Full text of "At the back of the north wind;"

See other formats

*#:«:•

:;«:»■*:

:•••■•■•.

PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES

3 3333 08088 8635

FAmY TALES
REFERENCE

,;/

At the Back of the North Wind

BLACKIE & SON LIMITED

50 Old Bailey, LONDON

17 Stanhope Street, GLASGOW

BLACKIE & SON (INDIA) LIMITED
Warwick House, Fort Street, Bombay

BLACKIE & SON (CANADA) LIMITED
II 18 Bay Street, Toronto

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/atbackofnorthwin00macd2

^.r>rtF»£_'

C 14.j

THE PRINCE AND THE GOOD FAIRY

At the Back of the
North Wind

GEORGE MAC DONALD

Author of "Ranald Bannerman's iJoyhood" "The Princess and the Gobiin
"The Princess and Curdie " "A Rough Shaking:" &c.

WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR. AND
SEVENTY-SIX TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE

I I) « • *

■i o

4 • •

3 •

'. •••

1 • •

J »

I « > >

. » J .

. > > i
J > • »

' > » • > >
> 1 o . '

• '> • :

• • • > • '

I , > > > J

J • 1 >

BLACKIE & SON LIMITED

LONDON AND GLASGOW

• • •

• * •'

• • •
1 • • •

• • • • •

• • •

Printed in Great Britain by
R. MacLehose & Co. Ltd., Glasgow

Contents

Chap. Page

I. The Hay-Loft 9

II. The Lawn - 23

III. Old Diamond -33

IV. North Wind 46

V. The Summer-House 60

VI. Out in the Storm 74

VII. The Cathedral 83

VIII. The East Window ------- 94

IX. How Diamond got to the Back of the North

Wind -..-_.___ 99

X. At the Back of the North Wind - - - 119

XI. How DiamoN55;Goi' Hx:)ME'AGAm'.-' >>' - - - 125

XII. Who Met Diamond at. S>andwj,gi;I - - - - 133

XIII. The Seaside - • !j» J. .*-•>* - . _ - 139

>» ■» *

XIV. Old Diamond - - . y,' -,*_ . „ - 152

XV. The Mews 156

XVI. Diamond Makes a Beginning ----- 161

XVII. Diamond Goes On -.«.-.-- 174

XVHI. The Drunken Cabman - 185

XIX. Diamond's Friends - _ . . . - 193

XX. Diamond Learns to Read ^ ^ ^ .. . 201

THE NEW YOJ^K PUBLIC LlBKAKl

CIRCULATION DEPARTPrlENT

vi Contents

Chap. Page

XXI. Sal's Nanny - 209

XXII. Mr. Raymond's Riddle ------ 219

XXIII. The Early Bird .--.-.- 223

XXIV. Another Early Bird .-„-.- 227
XXV'. Diamond's Dream . 239

XXVI. Diamond Takes a Fare the Wrong Way Right 252

XXVII. The Children's Hospital 261

XXVIII. Little Daylight 267

XXIX. Ruby -----...-- 292

XXX. Nanny's Dream - 301

XXXI. The North Wind Doth Blow - = . - 320

XXXII. Diamond and Ruby - _ . „ . ., 325

XXXIII. The Prospect Brightens - - = „ « 334

XXXIV. In the Country ---.,„-, 3^5
XXXV. I Make Diamond's Acouaintance- - = - ikz

XXXVI. Diamond Questions North Wind • - 367

XXXVII. OncE' JVlcR-E ': 'I-'* ''^-J:. ^-H^^'; - - - - 380

» .

XXXVIII. At the Ba-tk of. t^hb Noj^th Wind - - - 388

• •

'I r •

*. /j*} ..J

^..*'

i /'*, f\> ^* ■*"'•>■•' *

Coloured Plates

Page

The Prince and the Good Fairy - - Frontispiece 276

Diamond Turns his Back to the Wind . . . . 26
North Wind -----..----41

The Wind and the Bee 66

North Wind's Cloud of Hair 106

North Wind Changes to a Tiger - - ... 131
The Wind and the Swallows - - . . - - 150
Little Boy Blue in the Wood - . - . . _ 203
The Little Boys' Gambols - . . _ ^ . . 246
At the Entrance to the Moon - - - - - -310

Little Bo Peep Asleep -------^';6r

The Fearless Rabbits - ^ - = . - ^ 3-76

PROPERTY OF THE
CITY OF NEW YORK

CHAPTER I

The Hay-Loft

I HAVE been asked to tell you about the back of
the North Wind. An old Greek writer mentions
a people who lived there, and were so comfortable
that they could not bear it any longer, and drowned
themselves. My story is not the same as his. I do
not think Herodotus had got the right account of the
place. I am going to tell you how it fared with a
boy who went there.

He lived in a low room over a coach-house; and that
was not by any means at the back of the North Wind,
as his mother very well knew. For one side of the room
was built only of boards, and the boards were so old
that you might run a penknife through into the north
wind. And then let them settle between them which
was the sharper! I know that when you pulled it out
again the wind would be after it like a cat after a mouse,
and you would know soon enough you were not at
the back of the North Wind. Still, this room was not
very cold, except when the north wind blew stronger
than usual : the room I have to do with now was always
cold, except in summer, when the sun took the matter
into his own hands. Indeed, I am not sure whether
I ought to call it a room at all; for it w^as just a loft

At the Back of the North Wind

where they kept hay and straw and oats for the horses.

And when httle Diamond but stop: I must tell you

that his father, who was a coachman, had named him
after a favourite horse, and his mother had had no
objection: — when litde Diamond then lay there in bed,

he could hear
the horses under
him munching"
aw^ay in the
dark, or moving-
sleepily in their
dreams. For

Diamond's father
had built him a
bed in the loft
with boards all
round it, because
they had so little
room in their
own end over
the coach-house;
and Diamond's
father put old
Diamond in the
stall under the bed, because he was a quiet horse, and
did not go to sleep standing, but lay down like a reason-
able creature. But, although he was a surprisingly
reasonable creature, yet, when young Diamond woke
in the middle of the night, and felt the bed shaking
in the blasts of the north wind, he could not help
wondering whether, if the wind should blow the house

The Hay-Loft n

down, and he were to fall through into the manger,
old Diamond mightn't eat him up before he knew him
in his night-gown. And although old Diamond was
very quiet all night long, yet when he woke he got
up like an earthquake, and then young Diamond knew
what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done
next, which was — to go to sleep again as fast as he
could.

There was hay at his feet and hay at his head, piled
up in great trusses to the very roof. Indeed it was
sometimes only through a little lane with several turn-
ings, which looked as if it had been sawn out for him,
that he could reach his bed at all. For the stock of hay
was, of course, always in a state of slow ebb or of sud-
den flow. Sometimes the whole space of the loft, with
the little panes in the roof for the stars to look in, would
lie open before his open eyes as he lay in bed; some-
times a yellow wall of sweet-smelling fibres closed up
his view at the distance of half a yard. Sometimes,
when his mother had undressed him in her room, and
told him to trot away to bed by himself, he would
creep into the heart of the hay, and lie there thinking
how cold it was outside in the wind, and how warm it
was inside there in his bed, and how he could go to
it when he pleased, only he wouldn't just yet; he
would get a little colder first. And ever as he grew
colder, his bed would grow warmer, till at last he
would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an arrow
into his bed, cover himself up, and snuggle down,
thinking what a happy boy he was. He had not the
least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall,

At the Back of the North Wind

and blew about him all night. For the back of his
bed was only of boards an inch thick, and on the
other side of them was the north wind.

Now, as I have already said, these boards were soft
and crumbly. To be sure, they were tarred on the
outside, yet in many places they were more like tindei
than timber. Hence it happened that the soft part
having- worn away from about it, little Diamond found
one night, after he lay down, that a knot had come
out of one of them, and that the wind was blowing
in upon him in a cold and rather imperious fashion.
Now he had no fancy for leaving things wrong that
might be set right; so he jumped out of bed again,
g-ot a little strike of hay, twisted it up, folded it in
the middle, and, having thus made it into a cork,
stuck it into the hole in the wall. But the wind be-
gan to blow loud and angrily, and, as Diamond was
falling asleep, out blew his cork and hit him on the
nose, just hard enough to wake him up quite, and
let him hear the wind whistling shrill in the hole.
He searched for his hay-cork, found it, stuck it in
harder, and was just dropping off once more, when,
pop! with an angry whistle behind it, the cork struck
him again, this time on the cheek. Up he rose once
more, made a fresh stopple of hay, and corked the
hole severely. But he was hardly down again before
— pop! it came on his forehead. He gave it up, drew
the clothes above his head, and was soon fast asleep.

Although the next day was very stormy. Diamond
forgot all about the hole, for he was busy making a
cave by the side of his mother's fire, with a broken

The Hay-Loft

chair, a three-legged stool, and a blanket, and then
sitting in it. His mother, however, discovered it, and
pasted a bit of brown paper over it, so that, when
Diamond had snuggled down the next night, he had
no occasion to
think of it.

Presently, how-
ever, he lifted his
head and listened.
Who could that
be talking to
him? The wind
was rising again,

and
loud

Sfettmo;-
, and

very
full

rushes

and

whistles.

was

sure

some

one

was talking

— and very near
him too it was.
But he was not
frightened, for he

had not yet learned how to be; so he sat up and
hearkened. At last the voice, which, though quite
gentle, sounded a little angry, appeared to come from
the back of the bed. He crept nearer to it, and laid
his ear against the wall. Then he heard nothing but
the wind, v/hich sounded very loud indeed. The
moment, however, that he moved his head from the
wall, he heard the voice again, close to his ear. He

14 At the Back of the North Wind

felt about with his hand, and came upon the piece of
paper his mother had pasted over the hole. Against
this he laid his ear, and then he heard the voice quite
distinctly. There was, in fact, a little corner of the
paper loose, and through that, as from a mouth in
the wall, the voice came.

''What do you mean, little boy, closing up my
window?"

*' What window?" asked Diamond.

''You stuffed hay into it three times last night. I
had to blow it out again three times."

"You can't mean this little hole! It isn't a window;
it's a hole in my bed."

"I did not say it was a window: I said it was my
window."

" But it can't be a window, because windows are holes
to see out of."

"Well, that's just what I made this window for."

" But you are outside: you can't want a window."

"You are quite mistaken. Windows are to see out
of, you say. Well, I'm in my house, and I want win-
dows to see out of it."

" But you've made a window into my bed."

"Well, your mother has got three windows into
my dancing- room, and you have three into my
garret."

" But I heard father say, when my mother wanted
him to make a window through the wall, that it was
against the law, for it would look into Mr. Dyves's
garden."

The voice laughed.

The Hay-Loft

"The law would have some trouble to catch me!"
it said.

''But if it's not right, you know," said Diamond
"that's no matter. You shouldn't do it."

" I am so tall I am above that law," said the voice.

" You must
have a tall house,
then," said Dia-
mond.

"Yes; a tall
house : the clouds
are inside it."

" Dear me!"
said Diamond,
and thought a
minute. ' ' I

think, then, you
can hardly expect
me to keep a win-
dow in my bed
for you. Why
don't you make a
window into Mr.
Dyves's bed?"

"Nobody makes a window into an ash-pit," .said
the voice, rather sadly. " I like to see nice things
out of my windows."

"But he must have a nicer bed than I have, though
mine is very nice — so nice that I couldn't wish a better."

" It's not the bed I care about: it's what is in it. — But
you just open that window."

i6 At the Back of the North Wind

*' Well, mother says I shouldn't be disobliging; but
it's rather hard. You see the north wind will blow right
in my face if I do."

''I am the North Wind."

''O-o-oh!" said Diamond, thoughtfully. ''Then will
you promise not to blow on my face if I open your
window?"

" I can't promise that."

"But you'll give me the toothache. Mother's got it
already."

" But what's to become of me without a window?"

" I'm sure I don't know. All I say is, it will be worse
for me than for you."

" No; it will not. You shall not be the worse for it —
I promise you that. You will be much the better for it.
Just you believe what I say, and do as I tell you."

" Well, I can pull the clothes over my head," said
Diamond, and feeling with his little sharp nails, he
got hold of the open edge of the paper and tore it off
at once.

In came a long whistling spear of cold, and struck
his little naked chest. He scrambled and tumbled in
under the bed-clothes, and covered himself up: there was
no paper now between him and the voice, and he felt a
little — not frightened exactly — I told you he had not
learned that yet — but rather queer; for what a strange
person this North Wind must be that lived in the great
house — "called Out-of-Doors, I suppose," thought Dia-
mond— and made windows into people's beds! But the
voice began again ; and he could hear it quite plainly;
even with his head under the bed-clothes. It was a still

(C145)

The Hay-Loft 17

more gentle voice now, although six times as large and
loud as it had been, and he thought it sounded a little
like his mother's.

'' What is your name, little boy?" it asked.

"Diamond," answered Diamond, under the bed-
clothes.

" What a funny name!"

