pattering foot-steps waked soft
+answering echoes in the stone house. It was as if the great cathedral
+somehow knew that his little self was there and went on giving back an
+answer to every step he took.
+
+At last, he gave a great sigh and said, "I am _so_ tired!" He did not
+hear the gentle echo which answered from far away over his head. For at
+that moment, he came against the lowest of a few steps that stretched
+across the church, and fell down and hurt his arm. He cried a little at
+first, and then crawled up the steps on his hands and knees. At the top,
+he came to a little bit of carpet on which he lay down. And there he lay
+staring at the dull windows that rose nearly a hundred feet above his
+head.
+
+The moon was at that moment just on the edge of the horizon. And lo!
+with the moon, lovely figures began to dawn in the windows. He lay and
+looked at them backward over his head, wondering if they would come
+down. He heard a low, soft murmuring as if they were talking to
+themselves about him. But his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired.
+His eyelids grew so heavy that they _would_ keep tumbling down over his
+eyes. He kept lifting them and lifting them. But every time, they were
+heavier than the last. It was no use! They were too much for him.
+Sometimes before he got them half way up, down they went again. At
+length, he gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast
+asleep!
+
+When his eyes came wide open again, there were no lovely figures--or
+even windows--but a dark heap of hay all about him. The small panes in
+the roof of his loft were glimmering blue in the light of the morning.
+Old Diamond was coming awake down below in the stable. In a moment more
+he was on his feet and shaking himself so that young Diamond's bed
+trembled under him.
+
+"He is grand at shaking himself!" said Diamond. "I wish I could shake
+myself like that. But then I can wash myself and he can't. What fun it
+would be to see old Diamond washing his face with his hoofs and iron
+shoes! Wouldn't it be a picture!"
+
+He dressed himself quickly and ran out. Down the stairs he went and
+through the little door out upon the lawn of Mr. Coleman's house next
+door. He wanted to see how things looked since last night. There was the
+little summer-house with the tulip bed before it where he had been
+sitting the evening before, crushed to the ground! Over it lay the great
+elm tree which the wind had broken across! As he stood looking at it, a
+gentleman who was staying at the Coleman house came out upon the lawn.
+
+"Dear me!" said the gentleman. "There has been terrible work here! This
+is the North Wind's doing! What a pity! I wish we lived at the back of
+it, I am sure!"
+
+"Where is that, sir?" asked Diamond.
+
+"Away in the Hyperborean regions," answered the gentleman. He smiled for
+he knew well enough that Diamond would not understand that big word
+which means the country away in the far, far north.
+
+"I never heard of that place," returned Diamond.
+
+"No," said the gentleman. "I suppose not. But if this tree had been
+there, it would not have been blown down. There is no wind in that
+country."
+
+"That must be the place," said Diamond to himself, "where North Wind
+said she would take the people whom she sunk with the ship. Next time I
+see her, I am going to ask her to take me to see that land, too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
+
+
+One morning, Diamond's mother did not think he was feeling very well and
+when he told her that he had a little headache, she was sure of it. Now
+there was an aunt of his living at Sandwich and his mother decided to
+send him there for a change. So giving him two pence for spending money,
+she packed him off to Sandwich for a visit.
+
+He soon made great friends with an old woman who kept a toy-shop there,
+where he spent his two pence. One hot day when he had been walking about
+more than he ought and was tired, he went into the toy-shop to rest. The
+old woman had gone out but he thought it would be all right for him to
+sit down on a box and rest.
+
+All at once, he heard a gentle whirring somewhere amongst the toys.
+Among them was a whistle that had a wind-mill at the end which turned
+when you blew the whistle. No one was blowing the whistle now and yet
+the wind-mill was turning and turning and turning.
+
+"What can it mean?" said Diamond out loud after watching for a few
+moments.
+
+"It means _me_," answered the tiniest voice he had ever heard.
+
+"Who are you, please?" asked Diamond.
+
+"Well, really, I begin to be ashamed of you!" cried the voice. "You are
+as bad as a baby that doesn't know its mother in a new bonnet!"
+
+"Not quite so bad as that, dear North Wind," said Diamond. "And I am so
+glad to see you. Did you sink the ship?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And drown everybody?"
+
+"Not quite. One boat got away with six or seven men in it."
+
+"And you took the others to that queer place the gentleman spoke of,"
+said Diamond to himself. Aloud he said, "Please, North Wind, I want you
+to take me to the country at the back of the north wind."
+
+"That is not so easy," said North Wind and was silent so long that he
+thought she must have gone away. But presently she spoke again.
+
+"It is not so easy," she said thoughtfully. "But we shall see. We shall
+see. You must go home, now, my dear, for you do not seem very well."
+
+So Diamond went home. That afternoon, his head began to ache very much
+and he had to go to bed. In the middle of the night, his aunt came in to
+feel his forehead and to give him a drink of lemonade. Then he went off
+to sleep, but was awake again soon, for a burst of wind blew open his
+lattice window. The same moment, he found himself in a cloud of North
+Wind's hair, with her beautiful face, set in it like a moon, bending
+over him.
+
+"Quick! Diamond!" she said. "I have found such a chance!"
+
+"But I am not well," said Diamond.
+
+"I know. But you will be better for it."
+
+"Very well," said Diamond; and getting out of bed, he jumped into North
+Wind's arms. Sure enough, the moment he felt her arms fold about him, he
+began to feel better. It was a moonless night and very dark, with
+glimpses of stars when the clouds parted.
+
+"We shall soon get to where the waves are dashing about," said North
+Wind. And soon, Diamond looking down saw the white glimmer of breaking
+water far below him.
+
+"You see, Diamond," said North Wind, "it is very difficult to get you to
+the back of the north wind for that country lies in the very north
+itself. Now, of course, I cannot blow northwards, for then I should have
+to be South Wind. The north is where I come from--it is my home though I
+never get nearer to it than the outer door. I can only sit on the
+door-step and hear the voices in there, behind me. Since I cannot blow
+in that direction to get there, I have just to draw into myself and grow
+weaker and fainter as I go. That makes it hard for me to carry
+anything--even you--with me when I go that way. So I must get some help.
+Let me get rid of a few of these clouds. There! What do you see now?"
+
+"A boat," said Diamond.
+
+"A ship," said North Wind, "whose captain I know well. I have often
+helped him to sail his eighty miles a day northward."
+
+"He must have tacked often to do that," said Diamond who had been
+watching the ships at Sandwich.
+
+"Yes, that gave him a share in the business. It is not good at all--mind
+that, Diamond--to do everything for those you love and not give them a
+share in the doing. It is not being really kind to them. If South Wind
+had blown that ship straight north, the captain would just have smoked
+his pipe all day and got stupider and stupider. But now I am going to
+put you aboard his ship. Do you see that round thing on the deck like
+the top of a drum? Below that is where they keep their spare sails. I am
+going to blow it off and drop you through upon the sails. You will find
+it nice and warm and dry. Just coil yourself up there and go to sleep."
+
+A moment more, and he felt himself tumbled in on the heap of sails. Hour
+after hour, he lay comfortably there. He could hear the straining of the
+masts, the creaking of the boom, and the singing of the ropes with the
+roaring of the wind; also the surge of the waves past the ship's sides
+and the thud with which every now and then one would strike her.
+
+All at once arose a terrible uproar. The cover was blown off again, a
+fierce wind rushed in, snatched him up and bore him aloft into the
+clouds. Down below, he saw the little vessel, he had been in, tossing on
+the waves like a sea-bird with folded wing. Near it was a bigger ship
+which was on its way to the north pole.
+
+"That big ship will give us a lift now," said North Wind. Swooping down
+she tucked him snugly in amongst some flags. And now on and on, they
+sped toward the north. How long it was, Diamond did not know, but one
+night she whispered in his ear, "Come up on deck, Diamond."
+
+Everything looked very strange. Here and there on all sides, were huge
+masses of floating ice looking like cathedrals and castles and crags,
+and beyond them a blue sea. Some of the icebergs were drifting
+northward, one passing very near the ship. North Wind seized Diamond
+and with a single bound, lighted on it. The same instant, South Wind
+began to blow and North Wind hurried Diamond down the north side of the
+berg and into a cave. There she sat down as if weary on a ledge of ice.
+
+Diamond was enraptured with the color of the air in the cave, a deep,
+dazzling, lovely blue that was always in motion, boiling and sparkling.
+But when he looked at North Wind he was frightened.
+
+He saw that her form and face were growing, not small, but transparent
+like something dissolving away. He could see the side of the blue cave
+through her very heart. She melted slowly away till all that was left
+was a pale face with two great lucid eyes in it.
+
+"She is dying away!" he said. "Of course, as we go northward, she is
+dying away more and more."
+
+After a little, he went out and sat on the edge of his floating island
+and looked down into the green ocean. When he got tired of that, he went
+back into the blue cave. He felt as if in a dream. He was not hungry,
+but he sucked little bits of the berg at times.
+
+At length, far off on the horizon, there rose into the sky a shining
+peak, and his berg floated right toward it. Other peaks came into view
+as he went on, and at last his berg floated up to a projecting rock.
+Diamond stepped ashore and a little way before him saw a lofty ridge of
+ice with a gap in it like the opening of a valley. As he got nearer, he
+saw it was not a gap but the form of a woman, her hands in her lap and
+her hair hanging to the ground.
+
+"It is North Wind on her door-step!" said Diamond joyfully and hurried
+on.
+
+[Illustration: HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE
+DEAD AT LAST]
+
+She sat motionless with drooping head and did not move nor speak. He was
+sure it was North Wind but he thought she must be dead at last. Her face
+was white as the snow, her eyes blue as the ice cave, and she had on a
+greenish robe like the color in the hollows of a glacier.
+
+He walked toward her instantly and put out his hand to lay it on her.
+There was nothing there but intense cold. All grew white about him. He
+groped on further. The white thickened about him and he felt himself
+stumbling and falling. But as he fell, he rolled over the threshold. It
+was thus that Diamond got to the back of the north wind.
+
+And what did he find? There was no North Wind in sight nor snow nor ice.
+It was a country where even the ground smelled sweetly, though Diamond
+thought the odour must come out of the flowers. A gentle air breathed in
+his face but he was not quite sure he did not miss the wind. A river as
+clear as crystal ran not only through the grass but over it too. It
+murmured a low, sweet song as it ran. There was no sun nor moon but a
+pure cloudless light always, and the blue arch of the sky seemed like a
+harp playing the soft airs of Heaven. There were many people there and
+all the people seemed happy and yet as if they were going to be happier
+some day.
+
+Nothing ever went wrong at the back of the north wind and the only thing
+one ever missed was some one he loved who had not yet got there. But if
+one at the back of the north wind wanted to know how things were going
+with any one he loved, he had only to go to a certain tree, and climb up
+and sit down in the branches.
