{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18614/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18614","id":"gutenberg_18614","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18614","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Novels","Children's Literature","Fairy tales"],"text":"E-text prepared by Joseph R. Hauser, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 18614-h.htm or 18614-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1/18614/18614-h/18614-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1/18614/18614-h.zip)\n\n\n\n\n\nAT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND\n\nEleventh Impression\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nTHE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS\n\nEach beautifully illustrated in color and tastefully bound\n\n  BY WASHINGTON IRVING\n  THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW\n  RIP VAN WINKLE\n\n  SELECTED\n  TALES OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S\n  ALHAMBRA\n\n  BY JOHN RUSKIN\n  THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER\n\n  BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON\n  A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES\n\n  SELECTED\n  HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES\n\n  BY MISS MULOCK\n  THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE\n  THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE\n\n  BY EMMA GELLIBRAND\n  J. COLE\n\n  BY JOHANNA SPYRI\n  MONI THE GOAT BOY\n\n  BY OUIDA\n  MOUFFLOU AND OTHER STORIES\n  THE NUeRNBERG STOVE\n  A DOG OF FLANDERS\n\n  SELECTED\n  WONDERLAND STORIES\n  ALL TIME TALES\n\n  BY JONATHAN SWIFT\n  GULLIVER'S TRAVELS\n  (LILLIPUT LAND)\n\n  BY GEORGE MACDONALD\n  THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN\n  THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE\n  AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n[Illustration: NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE\nLONG BARE ROOM                                                _Page 111_]\n\n\n\nGeorge Macdonald\nStories For Little Folks\n\nAT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND\n\nSimplified by\n\nELIZABETH LEWIS\n\nAuthor of \"The Princess and the Goblin Simplified\"\n\nWith Six Full Page Illustrations in Color by Maria L. Kirk\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nPhiladelphia and London\nJ. B. Lippincott Company\nCopyright, 1914\nBy J. B. Lippincott Company\nElectrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company\nThe Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nCHAPTER                                              PAGE\n\n   I. DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND     9\n\n  II. DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND        20\n\n III. NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP                         31\n\n  IV. THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND          41\n\n   V. DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT           52\n\n  VI. DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE                 62\n\n VII. DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB                          73\n\nVIII. DIAMOND VISITS NANNY                            84\n\n  IX. THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY            93\n\n   X. DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME                        102\n\n  XI. ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND                  109\n\n XII. NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY                119\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n                                                        PAGE\n\nNORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND\nTHE LONG BARE ROOM                               _Frontispiece_\n\nAGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE\nVOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY                                   12\n\nIT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN                         29\n\nHE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND, BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST\nBE DEAD AT LAST                                          47\n\nWITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE\nVERSES FOR HIMSELF                                       73\n\nHE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY               78\n\n\n\n\nAT THE BACK OF THE\nNORTH WIND\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nDIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND\n\n\nThere was once a little boy named Diamond and he slept in a low room\nover a coach house. In fact, his room was just a loft where they kept\nhay and straw and oats for the horses. Little Diamond's father was a\ncoachman and he had named his boy after a favorite horse.\n\nDiamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all around\nit, because there was so little room in their own end of the coach\nhouse. So when little Diamond lay there in bed, he could hear the horses\nunder him munching away in the dark or moving sleepily in their dreams.\nHis father put old Diamond, the horse after whom he was named, in the\nstall under the bed because he was quiet and did not go to sleep\nstanding, but lay down like a reasonable creature.\n\nLittle Diamond sometimes woke in the middle of the night and felt his\nbed shaking in the blasts of the north wind. Then he could not help\nwondering if the wind should blow the house down and he should fall down\ninto the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew\nhim in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long,\nyet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little Diamond\nknew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which\nwas--to go to sleep again as fast as he could!\n\nOften there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay\nat his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there\nwas none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet\nbought more. Soon they bought more, and then it was only through a\nlittle lane with two or three turnings in it that he could reach his bed\nat all.\n\nSometimes when his mother undressed him in her room and told him to trot\naway to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay first.\nThere he would lie, thinking how cold it was outside in the wind and how\nwarm it would be inside his bed; and how he would go to his bed when he\npleased; only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first.\nAs he grew colder lying in the hay, his bed seemed to him to grow\nwarmer. Then at last, he would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an\narrow into his bed, cover himself up, snuggle down, and think what a\nhappy boy he was!\n\nHe had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall\nand blew about him all night. But the back of his bed was of boards only\nan inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now\nthese boards were soft and crumbly, and it happened that a soft part in\nthem had worn away.\n\nOne night after he lay down, little Diamond found that a knot had come\nout of one of them and the wind was blowing in upon him. He jumped out\nof bed again, got a little wisp of hay, twisted it up and folded it in\nthe middle. In this way, he made it into a cork and stuck it into the\nknot-hole to keep the wind out. But the wind began to blow loudly and\nangrily. Just as Diamond was falling asleep, out blew his hay cork and\nhit him on the nose!\n\nIt was just hard enough to wake him up and let him hear the wind\nwhistling through the hole. He searched about for his hay cork, found\nit, and stuck it in harder. He was just dropping off to sleep once more,\nwhen pop! with an angry whistle behind it, the cork struck him again,\nthis time on the cheek. Up he rose once more, got some more hay to make\na new cork, and stuck it into the hole as hard as ever he could. But he\nwas scarcely laid down again, before pop! it came on his forehead. So he\ngave it up, drew the bed-clothes over his head, and was soon fast\nasleep.\n\n[Illustration: AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE\nQUITE DISTINCTLY]\n\nNext day, little Diamond forgot all about the hole. But his mother found\nit when she was making up his bed and pasted a piece of thick brown\npaper over it. So when Diamond snuggled down into his bed that night, he\ndid not think of it at all. But before he dropped asleep, he heard a\nqueer sound and lifted his head to listen. Was somebody talking to him?\nThe wind was rising again and beginning to blow and whistle. Was it the\nwind? He moved about to find out who or what it was, and at last,\nhappened to put his hand upon the knot-hole with the paper pasted over\nit. Against this he laid his ear and then he heard the voice quite\ndistinctly.\n\n\"What do you mean, little boy, by closing up my window?\"\n\n\"What window?\" asked Diamond.\n\n\"You stuffed hay into it three times last night! I had to blow it out\nagain three times!\"\n\n\"You can't mean this little hole? It isn't a window. It is a hole in my\nbed.\"\n\n\"I did not say _a_ window. I said it was _my_ window!\"\n\n\"But it can't be a window!\" said Diamond. \"Windows are holes to see out\nof.\"\n\n\"Well, that is just what I made this window for.\"\n\n\"But you are outside,\" answered Diamond. \"You can't want a window.\"\n\n\"You are quite mistaken. Windows are to see out of, you say. Well, I am\nin my house, and I want windows to see out of.\"\n\n\"But you have made a window into my bed.\"\n\n\"Well, your mother has three windows into my dancing hall, and you have\nthree into my garret.\"\n\n\"Dear me!\" said Diamond. \"Still you can hardly expect me to keep a\nwindow in my bed for you. Now, can you?\"\n\n\"Come!\" said the voice. \"You just open that window!\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Diamond, \"mother says I should be obliging. Still it is\nrather hard. You see, the north wind will blow right in my face if I\ndo!\"\n\n\"I am the North Wind!\" said the voice.\n\n\"O-o-oh!\" said Diamond. \"Then will you promise not to blow in my face if\nI open your window?\"\n\n\"I cannot promise that,\" said the North Wind.\n\n\"But you will give me the tooth-ache. Mother has it already.\"\n\n\"But what is to become of me without a window!\" cried the voice.\n\n\"I am sure I don't know. All I say is that it will be worse for me than\nfor you.\"\n\n\"No, it will not,\" replied the voice. \"You shall not be the worse for\nit--I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe\nwhat I say, and do as I tell you.\"\n\n\"Well, I _can_ pull the clothes over my head,\" said Diamond. So he felt\naround with his little sharp nails, got hold of one edge of the paper\nand tore it off. In came a long whistling stream of cold that struck his\nlittle naked chest. He scrambled and tumbled in under the bed-clothes\nand covered himself up. There was no paper between him and the voice\nnow, and he felt--not frightened exactly--but a little queer.\n\n\"What a strange person this North Wind must be,\" thought Diamond, \"to\nlive in what they call 'Out-of-Doors,' I suppose, and make windows into\npeople's beds.\"\n\nNow the voice began again. He could hear it quite plainly, even with his\nhead under the bed-clothes. It was still more gentle now, though it was\nsix times as large and loud as before. And he thought it sounded a\nlittle like his mother's.\n\n\"What is your name, little boy?\" it asked.\n\n\"Diamond,\" answered Diamond under the bed-clothes.\n\n\"What a funny name!\"\n\n\"It is a very nice name,\" replied the boy.\n\n\"I am not so sure of that,\" said the voice.\n\n\"Well, I am!\" returned Diamond. \"I think it is a very pretty name.\"\n\n\"Diamond is a useless thing, rather,\" said the voice.\n\n\"That is not true. Diamond is very useful--and as big as two--and so\nquiet all night! But doesn't he make a jolly row in the morning, getting\nup on his four great legs! It is like thunder!\"\n\n\"You do not seem to know what a diamond is!\" cried the voice.\n\n\"Oh, don't I, just! Diamond is a great and good horse, and he sleeps\nright under me. He is old Diamond and I am young Diamond. Or, if you\nlike it better, Mr. North Wind, if you are so particular, he is big\nDiamond and I am little Diamond. And I do not know which of us my father\nlikes best!\"\n\nA beautiful laugh, soft and musical, sounded somewhere near him. But the\nboy kept his head under the clothes.\n\n\"I am not Mr. North Wind,\" said the voice.\n\n\"You told me you were the North Wind,\" cried Diamond.\n\n\"I did not say _Mr._ North Wind,\" said the voice.\n\n\"Well, I _do_ say Mr. for my mother tells me always to be polite.\"\n\n\"Then let me tell you that I do not think it at all polite for you to\nsay Mr. to me,\" answered the voice.\n\n\"Isn't it? Well, I am sorry then.\"\n\n\"But you ought to know better,\" said the voice. \"You can't think it is\npolite to lie there with your head under the bed-clothes and never look\nto see what kind of a person you are talking to! I want you to come out\nwith me.\"\n\n\"I want to go to sleep!\" said Diamond.\n\n\"Will you take your head out of the bed-clothes?\" said the voice a\nlittle angrily.\n\n\"No!\" said Diamond crossly.\n\nThe moment he said the word a fierce blast of wind crashed in the wall\nand swept the clothes off him. He started up in a fright. Leaning over\nhim was the large, beautiful, pale face of a woman. Her dark eyes had\nbegun to flash a little but the rest of her face was very sweet and\nbeautiful. What was very strange, though, was that away from her head\nstreamed out her black hair in every direction like dark clouds. Soon it\nfell down about her again and then her face came out of it like the\nmoon out of the clouds.\n\n\"Will you go with me now, little Diamond?\" asked the North Wind bending\nover him and speaking very gently.\n\n\"Yes, yes!\" cried Diamond, stretching out his arms toward her. \"Yes, I\nwill go with you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit afraid. I will go!\nBut,\" he added, \"how shall I get my clothes? They are in mother's room\nand the door is locked.\"\n\n\"Oh never mind your clothes. You will not be cold. Nobody is cold with\nthe North Wind.\"\n\n\"I thought everybody was,\" said Diamond.\n\n\"That is a great mistake. People are not cold when they are _with_ the\nNorth Wind--only when they are against it. Now will you come?\"\n\n\"Yes, dear North Wind. You are so beautiful I am quite ready to go with\nyou.\"\n\n\"Ah, but I may not always look beautiful. If you see me with my face all\nblack, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping wings like bat's\nwings, as big as the whole sky, don't be afraid. If you hear me raging,\nyou must believe that I am just doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change\ninto a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of me, for it\nwill be I just the same. And now, come!\"\n\nShe turned away and went so swiftly that she was gone before Diamond was\nmore than started. When he finally got down the stairs and out into the\nyard, no one did he see. And there he stood with his bare feet on the\nhard stones of the paved yard.\n\n\"I dare say she is hiding somewhere to see what I will do,\" said\nDiamond. So around the end of the stable he went to see if he could find\nher. But at once, sharp as a knife, the wind came against his little\nchest and bare legs. And stronger and stronger the wind seemed to blow.\nIt was _so_ cold! All at once, he remembered that she had said that\npeople were not cold if they went _with_ the North Wind. So he turned\nhis back and trotted again toward the yard and sure enough, he began to\nfeel almost warm once more!\n\nOn and on, North Wind blew him and, presently, she seemed to shove him\nright against a small door in a wall. It opened and she blew him through\nit and out into the very middle of the lawn of the house next door. It\nwas here that Mr. Coleman lived who was his father's master and who\nowned big Diamond. So little Diamond did not feel entirely strange, and\nthen, too, there was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long\nas he could see that, Diamond could not feel quite alone or lonely. But\nall at once, the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it\nwas dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone\nto bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he\nburst out crying.\n\nSome one in the house heard the sound of his sobbing and came out and\nfound him there. He was taken into the house and into a room which had a\nbright light and a warm fire in it. Beside this, he found Miss Coleman,\nthe young lady daughter of the house, who was having her long dark hair\nbrushed out before going to bed. Somehow in that state, she looked just\nlike the beautiful North Wind that he had been searching for. Without\nstopping to think, he ran right into her arms for comfort.\n\nAfter he was warmed and comforted, they took him back home and knocked\non the door to arouse his mother, to come and get him. She was much\nsurprised to see him, you may be sure. She carried him up to his bed\nagain and tucked him snugly in. And there he fell fast asleep.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nDIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND\n\n\nDiamond awoke very early the next morning and thought what a curious\ndream he had had. But the memory of it grew brighter and brighter until\nit did not look altogether like a dream. In fact he began to doubt\nwhether he had not really been abroad in the wind at night.\n\nAll that week it was hard weather. The grass showed white in the morning\nwith the hoar frost which clung to every blade. As Diamond's shoes were\nnot good and his mother had not saved up quite enough money to get him\nthe new pair she so much wanted for him, she would not let him run out.