" It's a very nice name," returned its owner.

" I don't know that," said the voice.

"Well, I do," retorted Diamond, a little rudely.

" Do you know to whom you are speaking?"

" No," said Diamond.

And indeed he did not. For to know a persons
name is not always to know the person's self.

"Then I must not be angry with you. — You had
better look and see, though."

" Diamond is a very pretty name," persisted the
boy, vexed that it should not give satisfaction.

" Diamond is a useless thing rather," said the voice.

"That's not true. Diamond is very nice — as big as
two — and so quiet all night! And doesn't he make a
jolly row in the morning, getting up on his four great
legs! It's like thunder."

" You don't seem to know what a diamond is."

"Oh, don't I just! Diamond is a great and good

horse; and he sleeps right under me. He is Old

Diamond, and I am Young Diamond; or, if you like

it better, for you're very particular, Mr. North Wind,

he's Big Diamond, and I'm Little Diamond; and I

don't know which of us my father likes best."

A beautiful laugh, large but very soft and musical,
( c 145 ) 2

i8 At the Back of the North Wind

sounded somewhere beside him, but Diamond kept his
head under the clothes.

'•Im not Mr. North Wind," said the voice.

"You told me that you were the North Wind,"
insisted Diamond.

♦• r did not say Mister North Wind," said the

voice.

"Well, then, I do; for mother tells me I ought to
be polite."

'* Then let me tell you I don't think it at all polite
of you to say Mister to me."

"Well, I didn't know better. I'm very sorry."

*' But you ought to know better."

"1 don't know that."

" 1 do. You can't say it's polite to lie there talking —
with your head under the bed-clothes, and never look
up to see what kind of person you are talking to. — I
want you to come out with me."

" I want to go to sleep," said Diamond, very nearly
crying, for he did not like to be scolded, even when
he deserved it.

** You shall sleep all the better to-morrow night."

"Besides," said Diamond, "you are out in Mr.
Dyves's garden, and I can't get there. I can only
get into our own yard."

" Will you take your head out of the bed-clothes?"
said the voice, just a little angrily.

"No!" answered Diamond, half peevish, half
frightened.

The instant he said the word, a tremendous blast
of wind crashed in a board of the wall, and swept the

The Hav-Loft

clothes off Diamond. He started up in terror. Lean-
ing- over him was the large beautiful pale face of a
woman. Her dark eyes looked a little angry, for
they had just begun to flash; but a quivering in her
sweet upper lip made her look as if she were going to
cry. What was
most strange was
that away from
her head streamed
out her black hair
in every direction,
so that tlie dark-
ness in the hay-
loft looked as if
it were made of
her hair; but as
Diamond gazed
at her in speech-
less amazement,
mmgled with con-
fidence— for the
boy was en-
tranced with her
mighty beauty —

her hair began to gather itself out of the darkness, and
fell down all about her again, till her face looked out
of the midst of it like a moon out of a cloud. From
her eyes came all the light by which Diamond saw
her face and her hair; and that was all he did see
of her yet. The wind was over and gone.

*'Will you go with me now, you litde Diamond?

At the Back of the North Wind

I am sorry I was forced to be so rough with you,"
said the lady.

"I will; yes, I will," answered Diamond, holding
out both his arms. ''But," he added, dropping them,
*'how shall I get my clothes? They are in mother's
room, and the door is locked."

"Oh, never mind your clothes. You will not be
cold. I shall take care of that. Nobody is cold with
the North Wind."

*' I thought everybody was," said Diamond

''That is a great mistake. Most people make it,
however. They are cold because they are not v/ith
the North Wind, but without it."

If Diamond had been a little older, and had supposed
himself a good deal wiser, he would have thought the
lady was joking. But he was not older, and did not
fancy himself wiser, and therefore understood her well
enough. Again he stretched out his arms. The lady's
face drew back a little.

" Follow me. Diamond," she said.

*' Yes," said Diamond, only a little ruefully.

*' You're not afraid?" said the North Wind.

"No, ma'am; but mother never would let me go
without shoes: she never said anything about clothes,
so I dare say she wouldn't mind that."

"I know your mother very well," said the lady.
"She is a good woman. I have visited her often. 1
was with her when you were born. I saw her laugh
and cry both at once. I love your mother. Diamond."

" How was it you did not know my name, then,
ma'am? Please am I to say ma'am to you, ma'am?"

The Hay-Loft 21

'^One question at a time, dear boy. I knew your
name quite well, but I wanted to hear what you would
say for it. Don't you remember that day when the
man was finding fault with your name — how I blew
the window in?"

'*Yr.r,, yes," answered Diamond, eagerly. *'Our
window opens like a door, right over the coach-house
door. And the wind — you, ma'am — came in, and blew
the bible out of the man's hands, and the leaves went
all flutter flutter on the floor, and my mother picked
it up and gave it back to him open, and there "

"Was your name in the bible, — the sixth stone in
the high-priest's breast-plate."

*'Oh! — a stone, was it?" said Diamond. "I thought
it had been a horse — I did."

*' Never mind. A horse is better than a stone any
day. Well, you see, I know all about you and your
mother."

" Yes. I will go with you."

"Now for the next question: you're not to call me
ma'am. You must call me just my own name — respect-
fully, you know — ^just North Wind."

"Well, please, North Wind, you are so beautiful,
I am quite ready to go with you."

"You must not be ready to go with everything
beautiful all at once, Diamond."

" But what's beautiful can't be bad. You're not bad»
North Wind?"

"No; I'm not bad. But sometimes beautiful things
grow bad by doing bad, and it takes some time for
their badness to spoil their beauty. So little boys may

12. At the Back of the North Wind

be mistaken if they g^o after things because they are
beautiful."

''Well, I will go with you because you are beautiful
and good too."

''Ah, but there's another thing. Diamond: — What
if I should look ugly without being bad — look ugly
myself because I am making ugly things beautiful?
—What then?"

"I don't quite understand you, North Wind. You
tell me what then."

"Well, I will tell you. If you see me with my face
all black, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping
wings like a bat's, as big as the whole sky, don't be
frightened. If you hear me raging ten times worse
than Mrs. Bill, the blacksmith's wife — even if you see
me looking in at people's windows like Mrs. Eve
Dropper, the gardener's wife — you must believe that
I am doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change into
a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of
me, for my hand will never change in yours if you keep
a good hold. If you keep hold, you will know who I
am all the time, even when you look at me and can't
see me the least like the North Wind. I may look
something very awful. Do you understand?"

"Quite well," said little Diamond.

"Come along, then," said North Wind, and dis-
appeared behind the mountain of hay.

Diamond crept out of bed and followed her.

CHAPTER II

The Lawn

WHEN Diamond got round the corner of the
hay, for a moment he hesitated. The stair
by which he would naturally have gone
down to the door was at the other side of the loft, and
looked very black indeed; for it was full of North
Wind's hair, as she descended before him. And just
beside him was the ladder going straight do\vn into
the stable, up which his father always came to fetch
the hay for Diamond's dinner. Through the opening
in the floor the faint gleam of the stable lantern w^as
enticing, and Diamond thought he would run down
that way.

The stair went close past the loose-box in which
Diamond the horse lived. When Diamond the boy w^as
half-w^ay down, he remembered that it was of no use
to go this way, for the stable-door was locked. But
at the same moment there was horse Diamond's great
head poked out of his box on to the ladder, for he knew
boy Diamond although he was in his night-gown, and
wanted him to pull his ears for him. This Diamond
did very gently for a minute or so, and patted and
stroked his neck too, and kissed the big horse, and had
begun to take the bits of straw and hay out of his mane,

At the Back of the North Wind

when all at once he recollected that the Lady North
Wind was waiting for him in the yard.

"Good night, Diamond," he said, and darted up
the ladder, across the loft, and down the stair to the
door. But when he got out into the yard, there was

no lady.
13 Now it is al-

ways a dreadful
thing to think
there is some-
body and find
nobody. Chil-
dren in par-
ticular have not
made up their
minds to it; they
generally cry at
nobody, espe-
cially when they
w^ake up at
night. But it
was an especial
disappointment to
Diamond, for his little heart had been beating with joy:
the face of the North Wind w^as so grand! To have a
lady like that for a friend — with such long hair, too!
Why, it was longer than twenty Diamonds' tails! She
was gone. And there he stood, with his bare feet on
the stones of the paved yard.

It was a clear night overhead, and the stars were
shining. Orion in particular was making the most of

The Lawn 25

his brioht belt and golden sword. But the moon was
only a poor thin crescent. There was just one great,
jagged, black and grey cloud in the sky, with a steep
side to it like a precipice; and the moon was against
this side, and looked as if she had tumbled off the top of
the cloud-hill, and broken herself in rolling down the
precipice. She did not seem comfortable, for she was
looking down into the deep pit waiting for her. At
least that was what Diamond thought as he stood for
a moment staring at her. But he was quite wrong,
for the moon was not afraid, and there was no pit she
was going down into, for there were no sides to it, and
a pit without sides to it is not a pit at all. Diamond,
however, had not been out so late before in all his
life, and things looked so strange about him! — ^just as
if he had got into Fairyland, of which he knew quite
as much as anybody; for his mother had no money
to buy books to set him wrong on the subject. I have
seen this world — only sometimes, just now and then,
you know — look as strange as ever I saw Fairyland.
But I confess that I have not yet seen Fairyland at
its best. I am always going to see it so some time.
But if you had been out in the face and not at the back
of the North Wind, on a cold rather frosty night, and
in your night-gown, you would have felt it all quite
as strange as Diamond did. He cried a little, just a
little, he was so disappointed to lose the lady: of course,
you, little man, wouldn't have done that! But for my
part, I don't mind people crying, so much as I mind
what they cry about, and how they cry — whether they
cry quietly like ladies and gentlemen, or go shrieking

26 At the Back of the North Wind

like vuli^ar emperors, or ill-natured cooks; for all em-
perors are not gentlemen, and all cooks are not ladies —
nor all queens and princesses for that matter, either.

But it can't be denied that a little gentle crying does
one good. It did Diamond good ; for as soon as it was
over he was a brave boy again.

"She shan't say it was my fault anyhow!" said
Diamond. ''I daresay she is hiding somewhere to
see what I will do. I will look for her."

So he went round the end of the stable towards the
kitchen-garden. But the moment he was clear of the
shelter of the stable, sharp as a knife came the wind
against his little chest and his bare legs. Still he
would look into the kitchen -garden, and went on.
But when he got round the weeping-ash that stood in
the corner, the wind blew much stronger, and it grew
stronger and stronger till he could hardly fight against
it. And it was so cold! All the flashy spikes of the
stars seemed to have got somehow into the wind. Then
he thought of what the lady had said about people
being cold because they were not imth the North
Wind. How it was that he should have guessed
what she meant at that very moment I cannot tell,
but I have observed that the most wonderful thing
in the world is how people come to understand any-
thing. He turned his back to the wind, and trotted
again towards the yard; whereupon, strange to say,
it blew so much more gently against his calves than
it had blown against his shins, that he began to feel
almost warm by contrast.

You must not think it was cowardly of Diamond to

The Lawn

But the most foolish thing is to fight for no

turn his back to the wind: he did so only because he
thought Lady North Wind had said something like
tellinsf him to do so. If she had said to him that he
must hold his face to it, Diamond would have held his
face to it.
good, and to
please nobody.
Well, it was
just as if the
wind was push-
ing Diamond
along. If he
turned round, it
grew very sharp

on his legs es-
pecially, and so
he thought the
wind might real-
ly be Lady North
Wind, though he
could not see her,
and he had better
let her blow him
\vherever she

pleased. So she blew and blew, and he went and
went, until he found himself standing at a door in a
wall, which door led from the yard into a little belt
of shrubbery, flanking Mr. Coleman's house. Mr.
Coleman was his father's master, and the owner of
Diamond. He opened the door, and went through
the shrubbery, and out into the middle of the lawn,

28 At the Back of the North Wind

still hoping- to find North Wind. The soft grass was
very pleasant to his bare feet, and felt warm after the
stones of the yard; but the lady was nowhere to be
seen. Then he began to think that after all he must
have done wrong, and she was offended with him for
not following close after her, but staying- to talk to
the horse, which certainly was neither wnse nor polite.

There he stood in the middle of the lawn, the wind
blowing his night-gown till it flapped like a loose sail.
The stars were very shiny over his head ; but they did
not give light enough to show that the grass was green;
and Diamond stood alone in the strange night, which
looked half solid all about him. He began to w^onder
whether he was in a dream or not. It was important to
determine this; *'for," thought Diamond, *'if I am in
a dream, I am safe in my bed, and I needn't cry. But
if I'm not in a dream, I'm out here, and perhaps I had
better cry, or, at least, I'm not sure whether I can help
it." He came to the conclusion, however, that, whether
he was in a dream or not, there could be no harm in not
crying for a little while longer: he could begin whenever
he liked.