+
+One day, when Diamond was sitting in this tree, he began to long very
+much to get home again. And no wonder! For he saw his mother crying. Now
+if you wished anything at the back of the north wind, you could follow
+your wish if you could find the way. So Diamond knew that he must now
+find North Wind. He could not go home without her and therefore he must
+find her. He went all about searching and searching. One day as he was
+looking and looking, he thought he caught a glimpse of the ice ridge and
+the misty form of North Wind seated as he had left her. He ran as hard
+as he could. Yes, he was sure it was she. He pushed on through the
+whiteness, which began to thicken around him. It was harder and harder
+to go but he struggled on and at last reached her and sank wearily down
+at her knees. At that same moment, the country at her back vanished from
+Diamond's view.
+
+North Wind was as still as Diamond had left her. But as he touched her,
+her face began to change like that of one waking from sleep. He
+clambered up upon her breast. She gave a great sigh, slowly lifted her
+arms, and slowly folded them about him, until she clasped him close.
+
+"Have you been sitting here ever since I went through you, dear North
+Wind? It has been like a hundred years!" said Diamond.
+
+"It has been just seven days," said North Wind smiling. "Come now, we
+will go."
+
+The next moment, Diamond sat alone on the rock. North Wind had vanished.
+But something like a cockchafer flew past his face. Around and around
+him in circles it went.
+
+"Come along, Diamond," it said in his ear. "It is time we were setting
+out for Sandwich."
+
+It seemed to drop to the ground but when he looked Diamond could see
+nothing but a little spider with long legs which made its way over the
+ice toward the south. It grew and grew till Diamond discovered that it
+was not a spider but a weasel. Away glided the weasel and away went
+Diamond after it. The weasel grew and grew and grew till he saw it was
+not a weasel but a cat. Away went the cat and away went Diamond after
+it. When he came up with it, it was not a cat but a leopard. The leopard
+grew to a jaguar and the jaguar to a Bengal tiger.
+
+Of none of them was Diamond afraid for he had been at North Wind's back
+and he could be afraid of her no longer whatever she did or grew to be.
+The tiger flew over the snow in a straight line for the south, growing
+less and less to Diamond's eyes till it was only a black speck upon the
+whiteness. Then it vanished altogether.
+
+And now Diamond felt that he would rather not run any further and that
+the ice had got very rough. Besides he was near the precipices that
+bounded the sea. So he slowed up his pace to a walk and said to himself,
+"North Wind will come back for me, I know. She is just teasing me a
+little. Then, too, she _must_ get started some way to grow bigger and
+bigger all the time!"
+
+"Here I am, dear boy," said North Wind's voice behind him.
+
+Diamond turned and saw her as he liked best to see her, standing beside
+him a tall, beautiful woman.
+
+"Where is the tiger?" he said. "But of course, you were the tiger. It
+puzzles me a little. I saw it such a long way off before me, and there
+you are behind me. It is odd, you know."
+
+"None of these things is odder to me than to see you eat bread and
+butter," said North Wind.
+
+"I should just like to see a slice of bread and butter!" cried Diamond.
+"I am afraid to say how long it is since I had anything to eat!"
+
+"You shall have some soon. I am glad to find you want some!"
+
+She swept him up in her arms and bounded into the air. Her tresses began
+to lift and rise and spread and stream and flow and flutter. And North
+Wind and Diamond went flying southward. The sea slid away from under
+them like a great web of shot silk, blue shot with gray, and green shot
+with purple. The stars appeared to sail away past them, like golden
+boats on a blue sea turned upside down. Diamond himself went fast, fast,
+fast--he went fast asleep in North Wind's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT
+
+
+When he woke once more, a face was bending over him. It was not North
+Wind's, however; it was his mother's. He put out his arms to her and she
+clasped him to her heart and burst out crying.
+
+"What is the matter, mother?" cried Diamond.
+
+"Oh, Diamond dear! You have been so ill!" she said.
+
+"Why no, mother dear. I have only been at the back of the North Wind,"
+returned Diamond.
+
+"I thought you were dead," said his mother.
+
+At that moment, the doctor came in. He drew his mother aside and told
+her not to talk to Diamond. He must be kept as quiet as possible. And
+indeed, Diamond felt very strange and weak. But he soon got better with
+chicken broth and other nice things.
+
+And it was a good thing that he could get well and strong again. For
+since he had come to Sandwich, a sad thing had happened to his father.
+Mr. Coleman, his father's employer, had failed in business. It had come
+about in this way. Miss Coleman, who had looked so like North Wind that
+night on which he had seen her having her long black hair combed beside
+the fire, had a lover, a Mr. Evans. Now Mr. Evans was poor and felt
+ashamed to marry Miss Coleman until he had made more money and could
+live finely. This was a sort of false pride and it brought about great
+trouble for them all.
+
+For Mr. Coleman took Mr. Evans into partnership to help him along. As
+soon as that happened, Mr. Evans began to urge Mr. Coleman to go into
+business ventures which were not honest but in which they could make a
+great deal of money. It was not so bad at first, but as they went on, it
+became more and more dishonest.
+
+They could not seem to get out of it, however, and get back to carrying
+on their business in the right way. So North Wind had to take a hand and
+teach them better. It was Mr. Coleman's ship she sank that night when
+she carried Diamond into the cathedral to wait for her. In the one
+boat-load of people which North Wind drove off to a desert island, was
+Mr. Evans. He had gone along on the ship to manage the business. Now he
+found that it would have been better to have been poor and stayed at
+home to marry Miss Coleman than to be ship-wrecked and have to live on a
+desert island because he longed so to be rich.
+
+The loss of the ship ruined Mr. Coleman. He had to sell off his house
+and his horses, old Diamond among them, and go and live in a poor little
+house in a much less pleasant place. He had to begin again to work and
+learn how much better it is to be honest and contented than to try to
+get rich quickly. And poor Miss Coleman thought her lover was drowned
+and was very, very unhappy.
+
+Nobody suffers alone. When old Diamond was sold, young Diamond's father
+was thrown out of work. Then he had no way to earn money to keep Diamond
+and his mother and the new little baby brother who had come to them. How
+Diamond did wish he was big enough to do something! But of course, he
+could think of nothing he could do. Besides he had to get well and
+strong first, anyway. His father sent word that he and his mother were
+to stay down at Sandwich until he found something to do and a place
+where he could make a home for them. It was a very fortunate thing that
+Diamond's aunt was glad to keep them with her as long as ever they were
+willing to stay.
+
+One day when Diamond was getting strong enough to go out, his mother got
+his aunt's husband, who had a little pony cart, to carry them down to
+the sea-shore. A whiff of sea air, she said, would do them both good.
+They sat down on the edge of the rough grass which bordered the sand.
+Away before them stretched the sparkling waters of the ocean, every wave
+of which flashed out its delight in the face of the great sun. On each
+hand, the shore rounded outward, forming a little bay. Dry sand was
+about their feet, and under them thin wiry grass.
+
+After a time, his mother stretched out her hand for the basket which she
+had brought with her and she and Diamond had their dinner. Diamond _did_
+enjoy it, the drive and the fresh air had made him so hungry! But he was
+sorry that his mother looked so sad and depressed. He knew she was
+thinking about his father and how they now had no home. But there was
+nothing for him to do. So he lay down on the sand again, feeling sleepy,
+and gazed sleepily out over the sand. "What is that, mother!" he said.
+
+"Only a bit of paper," she answered looking where he pointed.
+
+"It flutters more than a bit of paper would, I think," said Diamond.
+
+"I'll go and see if you like," said his mother.
+
+She rose and went and found that it was a little book partly buried in
+the sand. Several of its leaves were clear of the sand and these the
+wind kept blowing about in a very fluttering manner. She took it up and
+brought it to Diamond.
+
+"What is it, mother?" he asked.
+
+"Rhymes, I think," said she.
+
+"I am so sleepy," he said. "Do read some of them to me."
+
+"Well, I will," she said and began one. "But this is such nonsense," she
+said again. "I will try to find a better one."
+
+She turned the leaves, searching, but three times with sudden puffs the
+wind blew the leaves rustling back to the same verses.
+
+"I wonder if that is North Wind," said Diamond to himself. To his mother
+he said, "Do read that one. It sounded very nice. I am sure it is a good
+one."
+
+His mother thought it might amuse him although she could not find any
+sense in it. So she read on like this:
+
+          I know a river
+          whose waters run asleep,
+          run, run ever,
+          singing in the shallows,
+          dumb in the hollows
+          sleeping so deep;
+          and all the swallows
+          that dip their feathers
+          in the hollows
+          or in the shallows
+          are the merriest swallows of all!
+
+"Why!" whispered Diamond to himself sleepily, "that is what the river
+sang when I was at the back of the north wind."
+
+          And so with the daisies
+          the little white daisies
+          they grow and they blow
+          and they spread out their crown
+          and they praise the sun;
+          and when he goes down
+          their praising is done
+          and they fold up their crown
+          till over the plain
+          he is rising amain
+          and they're at it again!
+          praising and praising
+          such low songs raising
+          that no one hears them
+          but the sun who rears them!
+          and the sheep that bite them
+          awake or asleep
+          are the quietest sheep
+          with the merriest bleat!
+          and the little lambs
+          are the merriest lambs!
+          they forget to eat
+          for the frolic in their feet!
+
+"Merriest, merriest, merriest," murmured Diamond as he sank deeper and
+deeper in sleep. "That is what the song of the river is telling me.
+Even I can be merry and cheerful--and that will help some. And so I
+will--when--I--wake--up--again." And he went off sound asleep.
+
+It was not very long after this that Diamond and his mother could go
+home again. His father had now found something to do and this is how it
+came about. He one day met a cabman who was a friend of his and this
+friend said to him, "Why don't you set up as a cabman yourself--and buy
+a cab?"
+
+"I haven't enough money to buy a horse with--and a cab," said Diamond's
+father.
+
+"Look here," answered his friend. "I just bought an old horse the other
+day, cheap. He is no good for the hansom I drive, for when folks take a
+hansom, they want to drive like the wind. But for a four-wheeler that
+takes families and their luggage, he's the very horse. I bought him
+cheap and I'll sell him cheap."
+
+"Oh, I don't want him," said Diamond's father.
+
+"Well, come and see him anyway," said his friend. So he went.
+
+What was his delight on going into the stable to find that the horse was
+no other than his own old Diamond! Diamond, grown very thin and bony and
+long-legged. The horse hearing his master's voice, turned his long
+neck. And when his old friend went up to him and laid his hand on his
+side, he whinnied for joy and laid his big head on his master's breast.
+This settled the matter. Diamond's father put his arms around old
+Diamond's neck and fairly cried.
+
+The end of it was that Diamond's father bought old Diamond again,
+together with a four-wheeled cab. As there were some rooms to be had
+over the stable, he took them, wrote to his wife to come home, and set
+up as a cabman.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when Diamond and his mother and the baby
+reached London. His father was waiting for them with his own cab but
+they had not told Diamond who the horse was. For his father wanted to
+enjoy the pleasure of his surprise when he found it out. He got in with
+his mother without looking at the horse and was quite proud of riding
+home in his father's cab.