\nBut at length, she brought home his new shoes. No sooner did she find\nthat they fitted him, than she told him he might run out into the yard\nand amuse himself.\n\nThe sun was going down when he flew from the door like a bird from its\ncage. A great fire of sunset burned over the top of the gate that led to\nthe stables. Above the fire in the sky, lay a large lake of green light,\nabove that a golden cloud, and over that the blue of the wintry heavens.\nDiamond thought that next to his own home, he had never seen any place\nhe would like so much to live in as that sky.\n\nAs he wandered about, he came to stand by the little door which opened\nupon the lawn of the house next door. That made him remember how the\nwind had driven him to this same spot on the night of his dream. So he\nthought he would just go in and see if things looked at all as they did\nthen. But not a flower was to be seen in the beds on the lawn! Even the\nbrave old chrysanthemums and Christmas roses had passed away before the\nfrost. What? Yes! There was _one_. He ran and knelt down to look at it.\n\nIt was a primrose--a tiny, tiny thing, but perfect in shape--a baby\nwonder. As he stooped his face to see it close, a little wind began to\nblow. Two or three long leaves that stood up behind the flower shook and\nwavered and quivered. But the primrose lay still in the green hollow,\nlooking up at the sky and not seeming to know at all that the wind was\nblowing. It looked like a golden eye that the black wintry earth had\nopened to look at the sky with.\n\nThat very same night, after Diamond had been asleep for a little, he\nawoke all at once in the dark.\n\n\"Open the window, Diamond,\" said a voice.\n\nNow Diamond's mother had once more pasted up North Wind's window.\n\n\"Are you North Wind?\" said Diamond. \"I do not hear you blowing.\"\n\n\"No, but you hear me talking. Open the window for I haven't over much\ntime.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Diamond. \"But please, North Wind, where's the use? You left\nme all alone last time.\"\n\n\"That was your fault,\" returned North Wind. \"I had work to do and you\nkept me waiting.\"\n\nDiamond was already scratching at the paper like ten mice and, getting\nhold of the edge of it, tore it off. The next instant a young girl\nglided across the bed and stood on the floor.\n\n\"Oh, dear!\" said Diamond quite dismayed. \"I didn't know--who are you,\nplease?\"\n\n\"I am North Wind.\"\n\n\"But you are no bigger than I am!\"\n\n\"Do you think I care how big or how little I am? And of course, I am\nlittle this evening! Didn't you see me behind the leaves of the\nprimrose? Didn't you see them blowing? Make haste, now, if you want to\ngo with me! Dress as fast as you can and I will go and shake the leaves\nof the primrose till you come!\"\n\n\"Don't hurt it!\" said Diamond.\n\nNorth Wind broke out into a little laugh like the breaking of silver\nbubbles and was gone in a moment. Diamond saw the gleam of something\nvanishing down the stair. He dressed himself as fast as ever he could\nand crept out into the yard, through the door in the wall, and away to\nthe primrose. Behind it stood North Wind leaning over it.\n\n\"Come along!\" she said jumping up and holding out her hand. She led him\nacross the garden and with one bound was on top of the wall. Then she\nreached down her hand to Diamond. He gave a great spring and stood\nbeside her.\n\nAnother bound, and they stood in the road by the river. It was full tide\nand the stars were shining clear in its depths. But they had not walked\nbeside it far before its surface was covered with ripples and the stars\nhad vanished. North Wind was now as tall as a full-grown girl. Her hair\nwas flying about her head and the wind was blowing a breeze down the\nriver. But she turned aside and went up a narrow lane.\n\n\"I have some rather disagreeable work to do to-night,\" she said. \"And\ndisagreeable work must be looked after first.\"\n\nSo saying, she laid hold of Diamond and began to run, gliding along\nfaster and faster. She made many turnings and windings. Once they ran\nthrough a hall where they found both the front and back doors open. At\nthe foot of the stair, North Wind stood still and Diamond, hearing a\ngreat growl, started in terror. There, instead of North Wind, was a huge\nwolf by his side! He let go his hold and the wolf bounded up the stair.\nThe windows of the house rattled and shook and there came the sound of a\nfall.\n\n\"Surely,\" thought Diamond, \"North Wind can't be eating one of the\nchildren!\"\n\nHe started to rush up after her, but she met him on the stair, took him\nby the hand and hurried him out of the house.\n\n\"I hope you haven't eaten a baby, North Wind!\" he said very solemnly.\n\nNorth Wind laughed merrily and went tripping on faster. Her grassy robe\nswept and swirled about her steps. Wherever it passed over withered\nleaves, they went fleeing and whirling away and running on their edges\nall about her feet. \"No, I did not eat a baby,\" she said, \"as you would\nknow if you had not let go of me. I merely scared an ugly nurse who was\ncalling a child bad names. I flew at her throat and she tumbled over\nwith a crash. I had to put on a bad shape before she could see me. I put\non a wolf's shape for that is what she is growing to be inside.\"\n\nThey were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent. At the top, North\nWind stood and turned her face toward London. The stars were still\nshining clear and cold overhead. There was not a cloud to be seen.\n\n\"Now,\" said North Wind, \"do not let go of me again. I might have lost\nyou the last time, only I was not in a hurry then. Now I am in a hurry.\"\n\nAs she spoke, she was growing larger and larger. Her head went up and up\ntoward the stars. As she grew, her hair, longer and longer, lifted\nitself from her head and went out in black waves. She put her hands\nbehind her head and began weaving and knotting her hair together. Then\nshe took up Diamond in her hands and threw him over her shoulder saying,\n\"I have made a place for you in my hair. Get in, Diamond.\"\n\nDiamond soon found the woven nest and crept into it. The next moment he\nwas rising in the air. North Wind grew towering up to the place of the\nclouds. Her hair went streaming out from her till it spread like a mist\nover the stars. She flung herself abroad in space. Diamond made a little\nplace through the woven meshes of her hair and peeped through that, for\nhe did not dare look over the top of his nest.\n\nThe earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and\nwater and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but\nthe roofs of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and\nrocks. Chimneys fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great\nroaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea.\nDiamond, of course, at the back of North Wind, was in a calm but he\ncould hear it. Around and around and around, swept North Wind, her dark\nhair rolling and flowing, sweeping the people all into their homes and\nthe bad smells out of the streets.\n\nSuddenly, Diamond saw a little girl coming along a street. She was\ndreadfully blown by the wind, and a broom she was trailing behind her\nwas very troublesome. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her! It\nkept worrying her and tearing at her rags. She was so lonely there!\n\n\"Oh, please, North Wind,\" cried Diamond, \"won't you help that little\ngirl?\"\n\n\"I cannot leave my work, Diamond. But you can help her if you like.\nOnly, I can't wait for you. And mind, the wind will get hold of you\ntoo!\"\n\n\"But how shall I get home again,\" cried Diamond, \"if you don't wait for\nme?\"\n\n\"Well, you must think of that!\" said North Wind.\n\n\"Oh,\" cried Diamond. \"I am sure the wind will blow her over! I _must_\nhelp her anyway! Let me go!\"\n\nWithout a word, North Wind dropped into the street and set him down. The\nsame moment, he was caught in the coils of the blast and all but swept\naway. North Wind vanished. The wind was roaring along the street. The\nlittle girl was scudding before it, her hair flying, while behind her\nshe dragged her broom with which she swept her crossing. Her little legs\nwere going as fast as they could, to keep her from falling.\n\n\"Stop! stop! little girl!\" shouted Diamond, starting in pursuit.\n\n\"I can't!\" wailed the girl. \"The wind won't let me!\"\n\nDiamond ran after her and caught hold of her frock but it tore in his\nhand. Then he ran fast enough to get in front of her and turning around,\ncaught her in his arms. Just then, he thought he got a glimpse of North\nWind turning the corner in front of them. They must go with her of\ncourse, and sure enough, when they turned the corner after her, they\nfound it quite quiet there.\n\n\"Now, you must lead me,\" said Diamond. \"You show me the way you must go\nto get home and I will take care of you.\"\n\nSo the little girl put her free hand in his and began to lead him. They\nwent around turning after turning, till they stopped at a cellar-door in\na very dirty lane. There the little girl knocked.\n\n\"What an awful place!\" said Diamond. \"I should not like to live here.\"\n\n\"Oh yes, you would, if you had no where else to go!\" answered the girl.\n\"I only hope they'll let me in.\"\n\n\"Don't they always let you in?\" said Diamond.\n\n\"No, they don't. And then I have to stay in the street all night and\nscud back to my crossing the first thing in the morning. You see they\ndon't answer, now!\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Diamond, \"I don't want to get in. I want to go back to my\nmother. Come with me and I will take you to my own home.\"\n\nThe little girl thought this would be much better than sitting in the\nstreets all night. So they started off. The trouble was that Diamond was\nnot at all sure that he could find the way without North Wind. But the\nonly thing to do was to try. So they wandered on and on, turning in this\ndirection and that, without any reason for one way more than another. At\nlast, they got out of the thick of the houses into a kind of waste\nplace. By this time, they were both very tired, and Diamond was\ninclined to cry. For he said to himself that he had not done the little\ngirl any good and he had lost his own way home. But in this, he was\nwrong for she was far happier in having him with her, and making people\nhappier is one of the best ways of doing them good.\n\n[Illustration: IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN]\n\nThey sat down and rested themselves a little and then went on. After a\ntime, they found themselves on a rising ground that sloped rather\nsteeply on the other side. The moment they reached the top, a gust of\nwind seized them and blew them down hill as fast as they could run. Nor\ncould Diamond stop before he went bang! against one of the doors in a\nwall. To his dismay, it burst open. When they came to themselves, they\npeeped in. It was the back door of a garden.\n\n\"Oh! oh!\" cried Diamond after staring for a few moments. \"I know this\nplace--know it well! It is Mr. Coleman's garden and here I am at home\nagain. Oh, I am so glad! Come in, little girl! Come in with me and my\nmother will give you some breakfast.\"\n\n\"No, no! I can't!\" said the little girl. \"We have been so long coming.\nLook up! Don't you see that it is morning now? I must hurry back to my\ncrossing and sweep it and get money to take home or they will beat me!\nI cannot stay. Good-bye, little boy, good-bye!\"\n\nShe started back at once, ran up the hill and disappeared behind it.\nDiamond called after her and called, but she did not even turn round. He\nwas sorry to see her go but there was no help for it. So when she was\ngone quite out of sight, he shut the door of the garden as best he\ncould, and ran through the kitchen garden to the stables. And wasn't he\nglad to get into his own blessed bed again!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nNORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP\n\n\nIt was some time before he saw North Wind again. He saw the little girl\nbefore that but it was only for a moment. It happened in this way. His\nfather was taking the horse, Diamond, to have new shoes put on him, and\nknowing that little Diamond, like all small boys, liked a ride, he set\nhim on the horse and taking the bridle led the two Diamonds away.\n\nThe blacksmith's shop was some distance away, deeper in London. As they\ncrossed the angle of a square, Diamond, who was looking about to see if\nany one noticed him riding upon the big horse like a man, saw a little\ngirl sweeping a crossing before a lady and holding out her hand for a\npenny. The lady had no penny and the little girl was disappointed.\n\nDiamond could not stand that. He knew the little girl and he knew that\nhe had a penny in his pocket. He slid off the horse in a sort of tumble\nand ran to her, holding out the penny. She did not know him at first,\nbut when he smiled at her, she did. He stuffed the penny into her hand\nand ran back, for he knew his father would not care to wait. After that,\nhe did not see little Nanny for a long time.\n\nHe played often now on the lawn of the house next door--Mr. Coleman's\nlawn--as the summer drew near, warm and splendid. One evening, he was\nsitting in a little summer-house at the foot of the lawn, before which\nwas a bed of tulips. They were closed for the night but the wind was\nwaving them slightly. All at once, out of one of them, there flew a big\nbuzzing bumblebee.\n\n\"There! That's something done!\" said a voice--a gentle, merry, childish\nvoice but _so_ tiny! \"I was afraid he would have to stay there all\nnight.\"\n\nDiamond looked all about and then he saw the _tiniest_ creature, sliding\ndown the stem of the tulip.\n\n\"Are you the fairy that herds the bees?\" he asked kneeling down beside\nthe tulip bed.\n\n\"I am not a fairy,\" answered the little creature. \"You stupid Diamond,\nhave you never seen me before?\"\n\nAs she spoke, a moan of wind bent the tulips almost to the ground and\nthen he recognized North Wind.\n\n\"But there!\" added the little creature, \"I must not stay to chatter. I\nhave to go and sink a ship to-night.\"\n\n\"Sink a ship!\" cried Diamond. \"And drown the men and women in it? How\ndreadful! Still I cannot believe you are cruel, North Wind!\"\n\n\"No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to\nthose who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry\naway to the back of the north wind--only I never saw the place.\"\n\n\"But how can you carry them there if you never saw the place? And how is\nit that you never saw it?\"\n\n\"Because it is behind me. You cannot see your own back, you know. But\nrun along now if you want to go with me to-night. I cannot take you till\nyou have been to bed and gone to sleep. I'll look about and do something\ntill you are ready. Do you see that man over there on the river in the\nboat who is just floating about? Now watch!\"\n\nShe flashed like a dragon-fly across the water whose surface rippled and\npuckered as she passed. The next moment, the man in the boat glanced\nabout him and bent to his oars. The boat flew over the rippling water.\nThe same instant almost, North Wind perched again upon the river wall.\n\n\"How did you do that?\" asked Diamond.\n\n\"I just blew in his face and blew the mist out of him.\"\n\n\"But what for? I don't understand!\" said Diamond. Hearing no answer, he\nlooked down at the wall. North Wind was gone. Away across the river\nwent a long ripple--what sailors call a cat's paw. The man in the boat\nat once put up his sail. The moon was coming to herself on the edge of a\ngreat cloud and the sail began to shine white. Diamond rubbed his eyes\nand wondered what it was all about. But he felt that he could not know\nmore till he had gone to bed, so he turned away and started for home. He\nstopped to look out of a window before going to bed. Above the moon, the\nclouds were streaming different ways, and the wind was rising as he fell\nasleep.\n\nHe woke in the middle of the night and the darkness. A terrible noise\nwas rumbling overhead like the rolling beat of great drums. For a while,\nhe could not come quite awake. But a second peal of thunder broke over\nhis head and a great blast of wind followed which tore some tiles off\nthe roof and, through the hole this made, sent a spout of wind down into\nhis face. At the same moment, he heard a mighty, yet musical voice say,\n\"Come up, Diamond! It's all ready. I am waiting for you.\" Then a\ngigantic arm was reached down which drew him up and clasped him against\nNorth Wind's breast.\n\n\"Oh, North Wind!\" he murmured. But the words vanished from his lips as\nhe had seen the soap bubbles, that burst too soon, vanish from the\nmouth of his pipe. The wind caught them and they were no-where.\n\nAt the same moment, a peal of thunder which shook Diamond's heart\nagainst his side boomed out of the heavens; I cannot say, out of the\nsky, for there was no sky. Diamond had not seen the lightning for he had\nbeen busy trying to find the face of North Wind. Every moment, the folds\nof her garment would sweep across his eyes and blind him. But between\nthem, he could just catch glimpses of the great glories of her eyes\nlooking down at him through the rifts of the huge clouds over his head.\n\n\"Oh dear North Wind!\" cried the boy. \"Why do you do like this? Must you\ngo and sink the ship? It is not like you! Here you are, taking care of a\npoor little boy like me, with one arm, and there you are, sinking the\nship with the other! No, no! It can't be like you!\"\n\n\"Then you must believe that I am cruel,\" answered the strong voice of\nNorth Wind, sounding about him out of the clouds.