The back of Mr. Coleman's hous^ was to the lawn,
and one of the drawing-room windows looked out upon
it. The ladies had not gone to bed; for the light was
still shining in that window. But they had no idea that
a little boy was standing on the lawn in his night-gown,
or they would have run out in a moment. And as long
as he saw that light, Diamond could not feel quite
lonely. He stood staring, not at the great warrior
Orion in the sky, nor yet at the disconsolate, neglected

The Lawn 29

moon going down in the west, but at the drawing-room
window with the light shining through its green cur-
tains. He had been in that room once or twice that
he could remember at Christmas times; for the Cole-
mans were kind people, though they did not care much
about children.

All at once the light went nearly out: he could only
see a glimmer of the shape of the window. Then,
indeed, he felt that he was left alone. It was so dread-
ful to be out in the night after everybody was gone to
bed! That was more than he coitld bear. He burst
out crying in good earnest, beginning with a wail like
that of the wind when it is w^aking up.

Perhaps you think this was very foolish; for could he
not go home to his own bed again when he liked? Yes;
but it looked dreadful to him to creep up that stair
again and lie down in his bed again, and know that
North Wind's window was open beside him, and she
gone, and he might never see her again. He would
be just as lonely there as hei-e. Nay, it would be much
vvorse if he had to think that the window was nothing
but a hole in the wall.

At the very moment when he burst out crying, the
old nurse, who had grown to be one of the family,
for she had not gone away when Miss Coleman did
not want any more nursing, came to the back-door,
which was of glass, to close the shutters. She thought
she heard a cry, and, peering out with a hand on each
side of her eyes like Diamond's blinkers, she saw some-
thing white on the lawn. Too old and too wise to be
frightened, she opened the door, and went straight

-50

At the Back of the North Wind

towards the white thing- to see what it was. And
when Diamond saw her coming- he was not frightened
either, though Mrs. Crump was a little cross sometimes ;
for there is a good kind of crossness that is only dis-
agreeable, and there is a bad kind of crossness that is
very nasty indeed. So she came up with her neck
stretched out, and her head at the end of it, and her
eyes foremost of all, like a snail's, peering into the night
to see what it could be that went on glimmering white

before her. When
she did see, she
made a great ex-
clamation, and
threw up her
hands. Then

without a word,
for she thought
Diamond was
walking in his
sleep, she caught
hold of him, and
led him towards
the house. He
made no objec-
tion, for he was
just in the mood
to be grateful for
notice of any
sort, and Mrs. Crump led him straight into the
drawing-room.

Now, from the neglect of the new housemaid, the

The Lawn

fire in Miss Coleman's bed- room had gone out, and
her mother had told her to brush her hair by the
drawing - room
fire — a disorder-
ly proceeding
which a mother's
wish could justi-
fy. The young
lady w^as very
lovely, though
not nearly so
beautiful as
North Wind; and
her hair was ex-
tremely long, for
it came down
to her knees —
though that was
nothing at all
to North Wind's
hair. Yet when

she looked round, with her hair all about her, as
Diamond entered, he thought for one moment that it
was North Wind, and, pulling his hand from Mrs.
Crump's, he stretched out his arms and ran towards
Miss Coleman. She was so pleased that she threw
down her brush, and almost knelt on the floor to re-
ceive him in her arms. He saw the next moment that
she was not Lady North Wind, but she looked so like
her he could not help running into her arms and burst-
ing into tears afresh. Mrs. Crump said the poor child

32 At the Back of the North Wind

had walked out in his sleep, and Diamond thought she
ought to know, and did not contradict her: for anything
he knew, it might be so indeed. He let them talk on
about him, and said nothing; and when, after their
astonishment was over, and Miss Coleman had given
him a sponge-cake, it was decreed that Mrs. Crump
should take him to his mother, he was quite satisfied.
His mother had to get out of bed to open the door
when Mrs. Crump knocked. She was indeed surprised
to see her boy; and having taken him in her arms
and carried him to his bed, returned and had a long
confabulation with Mrs. Crump, for they were still
talking when Diamond fell fast asleep, and could hear
them no longer.

V 145

^Mg^^^y

DIAMOND TURNS HIS BACK TO THE WIND

CHAPTER III

Old Diamond

DIAMOND woke very early in the morning, and
thought what a curious dream he had had.
But the memory grew brighter and brighter
in his head, until it did not look altogether like a dream,
and he began to doubt whether he had not really been
abroad in the wind last night. He came to the con-
clusion that, if he had really been brought home to
his mother by Mrs. Crump, she would say something
to him about it, and that would settle the matter. Then
he got up and dressed himself, but, finding that his
father and mother were not yet stirring, he went down
the ladder to the stable. There he found that even
old Diamond was not awake yet, for he, as well as
young Diamond, always got up the moment he woke,
and now he was lying as flat as a horse could lie upon
his nice trim bed of stra.w.

''I'll give old Diamond a surprise," thought the boy;
and creeping up very softly, before the horse knew, he
was astride of his back. Then it was young Diamond's
turn to have more of a surprise than he had expected;
for as with an earthquake, with a rumbling and a rock-
ing hither and thither, a sprawling of legs and heaving

r C U5 ) 33 3

;

34 At the Back of the North Wind

as ot many backs, young Diamond found himself hoisted
up in the air, with both hands twisted in the horse's
mane. The next instant old Diamond lashed out with
both his hind legs, and giving one cry of terror young
Diamond found himself lying on his neck, with his
arms as far round it as they would go. But then the
horse stood as still as a stone, except that he lifted his
head gently up, to let the boy slip down to his back.
For when he heard young Diamond's cry he knew
that there was nothing to kick about; for young
Diamond was a good boy, and old Diamond was a
good horse, and the one was all right on the back of
the other.

As soon as Diamond had got himself comfortable on
the saddle place, the horse began pulling at the hay,
and the boy began thinking. He had never mounted
Diamond himself before, and he had never got off him
without being lifted down. So he sat, while the horse
ate, wondering how he was to reach the ground.

But while he meditated, his mother woke, and her
first thought was to see her boy. She had visited
him twice during the night, and found him sleeping
quietly. Now his bed was empty, and she was
friofhtened.

"Diamond! Diamond! Where are you, Diamond?"
she called out.

Diamond turned his head where he sat like a knight
on his steed in enchanted stall, and cried aloud, —

*' Here, mother!"

** Where, Diamond?" she returned.

'^Here, mother, on Diamond's back."

old Diamond

She came running- to the ladder, and peeping down,
saw him aloft on the great horse.
** Come down, Diamond," she said.
'' I can't," answered Diamond.
" How did you get up?" asked his mother.
" Quite easily,"

answered

he;

" but when I oot

up.

Diamond

would get up too,
and so here I am."
His mother

thought he had
been walkincf in
his sleep again,
and hurried down
th.e ladder. She
did not much like
going up to the
horse, for she had
not been used to
horses ; but she
would have gone
into a lion's den,

not to say a horse's stall, to help her boy. So she went
and lifted him off Diamond's back, and felt braver all
her life after. She carried him in her arms up to her
room ; but, afraid of frightening him at his own sleep-
walking, as she supposed it, said nothing about last
night. Before the next day was over. Diamond had
almost concluded the whole adventure a dream.

At the Back of the North Wind

For a week his mother watched him very carefully —
going into the loft several times a night, — as often, in
fact, as she woke. Every time she found him fast

asleep.

All that week it was hard weather. The grass showed

white in the morn-
ing with the hoar-
frost which clung
like tiny comfits
to every blade.
Andas Diamond's
shoes were not
good, and his
mother had not
quite saved up
enough money to
get him the new
pair she so much
wanted for him,
she would not let
him run out. He
played all his
games over and
over indoors, es-
pecially that of driving two chairs harnessed to the
baby's cradle; and if they did not go very fast, they
went as fast as could be expected of the best chairs
in the world, although one of them had only three
legs, and the other only half a back.

At length his mother brought home his new shoes,
and no sooner did she find they fitted him than she

Old Diamond 37

told him he might run out in the yard and amuse
himself for an hour.

The sun was going down when he flew from the
door like a bird from its cap"e. All the world was

new to him. A great fire of sunset burned on the
top of the gate that led from the stables to the house;
above the fire in the sky lay a large lake of green
light, above that a golden cloud, and over that the
blue of the wintry heavens. And Diamond thought
that, next to his own home, he had never seen any
place he would like so much to live in as that sky.
For it is not fine things that make home a nice place,
but your mother and your father.

As he was yet looking at the lovely colours, the gates
were thrown open, and there was old Diamond and his
friend in the carriage, dancing with impatience to get
at their stalls and their oats. And in they came.
Diamond was not in the least afraid of his father
driving over him, but, careful not to spoil the grand
show he made with his fine horses and his multitu-
dinous cape, with a red edge to every fold, he slipped
out of the wav and let him dash ri^rht on to the stables.
To be quite safe he had to step into the recess of the
door that led from the yard to the shrubbery.

As he stood there he remembered how the wind had
driven him to this same spot on the night of his dream.
And once more he was almost sure that it was no dream.
At all events, he would go in and see whether things
looked at all now as they did then. He opened the
door, and passed through the little belt of shrubbery.
Not a flower was to be seen in the beds on the lawn.

38 At the Back of the North Wind

Even the brave old chrysanthemums and Christmas
roses had passed away before the frost. What? Yes!
There was one! He ran and knelt down to look at it.

It was a primrose — a dwarfish thing, but perfect in
shape — a baby-wonder. As he stooped his face to see
it close, a little wind began to blow, and two or three
long leaves that stood up behind the flower shook and
waved and quivered, but the primrose lay still in the
green hollow, looking up at the sky, and not seeming
to know that the wind was blowing at all. It was just
a one eye that the dull black wintry earth had opened
to look at the sky with. All at once Diamond thought
it was saying its prayers, and he ought not to be staring
at it so. He ran to the stable to see his father make
Diamond's bed. Then his father took him in his arms,
carried him up the ladder, and set him down at the
table where they were going to have their tea.

*'Miss is very poorly," said Diamond's father;
** Mis'ess has been to the doctor with her to-day, and
she looked very glum when she came out again. I
was a- watching of them to see what doctor had said."

*' And didn't Miss look glum too?" asked his mother.

" Not half as glum as Mis'ess," returned the coach-
man. *^You see "

But he lowered his voice, and Diamond could not
make out more than a word here and there. For
Diamond's father was not only one of the finest of
coachmen to look at, and one of the best of drivers,
but one of the most discreet of servants as well. There-
fore he did not talk about family affairs to any one but
his wife, whom he had proved better than himself long

old Diamond 39

ago, and was careful that even Diamond should hear
nothing he could repeat again concerning master and
his family.

It was bed-time soon, and Diamond went to bed and
fell fast asleep.

He awoke all at once, in the dark.

''Open the window, Diamond," said a voice.

Now Diamond's mother had once more pasted up
North Wind's window.

"Are you North Wind?" said Diamond: ''I don't
hear you blowing."

''No; but you hear me talking. Open the window,
for I haven't overmuch time."

"Yes," returned Diamond. "But please, North
Wind, Where's the use? You left me all alone last
time."

He had got up on his knees, and was busy with his
nails once more at the paper over the hole in the wall.
For now that North Wind spoke again, he remembered
all that had taken place before as distinctly as if it had
happened only last night.

" Yes, but that was your fault," returned North Wind.
"I had work to do; and, besides, a gentleman should
never keep a lady waiting."

" But I'm not a gentleman," said Diamond, scratching
away at the paper.

" I hope you won't say so ten years after this."

" I'm going to be a coachman, and a coachman is not
a gentleman," persisted Diamond.

" We call your father a gentleman in our house," said
North Wind.

40 At the Back of the North Wind

*^ He doesn't call himself one,'' said Diamond.

*' That's of no consequence: every man ought to be a
gentleman, and your father is one."

Diamond was so pleased to hear this that he scratched
at the paper like ten mice, and getting hold of the edge
of it, tore it off. The next instant a young girl glided
across the bed, and stood upon the floor.

"Oh dear!" said Diamond, quite dismayed; "I didn't
know — who are you, please?"

"I'm ?Nlorth Wind."

"Are you really?"

"Yes. Make haste."

" But you're no bigger than me."

"Do you think I care about how big or how little
I am? Didn't you see me this evening. I was less
then."

" No. Where was you?"

" Behind the leaves of the primrose. Didn't you see
them blowing?"

"Yes."

" Make haste, then, if you want to go with me."

"But you are not big enough to take care of me. I
think you are only Miss North Wind."

"I am big enough to show you the way, anyhow.
But if you won't come, why, you must stay."

"I must dress myself. I didn't mind with a grown
lady, but I couldn't go with a little girl in my night-
gown."

"Very well. I'm not in such a hurry as I was the
other night. Dress as fast as you can, and I'll go
and shake the primrose leaves till you come."

C145

KORIH WIND

Old Diamond 4'

" Don't hurt it," said Diamond.