+
+When he got to the stables where their rooms were he could not help
+being a little dismayed at first. But he thought of the song of the
+river at the back of the north wind and just looked about for things
+that were pleasant. He said to himself that it was a fine thing that all
+their old furniture was there. Then he began to search out the
+advantages of the place.
+
+A thick, dull rain was falling and that was depressing. But the weather
+would change and there was a good fire burning in the room, which a
+neighbor had made for them. The tea things were put out and the kettle
+was boiling on the fire. And with a good fire and tea and bread and
+butter, things cannot be so _very_ bad.
+
+But Diamond's father and mother were rather miserable and Diamond began
+to feel a kind of darkness spreading over him. At the same moment, he
+said, "This will never do! I can't give in to this. I've been at the
+back of the north wind. Things go right there and they must be made to
+go right here!"
+
+So he said out loud, "What nice bread and butter this is!" And when he
+had eaten it, he began to amuse the baby who was soon shrieking with
+laughter. His father and mother had to laugh too and things began to
+look better.
+
+It was indeed a change for them all, not only from Sandwich but from
+their old place. Instead of the great river where the huge barges with
+their brown and yellow sails went up and down, their windows now looked
+out upon a dirty paved yard. There was no garden more for Diamond to run
+into when he pleased, with gay flowers about his feet, and lofty trees
+over his head.
+
+Neither was there a wooden wall at the back of his bed with a hole in
+it for North Wind to come in at when she liked. Indeed, there was such a
+high wall that North Wind seldom got into the place. And the wall at the
+head of Diamond's new bed only divided it from the room where a cabman
+lived who drank too much beer and came home to quarrel with and abuse
+his wife. It was dreadful for Diamond to hear the scolding and the
+crying. But he was determined it should not make him miserable for he
+had been at the back of the north wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE
+
+
+The wind blew loudly all night long, the first night Diamond slept in
+his new home, but he did not hear it. My own belief is that when Diamond
+slept too soundly to remember anything about it in the morning, he had
+been all night at the back of the north wind. Sometimes something did
+seem to remain in his mind like the low far-off murmur of the river
+singing its song. He sometimes tried to hold on to the words it sung.
+But ever as he came _awaker_--as he would say--one line faded away and
+then another. At last there was nothing left but the sense that
+everything went right there and could--and must--be made to go right
+here.
+
+That was how he awoke that first morning and he jumped up at once
+saying, "I've been ill a long time and given a great deal of trouble.
+Now let's see how I can help my mother."
+
+When he went into her room, he found her lighting the fire and his
+father just getting up. So he took up the baby who was awake too and
+cared for him till his mother had the breakfast ready. She was looking
+gloomy and his father too was silent. Diamond felt that in a few
+minutes, he would be just as miserable. But he tried with all his might
+to be jolly with the baby and presently his mother just had to smile.
+
+"Why, Diamond, child!" she said at last. "You are as good to your mother
+as if you were a girl--nursing the baby and toasting the bread, and
+sweeping up the hearth. I declare a body would think you had been among
+the fairies."
+
+"I've been at the back of the north wind," said Diamond to himself
+happily.
+
+And now his father was more cheerful too. "Won't you come out and see
+the cab, Diamond?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, father, in just a minute after I put the baby down."
+
+So his father went on ahead. When Diamond got out into the yard, the
+horse was between the shafts. Diamond went around to look at him. The
+sight of him made him feel very queer. He could not make it out. What
+horse was it that looked so familiar? When he came around in front and
+the old horse put out his long neck and began rubbing against him,
+Diamond saw it could be no other than old Diamond and he just put his
+arms around his neck and cried.
+
+"Isn't it jolly, father!" he said. "Was there ever anybody so lucky as
+we! Dear old Diamond!" He hugged the horse again and kissed both his
+big, hairy cheeks. He could only manage one at a time, however--the
+other cheek was so far off on the other side of old Diamond's big head.
+And now his father took up the reins to drive off.
+
+"Oh, father, do let me drive a bit!" cried Diamond jumping up on the box
+beside him. His father put the reins into his hands and began to show
+him how to drive. He let Diamond drive quite a little way and then the
+boy jumped down and ran gaily back to his mother.
+
+Now it happened that the man who sold old Diamond back to his father,
+saw how delighted little Diamond was to learn to drive. And that
+evening, shortly before Diamond's father came home, the man asked
+Diamond's mother if the boy might not go a little way with him.
+
+"He cannot go far," said his mother, "for he is not very strong yet."
+
+"I will take him only as far as the square," said the man.
+
+Diamond's mother said he might go as far as that. Dancing with delight,
+Diamond ran to get his cap and in a few minutes was jumping into the
+cab. The man gave him the reins and showed him how to drive safely
+through the gate and Diamond got along famously. Just as they were
+turning into the square, they had an adventure. It was getting quite
+dusky. A cab was coming rapidly from the other direction, and Diamond
+pulling aside and the other driver pulling up, they just escaped a
+collision. And there was his father!
+
+"Why, Diamond, it is a bad beginning to run into your own father," he
+said.
+
+"But, father, wouldn't it have been a bad ending for you to run into
+your own son!" answered the boy. And both men laughed heartily.
+
+"He is a good little driver, though," said the man. "He would be fit to
+drive on his own hook in a week or two. But he had better go back with
+you now."
+
+"Come along then, Diamond," said his father. Diamond jumped across into
+the other cab and they drove away home.
+
+It was not long before Diamond was a great favorite with all the men
+about the stables--he was so jolly! It was not the best place in the
+world for him to be brought up in and at first he did hear a good many
+rough and bad words. But as he did not like them, he never learned to
+say them and they did him little harm. Before long, the men grew rather
+ashamed to use them. One would nudge the other to remind him that the
+boy was within hearing and the words choked themselves before they got
+any further.
+
+One day, they gave him a curry comb and brush to try his hand on old
+Diamond's coat. He used them deftly and thoroughly as far as he could
+reach.
+
+"You must make haste and grow," the men told him. "It won't do to clean
+a horse half way up and leave his back dirty, you know."
+
+"Put me up," said Diamond. In a moment he was on the old horse's back
+with the comb and brush. There he combed and brushed and combed and
+brushed. Every now and then, old Diamond would whisk his tail and once
+he sent the comb flying out of the stable door to the great amusement of
+the men. But they brought it back to him and Diamond finished his task.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Diamond, when he had done. "I'm so tired!" And he laid
+himself down at full length on old Diamond's back. The men were much
+amused and from that time were always ready to teach him to drive.
+
+So in one way and another, he did learn to drive all sorts of horses,
+and through the most crowded streets in London city. One day his father
+took him on his own cab and as they were standing waiting for a
+passenger, his father left him alone for a few minutes. Hearing a noise,
+Diamond looked around to see what it was. There was a crossing near the
+cab-stand where a girl was sweeping. Some young roughs had picked a
+quarrel with her and were now trying to pull her broom away from her.
+Diamond was off his box in a moment and running to the help of the girl.
+The roughs began to act worse than ever. Just then Diamond's father came
+back and sent them flying. The girl thanked Diamond and began sweeping
+again as if nothing had happened.
+
+She did not forget her friends, however. A moment after, she came
+running up with her broom over her shoulder, calling "Cab, there! Cab!"
+And when Diamond's father reached the curbstone, who should it be but
+Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman! Diamond and his father were very happy to
+see them again and gladly drove them home. When they wanted to pay for
+it, Diamond's father would not hear of it, but jumped on his box and
+drove away.
+
+It was a long time since Diamond had seen North Wind or even thought
+much about her. Now, as his father drove along, he was thinking not
+about her but about the crossing sweeper. He was wondering what made him
+feel as if he knew her quite well when he could not remember anything of
+her. But a picture arose in his mind of a little girl running before
+the wind, and dragging her broom after her. From that, he recalled the
+whole adventure of the night when he had gone out with North Wind and
+made her put him down in a London street.
+
+A few nights after this, Diamond woke up suddenly, believing he heard
+the north wind thundering along. But it was something quite different.
+South Wind was moaning around the chimneys, to be sure, for she was not
+very happy that night. But it was not her voice that had wakened
+Diamond. It was a loud angry voice, now growling like that of a beast,
+now raving like that of a madman. It was the voice of the drunken cabman
+whose room was just through the wall at the back of Diamond's bed.
+
+At length, there came a cry from the woman and a scream from the baby.
+Diamond thought it was time somebody did something. He jumped up and
+went to see. The voice of the crying baby guided him to the right door
+and he peeped in. The drunken cabman had dropped into a chair, his wife
+lay sobbing on the bed, and the baby was wailing in its cradle.
+
+Diamond's first thought was to run away from the misery of it. But he
+remembered at once that he had been at the back of the north wind.
+People who had been there must always try to destroy misery wherever
+they saw it. But what could he do? Well, there was the baby. He stole in
+and lifted it into his arms and soon had it on his knee, smiling at the
+light that came in from the street lamp. He began to sing to it in a low
+voice--the song of the river as it ran over the soft grass and among the
+flowers in the country at the back of the north wind. He sang on till
+the baby went sound asleep. He himself got sleepier and sleepier, though
+the cabman and his wife only got wider awake all the time. At length,
+Diamond found himself nodding. He got up and laid the baby gently in its
+cradle and stole quietly out and home again to his own bed.
+
+"Wife," said the cabman, "did you see that angel?"
+
+"Yes," answered his wife, "it is little Diamond who lives in the next
+yard."
+
+She knew him well enough. She was the neighbor who had the fire lighted
+and the tea ready for them when Diamond and his mother came home from
+Sandwich on that rainy, gloomy night. Her husband was somehow very sorry
+now and ashamed of the misery he had caused--was it the song of the
+river which Diamond had sung that caused it? He tried hard to forget
+where the drink shop stood and for a good many weeks managed to keep
+away from it.
+
+One day when their cab was waiting for a fare, Diamond jumped down to
+run a little and stretch his legs. He strolled up to the crossing where
+Nanny and her broom were to be found in all weathers. Just as he was
+going to speak to her a tall gentleman stepped upon the crossing. He was
+glad to find it clean and he gave the girl a penny. When she made him a
+courtesy, he looked at her again and said, "Where do you live, my
+child?"
+
+"Paradise Row," she answered. "Next door to the Adam and Eve--down the
+area."
+
+"Whom do you live with?" he asked.
+
+"My wicked old granny," she replied.
+
+"You should not call your granny wicked," said the gentleman.
+
+"But she is!" said Nanny. "If you don't believe me, you can come and
+take a look at her."
+
+The gentleman looked very grave at hearing her. It was not a nice way
+for a little girl to talk. He was turning away, when he saw the face of
+Diamond looking up into his own.
+
+"Please," said Diamond, "her granny is very cruel to her sometimes--and
+shuts her out in the streets at night if she happens to be late."