\n\n\"No, dear North Wind, I can't believe that. I don't believe it. I will\nnot believe it. How could you know how to put on such a beautiful face\nif you did not love me and love all the rest too? No! You may sink as\nmany ships as you like--though I shall not like to see it!\"\n\n\"That is quite another thing!\" said North Wind.\n\nAs she spoke, she gave one spring from the roof and rushed up into the\nclouds. As if the clouds knew she had come, they burst into fresh\nthunderous light. Diamond seemed to be borne through an ocean of\ndazzling flame. The winds were writhing around him like a storm of\nserpents. For they were in the midst of the clouds and mists which of\ncourse took the shapes of the wind, eddying, and wreathing, and\nwhirling, and shooting, and dashing about like gray and black water.\n\nNow it blinded him by smiting him upon the eyes. Now it deafened him by\nbellowing in his ears. But he did not mind it. He only gasped at first,\nand then laughed, for the arm of North Wind was about him and he felt\nquite safe, though he knew that they were sweeping with the speed of the\nwind itself toward the sea! But before they reached it, Diamond felt\nNorth Wind's hair beginning to fall down about him.\n\n\"Is the storm over, North Wind?\" he called out.\n\n\"No, Diamond. I am only waiting for a moment to set you down. You will\nnot like to see the ship sunk and I am going to give you a place to stop\nin till I come back. Look!\"\n\nWith one sweep of her great white arm, she flung yards deep of darkness,\nlike a great curtain, from before the face of the boy. And lo! it was a\nblue night lit up with stars. Where it did not shine with stars, it\nshimmered with a milky whiteness of stars except where, just before\nthem, the gray towers of a cathedral blotted out the sky.\n\n\"A good place for you to wait in,\" said North Wind and swept down upon\nthe cathedral roof. They went in through an open door in one of the\ntowers. Diamond found himself at the top of a stone stair which went\ntwisting away down into the darkness. North Wind held his hand, and\nafter a little, led him out upon a narrow gallery which ran all around\nthe central part of the church. Below him, lay the inside of the church\nlike a great silent gulf hollowed in stone. On and on, they walked along\nthis narrow gallery till at last they reached a much broader stairway\nleading on down and down until at length, it led them down into the\nchurch itself.\n\nThere he felt himself clasped in the arms of North Wind who held him\nclose and kissed him on the forehead. The next moment, she was gone, and\nDiamond heard a moaning about the church which grew and grew to a\nroaring. The storm was up again and he knew that North Wind's hair was\nflying.\n\nThe church was dark. Only a little light came through the windows which\nwere almost all of that precious old stained glass so much lovelier than\nthe new. There was not enough light in the stars to show the colors in\nthem. Diamond began to feel his way about the place, and for a little\nwhile went wandering up and down. His pattering foot-steps waked soft\nanswering echoes in the stone house. It was as if the great cathedral\nsomehow knew that his little self was there and went on giving back an\nanswer to every step he took.\n\nAt last, he gave a great sigh and said, \"I am _so_ tired!\" He did not\nhear the gentle echo which answered from far away over his head. For at\nthat moment, he came against the lowest of a few steps that stretched\nacross the church, and fell down and hurt his arm. He cried a little at\nfirst, and then crawled up the steps on his hands and knees. At the top,\nhe came to a little bit of carpet on which he lay down. And there he lay\nstaring at the dull windows that rose nearly a hundred feet above his\nhead.\n\nThe moon was at that moment just on the edge of the horizon. And lo!\nwith the moon, lovely figures began to dawn in the windows. He lay and\nlooked at them backward over his head, wondering if they would come\ndown. He heard a low, soft murmuring as if they were talking to\nthemselves about him. But his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired.\nHis eyelids grew so heavy that they _would_ keep tumbling down over his\neyes. He kept lifting them and lifting them. But every time, they were\nheavier than the last. It was no use! They were too much for him.\nSometimes before he got them half way up, down they went again. At\nlength, he gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast\nasleep!\n\nWhen his eyes came wide open again, there were no lovely figures--or\neven windows--but a dark heap of hay all about him. The small panes in\nthe roof of his loft were glimmering blue in the light of the morning.\nOld Diamond was coming awake down below in the stable. In a moment more\nhe was on his feet and shaking himself so that young Diamond's bed\ntrembled under him.\n\n\"He is grand at shaking himself!\" said Diamond. \"I wish I could shake\nmyself like that. But then I can wash myself and he can't. What fun it\nwould be to see old Diamond washing his face with his hoofs and iron\nshoes! Wouldn't it be a picture!\"\n\nHe dressed himself quickly and ran out. Down the stairs he went and\nthrough the little door out upon the lawn of Mr. Coleman's house next\ndoor. He wanted to see how things looked since last night. There was the\nlittle summer-house with the tulip bed before it where he had been\nsitting the evening before, crushed to the ground! Over it lay the great\nelm tree which the wind had broken across! As he stood looking at it, a\ngentleman who was staying at the Coleman house came out upon the lawn.\n\n\"Dear me!\" said the gentleman. \"There has been terrible work here! This\nis the North Wind's doing! What a pity! I wish we lived at the back of\nit, I am sure!\"\n\n\"Where is that, sir?\" asked Diamond.\n\n\"Away in the Hyperborean regions,\" answered the gentleman. He smiled for\nhe knew well enough that Diamond would not understand that big word\nwhich means the country away in the far, far north.\n\n\"I never heard of that place,\" returned Diamond.\n\n\"No,\" said the gentleman. \"I suppose not. But if this tree had been\nthere, it would not have been blown down. There is no wind in that\ncountry.\"\n\n\"That must be the place,\" said Diamond to himself, \"where North Wind\nsaid she would take the people whom she sunk with the ship. Next time I\nsee her, I am going to ask her to take me to see that land, too.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND\n\n\nOne morning, Diamond's mother did not think he was feeling very well and\nwhen he told her that he had a little headache, she was sure of it. Now\nthere was an aunt of his living at Sandwich and his mother decided to\nsend him there for a change. So giving him two pence for spending money,\nshe packed him off to Sandwich for a visit.\n\nHe soon made great friends with an old woman who kept a toy-shop there,\nwhere he spent his two pence. One hot day when he had been walking about\nmore than he ought and was tired, he went into the toy-shop to rest. The\nold woman had gone out but he thought it would be all right for him to\nsit down on a box and rest.\n\nAll at once, he heard a gentle whirring somewhere amongst the toys.\nAmong them was a whistle that had a wind-mill at the end which turned\nwhen you blew the whistle. No one was blowing the whistle now and yet\nthe wind-mill was turning and turning and turning.\n\n\"What can it mean?\" said Diamond out loud after watching for a few\nmoments.\n\n\"It means _me_,\" answered the tiniest voice he had ever heard.\n\n\"Who are you, please?\" asked Diamond.\n\n\"Well, really, I begin to be ashamed of you!\" cried the voice. \"You are\nas bad as a baby that doesn't know its mother in a new bonnet!\"\n\n\"Not quite so bad as that, dear North Wind,\" said Diamond. \"And I am so\nglad to see you. Did you sink the ship?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"And drown everybody?\"\n\n\"Not quite. One boat got away with six or seven men in it.\"\n\n\"And you took the others to that queer place the gentleman spoke of,\"\nsaid Diamond to himself. Aloud he said, \"Please, North Wind, I want you\nto take me to the country at the back of the north wind.\"\n\n\"That is not so easy,\" said North Wind and was silent so long that he\nthought she must have gone away. But presently she spoke again.\n\n\"It is not so easy,\" she said thoughtfully. \"But we shall see. We shall\nsee. You must go home, now, my dear, for you do not seem very well.\"\n\nSo Diamond went home. That afternoon, his head began to ache very much\nand he had to go to bed. In the middle of the night, his aunt came in to\nfeel his forehead and to give him a drink of lemonade. Then he went off\nto sleep, but was awake again soon, for a burst of wind blew open his\nlattice window. The same moment, he found himself in a cloud of North\nWind's hair, with her beautiful face, set in it like a moon, bending\nover him.\n\n\"Quick! Diamond!\" she said. \"I have found such a chance!\"\n\n\"But I am not well,\" said Diamond.\n\n\"I know. But you will be better for it.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Diamond; and getting out of bed, he jumped into North\nWind's arms. Sure enough, the moment he felt her arms fold about him, he\nbegan to feel better. It was a moonless night and very dark, with\nglimpses of stars when the clouds parted.\n\n\"We shall soon get to where the waves are dashing about,\" said North\nWind. And soon, Diamond looking down saw the white glimmer of breaking\nwater far below him.\n\n\"You see, Diamond,\" said North Wind, \"it is very difficult to get you to\nthe back of the north wind for that country lies in the very north\nitself. Now, of course, I cannot blow northwards, for then I should have\nto be South Wind. The north is where I come from--it is my home though I\nnever get nearer to it than the outer door. I can only sit on the\ndoor-step and hear the voices in there, behind me. Since I cannot blow\nin that direction to get there, I have just to draw into myself and grow\nweaker and fainter as I go. That makes it hard for me to carry\nanything--even you--with me when I go that way. So I must get some help.\nLet me get rid of a few of these clouds. There! What do you see now?\"\n\n\"A boat,\" said Diamond.\n\n\"A ship,\" said North Wind, \"whose captain I know well. I have often\nhelped him to sail his eighty miles a day northward.\"\n\n\"He must have tacked often to do that,\" said Diamond who had been\nwatching the ships at Sandwich.\n\n\"Yes, that gave him a share in the business. It is not good at all--mind\nthat, Diamond--to do everything for those you love and not give them a\nshare in the doing. It is not being really kind to them. If South Wind\nhad blown that ship straight north, the captain would just have smoked\nhis pipe all day and got stupider and stupider. But now I am going to\nput you aboard his ship. Do you see that round thing on the deck like\nthe top of a drum? Below that is where they keep their spare sails. I am\ngoing to blow it off and drop you through upon the sails. You will find\nit nice and warm and dry. Just coil yourself up there and go to sleep.\"\n\nA moment more, and he felt himself tumbled in on the heap of sails. Hour\nafter hour, he lay comfortably there. He could hear the straining of the\nmasts, the creaking of the boom, and the singing of the ropes with the\nroaring of the wind; also the surge of the waves past the ship's sides\nand the thud with which every now and then one would strike her.\n\nAll at once arose a terrible uproar. The cover was blown off again, a\nfierce wind rushed in, snatched him up and bore him aloft into the\nclouds. Down below, he saw the little vessel, he had been in, tossing on\nthe waves like a sea-bird with folded wing. Near it was a bigger ship\nwhich was on its way to the north pole.\n\n\"That big ship will give us a lift now,\" said North Wind. Swooping down\nshe tucked him snugly in amongst some flags. And now on and on, they\nsped toward the north. How long it was, Diamond did not know, but one\nnight she whispered in his ear, \"Come up on deck, Diamond.\"\n\nEverything looked very strange. Here and there on all sides, were huge\nmasses of floating ice looking like cathedrals and castles and crags,\nand beyond them a blue sea. Some of the icebergs were drifting\nnorthward, one passing very near the ship. North Wind seized Diamond\nand with a single bound, lighted on it. The same instant, South Wind\nbegan to blow and North Wind hurried Diamond down the north side of the\nberg and into a cave. There she sat down as if weary on a ledge of ice.\n\nDiamond was enraptured with the color of the air in the cave, a deep,\ndazzling, lovely blue that was always in motion, boiling and sparkling.\nBut when he looked at North Wind he was frightened.\n\nHe saw that her form and face were growing, not small, but transparent\nlike something dissolving away. He could see the side of the blue cave\nthrough her very heart. She melted slowly away till all that was left\nwas a pale face with two great lucid eyes in it.\n\n\"She is dying away!\" he said. \"Of course, as we go northward, she is\ndying away more and more.\"\n\nAfter a little, he went out and sat on the edge of his floating island\nand looked down into the green ocean. When he got tired of that, he went\nback into the blue cave. He felt as if in a dream. He was not hungry,\nbut he sucked little bits of the berg at times.\n\nAt length, far off on the horizon, there rose into the sky a shining\npeak, and his berg floated right toward it. Other peaks came into view\nas he went on, and at last his berg floated up to a projecting rock.\nDiamond stepped ashore and a little way before him saw a lofty ridge of\nice with a gap in it like the opening of a valley. As he got nearer, he\nsaw it was not a gap but the form of a woman, her hands in her lap and\nher hair hanging to the ground.\n\n\"It is North Wind on her door-step!\" said Diamond joyfully and hurried\non.\n\n[Illustration: HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE\nDEAD AT LAST]\n\nShe sat motionless with drooping head and did not move nor speak. He was\nsure it was North Wind but he thought she must be dead at last. Her face\nwas white as the snow, her eyes blue as the ice cave, and she had on a\ngreenish robe like the color in the hollows of a glacier.\n\nHe walked toward her instantly and put out his hand to lay it on her.\nThere was nothing there but intense cold. All grew white about him. He\ngroped on further. The white thickened about him and he felt himself\nstumbling and falling. But as he fell, he rolled over the threshold. It\nwas thus that Diamond got to the back of the north wind.\n\nAnd what did he find? There was no North Wind in sight nor snow nor ice.\nIt was a country where even the ground smelled sweetly, though Diamond\nthought the odour must come out of the flowers. A gentle air breathed in\nhis face but he was not quite sure he did not miss the wind. A river as\nclear as crystal ran not only through the grass but over it too. It\nmurmured a low, sweet song as it ran. There was no sun nor moon but a\npure cloudless light always, and the blue arch of the sky seemed like a\nharp playing the soft airs of Heaven. There were many people there and\nall the people seemed happy and yet as if they were going to be happier\nsome day.\n\nNothing ever went wrong at the back of the north wind and the only thing\none ever missed was some one he loved who had not yet got there. But if\none at the back of the north wind wanted to know how things were going\nwith any one he loved, he had only to go to a certain tree, and climb up\nand sit down in the branches.\n\nOne day, when Diamond was sitting in this tree, he began to long very\nmuch to get home again. And no wonder! For he saw his mother crying. Now\nif you wished anything at the back of the north wind, you could follow\nyour wish if you could find the way. So Diamond knew that he must now\nfind North Wind. He could not go home without her and therefore he must\nfind her. He went all about searching and searching. One day as he was\nlooking and looking, he thought he caught a glimpse of the ice ridge and\nthe misty form of North Wind seated as he had left her. He ran as hard\nas he could. Yes, he was sure it was she. He pushed on through the\nwhiteness, which began to thicken around him. It was harder and harder\nto go but he struggled on and at last reached her and sank wearily down\nat her knees. At that same moment, the country at her back vanished from\nDiamond's view.\n\nNorth Wind was as still as Diamond had left her. But as he touched her,\nher face began to change like that of one waking from sleep. He\nclambered up upon her breast. She gave a great sigh, slowly lifted her\narms, and slowly folded them about him, until she clasped him close.\n\n\"Have you been sitting here ever since I went through you, dear North\nWind? It has been like a hundred years!\" said Diamond.\n\n\"It has been just seven days,\" said North Wind smiling. \"Come now, we\nwill go.\"\n\nThe next moment, Diamond sat alone on the rock. North Wind had vanished.\nBut something like a cockchafer flew past his face. Around and around\nhim in circles it went.\n\n\"Come along, Diamond,\" it said in his ear. \"It is time we were setting\nout for Sandwich.\"\n\nIt seemed to drop to the ground but when he looked Diamond could see\nnothing but a little spider with long legs which made its way over the\nice toward the south. It grew and grew till Diamond discovered that it\nwas not a spider but a weasel. Away glided the weasel and away went\nDiamond after it. The weasel grew and grew and grew till he saw it was\nnot a weasel but a cat. Away went the cat and away went Diamond after\nit. When he came up with it, it was not a cat but a leopard. The leopard\ngrew to a jaguar and the jaguar to a Bengal tiger.