North Wind broke out in a little laugh like the break-
ing of silver bubbles, and was gone in a moment. Dia-
mond saw — for it was a starlit night, and the mass of
hay was at a low ebb now — the gleam of something
vanishing down the stair, and, springing out of bed,
dressed himself as fast as ever he could. Then he
crept out into the yard, through the door in the wall,
and away to the primrose. Behind it stood North
Wind, leaning over it, and looking at the flower as
if she had been its mother.

*'Come along," she said, jumping up and holding
out her hand.

Diamond took her hand. It was cold, but so plearant
and full of life, it was better than warm. She led him
across the garden. With one bound she was on the top
of the wall. Diamond was left at the foot.

''Stop, stop!" he cried. "Please, I can't jump like
that."

"You don't try," said North Wind, who from the top
looked down a foot taller than before.

" Give me your hand again, and I will try," said Dia-
mond.

She reached down. Diamond laid hold of her hand,
gave a great spring, and stood beside her.

"This is nice!" he said.

Another bound, and they stood in the road by the
river. It was full tide, and the stars were shining
clear in its depths, for it lay still, waiting for the
turn to run down again to the sea. They walked
along its side. But tJiey had not walked far before

At the Back of the North Wind

its surface was covered with ripples, and the stars
had vanished from its bosom.

And North Wind was now tall as a full-grown girl.
Her hair was flying about her head, and the wind
was blowing a breeze down the river. But she turned

aside and went
up a narrow lane,
and as she went
her hair fell down
around her.

'' I have some
rather disagree-
able work to do
to-night," she
said, " before I
get out to sea,
and I must set
about it at once.
The disagreeable
work must be
looked after first."
So saying, she
laid hold of Dia-
mond and began
to run, gliding along faster and faster. Diamond kept
up with her as well as he could. She made many
turnings and windings, apparently because it was not
quite easy to get him over walls and houses. Once
they ran through a hall where they found back and
front doors open. At the foot of the stair North Wind
stood still, and Diamond, hearing a great growl, started

Old Diamond 43

in terror, and there, instead of North Wind, was a huge
wolf by his side. He let go his hold in dismay, and the
wolf bounded up the stair. The windows of the house
rattled and shook as if guns were firing, and the sound
of a great fall came from above. Diamond stood with
white face staring up at the landing.

*' Surely," he thought, *' North Wind can't be eating
one of the children!" Coming to himself all at once, he
rushed after her with his little fist clenched. There were
ladies in long trains going up and down the stairs, and
gentlemen in white neckties attending on them, who
stared at him, but none of them were of the people of
the house, and they said nothing. Before he reached
the head of the stair, however. North Wind met him,
took him by the hand, and hurried down and out of
the house.

*' I hope you haven't eaten a baby. North Wind!"
said Diamond, very solemnly.

North Wind laughed merrily, and went tripping on
faster. Her grassy robe swept and swirled about her
steps, and wherever it passed over withered leaves, they
went fleeing and whirling in spirals, and running on
their edges like wheels, all about her feet.

''No," she said at last, "I did not eat a baby.
You would not have had to ask that foolish question
if you had not let go your hold of me. You would
have seen how I served a nurse that was calling a child
bad names, and telling her she was wicked. She had
Deen drinking. I saw an ugly gin bottle in a cup-
board."

"And you frightened her?" said Diamond.

At the Back of the North Wind

"I believe so!" answered North Wind, laughing
merrily. *' I flew at her throat, and she tumbled over
on the floor with such a crash that they ran in. She'll
be turned away to-morrow — and quite time, if they knew

as much as I do."
'' But didn't you

frighten the little
one?"

"She never saw
me. The woman
would not have
seen me either if
she had not been
wicked."

" Oh ! " said
Diamond, dubi-
ouslv.

"Why should
you see things,"
returned North
Wind, "that you
wouldn't under-
stand or know
what to do with? Good people see good things ; bad
people, bad things."

"Then are you a bad thing?"

"No. For yoii see me, Diamond, dear," said the
gi-1. and she looked down at him, and Diamond saw
the loving eyes of the great lady beaming from the
depths of her falling hair.

" I had to make myself look like a bad thing before

old Diamond 45

she could see me. If I had put on any other shape than
a wolf's she would not have seen me, for that is what is
growing to be her own shape inside of her."

'^ I don't know what you mean," said Diamond, "but
I suppose it's all right."

They were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent.
It was Primrose Hill, in fact, although Diamond had
never heard of it. The moment they reached the top,
North Wind stood and turned her face towards London.
The stars were still shining clear and cold overhead.
There was not a cloud to be seen. The air was sharp,
but Diamond did not find it cold.

**Now," said the lady, "whatever you do, do not let
my hand go. I might have lost you the last time, only
I was not in a hurry then: now I am in a hurry,"

Yet she stood still for a moment.

CHAPTER IV

North Wind

AND as she stood looking towards London, Dia-
mond saw that she was trembling.
^' Ave you cold, North Wind?" he asked.

*'No, Diamond," she answered, looking down upon
him with a smile; ** I am only getting ready to sweep
one of my rooms. Those careless, greedy, untidy chil-
dren make it in such a mess."

As she spoke he could have told by her voice, if
he had not seen with his eyes, that she was growing
larger and larger. Her head went up and up towards
the stars; and as she grew, still trembling through all
her body, her hair also grew — longer and longer, and
lifted itself from her head, and went out in black waves.
The next moment, however, it fell back around her, and
she grew less and less till she was only a tall woman.
Then she put her hands behind her head, and gathered
some of her hair, and began weaving and knotting
it together. When she had done, she bent down her
beautiful face close to his, and said —

"Diamond, I am afraid you would not keep hold
of me, and if I were to drop you, I don't know what
might happen; so I have been making a place for
you in my hair. Come."

North Wind

Ihamond held out his arms, for with that grand face
looking at him, he beHeved Hke a baby. She took him
in her hands, threw him over her shoulder, and said,
"Get in, Diamond."

And Diamond parted her hair with his hands, crept
between, and
feeling about
soon found the
woven nest. It
was just like a
poclsiet, or like
the shawl in
which gipsy wo-
men carry their
children. North
Wind put her
hands to her
back, felt all
about the nest,
and finding it
safe, said, —

"Are you com-
fortable, Dia-
mond?"

"Yes, indeed," answered Diamond.

The next moment he was rising in the air. North
Wind grew towering up to the place of the clouds.
Her hair went streaming out from her, till it spread
like a mist over the stars. She flung herself abroad
in space.

Diamond held on by two of the twisted ropes which.

48 At the Back of the North Wind

parted and interwoven, formed his shelter, for he could
not help being a little afraid. As soon as he had come
to himself, he peeped through the woven meshes, for
he did not dare to look over the top of the nest. The
earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him.
Trees, and water, and green grass hurried away be-
neath. A great roar of wild animals rose as they rushed
over the Zoological Gardens, mixed with a chattering of
monkeys and a screaming of birds; but it died away in a
moment behind them. And now there was nothing but
the roofs of houses, sweeping along like a great torrent
of stones and rocks. Chimney-pots fell, and tiles flew
from the roofs ; but it looked to him as if they were left
behind by the roofs and the chimneys as they scudded
away. There was a great roaring, for the wind was
dashing against London like a sea; but at North
Wind's back, Diamond, of course, felt nothing of it
all. He was in a perfect calm. He could hear the
sound of it, that was all.

By and by he raised himself and looked over the
edge of his nest. There were the houses rushing up
and shooting away below him, like a fierce torrent of
rocks instead of water. Then he looked up to the sky,
but could see no stars ; they were hidden by the blind-
ing masses of the lady's hair which swept between. He
began to wonder whether she would hear him if he
spoke. He would try.

"Please, North Wind," he said, 'Svhat is that
noise?"

From high over his head came the voice of North
Wind, answering him gently, —

North Wind 49

**The noise of my besom. I am the old woman that
sweeps the cobwebs from the sky; only I'm busy with
the floor now."

" What makes the houses look as if they were running
away?"

" I am sweeping so fast over them."

'' But, please, North Wind, I knew London was very
big, but I didn't know it was so big as this. It seems
as if we should never get away from it."

"We are going round and round, else we should
have left it long ago."

" Is this the way you sweep, North Wind?"

''Yes; I go round and round with my great besom."

''Please, would you mind going a little slower, for
I want to see the streets?"

" You won't see much now."

"Why?"

" Because I have nearly swept all the people home."

"Oh! I forgot," said Diamond, and was quiet after
that, for he did not want to be troublesome.

But she dropped a little towards the roofs of the
houses, and Diamond could see down into the streets.
There were very few people about, though. The lamps
flickered and flared again, but nobody seemed to want
them.

Suddenly Diamond espied a little girl coming along
a street. She was dreadfully blown by the wind, and
a broom she was trailing behind her was very trouble-
some. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her —
it kept worrying her like a wild beast, and tearing
at her rags. She was so lonely there!

( C 145 ) 4

50 At the Back of the North Wmd

^'Oh! please, North Wind," he cried, *' won't you
help that little girl?"

*'No, Diamond; I mustn't leave my work."
*' But why shouldn't you be kind to her?"
*'I am kind to her: I am sweeping the wicked smells

away."

"But
kinder

you re
to me,
dear North

Wind. Why

shouldn't you be
as kind to her
as you are to
me?"

" There are
reasons, Dia-
mond. Every-
body can't be
done to all the
same. Every-
body is not ready
for the same
thing."

"But I don't
see why I should be kinder used than she."

" Do you think nothing's to be done but what you
can see, Diamond, you silly! It's all right. Of course
you can help her if you like. You've got nothing par-
ticular to do at this moment; I have."

*^Oh! do let me help her, then. But you won't be
able to wait, perhaps?"

North Wind 51

** No, I can't wait; you must do it yourself. And,
mind, the wind will get a hold of you too."

" Don't you want me to help her, North Wind?"

" Not without having some idea what will happen.
If you break down and cry, that won't be much of a
help to her, and it will make a goose of little Diamond."

*' I want to go," said Diamond. "Only there's just
one thing — how am I to get home?"

'' If you're anxious about that, perhaps you had better
go with me. I am bound to take you home again, if
you do."

''There!" cried Diamond, who was still looking after
the little girl; "I'm sure the wind will blow her over,
and perhaps kill her. Do let me go."

They had been sweeping more slowly along the line
of the street. There was a lull in the roarinfr.

"Well, though I cannot promise to take you home,"
said North Wind, as she sank nearer and nearer to the
tops of the houses, " I can promise you it will be all
right in the end. You will get home somehow. Have
you made up your mind what to do?"

"Yes; to help the little girl," said Diamond firmly.

The same moment North Wind dropt into the street
and stood, only a tall lady, but v/ith her hair flying
up over the housetops. She put her hands to her back,
took Diamond, and set him down in the street. The
same moment he was caught in the fierce coils of the
blast, and all but blown away. North Wind stepped
back a pace, and at once towered in stature to the height
of the houses. A chimney-pot clashed at Diamond's
feet. He turned in terror, but it was to look for the

52 At the Back of the North Wind

little g-irl, and when he turned again the lady had
vanished, and the wind was roaring along the street
as if it had been the bed of an invisible torrent. The
little girl was scudding before the blast, her hair fly-
ing too, and behind her she dragged her broom. Her
little legs were going as fast as ever they could to keep
her from falling. Diamond crept into the shelter of a
doorway, thinking to stop her; but she passed him
like a bird, crying gently and pitifully.

*'Stop! stop! little girl," shouted Diamond, starting
in pursuit.

*^ I can't," wailed the girl; ^*the wind won't leave go
of me."

Diamond could run faster than she, and he had no
broom. In a few moments he had caught her by the
frock. But it tore in his hand, and away went the little
girl. So he had to run again, and this time he ran
so fast that he got before her, and turning round
caught her in his arms, when down they went both
together, which made the little girl laugh in the midst
of her crying.

''Where are you going?" asked Diamond, rubbing
the elbow that had stuck farthest out. The arm it be-
longed to was twined round a lamp-post as he stood
between the little girl and the wind.

'' Home," she said, gasping for breath.

''Then I will go with you," said Diamond.

And then they were silent for a while, for the wind
blew worse than ever, and they had both to hold on
to the lamp-post.

" Where is your crossing?" asked the girl at length.

North Wind 53

** I don't sweep," answered Diamond.

"What do you do, then?" asked she. "You ain't
big" enough for most things."

"I don't know what I do do," answered he, feeHng
rather ashamed. "Nothing, I suppose. My father's
Mr. Coleman's coachman."

" Have you a father?" she said, staring at him as if
a boy with a father was a natural curiosity.

"Yes. Haven't j^'oz^?" returned Diamond.

"No; nor mother neither. Old Sal's all I've
got."

And she began to cry again.

" I wouldn't go to her if she wasn't good to me," said
Diamond.

" But you must go somewheres."

" Move on," said the voice of a policeman behind
them.

" I told you so," said the girl. " You must go some-
wheres. They're always at it."

" But Old Sal doesn't beat you, does she?"

" I wish she would."