+
+"So, my little man. And what can you do?" asked the gentleman turning
+towards him.
+
+"Drive a cab," said Diamond proudly.
+
+"Anything else?" asked the gentleman smiling.
+
+"Take care of the baby," said Diamond; "clean father's boots and make
+him a bit of toast for his tea."
+
+"You are a useful little man," said the gentleman. "Can you read?"
+
+"No, but father and mother can and they are going to teach me soon."
+
+"Well, here is a penny for you, and when you learn to read, come to me
+and I will give you six-pence and a book with fine pictures in it."
+
+He gave Diamond a card with his address on it. "Thank you," said Diamond
+and put the card into his pocket. The gentleman walked away but he saw
+Diamond give the penny to Nanny and say, "I have a father and mother and
+little brother and you have nothing but a wicked old granny. You may
+have my penny."
+
+The girl put the penny in her pocket and Diamond asked, "Is she as cruel
+as ever?"
+
+"Just the same. But I get more coppers, so I can buy myself some food.
+She is so blind that she doesn't see that I do not eat her old scraps. I
+hide them in my pocket."
+
+"What do you want them for?"
+
+"To give to cripple Jim. His leg was broken when he was young, so he
+isn't good for much. But I love Jim. I always keep something for him."
+
+"Diamond! Diamond!" called his father, just then.
+
+So Diamond ran back and told him about the gentleman and showed him the
+card he had given him.
+
+"Why, it is not many doors from our stables!" cried his father looking
+at the address. "Take care of it, Diamond. One needs all the friends he
+can get in this world."
+
+"We've got many friends," said Diamond. "Haven't we? There's mother and
+the baby and old Diamond--and the man next door who drinks--and his wife
+and baby--and Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman--and--and a many!"
+
+His father just laughed and drove off.
+
+[Illustration: WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE
+VERSES FOR HIMSELF]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB
+
+
+The question of the tall gentleman as to whether Diamond could read or
+not, set his father to thinking it was high time he could. As soon as
+old Diamond was fed and bedded, he began the task of teaching him that
+very night. It was not much of a task to Diamond for his father took for
+the lesson book the same one which North Wind had waved the leaves of on
+the sands at Sandwich. Within a month, he was able to spell out most of
+the verses for himself. But he never found in it the river song which he
+thought his mother had read from it. Could it have been North Wind doing
+the reading in his mother's voice?
+
+It was not long before Diamond managed with many blunders to read all
+the rhymes in his book to his mother. Then he said, "In a week or so, I
+shall be able to go to the tall gentleman and tell him I can read." But
+before the week was out he had another reason for going to the
+gentleman, whose name he found out was Mr. Raymond. For three days,
+Nanny had not been at her crossing. Diamond was quite anxious about her,
+fearing she must be ill. On the fourth day not seeing her yet, he said
+to his father, "I want to go and look after Nanny. She can't be well."
+
+"All right," said his father. "Only take care of yourself, Diamond."
+
+So Diamond set off to find his way to Nanny's home. It was a long
+distance and he had to ask his way over and over again. But he kept on
+without getting discouraged and at last he came to it.
+
+Happily for Diamond, the ugly old granny had gone out. He laid his ear
+to the door and thought he heard a moaning within. He tried the door and
+found it was not locked. It was a dreary place indeed--and very dark,
+for the window was below the level of the street and was covered with
+mud. And the smell in the room was dreadful!
+
+He could see next to nothing at first but he heard the moaning plainly
+enough now. Soon he found his friend lying with closed eyes and a white
+suffering face on a heap of rags in a corner. He went up to her and
+spoke but she made him no answer. She did not even hear him. Taking out
+a lump of barley sugar candy he had brought for her he laid it down
+beside her and hurried away. He was going to find Mr. Raymond and see if
+he could not do something for Nanny.
+
+It was a long walk to Mr. Raymond's door but he got there at last. Yet
+after all, the servant was not going to let him in, only Mr. Raymond
+came out into the hall just then and saw him and recognized him at once.
+
+"Come in, my little man," he said. "I suppose you have come to claim
+your six-pence."
+
+"No, sir, not that."
+
+"What! Can't you read yet?"
+
+"Yes," said Diamond. "I can now a little. But I've come to tell you
+about Nanny--the little girl at the crossing."
+
+"Oh, yes, I remember her," said Mr. Raymond. "What is it about Nanny?"
+
+Diamond told him all about her--how she was sick, and how dark it was
+where she lived and with bad smells. Now, Mr. Raymond was one of the
+kindest men in London and was well known at the children's hospital. He
+hurried there now, and some one went from there at once to find Nanny.
+Before night, they sent a litter for her and soon the little girl was
+lying in a nice clean bed, though she was too sick to know anything
+about it.
+
+Diamond overheard a doctor say to Mr. Raymond, "How do you suppose the
+little chap knew what to do about Nanny?"
+
+"He doesn't know that I have been at the back of the north wind," he
+said to himself. "If you have once been there, it just comes to you how
+to do a little to help."
+
+After Nanny had been well seen to, Mr. Raymond took the boy home with
+him and they soon settled the matter of the six-pence between them.
+
+"And now, what will you do with it?" the gentleman asked him.
+
+"Take it home to my mother," answered Diamond. "She has a tea-pot with a
+broken spout and she keeps all her money in it. It isn't much but she
+saves it up to buy shoes for me. And there's the baby--he'll want shoes
+soon. And every six-pence is something, isn't it?"
+
+"To be sure, my little man. And here is the book for you, full of
+pictures and stories."
+
+There were poems in it too, and Diamond at once began to puzzle out one
+of them which ran like this:
+
+          I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;
+          My one foot stands but never goes.
+          I have many arms and they are mighty, all;
+          And hundreds of fingers large and small.
+          From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows,
+          I breathe with my hair and I drink with my toes.
+          In the summer, with song I shake and quiver,
+          But in winter, I fast and groan and shiver.
+
+When Diamond ran home with his new book in his hand, he found his father
+at home already. He was sitting by the fire and looking rather miserable
+for his head ached and he looked sick. The next day, he had to stay in
+bed while his wife nursed him, and Diamond took care of the baby. By the
+next day, he was very ill indeed. And it was not long before their money
+was all gone.
+
+Diamond's mother could not help crying over it but she came into
+Diamond's room so that the poor sick father should not hear it. Diamond
+was frightened when he heard her sobbing and said, "Is father worse?"
+
+"No, no," said his mother, "he is better. But the money is all gone and
+what are we to do?"
+
+"Don't cry," said Diamond. "We'll get along some how. Let me read to you
+out of North Wind's book."
+
+So he read a little story about the early bird that caught the nice fat
+worm.
+
+"I wish you were like that little bird, dear," said his mother, "and
+could catch something to eat!"
+
+After she was gone away, Diamond lay thinking and somehow he seemed to
+hear the murmur of North Wind's river blowing through his thoughts and
+telling him about something he could do. The next morning he got up as
+soon as he heard the men moving in the yard. When he went down, the
+stable was just opened. "I'm the early bird, I think," he said to
+himself, "and I hope I'll catch the worm."
+
+[Illustration: HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY]
+
+He would not ask any one to help him because he was afraid he would be
+kept from doing what he wanted. With the aid of an old chair, he got the
+harness on old Diamond. The dear old horse opened his mouth for the bit
+just as if Diamond was giving him an apple. He fastened the cheek-strap
+very carefully, and got all the pieces of harness on and buckled. By
+this time some of the men were watching him to see if he would get it
+all done by himself. And when he put old Diamond between the shafts, got
+his whip, and jumped up on the box, the men broke into a cheer.
+
+The cheer brought his mother to the window and when she saw her little
+boy setting out all alone in the cab, she called "Diamond! Diamond!" But
+Diamond did not hear her for the rattle of the cab and so he drove away.
+He was very much afraid no one would hire him because he was such a
+little driver. But before he got to his regular stand, he was hailed by
+a man who wanted to catch a train and was in too great a hurry to
+think about the driver. He got a good fare for that and reached the
+cab-stand the first one after all. As the other cabmen came, he told
+them about his father and said that he was going to drive the cab in his
+place.
+
+"Well, you are a plucky one!" they all said. "And you shall have a fair
+chance with the rest."
+
+And he did, for another gentleman came up very soon for him. When he saw
+the boy, he was much astonished. "Are you the driver of this cab?" he
+asked. "Yes, sir," answered Diamond, showing his father's badge of which
+he was proud.
+
+"You are the youngest cabman I ever saw!" said the gentleman greatly
+amused. "But I believe I'll risk you!"
+
+He jumped in and soon found that Diamond got him over the ground very
+well. The trip was one of several miles and the gentleman paid him three
+shillings for the drive. When Diamond got back, he stopped at a stand
+where he had never been before and got down to put on old Diamond's
+nose-bag of oats. The men there did not treat him very nicely and a
+group of rough boys came up and began to torment him. But who do you
+think came to his rescue? Why, the drunken cabman whose room was next
+to Diamond's and whose baby Diamond had once rocked and put to sleep.
+
+"What is up here?" the cabman asked.
+
+"Do you see this young snip?" the boys cried, "He pretends to drive a
+cab!"
+
+"Yes, I do see him," said the cabman. "I see you, too. You'd better take
+yourselves away from here or you won't find me very agreeable!"
+
+And they went in a hurry!
+
+When Diamond went home that night, he carried one pound, one shilling
+and six-pence. His mother had grown very anxious and was almost afraid
+to look when she heard his cab coming at last. But there was the old
+horse, and there was the cab, all right! And there was Diamond on the
+box his face as triumphant as a full moon! One of the men took the horse
+to put him up and Diamond ran into the house and into the arms of his
+mother!
+
+"See! See!" he cried. "Here is the worm I caught!" He poured out the
+six-pences and shillings into her lap. His mother burst out crying
+again, but with joy this time and ran to show his father. Then how
+pleased _he_ was! And Diamond snatched up the baby and began to sing and
+dance, he was so happy!
+
+The next morning, Diamond was up almost as early as before. But the men
+would not let him do the harnessing any more. They got the cab all ready
+for him and sent him in to eat all the breakfast he could and get well
+bundled up. His first passenger was a young woman to be taken to the
+docks. When he started back some roughs came along and tried to steal
+his fare. But a pale-faced man came up and beat them off with his stick,
+and told Diamond to drive away. Diamond begged him to get into the cab
+and ride. The man said he could not spare the money to ride--he was too
+poor.
+
+"Oh, do come!" said Diamond. "I don't want the money. You helped me. Let
+me help you."
+
+"Well," said the man, "if you will take me to Chiswick, I can pay for
+that. Drive to the Wilderness--Mr. Coleman's place. I'll show you when
+we get there."
+
+Now Diamond had been thinking he had seen the gentleman before and when
+he said this, it flashed upon him that it was Mr. Evans who had been
+going to marry Miss Coleman. North Wind had sunk his and Mr. Coleman's
+ship because their business was not honest and was making bad men of
+them. She had carried Mr. Evans away to a desert island. He had just
+got back again and was poor now and humble and willing to begin to work
+again in an honest way.