\n\nOf none of them was Diamond afraid for he had been at North Wind's back\nand he could be afraid of her no longer whatever she did or grew to be.\nThe tiger flew over the snow in a straight line for the south, growing\nless and less to Diamond's eyes till it was only a black speck upon the\nwhiteness. Then it vanished altogether.\n\nAnd now Diamond felt that he would rather not run any further and that\nthe ice had got very rough. Besides he was near the precipices that\nbounded the sea. So he slowed up his pace to a walk and said to himself,\n\"North Wind will come back for me, I know. She is just teasing me a\nlittle. Then, too, she _must_ get started some way to grow bigger and\nbigger all the time!\"\n\n\"Here I am, dear boy,\" said North Wind's voice behind him.\n\nDiamond turned and saw her as he liked best to see her, standing beside\nhim a tall, beautiful woman.\n\n\"Where is the tiger?\" he said. \"But of course, you were the tiger. It\npuzzles me a little. I saw it such a long way off before me, and there\nyou are behind me. It is odd, you know.\"\n\n\"None of these things is odder to me than to see you eat bread and\nbutter,\" said North Wind.\n\n\"I should just like to see a slice of bread and butter!\" cried Diamond.\n\"I am afraid to say how long it is since I had anything to eat!\"\n\n\"You shall have some soon. I am glad to find you want some!\"\n\nShe swept him up in her arms and bounded into the air. Her tresses began\nto lift and rise and spread and stream and flow and flutter. And North\nWind and Diamond went flying southward. The sea slid away from under\nthem like a great web of shot silk, blue shot with gray, and green shot\nwith purple. The stars appeared to sail away past them, like golden\nboats on a blue sea turned upside down. Diamond himself went fast, fast,\nfast--he went fast asleep in North Wind's arms.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nDIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT\n\n\nWhen he woke once more, a face was bending over him. It was not North\nWind's, however; it was his mother's. He put out his arms to her and she\nclasped him to her heart and burst out crying.\n\n\"What is the matter, mother?\" cried Diamond.\n\n\"Oh, Diamond dear! You have been so ill!\" she said.\n\n\"Why no, mother dear. I have only been at the back of the North Wind,\"\nreturned Diamond.\n\n\"I thought you were dead,\" said his mother.\n\nAt that moment, the doctor came in. He drew his mother aside and told\nher not to talk to Diamond. He must be kept as quiet as possible. And\nindeed, Diamond felt very strange and weak. But he soon got better with\nchicken broth and other nice things.\n\nAnd it was a good thing that he could get well and strong again. For\nsince he had come to Sandwich, a sad thing had happened to his father.\nMr. Coleman, his father's employer, had failed in business. It had come\nabout in this way. Miss Coleman, who had looked so like North Wind that\nnight on which he had seen her having her long black hair combed beside\nthe fire, had a lover, a Mr. Evans. Now Mr. Evans was poor and felt\nashamed to marry Miss Coleman until he had made more money and could\nlive finely. This was a sort of false pride and it brought about great\ntrouble for them all.\n\nFor Mr. Coleman took Mr. Evans into partnership to help him along. As\nsoon as that happened, Mr. Evans began to urge Mr. Coleman to go into\nbusiness ventures which were not honest but in which they could make a\ngreat deal of money. It was not so bad at first, but as they went on, it\nbecame more and more dishonest.\n\nThey could not seem to get out of it, however, and get back to carrying\non their business in the right way. So North Wind had to take a hand and\nteach them better. It was Mr. Coleman's ship she sank that night when\nshe carried Diamond into the cathedral to wait for her. In the one\nboat-load of people which North Wind drove off to a desert island, was\nMr. Evans. He had gone along on the ship to manage the business. Now he\nfound that it would have been better to have been poor and stayed at\nhome to marry Miss Coleman than to be ship-wrecked and have to live on a\ndesert island because he longed so to be rich.\n\nThe loss of the ship ruined Mr. Coleman. He had to sell off his house\nand his horses, old Diamond among them, and go and live in a poor little\nhouse in a much less pleasant place. He had to begin again to work and\nlearn how much better it is to be honest and contented than to try to\nget rich quickly. And poor Miss Coleman thought her lover was drowned\nand was very, very unhappy.\n\nNobody suffers alone. When old Diamond was sold, young Diamond's father\nwas thrown out of work. Then he had no way to earn money to keep Diamond\nand his mother and the new little baby brother who had come to them. How\nDiamond did wish he was big enough to do something! But of course, he\ncould think of nothing he could do. Besides he had to get well and\nstrong first, anyway. His father sent word that he and his mother were\nto stay down at Sandwich until he found something to do and a place\nwhere he could make a home for them. It was a very fortunate thing that\nDiamond's aunt was glad to keep them with her as long as ever they were\nwilling to stay.\n\nOne day when Diamond was getting strong enough to go out, his mother got\nhis aunt's husband, who had a little pony cart, to carry them down to\nthe sea-shore. A whiff of sea air, she said, would do them both good.\nThey sat down on the edge of the rough grass which bordered the sand.\nAway before them stretched the sparkling waters of the ocean, every wave\nof which flashed out its delight in the face of the great sun. On each\nhand, the shore rounded outward, forming a little bay. Dry sand was\nabout their feet, and under them thin wiry grass.\n\nAfter a time, his mother stretched out her hand for the basket which she\nhad brought with her and she and Diamond had their dinner. Diamond _did_\nenjoy it, the drive and the fresh air had made him so hungry! But he was\nsorry that his mother looked so sad and depressed. He knew she was\nthinking about his father and how they now had no home. But there was\nnothing for him to do. So he lay down on the sand again, feeling sleepy,\nand gazed sleepily out over the sand. \"What is that, mother!\" he said.\n\n\"Only a bit of paper,\" she answered looking where he pointed.\n\n\"It flutters more than a bit of paper would, I think,\" said Diamond.\n\n\"I'll go and see if you like,\" said his mother.\n\nShe rose and went and found that it was a little book partly buried in\nthe sand. Several of its leaves were clear of the sand and these the\nwind kept blowing about in a very fluttering manner. She took it up and\nbrought it to Diamond.\n\n\"What is it, mother?\" he asked.\n\n\"Rhymes, I think,\" said she.\n\n\"I am so sleepy,\" he said. \"Do read some of them to me.\"\n\n\"Well, I will,\" she said and began one. \"But this is such nonsense,\" she\nsaid again. \"I will try to find a better one.\"\n\nShe turned the leaves, searching, but three times with sudden puffs the\nwind blew the leaves rustling back to the same verses.\n\n\"I wonder if that is North Wind,\" said Diamond to himself. To his mother\nhe said, \"Do read that one. It sounded very nice. I am sure it is a good\none.\"\n\nHis mother thought it might amuse him although she could not find any\nsense in it. So she read on like this:\n\n          I know a river\n          whose waters run asleep,\n          run, run ever,\n          singing in the shallows,\n          dumb in the hollows\n          sleeping so deep;\n          and all the swallows\n          that dip their feathers\n          in the hollows\n          or in the shallows\n          are the merriest swallows of all!\n\n\"Why!\" whispered Diamond to himself sleepily, \"that is what the river\nsang when I was at the back of the north wind.\"\n\n          And so with the daisies\n          the little white daisies\n          they grow and they blow\n          and they spread out their crown\n          and they praise the sun;\n          and when he goes down\n          their praising is done\n          and they fold up their crown\n          till over the plain\n          he is rising amain\n          and they're at it again!\n          praising and praising\n          such low songs raising\n          that no one hears them\n          but the sun who rears them!\n          and the sheep that bite them\n          awake or asleep\n          are the quietest sheep\n          with the merriest bleat!\n          and the little lambs\n          are the merriest lambs!\n          they forget to eat\n          for the frolic in their feet!\n\n\"Merriest, merriest, merriest,\" murmured Diamond as he sank deeper and\ndeeper in sleep. \"That is what the song of the river is telling me.\nEven I can be merry and cheerful--and that will help some. And so I\nwill--when--I--wake--up--again.\" And he went off sound asleep.\n\nIt was not very long after this that Diamond and his mother could go\nhome again. His father had now found something to do and this is how it\ncame about. He one day met a cabman who was a friend of his and this\nfriend said to him, \"Why don't you set up as a cabman yourself--and buy\na cab?\"\n\n\"I haven't enough money to buy a horse with--and a cab,\" said Diamond's\nfather.\n\n\"Look here,\" answered his friend. \"I just bought an old horse the other\nday, cheap. He is no good for the hansom I drive, for when folks take a\nhansom, they want to drive like the wind. But for a four-wheeler that\ntakes families and their luggage, he's the very horse. I bought him\ncheap and I'll sell him cheap.\"\n\n\"Oh, I don't want him,\" said Diamond's father.\n\n\"Well, come and see him anyway,\" said his friend. So he went.\n\nWhat was his delight on going into the stable to find that the horse was\nno other than his own old Diamond! Diamond, grown very thin and bony and\nlong-legged. The horse hearing his master's voice, turned his long\nneck. And when his old friend went up to him and laid his hand on his\nside, he whinnied for joy and laid his big head on his master's breast.\nThis settled the matter. Diamond's father put his arms around old\nDiamond's neck and fairly cried.\n\nThe end of it was that Diamond's father bought old Diamond again,\ntogether with a four-wheeled cab. As there were some rooms to be had\nover the stable, he took them, wrote to his wife to come home, and set\nup as a cabman.\n\nIt was late in the afternoon when Diamond and his mother and the baby\nreached London. His father was waiting for them with his own cab but\nthey had not told Diamond who the horse was. For his father wanted to\nenjoy the pleasure of his surprise when he found it out. He got in with\nhis mother without looking at the horse and was quite proud of riding\nhome in his father's cab.\n\nWhen he got to the stables where their rooms were he could not help\nbeing a little dismayed at first. But he thought of the song of the\nriver at the back of the north wind and just looked about for things\nthat were pleasant. He said to himself that it was a fine thing that all\ntheir old furniture was there. Then he began to search out the\nadvantages of the place.\n\nA thick, dull rain was falling and that was depressing. But the weather\nwould change and there was a good fire burning in the room, which a\nneighbor had made for them. The tea things were put out and the kettle\nwas boiling on the fire. And with a good fire and tea and bread and\nbutter, things cannot be so _very_ bad.\n\nBut Diamond's father and mother were rather miserable and Diamond began\nto feel a kind of darkness spreading over him. At the same moment, he\nsaid, \"This will never do! I can't give in to this. I've been at the\nback of the north wind. Things go right there and they must be made to\ngo right here!\"\n\nSo he said out loud, \"What nice bread and butter this is!\" And when he\nhad eaten it, he began to amuse the baby who was soon shrieking with\nlaughter. His father and mother had to laugh too and things began to\nlook better.\n\nIt was indeed a change for them all, not only from Sandwich but from\ntheir old place. Instead of the great river where the huge barges with\ntheir brown and yellow sails went up and down, their windows now looked\nout upon a dirty paved yard. There was no garden more for Diamond to run\ninto when he pleased, with gay flowers about his feet, and lofty trees\nover his head.\n\nNeither was there a wooden wall at the back of his bed with a hole in\nit for North Wind to come in at when she liked. Indeed, there was such a\nhigh wall that North Wind seldom got into the place. And the wall at the\nhead of Diamond's new bed only divided it from the room where a cabman\nlived who drank too much beer and came home to quarrel with and abuse\nhis wife. It was dreadful for Diamond to hear the scolding and the\ncrying. But he was determined it should not make him miserable for he\nhad been at the back of the north wind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nDIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE\n\n\nThe wind blew loudly all night long, the first night Diamond slept in\nhis new home, but he did not hear it. My own belief is that when Diamond\nslept too soundly to remember anything about it in the morning, he had\nbeen all night at the back of the north wind. Sometimes something did\nseem to remain in his mind like the low far-off murmur of the river\nsinging its song. He sometimes tried to hold on to the words it sung.\nBut ever as he came _awaker_--as he would say--one line faded away and\nthen another. At last there was nothing left but the sense that\neverything went right there and could--and must--be made to go right\nhere.\n\nThat was how he awoke that first morning and he jumped up at once\nsaying, \"I've been ill a long time and given a great deal of trouble.\nNow let's see how I can help my mother.\"\n\nWhen he went into her room, he found her lighting the fire and his\nfather just getting up. So he took up the baby who was awake too and\ncared for him till his mother had the breakfast ready. She was looking\ngloomy and his father too was silent. Diamond felt that in a few\nminutes, he would be just as miserable. But he tried with all his might\nto be jolly with the baby and presently his mother just had to smile.\n\n\"Why, Diamond, child!\" she said at last. \"You are as good to your mother\nas if you were a girl--nursing the baby and toasting the bread, and\nsweeping up the hearth. I declare a body would think you had been among\nthe fairies.\"\n\n\"I've been at the back of the north wind,\" said Diamond to himself\nhappily.\n\nAnd now his father was more cheerful too. \"Won't you come out and see\nthe cab, Diamond?\" he asked.\n\n\"Yes, father, in just a minute after I put the baby down.\"\n\nSo his father went on ahead. When Diamond got out into the yard, the\nhorse was between the shafts. Diamond went around to look at him. The\nsight of him made him feel very queer. He could not make it out. What\nhorse was it that looked so familiar? When he came around in front and\nthe old horse put out his long neck and began rubbing against him,\nDiamond saw it could be no other than old Diamond and he just put his\narms around his neck and cried.\n\n\"Isn't it jolly, father!\" he said. \"Was there ever anybody so lucky as\nwe! Dear old Diamond!\" He hugged the horse again and kissed both his\nbig, hairy cheeks. He could only manage one at a time, however--the\nother cheek was so far off on the other side of old Diamond's big head.\nAnd now his father took up the reins to drive off.\n\n\"Oh, father, do let me drive a bit!\" cried Diamond jumping up on the box\nbeside him. His father put the reins into his hands and began to show\nhim how to drive. He let Diamond drive quite a little way and then the\nboy jumped down and ran gaily back to his mother.\n\nNow it happened that the man who sold old Diamond back to his father,\nsaw how delighted little Diamond was to learn to drive. And that\nevening, shortly before Diamond's father came home, the man asked\nDiamond's mother if the boy might not go a little way with him.\n\n\"He cannot go far,\" said his mother, \"for he is not very strong yet.\"\n\n\"I will take him only as far as the square,\" said the man.\n\nDiamond's mother said he might go as far as that. Dancing with delight,\nDiamond ran to get his cap and in a few minutes was jumping into the\ncab. The man gave him the reins and showed him how to drive safely\nthrough the gate and Diamond got along famously. Just as they were\nturning into the square, they had an adventure. It was getting quite\ndusky. A cab was coming rapidly from the other direction, and Diamond\npulling aside and the other driver pulling up, they just escaped a\ncollision. And there was his father!\n\n\"Why, Diamond, it is a bad beginning to run into your own father,\" he\nsaid.\n\n\"But, father, wouldn't it have been a bad ending for you to run into\nyour own son!\" answered the boy. And both men laughed heartily.\n\n\"He is a good little driver, though,\" said the man. \"He would be fit to\ndrive on his own hook in a week or two. But he had better go back with\nyou now.\"\n\n\"Come along then, Diamond,\" said his father. Diamond jumped across into\nthe other cab and they drove away home.\n\nIt was not long before Diamond was a great favorite with all the men\nabout the stables--he was so jolly! It was not the best place in the\nworld for him to be brought up in and at first he did hear a good many\nrough and bad words. But as he did not like them, he never learned to\nsay them and they did him little harm. Before long, the men grew rather\nashamed to use them. One would nudge the other to remind him that the\nboy was within hearing and the words choked themselves before they got\nany further.