"What do you mean?" asked Diamond, quite be-
wildered.

" She would if she was my mother. But she wouldn't
lie abed a-cuddlin' of her ugly old bones, and laugh to
hear me crying at the door."

"You don't mean she won't let you in to-night?'*

" It'll be a good chance if she does."

" Why are you out so late, then?" asked Diamond.

" My crossing's a long way off at the West End, and
I had been indulgin' in door-steps and mewses."

54 At the Back of the North Wind

''We'd better have a try anyhow," said Diamond.
'' Come along."

As he spoke Diamond thought he caught a glimpse
of North Wind turning a corner in front of them; and
when they turned the corner too, they found it quite
quiet there, but he saw nothing of the lady.

*' Now you lead me," he said, taking her hand, ''and
I'll take care of you."

The girl withdrew her hand, but only to dry her eyes
with her frock, for the other had enough to do with her
broom. She put it in his again, and led him, turning
after turning, until they stopped at a cellar-door in a
very dirty lane. There she knocked.

" I shouldn't like to live here," said Diamond.

" Oh yes, you would, if you had nowheres else to
go to," answered the girl. "I only wish we may get

" I don't want to go in," said Diamond.

" Where do you mean to go, then?"

" Home to my home."

"Where's that?"

" I don't exactly know."

"Then you're worse off than I am."

"Oh no, for North Wind — " began Diamond, and
stopped he hardly knew why.

" What?'' said the girl, as she held her ear to the
door listening.

But Diamond did not reply. Neither did Old Sal.

"I told you so," said the girl. "She is wide awake
hearkening. But we don't get in."

"What will you do, then?" asked Diamond.

North Wind

" Move on," she answered.

*' Where?"

'' Oh, anywheres. Bless you, I'm used to it.'

'' Hadn't you better come home with me, then?"

"That's a good joke, w^hen you don't know where
It is. Come on."

"But where?"

"Oh, no-

wheres in parti-
cular. Come on."

Diamond obey-
ed. The wind
had now fallen
considerably.
They wandered
on and on, turn-
ing in this direc-
tion and that,
without any

reason for one
way more than
another, until
they had got
out of the thick

of the houses into a waste kind of place. By this
time they w^ere both very tired. Diamond felt a good
deal inclined to cry, and thought he had been very
silly to get down from the back of the North Wind;
not that he would have minded it if he had done the
girl any good ; but he thought he had been of no use
to her. He w^as mistaken there, for she w^as far happier

56 At the Back ot the North Wind

for havlnsr Diamond with her than if she had been
wandering about alone. She did not seem so tired as

he was.

*' Do let us rest a bit," said Diamond.

" Let's see," she answered. '^There's something like

a railway there.
Perhaps there's
an open arch."

They went to-
wards it and
found one, and,
better still, there
was an empty
barrel lyii^g^

under the arch.

''Hillo! here
we are!" said the
girl. "A barrel's
the jolliest bed
going — on the
tramp, I mean.
We'll have forty
winks, and then

go on agam.

?»

She crept in, and Diamond crept in beside her. They
put their arms round each other, and when he began to
grow warm. Diamond's courage began to come.
''This z> jolly!" he said. " I'm so glad!"
''I don't think so much of it," said the girl. '' I'm
used to it, I suppose. But I can't think how a kid like
you comes to be out all alone this time o' the night."

North Wind 57

She called him a kid^ but she was not really a month
older than he was; only she had had to work for her
bread, and that so soon makes people older.

''But I shouldn't have been out so late if I hadn't
got down to help you," said Diamond. ''North Wind
is gone home long ago."

" I think you must ha' got out o' one o' them Hidget
Asylms," said the girl. "You said something about
the north wind afore that I couldn't get the rights of."

So now, for the sake of his character, Diamond had to
tell her the whole story.

She did not believe a word of it. She said she wasn't
such a flat as to believe all that bosh. But as she spoke
there came a great blast of wind through the arch, and
set the barrel rolling. So they made haste to get out of
it, for they had no notion of being rolled over and over
as if they had been packed tight and wouldn't hurt, like
a barrel of herrings.

"I thought we should have had a sleep," said Dia-
mond; "but I can't say I'm very sleepy after all.
Come, let's go on again."

They wandered on and on, sometimes sitting on a
door-step, but always turning into lanes or fields when
they had a chance.

They found themselves at last on a rising ground that
sloped rather steeply on the other side. It was a waste
kind of spot below, bounded by an irregular wall, with
a few doors in it. Outside lay broken things in general,
from garden-rollers to flower-pots and wine-bottles. But
the moment they reached the brow of the rising ground,
a gust of wind seized them and blew them down hill as

58 At the Back of the North Wind

fast as they could run. Nor could Diamond stop before
he went bang against one of the doors in the wall. To
his dismay it burst open. When they came to them-
selves they peeped in. It was the back-door of a
garden.

*'Ah, ah!" cried Diamond, after staring for a few
moments, "I thought so! North Wind takes nobody
in! Here I am in master's garden! I tell you what,
little girl, you just bore a hole in old Sal's wall, and put
your mouth to it, and say, ' Please, North Wind, mayn't
I go out with you?' and then you'll see what'll come."

^*I daresay I shall. But I'm out in the wind too
often already to want more of it."

" I said imth the North Wind, not in it."

<' It's all one."

** It's not all one."

'*It is all one."

''But I know best."

''And I know better. I'll box your ears," said the
girl.

Diamond got very angry. But he remembered that
even if she did box his ears, he mustn't box hers again,
for she was a girl, and all that boys must do, if girls
are rude, is to go away and leave them. So he went
in at the door.

" Good-bye, mister," said the girl.

This brought Diamond to his senses.

"I'm sorry I was cross," he said. "Come in, and
my mother will give you some breakfast."

" No, thank you. I must be oflf to my crossing. It's
morning now."

North Wind 59

'* I'm very sorry for you," said Diamond.

'* Well, it is a life to be tired of — what with old Sal,
and so many holes in my shoes."

*' I wonder you're so good. I should kill myself."

'* Oh no, you wouldn't! When I think of it, I always
want to see what's coming next, and so I always wait
till next is over. Well! I suppose there's somebody
happy somewheres. But it ain't in them carriages.
Oh my! /lozv they do look sometimes — fit to bite your
head off! Good-bye!"

She ran up the hill and disappeared behind it. Then
Diamond shut the door as he best could, and ran through
the kitchen-garden to the stable. And wasn't he glad
to get into his own blessed bed again I

CHAPTER V

The Summer-House

lAMOND said nothing to his mother about
his adventures. He had half a notion that
North Wind was a friend of his mother, and
that, if she did not know all about it, at least she did
not mind his going anywhere with the lady of the
wind. At the same time he doubted whether he
might not appear to be telling stories if he told all,
especially as he could hardly believe it himself when
he thought about it in the middle of the day, although
when the twilight was once half-way on to night he
had no doubt about it, at least for the first few days
after he had been with her. The girl that swept the
crossing had certainly refused to believe him. Besides,
he felt sure that North Wind would tell him if he
ought to speak.

It was some time before he saw the lady of the wind
again. Indeed nothing remarkable took place in
Diamond's history until the following week. This
was what happened then. Diamond the horse wanted
new shoes, and Diamond's father took him out of the
stable, and was just getting on his back to ride him
to the forge, when he saw his little boy standing by
the pump, and looking at him wistfully. Then the

The Summer-House

coachman took his foot out of the stirrup, left his hold
of the mane and bridle, came across to his boy, lifted
him up, and setting- him on the horse's back, told
him to sit up like a man. He then led away both
Diamonds to-
gether.

The boy atop
felt not a little
tremulous as the
great muscles
that lifted the
legs of the horse
knotted and re-
laxed ae^ainst his
legs, and he
cowered towards
the withers,

grasping with
his hands the bit
of mane worn
short by the
collar; but when
his father looked

back at him, saying once more, *'Sit up, Diamond," he
let the mane go and sat up, notwithstanding that the
horse, thinking, I suppose, that his master had said
to him, *' Come up. Diamond," stepped out faster.
For both the Diamonds were just grandly obedient.
And Diamond soon found that, as he was obedient to
his father, so the horse was obedient to him. For he
had not ridden far before he found courage to reach

62 At the Back of the North Wind

forward and catch hold of the bridle, and when his
father, whose hand was upon it, felt the boy pull it
towards him, he looked up and smiled, and, well
pleased, let go his hold, and left Diamond to guide
Diamond ; and the boy soon found that he could do
so perfectly. It was a grand thing to be able to
guide a great beast like that. And another discovery
he made was that, in order to guide the horse, he
had in a measure to obey the horse first. If he did
not yield his body to the motions of the horse's body,
he could not guide him; he must fall off.

The blacksmith lived at some distance, deeper into
London. As they crossed the angle of a square,
Diamond, who was now quite comfortable on his
living throne, was glancing this way and that in a
gentle pride, when he saw a girl sweeping a cross-
ing scuddingly before a lady. The lady was his
father's mistress, Mrs, Coleman, and the little girl
was she for whose sake he had got off North Wind's
back. He drew Diamond's bridle in eager anxiety to
see whether her outstretched hand would gather a
penny from Mrs. Coleman. But she had given one
at the last crossing, and the hand returned only to
grasp its broom. Diamond could not bear it. He
had a penny in his pocket, the gift of the same lady
the day before, and he tumbled off his horse to give
it to the girl. He tumbled off, I say, for he did tumble
when he reached the ground. But he got up in an
instant, and ran, searching his pocket as he ran. She
made him a pretty courtesy when he offered his treasure,
but with a bewildered stare. She thought first: ''Then

The Summer-House 63

he was on the back of the North Wind after all!" but,
looking up at the sound of the horse's feet on the paved
crossing, she changed her idea, saying to herself,
"North Wind is his father's horse! That's the secret
of it! Why couldn't he say so?" And she had a mind
to refuse the penny. But his smile put it all right, and
she not only took his penny but put it in her mouth with
a ''Thank you, mister. Did they wollop you then?"

''Oh no!" answered Diamond. "They never wol-
lops me."

" Lor!" said the little girl, and was speechless.

Meantime his father, looking up, and seeing the
horse's back bare, suffered a pang of awful dread,
but the next moment catching sight of him, took him
up and put him on, saying —

" Don't get off again. Diamond. The horse might
have put his foot on you."

"No, father," answered the boy, and rode on in
majestic safety.

The summer drew near, warm and splendid. Miss
Coleman was a little better in health, and sat a good
deal in the garden. One day she saw Diamond peeping
through the shrubbery, and called him. He talked to
her so frankly that she often sent for him after that, and
by degrees it came about that he had leave to run in the
garden as he pleased. He never touched any of the
flowers or blossoms, for he was not like some boys
who cannot enjoy a thing without pulling it to pieces,
and so preventing every one from enjoying it after
them.

A week even makes such a long time in a child's life,

64' At the Back of the North Wind

that Diamond had begun once more to feel as if North

Wind were a dream of some far-off year.

One hot evening, he had been sitting with the young

mistress, as they called her, in a little summer-house at

the bottom of the lawn — a wonderful thing for beauty,

the boy thought,
for a little win-
dow in the side
of it was made
of coloured glass.
It grew dusky,
and the lady be-
gan to feel chill,
and went in, leav-
ing the boy in the
summer - house.
He sat there gaz-

ing out at a bed
of tulips, which,
although they
had closed for
the night, could
not go quite
asleep for the
wind that kept waving them about. All at once he saw
a great humble-bee fly out of one of the tulips.

''There! that is something done," said a voice — a
gentle, merry, childish voice, but so tiny. ''At last
it was. I thought he would have had to stay there
all night, poor fellow! I did."

Diamond could not tell whether the voice was near

The Summer-House 65

or far away, it was so small and yet so clear. He had
never seen a fairy, but he had heard of such, and he
began to look all about for one. And there was the
tiniest creature sliding down the stem of the tulip!

'*Are you the fairy that herds the bees?" he asked,
going out of the summer-house, and down on his knees
on the green shore of the tulip-bed.

" I'm not a fairy," answered the little creature.

" How do you know that?"

'' It would become you better to ask how yon are
to know it."

" You've just told me."

''Yes. But what's the use of knowing a thing only
because you're told it?"

" Well, how am I to know you are not a fairy? You
do look very like one."

"In the first place, fairies are much bigger than you

see me."

"Oh!" said Diamond reflectively; "I thought they
were very little."

*' But they might be tremendously bigger than I am,
and yet not very big. Why, /could be six times the
size I am, and not be very huge. Besides, a fairy can't
grow big and little at will, though the nursery-tales do
say so: they don't know better. You stupid Diamond!
have you never seen me before?"

And, as she spoke, a moan of wind bent the tulips

almost to the ground, and the creature laid her hand

on Diamond's shoulder. In a moment he knew that

It was North Wind.

"I am very stupid," he said; "but I never saw you
( c 145 ) 5

66 At the Back of the North Wind

so small before, not even when you were nursing the
primrose."