+
+It was plain he did not know that Mr. Coleman had been ruined too and
+had been forced to sell the Wilderness and move into a poor house in the
+city. But Diamond knew, and as he drove along he was thinking what he
+ought to do. The gentleman would not find Miss Coleman at the
+Wilderness. And if he told him where she lived now, perhaps he would not
+go to see her because he would be so ashamed of having brought all this
+trouble on her by trying so hard to be rich.
+
+Still he must want to see her very much and she must want to see him. So
+Diamond made up his mind to drive straight to where Miss Coleman lived
+now, and then they could explain to each other. So on he went.
+
+Now the wind was blowing furiously and when old Diamond finally got to
+Miss Coleman's house and held back to stop, one of the straps of the
+harness broke. Diamond jumped down and opened the cab door and asked the
+gentleman if he would not step into this house where friends of his
+lived and wait while he mended the strap. Then he ran and rang the bell
+and whispered to the maid who came to call Miss Coleman. A few minutes
+later, he was not at all sure he had done the right thing. For suddenly
+there came the sound of a great cry and then a running to and fro in the
+house. But after a little while, they came and called him in and Miss
+Coleman put her arms around him and hugged him tight!
+
+The rest of the day, he did very well. And what a story he had to tell
+his father and mother that night about Mr. Evans and the Colemans. They
+were sure he had done right and he was so glad!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DIAMOND VISITS NANNY
+
+
+For a fortnight, Diamond went on driving his cab and helping his family.
+Some people began to know him and to look for him to drive them where
+they wanted to go. One old gentleman who lived near the stables hired
+him to carry him into the city every morning at a certain hour. And
+Diamond was as regular as clock work. After that fortnight, his father
+was able to go out again. Then Diamond began to think about little Nanny
+and went off to inquire about her.
+
+The first day his father took up his work again, Diamond went with him
+as usual. In the afternoon, however, his father went home and left
+Diamond to drive the cab for the rest of the day. It was hard for old
+Diamond to do all the work but they could not afford to have another
+horse. They saved him as much as they could and fed him well and he did
+bravely.
+
+The next morning, his father was so much stronger that Diamond thought
+he might go and ask Mr. Raymond to take him to see Nanny. Mr. Raymond
+was quite willing to go and so they walked over to the hospital which
+was close at hand.
+
+When Diamond followed Mr. Raymond into the room where those children lay
+who had got over the worst of their illness, and were growing better, he
+saw a number of little iron beds. Each one of them stood with its head
+to the wall and in each one was a child whose face showed just how far
+it had left the pain behind and was getting well. Diamond looked all
+around but he could see no Nanny. He turned to Mr. Raymond with a
+question in his eyes.
+
+"Well?" said Mr. Raymond.
+
+"Nanny's not here," said Diamond.
+
+"Oh, yes, she is."
+
+"I don't see her!"
+
+"I do, though. There she is."
+
+He pointed to a bed right in front of where Diamond was standing.
+
+"That's not Nanny!" cried Diamond.
+
+"Yes, it _is_ Nanny. I have seen her a great many times since you have,
+and that is she."
+
+So Diamond looked again and looked hard. "If that is Nanny," said
+Diamond to himself, "then she must have been at the back of the north
+wind. That is why she looks so different." He said nothing aloud, only
+stared. And as he stared, something of the face of the old Nanny began
+to come out in the face of the new Nanny. The old Nanny had been
+somewhat rough in her speech, her face rather hard, and she had not
+kept herself clean--how could she! Now, in her fresh white bed, she
+looked sweet and gentle and refined.
+
+"Surely North Wind has had something to do with it," thought Diamond. In
+her weeks of sickness, had North Wind carried Nanny to the country at
+her back--as she once had carried him--and changed her from a rough girl
+to a gentle maiden? As he gazed, the best of the old face, the good and
+true part of the old Nanny, dawned upon him like the moon coming out of
+a cloud. He saw that it was Nanny, indeed--but very worn and grown
+almost beautiful.
+
+He went up to her and she smiled. He had heard her laugh, but he had
+never seen her smile before. "Nanny, do you know me?" asked Diamond. She
+only smiled again. She was not likely to forget him. To be sure, she did
+not know that it was he who had got her there. But he was the only boy
+except cripple Jim who had ever been kind to her.
+
+Mr. Raymond walked about talking to the other children, while Diamond
+visited with Nanny. Then after a time, he stood in the middle of the
+room and told them a nice fairy story. He often did that and the
+children watched for his visits. After he finished the story, he had to
+go. Diamond took leave of Nanny and promised to go and see her again
+soon and went away with Mr. Raymond.
+
+Now Mr. Raymond had been turning over in his mind what he could do for
+Diamond and for Nanny. He knew Diamond's father somewhat. But he wanted
+to find out better what sort of a man he was and whether he was worth
+doing anything for. He decided to see if he would do anything for any
+body else. For that would be the very best way to find out if it were
+worth while to do anything for _him_. So as they walked away together,
+he said to little Diamond, "Nanny must leave the hospital soon, Diamond.
+They cannot keep her as long as they would like. They cannot keep her
+till she is quite strong. There are always so many sick children they
+want to take in and make better. The question is what will she do when
+they send her out again?"
+
+"That is just what I can't tell," said Diamond, "though I've been
+thinking it over and over. Her crossing was taken long ago. I couldn't
+bear to see Nanny fighting for it, especially with the poor lame boy who
+has taken it. Besides she has no better right to it than he has. Nobody
+gave it to her. She just took it and now he has taken it."
+
+"She would get sick again, anyway," said Mr. Raymond, "if she went to
+sweeping again right away in the wet. If somebody could only teach her
+something to do it would be better. Perhaps if she could be taught to be
+nice and clean and to speak only gentle words----"
+
+"Mother could teach her that!" interrupted Diamond.
+
+"And to dress babies and feed them and take care of them," Mr. Raymond
+went on, "she might get a place as nurse maid somewhere. People would
+give her money for that."
+
+"Why, I'll ask mother!" cried Diamond. "She could learn to dress our
+baby, you know, with me to show her how!"
+
+"But you will have to give her food then. And your father, not being
+strong, has enough to do already without that."
+
+"Still there am I!" said Diamond. "I'll help him out with it. When he
+gets tired of driving, up I get. And I could drive more if Nanny was at
+home to help mother."
+
+"Now I wonder," said Mr. Raymond, "if you couldn't do better with two
+horses. I am going away for a few months and I am willing to let your
+father have my horse while I am gone. He is nearly as old as your
+Diamond. I don't want to part with him and yet I don't want him to be
+idle. Nobody ought to be idle, not even a horse. Still I do not want him
+to be worked hard. Will you tell your father what I say and see if he
+wants to take charge of him?"
+
+"Yes, I will," said Diamond. "And he will come and see you about it."
+
+So when Diamond went home, he told his father all about it. But when his
+father went to see about it, he found that he must agree to work the
+horse only six hours a day. Then too he must take Nanny from the
+hospital and feed her, and teach her to be useful and keep her as long
+as he had Mr. Raymond's horse. Diamond's father could not help thinking
+that it was a pretty close bargain and so it was. Mr. Raymond wanted to
+find out if Diamond's father was the kind of man who was willing to help
+some one else without getting any advantage out of it for himself. Then
+it would be worth while to help _him_. Diamond's father was that kind of
+a man. So when he heard all about Nanny, he decided to accept Mr.
+Raymond's offer and do the best he could.
+
+Nanny was not fit to be moved for some time yet and Diamond went to see
+her as often as he could. But he went out to drive old Diamond every day
+now for a few hours at least. Then he had to help mind his baby brother
+for part of the time. So he did not go to the hospital as often as he
+would have liked. When he did go, he sat by Nanny's bed and told her all
+that had happened to him since he had been there before. In her turn
+Nanny would tell him of what went on in the hospital--what visitors they
+had and things like that.
+
+"Day before yesterday," said Nanny one day, "a lady came to see us. She
+was a very beautiful lady. She sat down beside my bed and let me stroke
+her hand. She had on a most beautiful ring with a rich red stone in it.
+When she saw me looking at it, she slipped it off her finger and put it
+on mine. She said I might wear her lovely ruby for a little while if it
+would make me happy."
+
+"Her ruby!" cried Diamond. "How funny that is! Our new horse's name is
+Ruby. And we took him so that we could take you to live with us, while
+you are getting strong again. I do believe a ruby is for good luck!"
+
+"It did me good right then," said Nanny. "For that night I had such a
+lovely dream. It began with a red sunset like my darling ruby ring. Then
+somehow a wind came out of it and blew me along out of the dirty streets
+into a yard with a lovely lawn of soft grass."
+
+"That was North Wind, I know!" cried Diamond. "That is what she does to
+me."
+
+"I do not know what you mean," said Nanny. "I do not know anything about
+North Wind. But all at once there was no more ruby sunset but a great
+golden moon hanging very low and seeming to be shining just to be good
+to me. It was easy, I suppose, for me to dream about the moon. I've
+always been used to watching her. She was the only thing worth looking
+at in our street, at night."
+
+"Don't call it your street," said Diamond. "You are not going back to
+it. You are coming to us, you know."
+
+"That is too good to be true!" said Nanny.
+
+"No, no!" cried Diamond. "How could anything be too good to be true? To
+be true is to be the very best thing of all. It sounds like your wicked
+old granny to say that!"
+
+"Do you know, Diamond," said Nanny, "I do not think my old granny is my
+real old granny at all. I don't think she was ever any one's granny or
+mother. That was why she was not good to me. Perhaps she never had any
+mother when she was little to be good to her. And somebody must first be
+good to you, don't you think, before you can learn how to be good to any
+body else? Isn't that so? But where was I in my dream? Oh yes, the big
+yellow moon came down closer and closer to the grass in front of me.
+Then somehow, it seemed to be my ruby lady. She reached out soft warm
+arms of golden light and took me up. I sank against her breast into very
+downy, golden clouds and went to sleep and left off having pain. And yet
+I didn't sleep but knew it all the time, and just swung softly there all
+night long."
+
+"Wasn't it really North Wind?" said Diamond to himself. "Perhaps it
+_was_ North Wind though she doesn't know it. Maybe the moon does just
+the same. What if it should some day carry her to that same country--at
+the back of _my_ North Wind! Who knows?"
+
+The nurse now came and told him it was time to go. Nanny had closed her
+eyes as if she were tired or asleep. So Diamond arose quietly and
+tip-toed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY
+
+
+It was a great delight to Diamond, when at length Nanny was well enough
+to leave the hospital and go to their house. She was not strong yet but
+Diamond's mother was very careful of her. She took care she should have
+nothing to do that she was not fit for. If Nanny had been taken straight
+from the street, it is pretty sure she would not have been so pleasant
+in a nice house nor so easy to teach. But the kindness they had shown
+her in the hospital while she was ill so long had changed her quite a
+little.