\n\nOne day, they gave him a curry comb and brush to try his hand on old\nDiamond's coat. He used them deftly and thoroughly as far as he could\nreach.\n\n\"You must make haste and grow,\" the men told him. \"It won't do to clean\na horse half way up and leave his back dirty, you know.\"\n\n\"Put me up,\" said Diamond. In a moment he was on the old horse's back\nwith the comb and brush. There he combed and brushed and combed and\nbrushed. Every now and then, old Diamond would whisk his tail and once\nhe sent the comb flying out of the stable door to the great amusement of\nthe men. But they brought it back to him and Diamond finished his task.\n\n\"Oh, dear!\" said Diamond, when he had done. \"I'm so tired!\" And he laid\nhimself down at full length on old Diamond's back. The men were much\namused and from that time were always ready to teach him to drive.\n\nSo in one way and another, he did learn to drive all sorts of horses,\nand through the most crowded streets in London city. One day his father\ntook him on his own cab and as they were standing waiting for a\npassenger, his father left him alone for a few minutes. Hearing a noise,\nDiamond looked around to see what it was. There was a crossing near the\ncab-stand where a girl was sweeping. Some young roughs had picked a\nquarrel with her and were now trying to pull her broom away from her.\nDiamond was off his box in a moment and running to the help of the girl.\nThe roughs began to act worse than ever. Just then Diamond's father came\nback and sent them flying. The girl thanked Diamond and began sweeping\nagain as if nothing had happened.\n\nShe did not forget her friends, however. A moment after, she came\nrunning up with her broom over her shoulder, calling \"Cab, there! Cab!\"\nAnd when Diamond's father reached the curbstone, who should it be but\nMrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman! Diamond and his father were very happy to\nsee them again and gladly drove them home. When they wanted to pay for\nit, Diamond's father would not hear of it, but jumped on his box and\ndrove away.\n\nIt was a long time since Diamond had seen North Wind or even thought\nmuch about her. Now, as his father drove along, he was thinking not\nabout her but about the crossing sweeper. He was wondering what made him\nfeel as if he knew her quite well when he could not remember anything of\nher. But a picture arose in his mind of a little girl running before\nthe wind, and dragging her broom after her. From that, he recalled the\nwhole adventure of the night when he had gone out with North Wind and\nmade her put him down in a London street.\n\nA few nights after this, Diamond woke up suddenly, believing he heard\nthe north wind thundering along. But it was something quite different.\nSouth Wind was moaning around the chimneys, to be sure, for she was not\nvery happy that night. But it was not her voice that had wakened\nDiamond. It was a loud angry voice, now growling like that of a beast,\nnow raving like that of a madman. It was the voice of the drunken cabman\nwhose room was just through the wall at the back of Diamond's bed.\n\nAt length, there came a cry from the woman and a scream from the baby.\nDiamond thought it was time somebody did something. He jumped up and\nwent to see. The voice of the crying baby guided him to the right door\nand he peeped in. The drunken cabman had dropped into a chair, his wife\nlay sobbing on the bed, and the baby was wailing in its cradle.\n\nDiamond's first thought was to run away from the misery of it. But he\nremembered at once that he had been at the back of the north wind.\nPeople who had been there must always try to destroy misery wherever\nthey saw it. But what could he do? Well, there was the baby. He stole in\nand lifted it into his arms and soon had it on his knee, smiling at the\nlight that came in from the street lamp. He began to sing to it in a low\nvoice--the song of the river as it ran over the soft grass and among the\nflowers in the country at the back of the north wind. He sang on till\nthe baby went sound asleep. He himself got sleepier and sleepier, though\nthe cabman and his wife only got wider awake all the time. At length,\nDiamond found himself nodding. He got up and laid the baby gently in its\ncradle and stole quietly out and home again to his own bed.\n\n\"Wife,\" said the cabman, \"did you see that angel?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered his wife, \"it is little Diamond who lives in the next\nyard.\"\n\nShe knew him well enough. She was the neighbor who had the fire lighted\nand the tea ready for them when Diamond and his mother came home from\nSandwich on that rainy, gloomy night. Her husband was somehow very sorry\nnow and ashamed of the misery he had caused--was it the song of the\nriver which Diamond had sung that caused it? He tried hard to forget\nwhere the drink shop stood and for a good many weeks managed to keep\naway from it.\n\nOne day when their cab was waiting for a fare, Diamond jumped down to\nrun a little and stretch his legs. He strolled up to the crossing where\nNanny and her broom were to be found in all weathers. Just as he was\ngoing to speak to her a tall gentleman stepped upon the crossing. He was\nglad to find it clean and he gave the girl a penny. When she made him a\ncourtesy, he looked at her again and said, \"Where do you live, my\nchild?\"\n\n\"Paradise Row,\" she answered. \"Next door to the Adam and Eve--down the\narea.\"\n\n\"Whom do you live with?\" he asked.\n\n\"My wicked old granny,\" she replied.\n\n\"You should not call your granny wicked,\" said the gentleman.\n\n\"But she is!\" said Nanny. \"If you don't believe me, you can come and\ntake a look at her.\"\n\nThe gentleman looked very grave at hearing her. It was not a nice way\nfor a little girl to talk. He was turning away, when he saw the face of\nDiamond looking up into his own.\n\n\"Please,\" said Diamond, \"her granny is very cruel to her sometimes--and\nshuts her out in the streets at night if she happens to be late.\"\n\n\"So, my little man. And what can you do?\" asked the gentleman turning\ntowards him.\n\n\"Drive a cab,\" said Diamond proudly.\n\n\"Anything else?\" asked the gentleman smiling.\n\n\"Take care of the baby,\" said Diamond; \"clean father's boots and make\nhim a bit of toast for his tea.\"\n\n\"You are a useful little man,\" said the gentleman. \"Can you read?\"\n\n\"No, but father and mother can and they are going to teach me soon.\"\n\n\"Well, here is a penny for you, and when you learn to read, come to me\nand I will give you six-pence and a book with fine pictures in it.\"\n\nHe gave Diamond a card with his address on it. \"Thank you,\" said Diamond\nand put the card into his pocket. The gentleman walked away but he saw\nDiamond give the penny to Nanny and say, \"I have a father and mother and\nlittle brother and you have nothing but a wicked old granny. You may\nhave my penny.\"\n\nThe girl put the penny in her pocket and Diamond asked, \"Is she as cruel\nas ever?\"\n\n\"Just the same. But I get more coppers, so I can buy myself some food.\nShe is so blind that she doesn't see that I do not eat her old scraps. I\nhide them in my pocket.\"\n\n\"What do you want them for?\"\n\n\"To give to cripple Jim. His leg was broken when he was young, so he\nisn't good for much. But I love Jim. I always keep something for him.\"\n\n\"Diamond! Diamond!\" called his father, just then.\n\nSo Diamond ran back and told him about the gentleman and showed him the\ncard he had given him.\n\n\"Why, it is not many doors from our stables!\" cried his father looking\nat the address. \"Take care of it, Diamond. One needs all the friends he\ncan get in this world.\"\n\n\"We've got many friends,\" said Diamond. \"Haven't we? There's mother and\nthe baby and old Diamond--and the man next door who drinks--and his wife\nand baby--and Mrs. Coleman and Miss Coleman--and--and a many!\"\n\nHis father just laughed and drove off.\n\n[Illustration: WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE\nVERSES FOR HIMSELF]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nDIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB\n\n\nThe question of the tall gentleman as to whether Diamond could read or\nnot, set his father to thinking it was high time he could. As soon as\nold Diamond was fed and bedded, he began the task of teaching him that\nvery night. It was not much of a task to Diamond for his father took for\nthe lesson book the same one which North Wind had waved the leaves of on\nthe sands at Sandwich. Within a month, he was able to spell out most of\nthe verses for himself. But he never found in it the river song which he\nthought his mother had read from it. Could it have been North Wind doing\nthe reading in his mother's voice?\n\nIt was not long before Diamond managed with many blunders to read all\nthe rhymes in his book to his mother. Then he said, \"In a week or so, I\nshall be able to go to the tall gentleman and tell him I can read.\" But\nbefore the week was out he had another reason for going to the\ngentleman, whose name he found out was Mr. Raymond. For three days,\nNanny had not been at her crossing. Diamond was quite anxious about her,\nfearing she must be ill. On the fourth day not seeing her yet, he said\nto his father, \"I want to go and look after Nanny. She can't be well.\"\n\n\"All right,\" said his father. \"Only take care of yourself, Diamond.\"\n\nSo Diamond set off to find his way to Nanny's home. It was a long\ndistance and he had to ask his way over and over again. But he kept on\nwithout getting discouraged and at last he came to it.\n\nHappily for Diamond, the ugly old granny had gone out. He laid his ear\nto the door and thought he heard a moaning within. He tried the door and\nfound it was not locked. It was a dreary place indeed--and very dark,\nfor the window was below the level of the street and was covered with\nmud. And the smell in the room was dreadful!\n\nHe could see next to nothing at first but he heard the moaning plainly\nenough now. Soon he found his friend lying with closed eyes and a white\nsuffering face on a heap of rags in a corner. He went up to her and\nspoke but she made him no answer. She did not even hear him. Taking out\na lump of barley sugar candy he had brought for her he laid it down\nbeside her and hurried away. He was going to find Mr. Raymond and see if\nhe could not do something for Nanny.\n\nIt was a long walk to Mr. Raymond's door but he got there at last. Yet\nafter all, the servant was not going to let him in, only Mr. Raymond\ncame out into the hall just then and saw him and recognized him at once.\n\n\"Come in, my little man,\" he said. \"I suppose you have come to claim\nyour six-pence.\"\n\n\"No, sir, not that.\"\n\n\"What! Can't you read yet?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Diamond. \"I can now a little. But I've come to tell you\nabout Nanny--the little girl at the crossing.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, I remember her,\" said Mr. Raymond. \"What is it about Nanny?\"\n\nDiamond told him all about her--how she was sick, and how dark it was\nwhere she lived and with bad smells. Now, Mr. Raymond was one of the\nkindest men in London and was well known at the children's hospital. He\nhurried there now, and some one went from there at once to find Nanny.\nBefore night, they sent a litter for her and soon the little girl was\nlying in a nice clean bed, though she was too sick to know anything\nabout it.\n\nDiamond overheard a doctor say to Mr. Raymond, \"How do you suppose the\nlittle chap knew what to do about Nanny?\"\n\n\"He doesn't know that I have been at the back of the north wind,\" he\nsaid to himself. \"If you have once been there, it just comes to you how\nto do a little to help.\"\n\nAfter Nanny had been well seen to, Mr. Raymond took the boy home with\nhim and they soon settled the matter of the six-pence between them.\n\n\"And now, what will you do with it?\" the gentleman asked him.\n\n\"Take it home to my mother,\" answered Diamond. \"She has a tea-pot with a\nbroken spout and she keeps all her money in it. It isn't much but she\nsaves it up to buy shoes for me. And there's the baby--he'll want shoes\nsoon. And every six-pence is something, isn't it?\"\n\n\"To be sure, my little man. And here is the book for you, full of\npictures and stories.\"\n\nThere were poems in it too, and Diamond at once began to puzzle out one\nof them which ran like this:\n\n          I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;\n          My one foot stands but never goes.\n          I have many arms and they are mighty, all;\n          And hundreds of fingers large and small.\n          From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows,\n          I breathe with my hair and I drink with my toes.\n          In the summer, with song I shake and quiver,\n          But in winter, I fast and groan and shiver.\n\nWhen Diamond ran home with his new book in his hand, he found his father\nat home already. He was sitting by the fire and looking rather miserable\nfor his head ached and he looked sick. The next day, he had to stay in\nbed while his wife nursed him, and Diamond took care of the baby. By the\nnext day, he was very ill indeed. And it was not long before their money\nwas all gone.\n\nDiamond's mother could not help crying over it but she came into\nDiamond's room so that the poor sick father should not hear it. Diamond\nwas frightened when he heard her sobbing and said, \"Is father worse?\"\n\n\"No, no,\" said his mother, \"he is better. But the money is all gone and\nwhat are we to do?\"\n\n\"Don't cry,\" said Diamond. \"We'll get along some how. Let me read to you\nout of North Wind's book.\"\n\nSo he read a little story about the early bird that caught the nice fat\nworm.\n\n\"I wish you were like that little bird, dear,\" said his mother, \"and\ncould catch something to eat!\"\n\nAfter she was gone away, Diamond lay thinking and somehow he seemed to\nhear the murmur of North Wind's river blowing through his thoughts and\ntelling him about something he could do. The next morning he got up as\nsoon as he heard the men moving in the yard. When he went down, the\nstable was just opened. \"I'm the early bird, I think,\" he said to\nhimself, \"and I hope I'll catch the worm.\"\n\n[Illustration: HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY]\n\nHe would not ask any one to help him because he was afraid he would be\nkept from doing what he wanted. With the aid of an old chair, he got the\nharness on old Diamond. The dear old horse opened his mouth for the bit\njust as if Diamond was giving him an apple. He fastened the cheek-strap\nvery carefully, and got all the pieces of harness on and buckled. By\nthis time some of the men were watching him to see if he would get it\nall done by himself. And when he put old Diamond between the shafts, got\nhis whip, and jumped up on the box, the men broke into a cheer.\n\nThe cheer brought his mother to the window and when she saw her little\nboy setting out all alone in the cab, she called \"Diamond! Diamond!\" But\nDiamond did not hear her for the rattle of the cab and so he drove away.\nHe was very much afraid no one would hire him because he was such a\nlittle driver. But before he got to his regular stand, he was hailed by\na man who wanted to catch a train and was in too great a hurry to\nthink about the driver. He got a good fare for that and reached the\ncab-stand the first one after all. As the other cabmen came, he told\nthem about his father and said that he was going to drive the cab in his\nplace.\n\n\"Well, you are a plucky one!\" they all said. \"And you shall have a fair\nchance with the rest.\"\n\nAnd he did, for another gentleman came up very soon for him. When he saw\nthe boy, he was much astonished. \"Are you the driver of this cab?\" he\nasked. \"Yes, sir,\" answered Diamond, showing his father's badge of which\nhe was proud.\n\n\"You are the youngest cabman I ever saw!\" said the gentleman greatly\namused. \"But I believe I'll risk you!\"\n\nHe jumped in and soon found that Diamond got him over the ground very\nwell. The trip was one of several miles and the gentleman paid him three\nshillings for the drive. When Diamond got back, he stopped at a stand\nwhere he had never been before and got down to put on old Diamond's\nnose-bag of oats. The men there did not treat him very nicely and a\ngroup of rough boys came up and began to torment him. But who do you\nthink came to his rescue? Why, the drunken cabman whose room was next\nto Diamond's and whose baby Diamond had once rocked and put to sleep.\n\n\"What is up here?\" the cabman asked.\n\n\"Do you see this young snip?\" the boys cried, \"He pretends to drive a\ncab!\"\n\n\"Yes, I do see him,\" said the cabman. \"I see you, too. You'd better take\nyourselves away from here or you won't find me very agreeable!\"\n\nAnd they went in a hurry!\n\nWhen Diamond went home that night, he carried one pound, one shilling\nand six-pence. His mother had grown very anxious and was almost afraid\nto look when she heard his cab coming at last. But there was the old\nhorse, and there was the cab, all right! And there was Diamond on the\nbox his face as triumphant as a full moon! One of the men took the horse\nto put him up and Diamond ran into the house and into the arms of his\nmother!\n\n\"See! See!\" he cried. \"Here is the worm I caught!\" He poured out the\nsix-pences and shillings into her lap. His mother burst out crying\nagain, but with joy this time and ran to show his father. Then how\npleased _he_ was! And Diamond snatched up the baby and began to sing and\ndance, he was so happy!