** Must you see me every size that can be measured
before you know me, Diamond?"

'* But how could I think it was you taking care of
a great stupid humble-bee?"

'' The more stupid he was the more need he had to be
taken care of. What with sucking honey and trying
to open the door, he was nearly dazed ; and when
it opened in the morning to let the sun see the tulip's
heart, what would the sun have thought to find such
a stupid thing lying there — with wings too?"

*' But how do you have time to look after bees?"

** I don't look after bees. I had this one to look after.
It was hard work, though."

*'Hard work! Why, you could blow a chimney
down, or — or — a boy's cap off," said Diamond.

"Both are easier than blow a tulip open. But I
scarcely know the difference between hard and easy.
I am always able for what I have to do. When I
see my work, I just rush at it — and it is done. But
I mustn't chatter. I have got to sink a ship to-night."

*'Sink a ship! What! with men in it?"

"Yes, and women too."

" How dreadful! I wish you wouldn't talk so."

"It is rather dreadful. But it is my work. I must
do it."

" I hope you won't ask me to go with you."

" No, I won't ask you. But you must come fbi
all that."

" I won't, then."

The Summer-House 67

''Won't you?"

And North Wind grew a tall lady, and looked him
in the eves, and Diamond said —

" Please take me. You cannot be cruel."

''No; I could not be cruel if I would. I can do
nothing cruel, although I often do what looks like
cruel to those who do not know what I really am doing.
The people they say I drown, I only carry away to —
to — to — well, the back of the North Wind — that is what
they used to call it long ago, only / never saw the
place."

" How can you carry them there if you never saw
it?"

" I know the way."

" But how is it you never saw it?"

" Because it is behind me."

" But you can look round."

" Not far enough to see my own back. No; I always
look before me. In fact, I grow quite blind and dea/
when I try to see my back. I only mind my work."

" But how does it be your work?"

"Ah, that I can't tell you. I only know it is, because
when I do it I feel all right, and when I don't I feel all
wrong. East Wind says — only one does not exactly
know how much to believe of what she says, for she is
very naughty sometimes — she says it is all managed
by a baby ; but whether she is good or naughty when
she says that, I don't know. I just stick to my work.
It is all one to me to let a bee out of a tulip, or to sweep
the cobwebs from the sky. You would like to go with
me to-night?"

68 At the Back of the North Wind

** I don't want to see a ship sunk."

*' But suppose I had to take you?"

*^ Why, then, of course I must go."

'* There's a good Diamond. — I think I had better be
growing a bit. Only you must go to bed first. I can't
take you till you're in bed. That's the law about the
children. So I had better go and do something else
first."

''Very well, North Wind," said Diamond. ''What
are you going to do first, if you please?"

" I think I may tell you. Jump up on the top of the
wall, there."

" I can't."

"Ah! and I can't help you — you haven't been to
bed yet, you see. Come out to the road with me, just
in front of the coach-house, and I will show you."

North Wind grew very small indeed, so small that
she could not have blown the dust off a dusty miller,
as the Scotch children call a yellow auricula. Diamond
could not even see the blades of grass move as she
flitted along by his foot. They left the lawn, went
out by the wicket in the coach-house gates, and then
crossed the road to the low wall that separated it from
the river.

"You can get up on this wall, Diamond," said North
Wind.

" Yes; but my mother has forbidden me."

"Then don't," said North Wind.

" But I can see over," said Diamond.

"Ah! to be sure. I can't."

So saying, North Wind gave a little bound, and

The Summer-House 69

stood on the top of the wall. She was just about the
height a dragon-fly would be, if it stood on end.

"You darling!" said Diamond, seeing what a lovely
little toy-woman she was.

*' Don't be impertinent, Master Diamond," said North
Wind. *' If there's one thing makes me more angry
than another, it is the way you humans judge things
by their size. I am quite as respectable now as I shall
be six hours after this, when I take an East Indiaman
by the royals, twist her round, and push her under.
You have no right to address me in such a fashion."

But as she spoke, the tiny face wore the smile of a
great grand woman. She was only having her own
beautiful fun out of Diamond, and true woman's fun
never hurts.

*^But look there!" she resumed. "Do you see a
boat with one man in it — a green and white boat?"

" Yes; quite well."

"That's a poet."

" I thought you said it was a bo-at."

" Stupid pet! Don't you know what a poet is?"

" Why, a thing to sail on the water in."

"Well, perhaps you're not so far wrong. Some
poets do carry people over the sea. But I have no
business to talk so much. The man is a poet."

" The boat is a boat," said Diamond.

" Can't you spell?" asked North Wind.

" Not very well."

"So I see. A poet is not a bo-at, as you call it.
A poet is a man who is glad of something, and tries
to make other people glad of it too."

70 At the Back of the North Wind

*'Ah! now I know. Like the man in the sweety-
shop."

''Not very. But I see it is no use. I wasn't sent
to tell you, and so I can't tell you. I must be off.
Only first just look at the man."

'' He's not much
of a rower," said
Diamond — " pad-
dling first with
one fin and then
with the other."

*' Now look
here!" said North
Wind.

And she flashed
like a dragon-fly
across the water,
whose surface

rippled and puc-
kered as she
passed. The next
moment the man
in the boat
glanced about
him, and bent to his oars. The boat flew over the
rippling water. Man and boat and river were awake.
The same instant almost, North Wind perched again
upon the river wall.

'' How did you do that?" asked Diamond.

*' I blew in his face," answered North Wind.

** I don't see how that could do it," said Diamond.

The Summer-House 71

*' I daresay not. And therefore you will say you
don't believe it could."

*'No, no, dear North Wind. I know you too well
not to believe you."

*' Well, I blew in his face, and that woke him up."

** But what was the good of it?"

*'Why! don't you see? Look at him — how he is
pulling. I blew the mist out of him."

''How was that?"

'' That is just what I cannot tell you."

*' But you did it."

''Yes. I have to do ten thousand things without
being able to tell how."

" I don't like that," said Diamond.

He was staring after the boat. Hearing no answer,
he looked down to the wall.

North Wind was gone. Aw^ay across the river went
a long ripple — what sailors call a cat's paw. The man
in the boat was putting up a sail. The moon was
coming to herself on the edge of a great cloud, and
the sail began to shine white. Diamond rubbed his
eyes, and wondered what it was all about. Things
seemed going on around him, and all to understand
each other; but he could make nothing of it. So he
put his hands in his pockets, and went in to have his
tea. The night was very hot, for the wind had fallen
again.

"You don't seem very well to-night, Diamond,"
said his mother.

"I am quite well, mother," returned Diamond, who
was only puzzled.

The Summer-House 73

wide awake, and gave him back his courage. The
same moment he heard a mighty yet musical voice
calling him.

**Come up, Diamond," it said. *' It's all ready.
I'm waiting for you."

He looked out of the bed, and saw a gigantic, power-
ful, but most lovely arm — with a hand whose fingers
were nothing the less ladylike that they could have
strangled a boa-constrictor, or choked a tigress off its
prey — stretched down through a big hole in the roof.
Without a moment's hesitation he reached out his tiny
one, and laid it in the grand palm before him.

CHAPTER VI

Out in the Storm

THE hand felt its way up his arm, and, grasping
it gently and strongly above the elbow, lifted
Diamond from the bed. The moment he was
through the hole in the roof, all the winds of heaven
seemed to lay hold upon him, and buffet him hither
and thither. His hair blew one way, his night-gown
another, his legs threatened to float from under him,
and his head to grow dizzy with the swiftness of the
invisible assailant. Cowering he clung with the other
hand to the huge hand which held his arm, and fear
invaded his heart.

*'Oh, North Wind!" he murmured, but the words
vanished from his lips as he had seen the soap-bubbles
that burst too soon vanish from the mouth of his pipe.
The wind caught them, and they were nowhere. They
couldn't get out at all, but were torn away and
strangled. And yet North Wind heard them, and in
her answer it seemed to Diamond that just because
she was so big and could not help it, and just because
her ear and her mouth must seem to him so dreadfully
far away, she spoke to him more tenderly and graciously
than ever before. Her voice was like the bass of a deep
organ, without the groan in it; like the most delicate
of violin tones without the wail in it; like the most

Out in the Storm

glorious of trumpet-ejaculations without the defiance
in it; like the sound of falling water without the clatter
and clash in it: it was like all of them and neither of
them — all of them without their faults, each of them
without its peculiarity: after all, it was more like his
mother's voice
than anything
else in the world.

" Diamond,
dear," she said,
"beaman. What
is fearful to you
is not the least
fearful to me."

*'But it can't
hurt you," mur-
mured Diamond,
'* for you're ity

*' Then if I'm
zV, and have you
in my arms, how
can it hurt you?"

((

yes

! I

))

see," whispered

Diamond. *' But it looks so dreadful, and it pushes

me about so."

*'Yes, it does, my dear. That is what it was sent
for."

At the same moment, a peal of thunder which shook
Diamond's heart against the sides of his bosom hurtled
out of the heavens: I cannot say out of the sky, for

76 At the Back of the North Wind

there was no sky. Diamond had not seen the lightning,
for he had been intent on finding the face of North
Wind. Every moment the folds of her garment would
sweep across his eyes and blind him, but between, he
could just persuade himself that he saw great glories
of woman's eyes looking down through rifts in the
mountainous clouds over his head.

He trembled so at the thunder, that his knees failed
him, and he sunk down at North Wind's feet, and
clasped her round the column of her ankle. She in-
stantly stooped and lifted him from the roof — up — up
into her bosom, and held him there, saying, as if to
an inconsolable child —

** Diamond, dear, this will never do."

*'Oh yes, it will," answered Diamond. ^*l am all
right now — quite comfortable, I assure you, dear North
Wind. If you will only let me stay here, I shall be
all right indeed."

** But you will feel the wind here. Diamond."

** I don't mind that a bit, so long as I feel your arms
through it," answered Diamond, nestling closer to her
grand bosom.

"Brave boy!" returned North Wind, pressing him
closer.

"No," said Diamond, "I don't see that. It's not
courage at all, so long as I feel you there."

" But hadn't you better get into my hair? Then
you would not feel the wind; you will here."

"Ah, but, dear North Wind, you don't know how
nice it is to feel your arms about me. It is a thousand
times better to have them and the wind together, than

Out in the Storm

to have only your hair and the back of your neck and
no wind at all.

*' But it is surely more comfortable there?"

**Well, perhaps; but I begin to think there are
better things than being comfortable."

" Yes, indeed
there are. Well,
I will keep you in
front of me. You
will feel the wind,
but not too much.
I shall only want
one arm to take
care of you ; the
other will be quite
enough to sink
the ship."

" Oh, dear

North Wind! how
can you talk so?"

'* My dear boy,
I never talk; I
always mean what
I say." '

*'Then you do mean to sink the ship with the other
hand?"

*'Yes."

'' It's not like you."

*' How do you know that?"

*' Quite easily. Here you are taking care of a
poor little boy with one arm, and there you are

78 At the Back of the North Wind

sinking a ship with the other. It can't be like
you."

''Ah! but which is me? I can't be two mes, you
know."

'' No. Nobody can be two mes.'*

''Well, which me is me?"

" Now I must think. There looks to be two."

"Yes. That's the very point. — You can't be know-
ing the thing you don't know, can you?"

"No."

"Which me do you know?"

" The kindest, goodest, best me in the world,"
answered Diamond, clinging to North Wind.

" Why am I good to you?"

"I don't know."

" Have you ever done anything for me?'*

"No."

"Then I must be good to you because I choose to
be good to you."

"Yes."

" Why should I choose?"

" Because — because — because you like.**

" Why should I like to be good to you?"

"I don't know, except it be because it's good to be
good to me."

"That's just it; I am good to you because I like to
be good."

"Then why shouldn't you be good to other people
as well as to me?"

" That's just what I don't know. Why shouldn't I?'*

" I don't know either. Then why shouldn't you?'*

Out in the Storm 79

** Because I am."

*' There it is again," said Diamond. *M don't see
that you are. It looks quite the other thing."

** Well, but listen to me. Diamond. You know the
one 7716^ you say, and that is good."

''Yes."

*' Do you know the other me as well?"

''No. I can't. I shouldn't like to."

"There it is. You don't know the other me. Vou
are sure of one of them?"

"Yes."

"And you are sure there can't be two mes?"

"Yes."

"Then the me you don't know must be the same as
the me you do know, — else there would be two mes?"

"Yes."

"Then the other me you don't know must be as
kind as the me you do know?"

"Yes."

"Besides, /tell you that it is so, only it doesn't look
like it. That I confess freely. Have you anything
more to object?"

" No, no, dear North Wind; I am quite satisfied."

"Then I will tell you something you might object.
You might say that the me you know is like the other
me, and that I am cruel all through."

" I know that can't be, because you are so kind."

" But that kindness might be only a pretence for the
sake of being more cruel afterwards."

Diamond clung to her tighter than ever, crying —

"No, no, dear North Wind; I can't believe that.