+
+As she got better, the colour came back to her cheeks, her step grew
+lighter and quicker, her smile shone out more readily, and it was clear
+she would soon be a treasure of help. It was great fun to see Diamond
+teaching her how to hold the baby and wash and dress him. Nanny had
+never had a little brother or sister to care for and she and Diamond
+often had to laugh over her awkwardness. But she was soon able to do it
+all as well as Diamond himself.
+
+Things, however, did not go very well with Diamond's father from the
+first coming of the horse, Ruby. It almost seemed as if the red beast
+brought bad luck with him. The fares were fewer and the pay less.
+Ruby's work did indeed make the week's income at first a little more
+than it used to be. But then there were two more to feed. After the
+first month, however, he fell lame, and for the whole of the next month,
+Diamond's father did not dare work him at all. It cost just as much to
+feed him and all he did was to stand in the stable and grow fat.
+
+And after he got well again, it was not much better. Times had then
+become hard and fewer and fewer people felt that they could afford to
+ride in cabs. The cabmen got fewer and fewer shillings to live on.
+Diamond's household had less and less to buy food and clothing with.
+Then too, Diamond's mother was poorly for a new baby was coming.
+
+Diamond's father began to feel gloomier and gloomier and if Diamond had
+not made himself remember that he had been at the back of the north
+wind, he would have been gloomy himself. But when his father came home,
+Diamond would get out his book and show him how well he could read.
+Besides he taught Nanny how to read and as she was a very clever little
+girl, she picked it up very fast. Nanny was such a comfort about the
+house that Diamond's father just had to cheer up a little when he came
+home at night and the dull day's work was over.
+
+After the new baby came, Diamond sang to her and of course he had to
+make up new songs to sing to her because she was a little sister baby.
+It would never do, he said, to sing the little brother songs to her.
+While he sang, his father and mother could not help listening and
+forgetting for the time how bad things were getting to be.
+
+The three months Mr. Raymond had spoken of were now gone and Diamond's
+father was very anxious for him to come back and take Ruby off his
+hands, for he did not seem to work enough to pay for his keep. Then he
+was so lazy and fat, while poor old Diamond had got so thin he was just
+skin and bones! For Diamond's father was an honest man and felt that he
+must stick to his promise to feed Ruby while he kept him, whether old
+Diamond got enough to eat or not. But he _did_ wish Mr. Raymond would
+come, though when he looked at Nanny he felt that he would be sorry to
+lose her. For it was understood that a place as a nurse girl would be
+found for her when Ruby was taken away.
+
+Mr. Raymond did not come, however, and things got worse and worse.
+Diamond could do little but drive old Diamond in the cab whenever he
+could be of help that way, and sing to the two babies at home. At last,
+one week was worse than anything they had yet had. They were almost
+without bread before it was over.
+
+It was Friday night, and Diamond like the rest of the household had had
+very little to eat that day. His mother would always pay the week's rent
+before she spent anything even for food. His father had been very
+gloomy--so gloomy that he was very cross. It had been a stormy winter
+and even now that spring had come, the north wind often blew. When
+Diamond went to his bed, which was in a tiny room in the roof, he heard
+it like the sea, moaning. As he fell asleep, he still heard the moaning,
+and presently, he heard the voice of North Wind calling him. His heart
+beat very fast, it was such a long time since he had heard that voice!
+He jumped out of bed, but did not see her. Yet she kept on calling.
+
+"Diamond, come here! Diamond, come here!" the voice repeated again and
+again.
+
+"Dear North Wind," said Diamond, "I want so much to come to you but I
+can't tell where to find you."
+
+"Come here, Diamond!" was all her answer.
+
+So he opened his door and trotted down the long stair and out into the
+yard. A great puff of wind at once came against him. He turned and went
+with it, and it blew him up to the stable door and kept on blowing.
+
+"She wants me to go into the stable," said Diamond. "But the door is
+locked."
+
+Just then, a great blast of wind brought down the key upon the stones at
+his feet from where it was kept hanging high above his head. He picked
+it up, opened the door, and went in without much noise. And what did he
+hear? He heard the two horses, Diamond and Ruby, talking to each other.
+They talked in a strange language, yet somehow he could understand it.
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," old Diamond was saying, "sleek
+and fat as _you_ are, and so lazy you get along no faster than a big
+dray-horse that is pulling tons!"
+
+"Oh, I like to be fat and lazy!" said Ruby.
+
+"And you like to hear master abused on account of you, too, I dare say,"
+replied old Diamond angrily. "Why don't you get up a little speed, while
+you are drawing a fare, at least! The abuse master gets for your sake is
+quite shameful! No wonder he doesn't get many fares when he has you!"
+
+"Well, if I worked as hard as I could, I'd be a bag of bones like you!"
+
+"I'm proud to work!" said old Diamond. "I wouldn't be as fat as you, not
+for all you're worth. You are a disgrace! Look at the horse next you.
+_He_ is something _like_ a horse--all skin and bones. He knows he has
+got his master's wife and children to support and he works _like_ a
+horse!"
+
+"I might get lamed again, if I didn't go slowly and carefully," said
+Ruby.
+
+"Lame again!" snorted old Diamond. "It's my belief you lamed yourself on
+purpose so you could stay in the stable and stuff yourself and grow fat!
+You selfish beast!"
+
+"I might get angry at you," said Ruby, "if I didn't know a little better
+than you do how things are coming out. What do you think my master would
+say if he were to come back--and he may come any day now--and find me
+all worn down to a rack of bones and lamed into the bargain? Do you
+think anything would make him believe that your master had used me right
+and as he promised he would? And isn't it better he should live a little
+hard himself and prove himself to be an honest man who does what he says
+he'll do? You don't know everything, old Diamond. You would not probably
+believe me if I told you that enduring bad things is often just a way
+for bringing good things about. But you'll see!"
+
+Old Diamond just snorted sleepily in reply and gave all his attention to
+doubling up his knees and getting down upon the floor to go to sleep.
+The racket he made gave young Diamond a start. With a shiver, he seemed
+to come awake and see the stable door standing open. He trotted out of
+it, back up the long stairs, and tumbled into bed. But Ruby's words kept
+sounding in his head.
+
+"Is it like what's in my book?" he said to himself sleepily,--"that
+about a blessing in disguise, when things look bad but are working out
+all right--like things at the back of the north wind?" He got sleepier,
+however, as he tried to think and was fast asleep before he knew it. The
+next morning, he sang to the baby more cheerily than ever and here is
+part of the song he sung:
+
+          Where did you come from, Baby dear?
+          Out of everywhere into here.
+
+          Where did you get your eyes so blue?
+          Out of the sky as I came through.
+
+          Where did you get this pearly ear?
+          God spoke and it came out to hear.
+
+          But how did you come to us, you dear?
+          God thought of you and so I am here.
+
+"You never made that song, Diamond," said his mother.
+
+"No, mother. But it's mine just the same, for I love it."
+
+"Does loving a thing make it yours?"
+
+"I think so, mother. Baby's mine because I love her, and so are you.
+Love makes the only _my-ness_, doesn't it, mother?"
+
+"Perhaps so, Diamond. Yes, I think it does," said his mother.
+
+When his father came home for his dinner he looked very sad. He had not
+got a single fare the whole morning.
+
+"We shall just have to go to the work-house," he said and dropped into a
+chair in despair. Just then, came a knock at the door and in walked Mr.
+Raymond! Of course, he wanted to see the horses at once. And when he saw
+how fat Ruby was and how poor was faithful old Diamond--and when,
+moreover, he remembered how poor and starved the family looked though
+Nanny was still there and kindly treated--he knew that Diamond's father
+had been stanch and true to his bargain, though it had turned out to be
+a hard one. He was a man worth helping--that was clear! And Mr. Raymond
+was now ready to help him as much as he needed.
+
+He first pointed out that old Diamond needed only to be fattened up and
+Ruby thinned down to make of them a fine pair of horses for his country
+home to which he was now going. And Diamond's father should go along as
+coachman. There would be regular wages again and a much more comfortable
+home in the country.
+
+"And now, will you sell me old Diamond?" asked Mr. Raymond. "If you
+will, here are twenty pounds for him, if you think that is enough."
+
+"I will sell him to you, sir," answered Diamond's father, "if you
+promise to let me buy him back if I can, if you ever wish to sell him. I
+could _not_ part with him without that. Though as to who calls him his,
+that is nothing. For I believe it's true what my little Diamond
+says--that it's loving a thing that makes it yours."
+
+"You shall have that chance," said Mr. Raymond. So the bargain was made.
+How Diamond capered about at the thought of going to the beautiful
+country to live and having a yard and grass to play on! It would be like
+the old home at Mr. Coleman's--perhaps even nicer than that. How he
+danced the baby and sang to it!
+
+"And North Wind told me, Baby dear! She sang in my ears how bad things
+are just a chance to make good things come!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME
+
+
+Before the end of the month, Ruby had got a great deal thinner and old
+Diamond a good deal fatter. They really began to look fit to go in
+double harness. Diamond's father and mother got their things all packed
+up and were ready to go into the country at the shortest notice. They
+were now so peaceful, and so happy over the prospect that they believed
+it worth all the trouble and worry they had gone through.
+
+Nanny had been so happy since she left the hospital and had been living
+with Diamond's family that she did not think the country would make her
+any happier. Besides she would have to leave cripple Jim behind and
+maybe never see him again. She had known cripple Jim much longer than
+she had known Diamond and he had no one else to care about him.
+
+Diamond had taken a great deal of time and trouble to find Jim. For Jim
+had moved his home and had not heard of Nanny's illness till long after
+she was taken to the hospital. He was much too shy to go and inquire
+about her there. But when at length she went to live with Diamond's
+family, Jim was willing enough to go and see her. It was after one of
+his visits during which he and Nanny had talked things over that Diamond
+found out that Nanny thought it would not be so very pleasant to go to
+the country. The sun and the moon and the trees and the flowers did not
+seem much to Nanny without Jim.
+
+Diamond thought it over and that same night he went to see Mr. Raymond.
+He wanted to tell him about Jim and Nanny and ask him what they could do
+about it. "Jim can shine shoes very well indeed, sir," said Diamond. "If
+you could take Jim into the country too, to clean your shoes and do
+other odd jobs, then Nanny would like it better. She is so fond of Jim."
+
+Mr. Raymond thought it all over and finally decided that there would be
+something for Jim to do.
+
+So on a certain day, Diamond's father took his mother and Diamond
+himself and his little brother and sister and Nanny and Jim down by
+train to a place called "The Mound," where Mr. Raymond was to live. He
+went back to London that same night. The next day, he drove Ruby and
+Diamond down with the carriage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a lady
+in the carriage. For Mr. Raymond was now married. And the moment Nanny
+saw Mrs. Raymond, she recognized her as the lady who had let her wear
+the beautiful ruby ring when she was ill in the hospital.