\n\nThe next morning, Diamond was up almost as early as before. But the men\nwould not let him do the harnessing any more. They got the cab all ready\nfor him and sent him in to eat all the breakfast he could and get well\nbundled up. His first passenger was a young woman to be taken to the\ndocks. When he started back some roughs came along and tried to steal\nhis fare. But a pale-faced man came up and beat them off with his stick,\nand told Diamond to drive away. Diamond begged him to get into the cab\nand ride. The man said he could not spare the money to ride--he was too\npoor.\n\n\"Oh, do come!\" said Diamond. \"I don't want the money. You helped me. Let\nme help you.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the man, \"if you will take me to Chiswick, I can pay for\nthat. Drive to the Wilderness--Mr. Coleman's place. I'll show you when\nwe get there.\"\n\nNow Diamond had been thinking he had seen the gentleman before and when\nhe said this, it flashed upon him that it was Mr. Evans who had been\ngoing to marry Miss Coleman. North Wind had sunk his and Mr. Coleman's\nship because their business was not honest and was making bad men of\nthem. She had carried Mr. Evans away to a desert island. He had just\ngot back again and was poor now and humble and willing to begin to work\nagain in an honest way.\n\nIt was plain he did not know that Mr. Coleman had been ruined too and\nhad been forced to sell the Wilderness and move into a poor house in the\ncity. But Diamond knew, and as he drove along he was thinking what he\nought to do. The gentleman would not find Miss Coleman at the\nWilderness. And if he told him where she lived now, perhaps he would not\ngo to see her because he would be so ashamed of having brought all this\ntrouble on her by trying so hard to be rich.\n\nStill he must want to see her very much and she must want to see him. So\nDiamond made up his mind to drive straight to where Miss Coleman lived\nnow, and then they could explain to each other. So on he went.\n\nNow the wind was blowing furiously and when old Diamond finally got to\nMiss Coleman's house and held back to stop, one of the straps of the\nharness broke. Diamond jumped down and opened the cab door and asked the\ngentleman if he would not step into this house where friends of his\nlived and wait while he mended the strap. Then he ran and rang the bell\nand whispered to the maid who came to call Miss Coleman. A few minutes\nlater, he was not at all sure he had done the right thing. For suddenly\nthere came the sound of a great cry and then a running to and fro in the\nhouse. But after a little while, they came and called him in and Miss\nColeman put her arms around him and hugged him tight!\n\nThe rest of the day, he did very well. And what a story he had to tell\nhis father and mother that night about Mr. Evans and the Colemans. They\nwere sure he had done right and he was so glad!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nDIAMOND VISITS NANNY\n\n\nFor a fortnight, Diamond went on driving his cab and helping his family.\nSome people began to know him and to look for him to drive them where\nthey wanted to go. One old gentleman who lived near the stables hired\nhim to carry him into the city every morning at a certain hour. And\nDiamond was as regular as clock work. After that fortnight, his father\nwas able to go out again. Then Diamond began to think about little Nanny\nand went off to inquire about her.\n\nThe first day his father took up his work again, Diamond went with him\nas usual. In the afternoon, however, his father went home and left\nDiamond to drive the cab for the rest of the day. It was hard for old\nDiamond to do all the work but they could not afford to have another\nhorse. They saved him as much as they could and fed him well and he did\nbravely.\n\nThe next morning, his father was so much stronger that Diamond thought\nhe might go and ask Mr. Raymond to take him to see Nanny. Mr. Raymond\nwas quite willing to go and so they walked over to the hospital which\nwas close at hand.\n\nWhen Diamond followed Mr. Raymond into the room where those children lay\nwho had got over the worst of their illness, and were growing better, he\nsaw a number of little iron beds. Each one of them stood with its head\nto the wall and in each one was a child whose face showed just how far\nit had left the pain behind and was getting well. Diamond looked all\naround but he could see no Nanny. He turned to Mr. Raymond with a\nquestion in his eyes.\n\n\"Well?\" said Mr. Raymond.\n\n\"Nanny's not here,\" said Diamond.\n\n\"Oh, yes, she is.\"\n\n\"I don't see her!\"\n\n\"I do, though. There she is.\"\n\nHe pointed to a bed right in front of where Diamond was standing.\n\n\"That's not Nanny!\" cried Diamond.\n\n\"Yes, it _is_ Nanny. I have seen her a great many times since you have,\nand that is she.\"\n\nSo Diamond looked again and looked hard. \"If that is Nanny,\" said\nDiamond to himself, \"then she must have been at the back of the north\nwind. That is why she looks so different.\" He said nothing aloud, only\nstared. And as he stared, something of the face of the old Nanny began\nto come out in the face of the new Nanny. The old Nanny had been\nsomewhat rough in her speech, her face rather hard, and she had not\nkept herself clean--how could she! Now, in her fresh white bed, she\nlooked sweet and gentle and refined.\n\n\"Surely North Wind has had something to do with it,\" thought Diamond. In\nher weeks of sickness, had North Wind carried Nanny to the country at\nher back--as she once had carried him--and changed her from a rough girl\nto a gentle maiden? As he gazed, the best of the old face, the good and\ntrue part of the old Nanny, dawned upon him like the moon coming out of\na cloud. He saw that it was Nanny, indeed--but very worn and grown\nalmost beautiful.\n\nHe went up to her and she smiled. He had heard her laugh, but he had\nnever seen her smile before. \"Nanny, do you know me?\" asked Diamond. She\nonly smiled again. She was not likely to forget him. To be sure, she did\nnot know that it was he who had got her there. But he was the only boy\nexcept cripple Jim who had ever been kind to her.\n\nMr. Raymond walked about talking to the other children, while Diamond\nvisited with Nanny. Then after a time, he stood in the middle of the\nroom and told them a nice fairy story. He often did that and the\nchildren watched for his visits. After he finished the story, he had to\ngo. Diamond took leave of Nanny and promised to go and see her again\nsoon and went away with Mr. Raymond.\n\nNow Mr. Raymond had been turning over in his mind what he could do for\nDiamond and for Nanny. He knew Diamond's father somewhat. But he wanted\nto find out better what sort of a man he was and whether he was worth\ndoing anything for. He decided to see if he would do anything for any\nbody else. For that would be the very best way to find out if it were\nworth while to do anything for _him_. So as they walked away together,\nhe said to little Diamond, \"Nanny must leave the hospital soon, Diamond.\nThey cannot keep her as long as they would like. They cannot keep her\ntill she is quite strong. There are always so many sick children they\nwant to take in and make better. The question is what will she do when\nthey send her out again?\"\n\n\"That is just what I can't tell,\" said Diamond, \"though I've been\nthinking it over and over. Her crossing was taken long ago. I couldn't\nbear to see Nanny fighting for it, especially with the poor lame boy who\nhas taken it. Besides she has no better right to it than he has. Nobody\ngave it to her. She just took it and now he has taken it.\"\n\n\"She would get sick again, anyway,\" said Mr. Raymond, \"if she went to\nsweeping again right away in the wet. If somebody could only teach her\nsomething to do it would be better. Perhaps if she could be taught to be\nnice and clean and to speak only gentle words----\"\n\n\"Mother could teach her that!\" interrupted Diamond.\n\n\"And to dress babies and feed them and take care of them,\" Mr. Raymond\nwent on, \"she might get a place as nurse maid somewhere. People would\ngive her money for that.\"\n\n\"Why, I'll ask mother!\" cried Diamond. \"She could learn to dress our\nbaby, you know, with me to show her how!\"\n\n\"But you will have to give her food then. And your father, not being\nstrong, has enough to do already without that.\"\n\n\"Still there am I!\" said Diamond. \"I'll help him out with it. When he\ngets tired of driving, up I get. And I could drive more if Nanny was at\nhome to help mother.\"\n\n\"Now I wonder,\" said Mr. Raymond, \"if you couldn't do better with two\nhorses. I am going away for a few months and I am willing to let your\nfather have my horse while I am gone. He is nearly as old as your\nDiamond. I don't want to part with him and yet I don't want him to be\nidle. Nobody ought to be idle, not even a horse. Still I do not want him\nto be worked hard. Will you tell your father what I say and see if he\nwants to take charge of him?\"\n\n\"Yes, I will,\" said Diamond. \"And he will come and see you about it.\"\n\nSo when Diamond went home, he told his father all about it. But when his\nfather went to see about it, he found that he must agree to work the\nhorse only six hours a day. Then too he must take Nanny from the\nhospital and feed her, and teach her to be useful and keep her as long\nas he had Mr. Raymond's horse. Diamond's father could not help thinking\nthat it was a pretty close bargain and so it was. Mr. Raymond wanted to\nfind out if Diamond's father was the kind of man who was willing to help\nsome one else without getting any advantage out of it for himself. Then\nit would be worth while to help _him_. Diamond's father was that kind of\na man. So when he heard all about Nanny, he decided to accept Mr.\nRaymond's offer and do the best he could.\n\nNanny was not fit to be moved for some time yet and Diamond went to see\nher as often as he could. But he went out to drive old Diamond every day\nnow for a few hours at least. Then he had to help mind his baby brother\nfor part of the time. So he did not go to the hospital as often as he\nwould have liked. When he did go, he sat by Nanny's bed and told her all\nthat had happened to him since he had been there before. In her turn\nNanny would tell him of what went on in the hospital--what visitors they\nhad and things like that.\n\n\"Day before yesterday,\" said Nanny one day, \"a lady came to see us. She\nwas a very beautiful lady. She sat down beside my bed and let me stroke\nher hand. She had on a most beautiful ring with a rich red stone in it.\nWhen she saw me looking at it, she slipped it off her finger and put it\non mine. She said I might wear her lovely ruby for a little while if it\nwould make me happy.\"\n\n\"Her ruby!\" cried Diamond. \"How funny that is! Our new horse's name is\nRuby. And we took him so that we could take you to live with us, while\nyou are getting strong again. I do believe a ruby is for good luck!\"\n\n\"It did me good right then,\" said Nanny. \"For that night I had such a\nlovely dream. It began with a red sunset like my darling ruby ring. Then\nsomehow a wind came out of it and blew me along out of the dirty streets\ninto a yard with a lovely lawn of soft grass.\"\n\n\"That was North Wind, I know!\" cried Diamond. \"That is what she does to\nme.\"\n\n\"I do not know what you mean,\" said Nanny. \"I do not know anything about\nNorth Wind. But all at once there was no more ruby sunset but a great\ngolden moon hanging very low and seeming to be shining just to be good\nto me. It was easy, I suppose, for me to dream about the moon. I've\nalways been used to watching her. She was the only thing worth looking\nat in our street, at night.\"\n\n\"Don't call it your street,\" said Diamond. \"You are not going back to\nit. You are coming to us, you know.\"\n\n\"That is too good to be true!\" said Nanny.\n\n\"No, no!\" cried Diamond. \"How could anything be too good to be true? To\nbe true is to be the very best thing of all. It sounds like your wicked\nold granny to say that!\"\n\n\"Do you know, Diamond,\" said Nanny, \"I do not think my old granny is my\nreal old granny at all. I don't think she was ever any one's granny or\nmother. That was why she was not good to me. Perhaps she never had any\nmother when she was little to be good to her. And somebody must first be\ngood to you, don't you think, before you can learn how to be good to any\nbody else? Isn't that so? But where was I in my dream? Oh yes, the big\nyellow moon came down closer and closer to the grass in front of me.\nThen somehow, it seemed to be my ruby lady. She reached out soft warm\narms of golden light and took me up. I sank against her breast into very\ndowny, golden clouds and went to sleep and left off having pain. And yet\nI didn't sleep but knew it all the time, and just swung softly there all\nnight long.\"\n\n\"Wasn't it really North Wind?\" said Diamond to himself. \"Perhaps it\n_was_ North Wind though she doesn't know it. Maybe the moon does just\nthe same. What if it should some day carry her to that same country--at\nthe back of _my_ North Wind! Who knows?\"\n\nThe nurse now came and told him it was time to go. Nanny had closed her\neyes as if she were tired or asleep. So Diamond arose quietly and\ntip-toed away.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY\n\n\nIt was a great delight to Diamond, when at length Nanny was well enough\nto leave the hospital and go to their house. She was not strong yet but\nDiamond's mother was very careful of her. She took care she should have\nnothing to do that she was not fit for. If Nanny had been taken straight\nfrom the street, it is pretty sure she would not have been so pleasant\nin a nice house nor so easy to teach. But the kindness they had shown\nher in the hospital while she was ill so long had changed her quite a\nlittle.\n\nAs she got better, the colour came back to her cheeks, her step grew\nlighter and quicker, her smile shone out more readily, and it was clear\nshe would soon be a treasure of help. It was great fun to see Diamond\nteaching her how to hold the baby and wash and dress him. Nanny had\nnever had a little brother or sister to care for and she and Diamond\noften had to laugh over her awkwardness. But she was soon able to do it\nall as well as Diamond himself.\n\nThings, however, did not go very well with Diamond's father from the\nfirst coming of the horse, Ruby. It almost seemed as if the red beast\nbrought bad luck with him. The fares were fewer and the pay less.\nRuby's work did indeed make the week's income at first a little more\nthan it used to be. But then there were two more to feed. After the\nfirst month, however, he fell lame, and for the whole of the next month,\nDiamond's father did not dare work him at all. It cost just as much to\nfeed him and all he did was to stand in the stable and grow fat.\n\nAnd after he got well again, it was not much better. Times had then\nbecome hard and fewer and fewer people felt that they could afford to\nride in cabs. The cabmen got fewer and fewer shillings to live on.\nDiamond's household had less and less to buy food and clothing with.\nThen too, Diamond's mother was poorly for a new baby was coming.\n\nDiamond's father began to feel gloomier and gloomier and if Diamond had\nnot made himself remember that he had been at the back of the north\nwind, he would have been gloomy himself. But when his father came home,\nDiamond would get out his book and show him how well he could read.\nBesides he taught Nanny how to read and as she was a very clever little\ngirl, she picked it up very fast. Nanny was such a comfort about the\nhouse that Diamond's father just had to cheer up a little when he came\nhome at night and the dull day's work was over.\n\nAfter the new baby came, Diamond sang to her and of course he had to\nmake up new songs to sing to her because she was a little sister baby.\nIt would never do, he said, to sing the little brother songs to her.\nWhile he sang, his father and mother could not help listening and\nforgetting for the time how bad things were getting to be.\n\nThe three months Mr. Raymond had spoken of were now gone and Diamond's\nfather was very anxious for him to come back and take Ruby off his\nhands, for he did not seem to work enough to pay for his keep. Then he\nwas so lazy and fat, while poor old Diamond had got so thin he was just\nskin and bones! For Diamond's father was an honest man and felt that he\nmust stick to his promise to feed Ruby while he kept him, whether old\nDiamond got enough to eat or not. But he _did_ wish Mr. Raymond would\ncome, though when he looked at Nanny he felt that he would be sorry to\nlose her. For it was understood that a place as a nurse girl would be\nfound for her when Ruby was taken away.\n\nMr. Raymond did not come, however, and things got worse and worse.\nDiamond could do little but drive old Diamond in the cab whenever he\ncould be of help that way, and sing to the two babies at home. At last,\none week was worse than anything they had yet had. They were almost\nwithout bread before it was over.\n\nIt was Friday night, and Diamond like the rest of the household had had\nvery little to eat that day. His mother would always pay the week's rent\nbefore she spent anything even for food. His father had been very\ngloomy--so gloomy that he was very cross. It had been a stormy winter\nand even now that spring had come, the north wind often blew. When\nDiamond went to his bed, which was in a tiny room in the roof, he heard\nit like the sea, moaning. As he fell asleep, he still heard the moaning,\nand presently, he heard the voice of North Wind calling him. His heart\nbeat very fast, it was such a long time since he had heard that voice!\nHe jumped out of bed, but did not see her. Yet she kept on calling.\n\n\"Diamond, come here! Diamond, come here!\" the voice repeated again and\nagain.\n\n\"Dear North Wind,\" said Diamond, \"I want so much to come to you but I\ncan't tell where to find you.