8o At the Back of the North Wind

I don't believe it. I won't believe it. That would
kill me. I love you, and you must love me, else how
did I come to love you? How could you know how
to put on such a beautiful face if you did not love me
and the rest? No. You may sink as many ships as

you like, and I
won't say another
word. I can't say
I shall like to see
it, you know."

"That's quite
another thing,"
said North Wind ;
and as she spoke
she gave one
spring from the
roof of the hay-
loft, and rushed up
into the clouds,
with Diamond
on her left arm
close to her
heart. And as
if the clouds
knew she had come, they burst into a fresh jubilation
of thunderous light. For a few moments. Diamond
seemed to be borne up through the depths of an ocean
of dazzling flame; the next, the winds were writhing
around him like a storm of serpents. For they were
in the midst of the clouds and mists, and they of course
took the shapes of the wind, eddying and wreath-

Out in the Storm 8i

ing- and whirling and shooting and dashing about like
grey and black water, so that it was as if the wind itself
had taken shape, and he saw the grey and black wind
tossing and raving most madly all about him. Now
it blinded him by smiting him upon the eyes; now it
deafened him by bellowing in his ears; for even when
the thunder came he knew now that it was the billows
of the great ocean of the air dashing against each other
in their haste to fill the hollow scooped out bv the
lightning; now it took his breath quite away by suck-
ing it from his body with the speed of its rush. But
he did not mind it. He only gasped first and then
laughed, for the arm of North Wind was about him,
and he was leaning against her bosom. It is quite
impossible for me to describe what he saw. Did you
ever watch a great wave shoot into a winding passage
amongst rocks? If you ever did, you would see that
the water rushed every way at once, some of it even
turning back and opposing the rest; greater confusion
you might see nowhere except in a crowd of frightened
people. Well, the wind was like that, except that it
went much faster, and therefore was much wilder, and
twisted and shot and curled and dodged and clashed
and raved ten times more madly than anything else
in creation except human passions. Diamond saw the
threads of the lady's hair streaking it all. In parts
indeed he could not tell which was hair and which
was black storm and vapour. It seemed sometimes
that all the great billows of mist- muddy wind were
woven out of the crossing lines of North Wind's in-
finite hair, sweeping in endless intertwistings. And

r C 145 i 6

82 At the Back of the North Wind

Diamond felt as the wind seized on his hair, which
his mother kept rather long, as if he too was a part
of the storm, and some of its life went out from him.
But so sheltered was he by North Wind's arm and
bosom that only at times, in the fiercer onslaught of

some curl -bil-
lowed eddy, did
he recognize for a
moment how wild
was the storm in
which he was
carried, nestling
in its very core
and formative

centre.

It seemed to
Diamond likewise
that they were
motionless in this
centre, and that
all the confusion
and fighting went
on around them.
Flash after flash
illuminated the fierce chaos, revealing in varied yellow
and blue and grey and dusky red the vaporous conten-
tion; peal after peal of thunder tore the infinite waste;
but it seemed to Diamond that North Wind and he
were motionless, all but the hair. It was not so. They
were sweeping with the speed of the wind itself towards
the sea.

CHAPTER VII

The Cathedral

MUST not go on describing what cannot be de-
scribed, for nothing is more wearisome.

Before they reached the sea, Diamond felt North
Wind's hair beginning to fall about him.

" Is the storm over, North Wind?" he called out.

''No, Diamond. I am only waiting a moment to set
you down. You would not like to see the ship sunk,
and I am going to give you a place to stop in till I
come back for you."

"Oh! thank you," said Diamond. *'I shall be sorry
to leave you, North Wind, but I would rather not see
the ship go down. And I'm afraid the poor people
will cry, and I should hear them. Oh, dear!"

''There are a good many passengers on board; and
to tell the truth, Diamond, I don't care about your
hearing the cry you speak of. I am afraid you would
not get it out of your little head again for a long
time."

"But how can you bear it then, North Wind? For
I am sure you are kind. I shall never doubt that
again."

" I will tell you how I am able to bear it. Diamond:
I am always hearing, through every noise, through all

84 At the Back of the North Wind

the noise I am making myself even, the sound of a
far-off song. I do not exactly know where it is, or
what it means; and I don't hear much of it, only the
odour of its music, as it were, flitting across the great
billows of the ocean outside this air in which I make
such a storm ; but what I do hear, is quite enough to
make me able to bear the cry from the drowning ship.
So it would you if you could hear it."

*^No, it wouldn't," said Diamond, stoutly. *' For
they wouldn't hear the music of the far-away song; and
if they did, it wouldn't do them any good. You see
you and I are not going to be drowned, and so we
might enjoy it."

^' But you have never heard the psalm, and you don't
know what it is like. Somehow, I can't say how, it
tells me that all is right; that it is coming to swallow
up all cries."

*' But that won't do them any good — the people, I
mean," persisted Diamond.

*'It must. It must," said North Wind, hurriedly.
*' It wouldn't be the song it seems to be if it did not
swallow up all their fear and pain too, and set them
singing it themselves with the rest. I am sure it will.
And do you know, ever since I knew I had hair, that
is, ever since it began to go out and away, that song
has been coming nearer and nearer. Only I must say
it was some thousand years before I heard it."

^' But how can you say it was coming nearer when
you did not hear it?" asked doubting little Diamond.

''Since I began to hear it, I know it is growing
louder, therefore I judge it was coming nearer and

The Cathedral 85

nearer until I did hear it first. I'm not so very old,
you know — a few thousand years only — and I was quite
a baby when I heard the noise first, but I knew it must
come from the voices of people ever so much older and
wiser than I was. I can't sing at all, except now and
then, and I can never tell what my song is going
to be; I only know what it is after I have sung it. —
But this will never do. Will you stop here?"

" I can't see anywhere to stop," said Diamond.
"Your hair is all down like a darkness, and I can't
see through it if I knock my eyes into it ever so much."

'*Look then," said North Wind; and, with one
sweep of her great w^hite arm, she swept yards deep
of darkness like a great curtain from before the face
of the boy.

And lo! it was a blue night, lit up with stars. Where
it did not shine with stars it shimmered with the milk
of the stars, except where, just opposite to Diamond's
face, the grey towers of a cathedral blotted out each
its own shape of sky and stars.

"Oh! what's that?" cried Diamond, struck with a
kind of terror, for he had never seen a cathedral, and
it rose before him with awful reality in the midst of the
wide spaces, conquering emptiness with grandeur.

"A very good place for you to wait in," said North
Wind. " But we shall go in, and you shall judge for
yourself."

There was an open door in the middle of one of the
towers leading out upon the roof, and through it they
passed. Then North Wind set Diamond on his feet,
and he found himself at the top of a stone stair, which

86 At the Back of the North Wind

went twisting away down into the darkness. For only
a little light came in at the door. It was enough,
however, to allow Diamond to see that North Wind
stood beside him. He looked up to find her face, and
saw that she was no longer a beautiful giantess, but
the tall gracious lady he liked best to see. She took
his hand, and, giving him the broad part of the spiral
stair to walk on, led him down a good way; then,
opening another little door, led him out upon a narrow

gallery that ran
all round the cen-
tral part of the
church, on the
ledges of the
windows of the
clerestory, and
through openings
in the parts of the
wall that divided
the windows from
each other. It
was very narrow,
and except when
they were passing
through the wall.
Diamond saw no-
thing to keep him
from falling into
the church. It lay below him like a great silent gulf
hollowed in stone, and he held his breath for fear as
he looked down.

The Cathedral

'*What are you trembling for, little Diamond?" said
the lady, as she walked gently along, with her hand held
out behind her
leading him, for
there was not
breadth enough
for them to walk
side by side.

" I am afraid
of falling down
there," answered
Diamond. " It is
so deep down."

"Yes, rather,"
answered North
Wind; *' but you
were a hundred
times higher a few
minutes ago."

*'Ah, yes, but
somebody's arm

was about me then," said Diamond, putting his little
mouth to the beautiful cold hand that had a hold of his.

'^What a dear little warm mouth you've got!" said
North Wind. '* It is a pity you should talk nonsense
with it. Don't you know I have a hold of you?"

"Yes; but I'm walking on my own legs, and they
might slip. I can't trust myself so well as your
arms."

" But I have a hold of you, I tell you, foolish child."

"Yes, but somehow I can't feel comfortable."

88 At the Back of the North Wind

** If you were to fall, and my hold of you were to give
way, I should be down after you in a less moment
than a lady's watch can tick, and catch you before you
had reached the ground."

'' I don't like it, though," said Diamond.

^' Oil! oh! oh!'"' he screamed the next moment, bent
double with terror, for North Wind had let go her hold
of his hand, and had vanished, leaving him standing as
if rooted to the gallery.

She left the words, '' Come after me," sounding in his
ears.

But move he dared not. In a moment more he would
from very terror have fallen into the church, but sud-
denly there came a gentle breath of cool wind upon
his face, and it kept blowing upon him in little puffs,
and at every puff Diamond felt his faintness going
away, and his fear with it. Courage was reviving in
his little heart, and still the cool wafts of the soft wind
breathed upon him, and the soft wind was so mighty
and strong within its gentleness, that in a minute more
Diamond was marching along the narrow ledge as fear-
less for the time as North Wind herself.

He walked on and on, with the windows all in a row
on one side of him, and the great empty nave of the
church echoing to every one of his brave strides on
the other, until at last he came to a little open door,
from which a broader stair led him down and down
and down, till at last all at once he found himself in
the arms of North Wind, who held him close to her,
and kissed him on the forehead. Diamond nestled to
her, and murmured in her bosom, —

The Cathedral

** Why did you leave me, dear North Wind?"

*' Because I wanted you to walk alone," she answered

'' But it is so much nicer here!" said Diamond.

"I daresay; but I couldn't hold a little coward to
my heart. It would make me so cold!"

''But I wasn't
brave of myself,"
said Diamond,
whom my older
readers will havx*
already discovered
to be a true child
in this, that he
was given to
metaphysics. '* It
was the wind that
blew in my face
that made me
brave. Wasn't
it now, North
Wind?"

"Yes: I know
that. You had
to be taught what

courage was. And you couldn't know what it was
without feeling it: therefore it was given you. But
don't you feel as if you would try to be brave yourself
next time?"

"Yes, I do. But trying is not much."

"Yes, it is — a very great deal, for it is a beginning.
And a beginning is the greatest thing of all. To try

90 At the Back of the North Wind

to be brave is to be brave. The coward who tries to
be brave is before the man who is brave because he
is made so, and never had to try."

^'How kind you are, North Wind!"

*'I am only just. All kindness is but justice. We
owe it."

*' I don't quite understand that."

*' Never mind; you will some day. There is no hurry
about understanding it now."

'* Who blew the wind on me that made me brave?"

<M did."

** I didn't see you."

"Therefore you can believe me."

**Yes, yes; of course. But how was it that such a
little breath could be so strong?"

"That I don't know."

"But you made it strong?"

"No: I only blew it. I knew it would make you
strong, just as it did the man in the boat, you re-
member. But how my breath has that power I can-
not tell. It was put into it when I was made. That
is all I know. But really I must be going about my
work."

"Ah! the poor ship! I wish you would stop here,
and let the poor ship go."

"That I dare not do. Will you stop here till I come
back?"

"Yes. You won't be long?"

" Not longer than I can help. Trust me, you shall
get home before the morning."

In a moment North Wind was gone, and the next

The Cathedral 91

Diamond heard a moaning about the church, which
grew and grew to a roaring. The storm was up
again, and he knew that North Wind's hair was
flying.

The church was dark. Only a little light came
through the windows, which were almost all of that
precious old stained glass which is so much lovelier
than the new. But Diamond could not see how
beautiful they were, for there was not enough of light
in the stars to show the colours of them. He could
only just distinguish them from the walls. He looked
up, but could not see the gallery along which he had
passed. He could only tell where it was far up by
the faint glimmer of the windows of the clerestory,
whose sills made part of it. The church grew very
lonely about him, and he began to feel like a child
whose mother has forsaken it. Only he knew that to
be left alone is not always to be forsaken.

He began to feel his way about the place, and for
a while went wandering up and down. His little foot-
steps waked little answering echoes in the great house.
It wasn't too big to mind him. It was as if the church
knew he was there, and meant to make itself his house.
So it went on giving back an answer to every step, until
at length Diamond thought he should like to say some-
thing out loud, and see what the church would answer.
But he found he was afraid to speak. He could not
utter a word for fear of the loneliness. Perhaps it was
as well that he did not, for the sound of a spoken word
would have made him feel the place yet more deserted
and empty. But he thought he could sing. He was

At the Back of the North Wind

fond of singing, and at home he used to sing, to tunes
of his own, all the nursery rhymes he knew. So he
began to try Hey diddle diddle, but it wouldn't do.
Then he tried Little Boy Blue, but it was no better.
Neither would Sing a Song of Sixpence sing itself at

all. Then he tried
7fffliil%S^;^^^PIIilSBSl Poor old Cockytoo,

but he wouldn't
do. They all
sounded so silly!
and he had never
thought them silly
before. So he was
quiet, and listened
to the echoes that
came out of the
dark corners in
ansW'Cr to his foot-
steps.