+
+The weather was very hot at first, and the woods very shadowy, and the
+wild flowers mainly gone. But there were plenty of the loveliest grass
+and daisies about the house. Diamond's chief pleasure seemed to be to
+lie among them and breathe the pure air. As he lay there, he dreamed
+often of the country at the back of the north wind and tried to remember
+the songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at the
+back of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it. But
+though he did lie happily in the grass and dream of her, of North Wind
+herself, he neither saw nor heard anything for some months.
+
+Mr. Raymond's house was called "The Mound" because it stood upon a steep
+little knoll that had been made on purpose. It was built for Queen
+Elizabeth as a hunting tower--a place, that is, from the top of which
+you could see the country for miles on all sides. From a window the
+Queen was able to follow with her eyes the flying deer, and the hunters
+in the chase. The mound had been cast up so as to give the house an
+outlook over the neighboring heights and woods.
+
+Diamond's father and mother lived in a little cottage a short distance
+from the house. It was a real cottage with a roof of thick thatch which,
+in June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals of
+the rose tree climbing up the walls. But Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted
+Diamond to be a page in their own house. So he was dressed in the little
+blue suit of a page and lived at "The Mound" itself.
+
+"Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
+"There is a little room at the top of the house--all alone. Perhaps you
+would not mind sleeping there."
+
+"I can sleep anywhere," said Diamond. "And I like best to be high up.
+Should I be able to see out?"
+
+"I will show you the place," she answered, and taking him by the hand,
+she led him up and up the oval winding stair into one of the two towers
+that were on the house. Near the top, they entered a tiny room with two
+windows from which you could see all over the country. Diamond clapped
+his hands with delight!
+
+"You would like this room, then, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
+
+"It is the grandest room in the house!" he answered. "I shall be near
+the stars and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That is just what
+I like!"
+
+I daresay he thought also that it would be a nice place for North Wind
+to call at, in passing. Below him spread a lake of green leaves with
+glimpses of grass here and there at the bottom. As he looked down, he
+saw a squirrel appear suddenly and as suddenly vanish among the top-most
+branches.
+
+"Aha! Mr. Squirrel!" he cried. "My nest is built higher than yours!"
+
+"I will have a bell hung at your door which I can ring when I want you,"
+said his mistress. And so Diamond became a little page in the house.
+
+But after all, his master and mistress seemed to want to keep him out of
+doors as much as possible. And his father and mother sometimes looked at
+him very anxiously. Diamond thought that no one seemed to ask him to do
+much. Often they gave him a story book and sent him out to sit in the
+sweet air and sunshine at the foot of a big beech tree.
+
+He did not see much of Nanny and Jim. Somehow they liked to slip off
+together when their work was over. They did not understand the many
+fancies that Diamond talked about, but they could understand each other
+very well. They were never unkind to him but they liked better to go off
+by themselves. Diamond did not mind much. He was never lonely. And then
+he had a beautiful place where he went and where he saw lovely things
+that no one else saw.
+
+He called this place his nest. He went to it by going up a little rope
+ladder that hung from a branch of the big beech tree. When he reached
+the limb the rope hung from, he went on climbing higher and higher. Up
+among the leafy branches and away at the top, out of sight, he found a
+safe and comfortable seat which he called his nest.
+
+"What do you see up there, Diamond," some one asked him once.
+
+"I can see the first star peeping out of the sky. I don't see anything
+more except a few leaves and the big sky over me. It goes swinging
+about. The earth is all behind my back. There comes another star! The
+wind with its kisses makes me feel as if I were in North Wind's arms."
+
+He thought he would be quite happy if only he could remember some of the
+songs the river sang to him when he was in the country at the back of
+the north wind. They seemed to be murmuring in his ear most of the time.
+Yet somehow they were just far enough off so that he could not catch the
+words.
+
+His little brother and baby sister often played about on the grass with
+him and often he made up songs to sing to the baby. But these never
+seemed to be just like the river's songs after all. One of them was
+about his nest up in the beech tree and it ran like this:
+
+          What would you see if I took you up
+          To my little nest in the air?
+          You would see the sky like a clean blue cup
+          Turned upside downwards there.
+
+          What would you do if I took you there,
+          To my little nest in the tree?
+          My child with cries would trouble the air
+          To get what she could but see.
+
+          What would you get in the top of the tree,
+          For all your crying and grief?
+          Not a star would you clutch of all you see--
+          You could only gather a leaf.
+
+          But when you had lost your greedy grief
+          Content to see from afar,
+          You would find in your hand a withering leaf,
+          In your heart a shining star!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND
+
+
+One night when he reached his own room, he opened both his windows, one
+of which looked to the north and the other to the east, to find how the
+wind blew. It blew right in at the north window. Diamond was glad for he
+thought perhaps North Wind herself would come now. But as she always
+came of herself and never when he was looking for her, and, indeed,
+almost never when he was thinking of her, he shut the east window and
+went to bed.
+
+He awoke in the dim blue night. The moon had vanished from that side of
+the house. He thought he heard a knocking at his door.
+
+"Somebody wants me!" he said, and jumping out of bed ran to open the
+door.
+
+But there was no one there. He closed it again, and the noise still
+going on, found that another door in the room was rattling. It belonged
+to a closet he thought, but he had never been able to open it. The wind
+blowing in at the window must be shaking it. He would go and see if that
+was it.
+
+The door now opened quite easily. To his surprise, instead of a closet
+he found a long narrow room. The moon, which was sinking in the west,
+shone in at an open window at the other end. This room had a low ceiling
+and spread the whole length of the house close under the roof. It was
+quite empty. The yellow light of the half moon streamed over the dark
+floor.
+
+He was so delighted to find this strange moonlit place close to his own
+snug little room that he began to dance and skip about the floor. The
+wind came in through the door he had left open. It blew about him as he
+danced and he kept turning toward it that it might blow in his face.
+
+He kept picturing to himself the many places, lovely and desolate, the
+hill sides and farm yards and tree-tops and meadows, over which it had
+blown on its way to "The Mound." As he danced he grew more and more
+delighted with the motion and the wind. His feet grew stronger and his
+body lighter. At length, it seemed as if he were borne up on the air and
+could almost fly.
+
+So strong did this feeling become that at last he began to doubt whether
+he was not in one of those precious dreams he so often had, in which he
+floated about on the wind at will. Then something made him look up. To
+his unspeakable delight, he found his uplifted hands lying in those of
+North Wind! Yes, North Wind was dancing with him round and round the
+long bare room, her hair now falling to the floor, now floating to the
+ceiling. The sweetest of smiles was playing about her beautiful mouth.
+She did not stoop in order to dance with him but held his hands high in
+hers.
+
+When he saw her, he gave one spring and his arms were about her neck and
+her arms holding him to her breast. The same moment, she swept with him
+out of the open window through which the moon was shining. Making a wide
+and sweeping circuit, she settled with him in his own little nest at the
+top of the big beech tree. Diamond was so entirely happy that he did not
+care to speak a word. But presently, he felt as if he were going to
+sleep and that would be to lose so much that he was not willing to do
+it.
+
+"Please, dear North Wind," said he, "I am so happy that I am afraid it
+is a dream. How am I to know that it is not a dream?"
+
+"What does it matter?" returned North Wind. "The dream--if it _is_ a
+dream--is a pleasant one, is it not?"
+
+"That is just why I want it to be true! It is not for the dream
+itself--I mean it is not for the pleasure of it," answered Diamond, "for
+I have that whether it is a dream or not. It is for _you_, North Wind! I
+cannot bear to find it a dream because then I should lose _you_! You
+would be nobody then and I could not bear that. You are not just a
+dream, dear North Wind, are you? Do say _no_, for I shall not dare dream
+of you again if you are nobody at all."
+
+"Either I am not a dream, or there is something better which is not a
+dream, Diamond," said North Wind in a rather sorrowful tone.
+
+"But it is not something better, it is _you_ I want, North Wind," he
+persisted.
+
+She made no answer but rose with him in her arms and sailed away over
+the tree-tops till they came to a meadow where a flock of sheep was
+feeding.
+
+"Do you remember the song you made up here in this meadow to sing to the
+baby?" asked North Wind, "about Bo-peep's sheep that ran away from her
+to follow after the sun? And when she went after them, she could not
+find the old sheep at all--only some lambs--twice as many new lambs?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Diamond. "But I do not like that song. It seems to say
+that one is just as good as another--or that two new ones are better
+than the one old one you had before. But somehow when once you have
+looked into anybody's eyes--deep down into them, I mean--no one else
+will do for you any more. Nobody ever so beautiful or so good will make
+up to you for that one going out of sight. So you see, North Wind, I
+cannot help being frightened to think that perhaps I am only dreaming
+and that you are nowhere at all! Do tell me that you are my own real
+beautiful North Wind!"
+
+Again she rose and shot high up into the air. Diamond lay quiet in her
+arms waiting for her to speak. He tried to see up into her face, for he
+was dreadfully afraid she did not answer him because she could not tell
+him she was not a dream. But her hair fell all over her face so that he
+could not see it. This frightened him still more.
+
+"Do speak, North Wind!" he said at last.
+
+"I am thinking what I can say," said North Wind slowly. "And say it so
+that a little boy like you can understand."
+
+As she spoke, she was settling quietly down on a grassy hill side in the
+midst of a wild, furzy common. There was a rabbit warren underneath.
+Some of the rabbits came out of their holes in the moonlight. They
+looked very sober and wise, like patriarchs standing in their tent doors
+and looking about them before going to bed. When they saw North Wind,
+instead of turning around and vanishing again with a thump of their
+heels, they cantered slowly up to her. They snuffed all about her with
+their long upper lips which moved every way at once. That was their way
+of kissing her. Every now and then, she stroked down their long furry
+backs or lifted and played with their long ears.
+
+"I think," she said to Diamond after they had been sitting silent for a
+long time, "that if I were only a dream, you would not have been able to
+love me so. You love me when you are not with me, don't you?"
+
+"Indeed I do!" answered Diamond stroking her hand. "I see! I see! How
+could I be able to love you as I do if you were not there at all, you
+know? Besides I would not be able to dream anything half so beautiful
+all out of my own head. Or if I did, I could not love a fancy of my own
+like that, could I?"
+
+"I think not. Besides, would you not have forgotten me wholly when you
+woke again? People almost always forget their dreams. But you have seen
+me in many shapes, Diamond. You remember I was a wolf once--don't you?"
+
+"Yes, a good wolf that frightened a bad, wicked nurse!"
+
+"Well, if I were to turn to an ugly shape again, would you still wish I
+were not a dream?"
+
+"Yes, for I should know you were still beautiful inside, and that you
+loved me still. I should not like you to look ugly, you know. And I
+shouldn't believe it was really you a bit!"
+
+"That's my own Diamond! Then I will try to tell you all I know about it.
+I don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape myself
+in various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People
+call me by dreadful names and think they know all about me. But they
+don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune or Evil Chance or Ruin--as Mr.