\"\n\n\"Come here, Diamond!\" was all her answer.\n\nSo he opened his door and trotted down the long stair and out into the\nyard. A great puff of wind at once came against him. He turned and went\nwith it, and it blew him up to the stable door and kept on blowing.\n\n\"She wants me to go into the stable,\" said Diamond. \"But the door is\nlocked.\"\n\nJust then, a great blast of wind brought down the key upon the stones at\nhis feet from where it was kept hanging high above his head. He picked\nit up, opened the door, and went in without much noise. And what did he\nhear? He heard the two horses, Diamond and Ruby, talking to each other.\nThey talked in a strange language, yet somehow he could understand it.\n\n\"You ought to be ashamed of yourself,\" old Diamond was saying, \"sleek\nand fat as _you_ are, and so lazy you get along no faster than a big\ndray-horse that is pulling tons!\"\n\n\"Oh, I like to be fat and lazy!\" said Ruby.\n\n\"And you like to hear master abused on account of you, too, I dare say,\"\nreplied old Diamond angrily. \"Why don't you get up a little speed, while\nyou are drawing a fare, at least! The abuse master gets for your sake is\nquite shameful! No wonder he doesn't get many fares when he has you!\"\n\n\"Well, if I worked as hard as I could, I'd be a bag of bones like you!\"\n\n\"I'm proud to work!\" said old Diamond. \"I wouldn't be as fat as you, not\nfor all you're worth. You are a disgrace! Look at the horse next you.\n_He_ is something _like_ a horse--all skin and bones. He knows he has\ngot his master's wife and children to support and he works _like_ a\nhorse!\"\n\n\"I might get lamed again, if I didn't go slowly and carefully,\" said\nRuby.\n\n\"Lame again!\" snorted old Diamond. \"It's my belief you lamed yourself on\npurpose so you could stay in the stable and stuff yourself and grow fat!\nYou selfish beast!\"\n\n\"I might get angry at you,\" said Ruby, \"if I didn't know a little better\nthan you do how things are coming out. What do you think my master would\nsay if he were to come back--and he may come any day now--and find me\nall worn down to a rack of bones and lamed into the bargain? Do you\nthink anything would make him believe that your master had used me right\nand as he promised he would? And isn't it better he should live a little\nhard himself and prove himself to be an honest man who does what he says\nhe'll do? You don't know everything, old Diamond. You would not probably\nbelieve me if I told you that enduring bad things is often just a way\nfor bringing good things about. But you'll see!\"\n\nOld Diamond just snorted sleepily in reply and gave all his attention to\ndoubling up his knees and getting down upon the floor to go to sleep.\nThe racket he made gave young Diamond a start. With a shiver, he seemed\nto come awake and see the stable door standing open. He trotted out of\nit, back up the long stairs, and tumbled into bed. But Ruby's words kept\nsounding in his head.\n\n\"Is it like what's in my book?\" he said to himself sleepily,--\"that\nabout a blessing in disguise, when things look bad but are working out\nall right--like things at the back of the north wind?\" He got sleepier,\nhowever, as he tried to think and was fast asleep before he knew it. The\nnext morning, he sang to the baby more cheerily than ever and here is\npart of the song he sung:\n\n          Where did you come from, Baby dear?\n          Out of everywhere into here.\n\n          Where did you get your eyes so blue?\n          Out of the sky as I came through.\n\n          Where did you get this pearly ear?\n          God spoke and it came out to hear.\n\n          But how did you come to us, you dear?\n          God thought of you and so I am here.\n\n\"You never made that song, Diamond,\" said his mother.\n\n\"No, mother. But it's mine just the same, for I love it.\"\n\n\"Does loving a thing make it yours?\"\n\n\"I think so, mother. Baby's mine because I love her, and so are you.\nLove makes the only _my-ness_, doesn't it, mother?\"\n\n\"Perhaps so, Diamond. Yes, I think it does,\" said his mother.\n\nWhen his father came home for his dinner he looked very sad. He had not\ngot a single fare the whole morning.\n\n\"We shall just have to go to the work-house,\" he said and dropped into a\nchair in despair. Just then, came a knock at the door and in walked Mr.\nRaymond! Of course, he wanted to see the horses at once. And when he saw\nhow fat Ruby was and how poor was faithful old Diamond--and when,\nmoreover, he remembered how poor and starved the family looked though\nNanny was still there and kindly treated--he knew that Diamond's father\nhad been stanch and true to his bargain, though it had turned out to be\na hard one. He was a man worth helping--that was clear! And Mr. Raymond\nwas now ready to help him as much as he needed.\n\nHe first pointed out that old Diamond needed only to be fattened up and\nRuby thinned down to make of them a fine pair of horses for his country\nhome to which he was now going. And Diamond's father should go along as\ncoachman. There would be regular wages again and a much more comfortable\nhome in the country.\n\n\"And now, will you sell me old Diamond?\" asked Mr. Raymond. \"If you\nwill, here are twenty pounds for him, if you think that is enough.\"\n\n\"I will sell him to you, sir,\" answered Diamond's father, \"if you\npromise to let me buy him back if I can, if you ever wish to sell him. I\ncould _not_ part with him without that. Though as to who calls him his,\nthat is nothing. For I believe it's true what my little Diamond\nsays--that it's loving a thing that makes it yours.\"\n\n\"You shall have that chance,\" said Mr. Raymond. So the bargain was made.\nHow Diamond capered about at the thought of going to the beautiful\ncountry to live and having a yard and grass to play on! It would be like\nthe old home at Mr. Coleman's--perhaps even nicer than that. How he\ndanced the baby and sang to it!\n\n\"And North Wind told me, Baby dear! She sang in my ears how bad things\nare just a chance to make good things come!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nDIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME\n\n\nBefore the end of the month, Ruby had got a great deal thinner and old\nDiamond a good deal fatter. They really began to look fit to go in\ndouble harness. Diamond's father and mother got their things all packed\nup and were ready to go into the country at the shortest notice. They\nwere now so peaceful, and so happy over the prospect that they believed\nit worth all the trouble and worry they had gone through.\n\nNanny had been so happy since she left the hospital and had been living\nwith Diamond's family that she did not think the country would make her\nany happier. Besides she would have to leave cripple Jim behind and\nmaybe never see him again. She had known cripple Jim much longer than\nshe had known Diamond and he had no one else to care about him.\n\nDiamond had taken a great deal of time and trouble to find Jim. For Jim\nhad moved his home and had not heard of Nanny's illness till long after\nshe was taken to the hospital. He was much too shy to go and inquire\nabout her there. But when at length she went to live with Diamond's\nfamily, Jim was willing enough to go and see her. It was after one of\nhis visits during which he and Nanny had talked things over that Diamond\nfound out that Nanny thought it would not be so very pleasant to go to\nthe country. The sun and the moon and the trees and the flowers did not\nseem much to Nanny without Jim.\n\nDiamond thought it over and that same night he went to see Mr. Raymond.\nHe wanted to tell him about Jim and Nanny and ask him what they could do\nabout it. \"Jim can shine shoes very well indeed, sir,\" said Diamond. \"If\nyou could take Jim into the country too, to clean your shoes and do\nother odd jobs, then Nanny would like it better. She is so fond of Jim.\"\n\nMr. Raymond thought it all over and finally decided that there would be\nsomething for Jim to do.\n\nSo on a certain day, Diamond's father took his mother and Diamond\nhimself and his little brother and sister and Nanny and Jim down by\ntrain to a place called \"The Mound,\" where Mr. Raymond was to live. He\nwent back to London that same night. The next day, he drove Ruby and\nDiamond down with the carriage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a lady\nin the carriage. For Mr. Raymond was now married. And the moment Nanny\nsaw Mrs. Raymond, she recognized her as the lady who had let her wear\nthe beautiful ruby ring when she was ill in the hospital.\n\nThe weather was very hot at first, and the woods very shadowy, and the\nwild flowers mainly gone. But there were plenty of the loveliest grass\nand daisies about the house. Diamond's chief pleasure seemed to be to\nlie among them and breathe the pure air. As he lay there, he dreamed\noften of the country at the back of the north wind and tried to remember\nthe songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at the\nback of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it. But\nthough he did lie happily in the grass and dream of her, of North Wind\nherself, he neither saw nor heard anything for some months.\n\nMr. Raymond's house was called \"The Mound\" because it stood upon a steep\nlittle knoll that had been made on purpose. It was built for Queen\nElizabeth as a hunting tower--a place, that is, from the top of which\nyou could see the country for miles on all sides. From a window the\nQueen was able to follow with her eyes the flying deer, and the hunters\nin the chase. The mound had been cast up so as to give the house an\noutlook over the neighboring heights and woods.\n\nDiamond's father and mother lived in a little cottage a short distance\nfrom the house. It was a real cottage with a roof of thick thatch which,\nin June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals of\nthe rose tree climbing up the walls. But Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted\nDiamond to be a page in their own house. So he was dressed in the little\nblue suit of a page and lived at \"The Mound\" itself.\n\n\"Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?\" asked his mistress.\n\"There is a little room at the top of the house--all alone. Perhaps you\nwould not mind sleeping there.\"\n\n\"I can sleep anywhere,\" said Diamond. \"And I like best to be high up.\nShould I be able to see out?\"\n\n\"I will show you the place,\" she answered, and taking him by the hand,\nshe led him up and up the oval winding stair into one of the two towers\nthat were on the house. Near the top, they entered a tiny room with two\nwindows from which you could see all over the country. Diamond clapped\nhis hands with delight!\n\n\"You would like this room, then, Diamond?\" asked his mistress.\n\n\"It is the grandest room in the house!\" he answered. \"I shall be near\nthe stars and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That is just what\nI like!\"\n\nI daresay he thought also that it would be a nice place for North Wind\nto call at, in passing. Below him spread a lake of green leaves with\nglimpses of grass here and there at the bottom. As he looked down, he\nsaw a squirrel appear suddenly and as suddenly vanish among the top-most\nbranches.\n\n\"Aha! Mr. Squirrel!\" he cried. \"My nest is built higher than yours!\"\n\n\"I will have a bell hung at your door which I can ring when I want you,\"\nsaid his mistress. And so Diamond became a little page in the house.\n\nBut after all, his master and mistress seemed to want to keep him out of\ndoors as much as possible. And his father and mother sometimes looked at\nhim very anxiously. Diamond thought that no one seemed to ask him to do\nmuch. Often they gave him a story book and sent him out to sit in the\nsweet air and sunshine at the foot of a big beech tree.\n\nHe did not see much of Nanny and Jim. Somehow they liked to slip off\ntogether when their work was over. They did not understand the many\nfancies that Diamond talked about, but they could understand each other\nvery well. They were never unkind to him but they liked better to go off\nby themselves. Diamond did not mind much. He was never lonely. And then\nhe had a beautiful place where he went and where he saw lovely things\nthat no one else saw.\n\nHe called this place his nest. He went to it by going up a little rope\nladder that hung from a branch of the big beech tree. When he reached\nthe limb the rope hung from, he went on climbing higher and higher. Up\namong the leafy branches and away at the top, out of sight, he found a\nsafe and comfortable seat which he called his nest.\n\n\"What do you see up there, Diamond,\" some one asked him once.\n\n\"I can see the first star peeping out of the sky. I don't see anything\nmore except a few leaves and the big sky over me. It goes swinging\nabout. The earth is all behind my back. There comes another star! The\nwind with its kisses makes me feel as if I were in North Wind's arms.\"\n\nHe thought he would be quite happy if only he could remember some of the\nsongs the river sang to him when he was in the country at the back of\nthe north wind. They seemed to be murmuring in his ear most of the time.\nYet somehow they were just far enough off so that he could not catch the\nwords.\n\nHis little brother and baby sister often played about on the grass with\nhim and often he made up songs to sing to the baby. But these never\nseemed to be just like the river's songs after all. One of them was\nabout his nest up in the beech tree and it ran like this:\n\n          What would you see if I took you up\n          To my little nest in the air?\n          You would see the sky like a clean blue cup\n          Turned upside downwards there.\n\n          What would you do if I took you there,\n          To my little nest in the tree?\n          My child with cries would trouble the air\n          To get what she could but see.\n\n          What would you get in the top of the tree,\n          For all your crying and grief?\n          Not a star would you clutch of all you see--\n          You could only gather a leaf.\n\n          But when you had lost your greedy grief\n          Content to see from afar,\n          You would find in your hand a withering leaf,\n          In your heart a shining star!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND\n\n\nOne night when he reached his own room, he opened both his windows, one\nof which looked to the north and the other to the east, to find how the\nwind blew. It blew right in at the north window. Diamond was glad for he\nthought perhaps North Wind herself would come now. But as she always\ncame of herself and never when he was looking for her, and, indeed,\nalmost never when he was thinking of her, he shut the east window and\nwent to bed.\n\nHe awoke in the dim blue night. The moon had vanished from that side of\nthe house. He thought he heard a knocking at his door.\n\n\"Somebody wants me!\" he said, and jumping out of bed ran to open the\ndoor.\n\nBut there was no one there. He closed it again, and the noise still\ngoing on, found that another door in the room was rattling. It belonged\nto a closet he thought, but he had never been able to open it. The wind\nblowing in at the window must be shaking it. He would go and see if that\nwas it.\n\nThe door now opened quite easily. To his surprise, instead of a closet\nhe found a long narrow room. The moon, which was sinking in the west,\nshone in at an open window at the other end. This room had a low ceiling\nand spread the whole length of the house close under the roof. It was\nquite empty. The yellow light of the half moon streamed over the dark\nfloor.\n\nHe was so delighted to find this strange moonlit place close to his own\nsnug little room that he began to dance and skip about the floor. The\nwind came in through the door he had left open. It blew about him as he\ndanced and he kept turning toward it that it might blow in his face.\n\nHe kept picturing to himself the many places, lovely and desolate, the\nhill sides and farm yards and tree-tops and meadows, over which it had\nblown on its way to \"The Mound.\" As he danced he grew more and more\ndelighted with the motion and the wind. His feet grew stronger and his\nbody lighter. At length, it seemed as if he were borne up on the air and\ncould almost fly.\n\nSo strong did this feeling become that at last he began to doubt whether\nhe was not in one of those precious dreams he so often had, in which he\nfloated about on the wind at will. Then something made him look up. To\nhis unspeakable delight, he found his uplifted hands lying in those of\nNorth Wind! Yes, North Wind was dancing with him round and round the\nlong bare room, her hair now falling to the floor, now floating to the\nceiling. The sweetest of smiles was playing about her beautiful mouth.\nShe did not stoop in order to dance with him but held his hands high in\nhers.\n\nWhen he saw her, he gave one spring and his arms were about her neck and\nher arms holding him to her breast. The same moment, she swept with him\nout of the open window through which the moon was shining. Making a wide\nand sweeping circuit, she settled with him in his own little nest at the\ntop of the big beech tree. Diamond was so entirely happy that he did not\ncare to speak a word. But presently, he felt as if he were going to\nsleep and that would be to lose so much that he was not willing to do\nit.\n\n\"Please, dear North Wind,\" said he, \"I am so happy that I am afraid it\nis a dream. How am I to know that it is not a dream?\"\n\n\"What does it matter?\" returned North Wind. \"The dream--if it _is_ a\ndream--is a pleasant one, is it not?