+Evans did when I sank his ship. Then people have another name for me
+which they think the most dreadful of all."
+
+"What is that?" asked Diamond smiling up in her face. "And does it only
+mean another way in which you do them good though they think you are
+doing them ill?"
+
+"Yes," answered North Wind, "it is just like that. But I will not tell
+you that name--not just now. Only will you always remember, if you
+should hear it, not to be the least afraid of it--or of me? Will you
+promise, Diamond?"
+
+"Yes, North Wind, I promise," said Diamond. "I will never be afraid of
+you."
+
+"Do you remember having to go through me to get into the country at my
+back?" asked North Wind, "after the long, long, long ride in the ship
+and the journey on the iceberg?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I do! How tired you were, North Wind, when we got at last on
+to the iceberg and South Wind began to blow! And how thin and weak you
+grew in the beautiful blue cave in the side of the ice. Afterward when I
+landed and found you in the cleft in the ice ridge, sitting on your own
+door-step, how cold you were, North Wind! And so white, all but your
+lovely eyes! When I went up close to you, my own heart grew like a lump
+of ice. And when I tried to clasp you, the white grew so thick all about
+me, and then I forgot for a while."
+
+"You were very near then, Diamond, to knowing what my other name is. But
+did I hurt you at all, dear boy? Would you be afraid of me if you had to
+go through me again?"
+
+"No. Why should I? It was delicious to forget like that! It was like
+going into the softest and sweetest sleep! I should be glad enough to do
+it again, if it was only to get another peep at the country at your
+back."
+
+"But you did not then see the real country at the back of the north
+wind, Diamond," said North Wind.
+
+"Didn't I, North Wind? Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought I did. What did I
+see?"
+
+"Only a picture of it--a sort of vision of it--and only while you seemed
+to be asleep. The real country at my real back is ever so much more
+beautiful than that. You shall see it one day--perhaps before very
+long."
+
+"Do they sing songs there?" asked Diamond.
+
+"Yes," replied North Wind. "You have not forgotten the lovely river as
+clear as glass that ran over and through the grass and flowers, have
+you? Nor the soft sweet songs it was always singing?"
+
+"No," said Diamond. "I remember that best of all. But I could not keep
+the words of any one of its songs in mind, do what I would. And I did
+try."
+
+"That was my fault," said North Wind.
+
+"How was that?" asked the little boy.
+
+"Because I could not hear it plainly enough myself to teach it to you.
+But you will hear the very song itself when you get to the back of----"
+
+"My own dear North Wind," said Diamond, finishing the sentence for her,
+and stroking the arm that held him leaning against her.
+
+"And now, I will take you home again," said North Wind. "It won't do to
+tire you too much."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" pleaded Diamond. "I am not in the least tired."
+
+"It is better, though," said North Wind.
+
+"Very well; if you wish it," yielded Diamond, but with a sigh.
+
+"You are a dear boy," said North Wind. "I will come for you again
+to-morrow night and take you out for a longer time. We shall make a
+little journey together, in fact. We shall start earlier, and as the
+moon will be somewhat later, we shall have clear moonlight all the way."
+
+She rose in air and swept over the meadow and the trees. In a few
+minutes, "The Mound" appeared below them. She sank down to the house and
+floated in at the window of Diamond's room. There she laid him on his
+bed and covered him over. In a moment, he had sunk into a dreamless
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY
+
+
+The next night, Diamond was tired, but was waiting eagerly for the
+promised visit of North Wind. He was seated by his open window, with his
+head on his hand and rather afraid he could not sleep. Suddenly, he
+started and found he had already been asleep. He looked out of the
+window and saw something white against his beech tree. It was North
+Wind. Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the
+tree whose top was swaying about while the other trees were quite still.
+
+"Are you ready, Diamond?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," answered Diamond, "quite ready."
+
+In a moment, she was at the window and her arms came in and took him.
+She sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but the
+speed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went rushing
+past. Soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely with mottled
+clouds all about the moon on which she threw faint colours like those of
+an opal.
+
+The night was warm and in North Wind's arms he did not feel the wind
+which down below was making waves in the ripe grain and ripples on the
+rivers and lakes. At length, they came down just where a little spring
+bubbled out of a hill side.
+
+"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind. "I am
+not needed for anything else to-night and we will just have a lovely
+little time."
+
+She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
+surface of it glided along, level with its flow, as it ran down the
+hill. The song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears and grew and
+grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond to be singing the
+story of its life to him. And so it was. It began with a musical tinkle
+which changed to a babble and then to a gentle rushing.
+
+Sometimes its song would almost cease. Then it broke out again, tinkle,
+babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom of the hill, they came to a
+small river into which the brook flowed with a muffled but merry sound.
+Along the surface of the river, darkly clear in the moonlight below
+them, they floated. Now, where it widened out into a little lake, they
+would hover for a moment over a bed of water-lilies. They watched them
+swing about, folded in sleep, as the water on which they leaned swayed
+in the presence of North Wind. Now they would watch the fishes asleep
+among their roots below.
+
+Sometimes, North Wind held Diamond over a deep hollow curving into the
+bank and let him look far into its cool stillness. Sometimes she would
+leave the river and sweep across a clover field. The bees were all at
+home and the clover was asleep. Then she would return and follow the
+river. Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush from
+the opposite bank. Now the willows would dip low branches into its still
+waters. Now it would lead them through stately trees and grassy banks
+into a lovely garden where the roses and lilies were asleep and the
+flowers folded up, or only a few awake sending out strong, sweet odours.
+
+Wider and wider grew the stream until they came upon boats lying along
+its banks which rocked a little in the flutter of North Wind's garments.
+Then came houses on the banks, each standing in a lovely lawn with grand
+trees. In parts, the river was so high that some of the grass and some
+of the roots of the trees were under water. As they glided through the
+stems, Diamond could see the grass at the bottom of the water. How like
+it was to the river which ran through the country at the back of the
+north wind! And now he seemed to hear more and more clearly its
+murmured song till at last the words came out plainly.
+
+          The sun is gone down,
+          And the moon's in the sky.
+          But the sun will come up
+          And the moon be laid by.
+
+          The flower is asleep
+          But it is not dead.
+          When the morning shines
+          It will lift its head.
+
+          When winter comes
+          Will it die? Oh, no!
+          It will only hide
+          From the frost and snow.
+
+          Sure is the summer,
+          Sure is the sun.
+          The night and the winter
+          Are shadows that run!
+
+They left the river and began to float about and over the houses one
+after another--beautiful rich houses which like fine trees had taken
+hundreds of years to grow. Scarcely a light was to be seen, and not a
+movement to be heard. All the people lay fast asleep in dreams.
+
+But a little later they came floating past a window in which a light
+was burning. Diamond heard a moan coming from it and looked up anxiously
+into North Wind's face. By a shaded lamp, a lady in a soft white wrapper
+sat trying to read and forget the pain which made her moan softly while
+she read. North Wind seemed to read Diamond's thought and floated
+silently in at the window. Diamond began singing softly the song of the
+river with its soothing murmuring strain. When he finished, out of the
+window they slipped away and floated on.
+
+"Did she hear, North Wind?" said Diamond. "Did she know we were trying
+to help her--and will it help her?"
+
+"She heard you," answered North Wind. "She heard with her heart, though,
+and not with her ears. She will not forget, but she will never
+understand till----"
+
+"Till she gets to the back of the north wind," said Diamond.
+
+North Wind smiled. Then she turned so that he could look down at the
+place over which they were passing.
+
+"Oh!" he cried out suddenly. "I know where we are now. This is my old
+home before we moved into the city. Do let me get down and go into the
+old garden, North Wind, and run into mother's room, and into old
+Diamond's stall. I wonder if the hole is at the back of my bed
+still--your window, you know. Oh, I should like to stay here all the
+rest of the night! It won't take you long to get home from here, will
+it, North Wind?"
+
+"No," she answered; "you shall stay as long as you like."
+
+"Oh, how jolly!" cried Diamond.
+
+North Wind sailed over the house with him and set him down on the lawn
+at the back. Diamond ran about the lawn for a little while in the
+moonlight. He found part of it cut up into flower beds and the small
+summer house and great elm tree were gone. It was so changed! He didn't
+like it and ran into the stable. There were no horses there at all. He
+ran upstairs but the rooms were all empty. The only thing left that he
+cared about was the hole in the wall where his little bed had stood. All
+besides was desolate. He turned and ran down the stairs again and out
+upon the lawn. There he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all
+so dreary and lost!
+
+"I liked the place so much!" he thought to himself. "But now--there is
+nothing left to like. I suppose it is only the people in a place that
+make you like it and when they are gone there is nothing left to like.
+It's as if it were dead! North Wind told me I might stop as long as I
+wanted to, but I have stopped too long already! Oh, North Wind!" he
+cried aloud turning his face up toward the sky.
+
+The moon was under a cloud and all was looking dull and dismal. A star
+shot from the sky. It fell in the grass beside him. The moment it
+lighted, there stood North Wind!
+
+"Oh!" cried Diamond joyfully. "Were you the shooting star?"
+
+"Yes," said North Wind.
+
+"And did you hear me call?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"As high up as that?"
+
+"Yes, I heard you quite well."
+
+"Take me home, North Wind. Take me home!"
+
+"Have you had enough of your old home already?"
+
+"Yes. It is not home here any more."
+
+"Why is that, do you think?" asked North Wind.
+
+"Is it because its soul is gone? Yes, that must be it, is it not, North
+Wind?"
+
+"Yes, Diamond, that is it. Its soul is gone," said North Wind.
+
+She lifted him into her arms to bear him away. How long they floated
+about he did not know. But presently all was changed. He was in his own
+room again. And there was North Wind in the doorway of the long narrow
+room that opened out of his room, and in which the night before he was
+dancing when he looked up to find his lifted hands clasped in hers and
+saw her lovely face smiling down upon him.
+
+Now she was a different North Wind. She was just as he had seen her
+sitting on her own door-step in the far, far north. She was as white as
+snow and her eyes as blue as the heart of an iceberg.
+
+"That's how she would look when she thought I might be afraid of her,"
+he said to himself. Then he spoke aloud. "I am not afraid of you, dear
+North Wind," he cried. "See! I am not a bit afraid of you!" Stretching
+out both his hands to clasp her he pressed up close against her and laid
+his head upon her breast. And then he fell asleep.
+
+In the morning, they found little Diamond lying on the floor of the big
+attic room--fast asleep, as they thought, and with such a happy smile on
+his face. But when they took him up, they found he was not asleep. He
+had gone to that lovely country at the back of the north wind--to stay.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+   Page 25, "litle" changed to "little." (made a little place)
+
+   One instance each of "no-where" and "nowhere" were retained.
+
+   The frontispiece original says that the text is found on page 334.
+   It is actually located on page 111 and has been edited to reflect
+   this.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 18614.txt or 18614.zip *******
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