\"\n\n\"That is just why I want it to be true! It is not for the dream\nitself--I mean it is not for the pleasure of it,\" answered Diamond, \"for\nI have that whether it is a dream or not. It is for _you_, North Wind! I\ncannot bear to find it a dream because then I should lose _you_! You\nwould be nobody then and I could not bear that. You are not just a\ndream, dear North Wind, are you? Do say _no_, for I shall not dare dream\nof you again if you are nobody at all.\"\n\n\"Either I am not a dream, or there is something better which is not a\ndream, Diamond,\" said North Wind in a rather sorrowful tone.\n\n\"But it is not something better, it is _you_ I want, North Wind,\" he\npersisted.\n\nShe made no answer but rose with him in her arms and sailed away over\nthe tree-tops till they came to a meadow where a flock of sheep was\nfeeding.\n\n\"Do you remember the song you made up here in this meadow to sing to the\nbaby?\" asked North Wind, \"about Bo-peep's sheep that ran away from her\nto follow after the sun? And when she went after them, she could not\nfind the old sheep at all--only some lambs--twice as many new lambs?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes,\" said Diamond. \"But I do not like that song. It seems to say\nthat one is just as good as another--or that two new ones are better\nthan the one old one you had before. But somehow when once you have\nlooked into anybody's eyes--deep down into them, I mean--no one else\nwill do for you any more. Nobody ever so beautiful or so good will make\nup to you for that one going out of sight. So you see, North Wind, I\ncannot help being frightened to think that perhaps I am only dreaming\nand that you are nowhere at all! Do tell me that you are my own real\nbeautiful North Wind!\"\n\nAgain she rose and shot high up into the air. Diamond lay quiet in her\narms waiting for her to speak. He tried to see up into her face, for he\nwas dreadfully afraid she did not answer him because she could not tell\nhim she was not a dream. But her hair fell all over her face so that he\ncould not see it. This frightened him still more.\n\n\"Do speak, North Wind!\" he said at last.\n\n\"I am thinking what I can say,\" said North Wind slowly. \"And say it so\nthat a little boy like you can understand.\"\n\nAs she spoke, she was settling quietly down on a grassy hill side in the\nmidst of a wild, furzy common. There was a rabbit warren underneath.\nSome of the rabbits came out of their holes in the moonlight. They\nlooked very sober and wise, like patriarchs standing in their tent doors\nand looking about them before going to bed. When they saw North Wind,\ninstead of turning around and vanishing again with a thump of their\nheels, they cantered slowly up to her. They snuffed all about her with\ntheir long upper lips which moved every way at once. That was their way\nof kissing her. Every now and then, she stroked down their long furry\nbacks or lifted and played with their long ears.\n\n\"I think,\" she said to Diamond after they had been sitting silent for a\nlong time, \"that if I were only a dream, you would not have been able to\nlove me so. You love me when you are not with me, don't you?\"\n\n\"Indeed I do!\" answered Diamond stroking her hand. \"I see! I see! How\ncould I be able to love you as I do if you were not there at all, you\nknow? Besides I would not be able to dream anything half so beautiful\nall out of my own head. Or if I did, I could not love a fancy of my own\nlike that, could I?\"\n\n\"I think not. Besides, would you not have forgotten me wholly when you\nwoke again? People almost always forget their dreams. But you have seen\nme in many shapes, Diamond. You remember I was a wolf once--don't you?\"\n\n\"Yes, a good wolf that frightened a bad, wicked nurse!\"\n\n\"Well, if I were to turn to an ugly shape again, would you still wish I\nwere not a dream?\"\n\n\"Yes, for I should know you were still beautiful inside, and that you\nloved me still. I should not like you to look ugly, you know. And I\nshouldn't believe it was really you a bit!\"\n\n\"That's my own Diamond! Then I will try to tell you all I know about it.\nI don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape myself\nin various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People\ncall me by dreadful names and think they know all about me. But they\ndon't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune or Evil Chance or Ruin--as Mr.\nEvans did when I sank his ship. Then people have another name for me\nwhich they think the most dreadful of all.\"\n\n\"What is that?\" asked Diamond smiling up in her face. \"And does it only\nmean another way in which you do them good though they think you are\ndoing them ill?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered North Wind, \"it is just like that. But I will not tell\nyou that name--not just now. Only will you always remember, if you\nshould hear it, not to be the least afraid of it--or of me? Will you\npromise, Diamond?\"\n\n\"Yes, North Wind, I promise,\" said Diamond. \"I will never be afraid of\nyou.\"\n\n\"Do you remember having to go through me to get into the country at my\nback?\" asked North Wind, \"after the long, long, long ride in the ship\nand the journey on the iceberg?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes, I do! How tired you were, North Wind, when we got at last on\nto the iceberg and South Wind began to blow! And how thin and weak you\ngrew in the beautiful blue cave in the side of the ice. Afterward when I\nlanded and found you in the cleft in the ice ridge, sitting on your own\ndoor-step, how cold you were, North Wind! And so white, all but your\nlovely eyes! When I went up close to you, my own heart grew like a lump\nof ice. And when I tried to clasp you, the white grew so thick all about\nme, and then I forgot for a while.\"\n\n\"You were very near then, Diamond, to knowing what my other name is. But\ndid I hurt you at all, dear boy? Would you be afraid of me if you had to\ngo through me again?\"\n\n\"No. Why should I? It was delicious to forget like that! It was like\ngoing into the softest and sweetest sleep! I should be glad enough to do\nit again, if it was only to get another peep at the country at your\nback.\"\n\n\"But you did not then see the real country at the back of the north\nwind, Diamond,\" said North Wind.\n\n\"Didn't I, North Wind? Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought I did. What did I\nsee?\"\n\n\"Only a picture of it--a sort of vision of it--and only while you seemed\nto be asleep. The real country at my real back is ever so much more\nbeautiful than that. You shall see it one day--perhaps before very\nlong.\"\n\n\"Do they sing songs there?\" asked Diamond.\n\n\"Yes,\" replied North Wind. \"You have not forgotten the lovely river as\nclear as glass that ran over and through the grass and flowers, have\nyou? Nor the soft sweet songs it was always singing?\"\n\n\"No,\" said Diamond. \"I remember that best of all. But I could not keep\nthe words of any one of its songs in mind, do what I would. And I did\ntry.\"\n\n\"That was my fault,\" said North Wind.\n\n\"How was that?\" asked the little boy.\n\n\"Because I could not hear it plainly enough myself to teach it to you.\nBut you will hear the very song itself when you get to the back of----\"\n\n\"My own dear North Wind,\" said Diamond, finishing the sentence for her,\nand stroking the arm that held him leaning against her.\n\n\"And now, I will take you home again,\" said North Wind. \"It won't do to\ntire you too much.\"\n\n\"Oh, no, no!\" pleaded Diamond. \"I am not in the least tired.\"\n\n\"It is better, though,\" said North Wind.\n\n\"Very well; if you wish it,\" yielded Diamond, but with a sigh.\n\n\"You are a dear boy,\" said North Wind. \"I will come for you again\nto-morrow night and take you out for a longer time. We shall make a\nlittle journey together, in fact. We shall start earlier, and as the\nmoon will be somewhat later, we shall have clear moonlight all the way.\"\n\nShe rose in air and swept over the meadow and the trees. In a few\nminutes, \"The Mound\" appeared below them. She sank down to the house and\nfloated in at the window of Diamond's room. There she laid him on his\nbed and covered him over. In a moment, he had sunk into a dreamless\nsleep.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nNORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY\n\n\nThe next night, Diamond was tired, but was waiting eagerly for the\npromised visit of North Wind. He was seated by his open window, with his\nhead on his hand and rather afraid he could not sleep. Suddenly, he\nstarted and found he had already been asleep. He looked out of the\nwindow and saw something white against his beech tree. It was North\nWind. Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the\ntree whose top was swaying about while the other trees were quite still.\n\n\"Are you ready, Diamond?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Diamond, \"quite ready.\"\n\nIn a moment, she was at the window and her arms came in and took him.\nShe sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but the\nspeed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went rushing\npast. Soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely with mottled\nclouds all about the moon on which she threw faint colours like those of\nan opal.\n\nThe night was warm and in North Wind's arms he did not feel the wind\nwhich down below was making waves in the ripe grain and ripples on the\nrivers and lakes. At length, they came down just where a little spring\nbubbled out of a hill side.\n\n\"I am going to take you along this little brook,\" said North Wind. \"I am\nnot needed for anything else to-night and we will just have a lovely\nlittle time.\"\n\nShe stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the\nsurface of it glided along, level with its flow, as it ran down the\nhill. The song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears and grew and\ngrew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond to be singing the\nstory of its life to him. And so it was. It began with a musical tinkle\nwhich changed to a babble and then to a gentle rushing.\n\nSometimes its song would almost cease. Then it broke out again, tinkle,\nbabble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom of the hill, they came to a\nsmall river into which the brook flowed with a muffled but merry sound.\nAlong the surface of the river, darkly clear in the moonlight below\nthem, they floated. Now, where it widened out into a little lake, they\nwould hover for a moment over a bed of water-lilies. They watched them\nswing about, folded in sleep, as the water on which they leaned swayed\nin the presence of North Wind. Now they would watch the fishes asleep\namong their roots below.\n\nSometimes, North Wind held Diamond over a deep hollow curving into the\nbank and let him look far into its cool stillness. Sometimes she would\nleave the river and sweep across a clover field. The bees were all at\nhome and the clover was asleep. Then she would return and follow the\nriver. Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush from\nthe opposite bank. Now the willows would dip low branches into its still\nwaters. Now it would lead them through stately trees and grassy banks\ninto a lovely garden where the roses and lilies were asleep and the\nflowers folded up, or only a few awake sending out strong, sweet odours.\n\nWider and wider grew the stream until they came upon boats lying along\nits banks which rocked a little in the flutter of North Wind's garments.\nThen came houses on the banks, each standing in a lovely lawn with grand\ntrees. In parts, the river was so high that some of the grass and some\nof the roots of the trees were under water. As they glided through the\nstems, Diamond could see the grass at the bottom of the water. How like\nit was to the river which ran through the country at the back of the\nnorth wind! And now he seemed to hear more and more clearly its\nmurmured song till at last the words came out plainly.\n\n          The sun is gone down,\n          And the moon's in the sky.\n          But the sun will come up\n          And the moon be laid by.\n\n          The flower is asleep\n          But it is not dead.\n          When the morning shines\n          It will lift its head.\n\n          When winter comes\n          Will it die? Oh, no!\n          It will only hide\n          From the frost and snow.\n\n          Sure is the summer,\n          Sure is the sun.\n          The night and the winter\n          Are shadows that run!\n\nThey left the river and began to float about and over the houses one\nafter another--beautiful rich houses which like fine trees had taken\nhundreds of years to grow. Scarcely a light was to be seen, and not a\nmovement to be heard. All the people lay fast asleep in dreams.\n\nBut a little later they came floating past a window in which a light\nwas burning. Diamond heard a moan coming from it and looked up anxiously\ninto North Wind's face. By a shaded lamp, a lady in a soft white wrapper\nsat trying to read and forget the pain which made her moan softly while\nshe read. North Wind seemed to read Diamond's thought and floated\nsilently in at the window. Diamond began singing softly the song of the\nriver with its soothing murmuring strain. When he finished, out of the\nwindow they slipped away and floated on.\n\n\"Did she hear, North Wind?\" said Diamond. \"Did she know we were trying\nto help her--and will it help her?\"\n\n\"She heard you,\" answered North Wind. \"She heard with her heart, though,\nand not with her ears. She will not forget, but she will never\nunderstand till----\"\n\n\"Till she gets to the back of the north wind,\" said Diamond.\n\nNorth Wind smiled. Then she turned so that he could look down at the\nplace over which they were passing.\n\n\"Oh!\" he cried out suddenly. \"I know where we are now. This is my old\nhome before we moved into the city. Do let me get down and go into the\nold garden, North Wind, and run into mother's room, and into old\nDiamond's stall. I wonder if the hole is at the back of my bed\nstill--your window, you know. Oh, I should like to stay here all the\nrest of the night! It won't take you long to get home from here, will\nit, North Wind?\"\n\n\"No,\" she answered; \"you shall stay as long as you like.\"\n\n\"Oh, how jolly!\" cried Diamond.\n\nNorth Wind sailed over the house with him and set him down on the lawn\nat the back. Diamond ran about the lawn for a little while in the\nmoonlight. He found part of it cut up into flower beds and the small\nsummer house and great elm tree were gone. It was so changed! He didn't\nlike it and ran into the stable. There were no horses there at all. He\nran upstairs but the rooms were all empty. The only thing left that he\ncared about was the hole in the wall where his little bed had stood. All\nbesides was desolate. He turned and ran down the stairs again and out\nupon the lawn. There he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all\nso dreary and lost!\n\n\"I liked the place so much!\" he thought to himself. \"But now--there is\nnothing left to like. I suppose it is only the people in a place that\nmake you like it and when they are gone there is nothing left to like.\nIt's as if it were dead! North Wind told me I might stop as long as I\nwanted to, but I have stopped too long already! Oh, North Wind!\" he\ncried aloud turning his face up toward the sky.\n\nThe moon was under a cloud and all was looking dull and dismal. A star\nshot from the sky. It fell in the grass beside him. The moment it\nlighted, there stood North Wind!\n\n\"Oh!\" cried Diamond joyfully. \"Were you the shooting star?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said North Wind.\n\n\"And did you hear me call?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"As high up as that?\"\n\n\"Yes, I heard you quite well.\"\n\n\"Take me home, North Wind. Take me home!\"\n\n\"Have you had enough of your old home already?\"\n\n\"Yes. It is not home here any more.\"\n\n\"Why is that, do you think?\" asked North Wind.\n\n\"Is it because its soul is gone? Yes, that must be it, is it not, North\nWind?\"\n\n\"Yes, Diamond, that is it. Its soul is gone,\" said North Wind.\n\nShe lifted him into her arms to bear him away. How long they floated\nabout he did not know. But presently all was changed. He was in his own\nroom again. And there was North Wind in the doorway of the long narrow\nroom that opened out of his room, and in which the night before he was\ndancing when he looked up to find his lifted hands clasped in hers and\nsaw her lovely face smiling down upon him.\n\nNow she was a different North Wind. She was just as he had seen her\nsitting on her own door-step in the far, far north. She was as white as\nsnow and her eyes as blue as the heart of an iceberg.\n\n\"That's how she would look when she thought I might be afraid of her,\"\nhe said to himself. Then he spoke aloud. \"I am not afraid of you, dear\nNorth Wind,\" he cried. \"See! I am not a bit afraid of you!\" Stretching\nout both his hands to clasp her he pressed up close against her and laid\nhis head upon her breast. And then he fell asleep.\n\nIn the morning, they found little Diamond lying on the floor of the big\nattic room--fast asleep, as they thought, and with such a happy smile on\nhis face. But when they took him up, they found he was not asleep. He\nhad gone to that lovely country at the back of the north wind--to stay.\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n   Obvious punctuation errors repaired.\n\n   Page 25, \"litle\" changed to \"little.\" (made a little place)\n\n   One instance each of \"no-where\" and \"nowhere\" were retained.\n\n   The frontispiece original says that the text is found on page 334.\n   It is actually located on page 111 and has been edited to reflect\n   this.","title":"At the Back of the North Wind","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":26589}