At last he gave
a great sigh, and
said, "I'm so
tired". But he
did not hear the
gentle echo that answered from far away over his head,
for at the same moment he came against the lowest of
a few steps that stretched across the church, and fell
down and hurt his arm. He cried a little first, and
then crawled up the steps on his hands and knees.
At the top he came to a little bit of carpet, on which
he lay down; and there he lay staring at the dull

The Cathedral 93

window that rose nearly a hundred feet above his
head.

Now this was the eastern window of the church,
and the moon was at that moment just on the edge
of the horizon. The next, she was peeping over it.
And lo! with the moon, St. John and St. Paul, and
the rest of them, began to dawn in the window in
their lovely garments. Diamond did not know that the
wonder-working moon was behind, and he thought all
the light was coming out of the window itself, and
that the good old men were appearing to help him,
growing out of the night and the darkness, because he
had hurt his arm, and was very tired and lonely, and
North Wind was so long in coming. So he lay and
looked at them backwards over his head, wondering
when they would come down or what they would do
next. They were very dim, for the moonlight was not
strong enough for the colours, and he had enough to
do with his eyes trying to make out their shapes. So
his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired, and his
eyelids grew so heavy that they would keep tumbling
down over his eyes. He kept lifting them and lifting
them, but every time they were heavier than the last.
It was no use: they were too much for him. Some-
times before he had got them half up, down they were
again ; and at length he gave it up quite, and the
moment he gave it up, he was fast asleep.

CHAPTER VIII

The East Window

THAT Diamond had fallen fast asleep is very
evident from the strange things he now fancied
as taking place. For he thought he heard a
sound as of whispering up in the great window. He
tried to open his eyes, but he could not. And the
whispering went on and grew louder and louder, until
he could hear every word that was said. He thought
it was the Apostles talking about him. But he could
not open his eyes.

*'And how comes he to be lying there, St. Peter?"
said one.

'*I think I saw him a while ago up in the gallery,
under the Nicodemus window. Perhaps he has fallen
down. What do you think, St. Matthew?"

**I don't think he could have crept here after fall-
ing from such a height. He must have been killed."

"What are we to do with him? We can't leave
him lying there. And we could not make him com-
fortable up here in the window: it's rather crowded
already. What do you say, St. Thomas?"

" Let's go down and look at him."

There came a rustling, and a chinking, for some time,
and then there was a silence, and Diamond felt some-

The East Window 95

how that all the Apostles were standing round him and
looking down on him. And still he could not open his
eyes.

''What is the matter with him, St. Luke?" asked one.

'' There's nothing the matter with him," answered
St. Luke, who must have joined the company of the
Apostles from the next window, one would think.
" He's in a sound sleep."

"I have it," cried another. "This is one of North
Wind's tricks. She has caught him up and dropped
him at our door, like a withered leaf or a foundling
baby. I don't understand that woman's conduct, I
must say. As if we hadn't enough to do with our
money, without going taking care of other people's
children! That's not what our forefathers built cathe-
drals for."

Now Diamond could not bear to hear such things
against North Wind, who, he knew, never played any-
body a trick. She was far too busy with her own work
for that. He struggled hard to open his eyes, but with-
out success.

'' She should consider that a church is not a place
for pranks, not to mention that we live in it," said
another.

*'It certainly is disrespectful of her. But she always
is disrespectful. What right has she to bang at our
windows as she has been doing the whole of this
night? I daresay there is glass broken somewhere.
I know my blue robe is in a dreadful mess with the
rain first and the dust after. It will cost me shillings
to clean it."

96 At the Back of the North Wind

Then Diamond knew that they could not be Apostles,
talking like this. They could only be the sextons and
vergers, and such-like, who got up at night, and put
on the robes of deans and bishops, and called each other
grand names, as the foolish servants he had heard his
father tell of call themselves lords and ladies, after their
masters and mistresses. And he was so angry at their
daring to abuse North Wind, that he jumped up,
crying —

'' North Wind knows best what she is about. She
has a good right to blow the cobwebs from your win-
dows, for she was sent to do it. She sweeps them
away from grander places, I can tell you, for I've
been with her at it."

This was what he began to say, but as he spoke
his eyes came wide open, and behold, there were
neither Apostles nor vergers there — not even a win-
dow with the effigies of holy men in it, but a dark
heap of hay all about him, and the little panes in the
roof of his loft glimmering blue in the light of the
morning. Old Diamond was coming awake down be-
low in the stable. In a moment more he was on his
feet, and shaking himself so that young Diamond's
bed trembled under him.

''He's grand at shaking himself," said Diamond.
''I wish I could shake myself like that. But then 1
can wash myself, and he can't. What fun it would
be to see Old Diamond washing his face with his
hoofs and iron shoes! Wouldn't it be a picture?"

So saying, he got up and dressed himself. Then
he went out into the garden. There must have been

The East Window 97

a tremendous wind in the night, for although all was
quiet now, there lay the little summer-house crushed
to the ground, and over it the great elm-tree, which
the wind had broken across, being much decayed in
the middle. Diamond almost cried to see the wilder-
ness of green leaves, which used to be so far up
in the blue air, tossing about in the breeze, and
liking it best when the wind blew it most, now lying
so near the ground, and without any hope of ever
getting up into the deep air again.

"I wonder how old the tree is!" thought Diamond.
** It must take a long time to get so near the sky as
that poor tree was."

"Yes, indeed," said a voice beside him, for Diamond
had spoken the last words aloud.

Diamond started, and looking round saw a clergy-
man, a brother of Mrs. Coleman, who happened to be
visiting her. He was a great scholar, and was in the
habit of rising early.

" Who are you, my man?" he added.

'' Little Diamond," answered the boy.

'^Oh! I have heard of you. How do you come to be
up so early?"

*' Because the sham Apostles talked such nonsense,
they waked me up."

The clergyman stared. Diamond saw that he had
better have held his tongue, for he could not explain
things.

**You must have been dreaming, my little man,"
said he. "Dear! dear!" he went on, looking at the
tree, "there has been terrible work here. This is the

98 At the Back of the North Wind

north wind's doing. What a pity! I wish we lived
at the hick of it, I'm sure."

** Where is that, sir?" asked Diamond.

''Away in the Hyperborean regions," answered the
clergyman, smiling.

" I never heard of the place," returned Diamond.

*' I daresay not," answered the clergyman; "but if
this tree had been there now, it would not have been
blown down, for there is no wind there."

*' But, please, sir, if it had been there," said Dia-
mond, " we should not have had to be sorry for it."

" Certainly not."

"Then we shouldn't have had to be glad for it
either."

"You're quite right, my boy," said the clergyman,
looking at him very kindly, as he turned away to the
house, with his eyes bent towards the earth. But Dia-
mond thought within himself, " I will ask North Wind
next time I see her to take me to that country. 1 think
she did speak aboit it once before."

CHAPTER IX

How Diamond got to the Back of the

North Wind

WHEN Diamond went home to breakfast, he
found his father and mother already seated
at the table. They were both busy with
their bread and butter, and Diamond sat himself down
in his usual place. His mother looked up at him, and.
after watching- him for a moment, said:

*'I don't think the boy is looking well, husband."

''Don't you? Well, I don't know. I think he looks
pretty bobbish. How do you feel yourself. Diamond,
my boy?"

"Quite well, thank you, father; at least, I think I've
got a little headache."

''There! I told you,' said his father and mother
both at once.

" The child's very poorly,*' added his mother.

"The child's quite well," added his father.

And then they both laughed.

'You see," said his mother, "I've had a letter from
my sister at Sandwich."

"Sleepy old hole!" said his father.

"Don't abuse the place; there's good people in it,"
said his mother,

loo At the Back of the North Wind

*^ Right, old lady," returned his father; **only 1
don't believe there are more than two pair of carriage-
horses in the whole blessed place."

'' Well, people can get to heaven without carriages —
or coachmen either, husband. Not that I should like

to go without
my coachman,
you know. But
about the boy?"
''What boy?"
"That boy,
there, staring at
you with his
goggle-eyes."

" Have I got
goggle-eyes, mo-
ther?" asked Dia-
mond, a little dis-
mayed.

" Not too gog-
gle," said his
mother, who was
quite proud of
her boy's eyes,
only did not want to make him vain. " Not too goggle;
only you need not stare so."

''Well, what about him?" said his father.
"I told you I had got a letter."
"Yes, from your sister; not from Diamond."
"La, husband! you've got out of bed the wrong
leg first this morning, I do believe."

How Diamond Got There loi

** I always get out with both at once," said his father,
laughing.

*'Well, listen then. His aunt wants the boy to go
down and see her."

''And that's why you want to make out that he
ain't looking well."

''No more he is. I think he had better go."

"Well, I don't care, if you can find the money,"
said his father.

"I'll manage that," said his mother; and so it was
agreed that Diamond should go to Sandwich.

I will not describe the preparations Diamond made.
You would have thought he had been going on a three
months' voyage. Nor will I describe the journey, for
our business is now at the place. He was met at the
station by his aunt, a cheerful middle-aged woman,
and conveyed in safety to the sleepy old town, as
his father had called it. And no wonder that it was
sleepy, for it was nearly dead of old age.

Diamond went about staring with his beautiful
goggle-eyes, at the quaint old streets, and the shops,
and the houses. Everything looked very strange, in-
deed; for here was a town abandoned by its nurse,
the sea, like an old oyster left on the shore till it
gaped for weariness. It used to be one of the five
chief seaports in England, but it began to hold itself
too high, and the consequence was the sea grew less
and less intimate with it, gradually drew back, and
kept more to itself, till at length it left it high and
dry: Sandwich was a seaport no more; the sea went on
with its own tide-business a long way ofi", and forgot

I02

At the Back of the North Wind

it. Of course it went to sleep, and had no more tc
do with ships. That's what comes to cities and nations,
and boys and girls, who say, "I can do \without yoztr
help. I'm enough for myself."

Diamond soon made great friends with an old woman
who kept a toyshop, for his mother had given him two-
pence for pocket-money before he left, and he had gone
into her shop to spend it, and she got talking to him.
She looked very funny, because she had not got any

teeth, but Dia-
mond liked her,

and went often to
her shop, al-
though he had
nothing to spend
there after the two-
pence was gone.

One afternoon
he had been
wandering rather
wearily about the
streets for some
time. It was a
hot day, and he
felt tired. As he
passed the toy-
shop, he stepped
in.

'* Please may I sit down for a minute on this box?"
he said, thinking the old woman was somewhere in the

shop. But he got no answer, and sat down without one.

How Diamond Got There 103

Around him were a great many toys of all prices, from
a penny up to shillings. All at once he heard a gentle
whirring some-
where amongst
them. It made
him start and
look behind him.
There were the
sails of a wind-
mill going round
and round almost
close to his ear.
He thought at
first it must be
one of those toys
which are wound
up and go with
clockwork ; but
no, it w^as a com-
mon penny toy,

with the windmill at the end of a whistle, and when
the whistle blows the windmill goes. But the wonder
was that there was no one at the whistle end blowing,
and yet the sails were turning round and round — now
faster, now slower, now faster again.

"What can it mean?" said Diamond, aloud.

'*It means me," said the tiniest voice he had ever
heard.

'' Who are you, please?" asked Diamond.

'* Well, really, I begin to be ashamed of you," said
the voice. " T wonder how long it will be before you

I04 At the Back of the North Wind

know me; or how often I might take you in before you
got sharp enough to suspect me. You are as bad as a
baby that doesn't know his mother in a new bonnet."

**Not quite so bad as that, dear North Wind," said
Diamond, *'for I didn't see you at all, and indeed,
I don't see you yet, although I recognize your voice.
Do grow a little, please."

''Not a hair's-breadth," said the voice, and it was
the smallest voice that ever spoke. "What are you
doing here?"

" I am come to see my aunt. But, please. North
Wind, why didn't you come back for me in the
church that night?"

"I did. I carried you safe home. All the time you
were dreaming about the glass apostles, you were
lying in my arms."

"I'm so glad," said Diamond. "I thought that
must be it, only I wanted to hear you say so. Did
you sink the ship, then?"

"Yes."

"And drown everybody?"

"Not quite. One boat got away with six or seven
men in it."

"How could the boat swim when the ship couldn't?"

"Of course I had some trouble with it. I had to
contrive a bit, and manage the waves a little. When
they're once thoroughly waked up, I have a good deal
of trouble with them sometimes. They're apt to get
stupid with tumbling over each other's heads. That's
when they're fairly at it. However, the boat got to a
desert island before noon the next day."

How Diamond Got There 105

**And what good will come of that?"

'' I don't know. I obeyed orders. Good-bye."

*'Oh! stay, North Wind, do stay!" cried Diamond,
dismayed to see the windmill get slower and slower.

** What is it, my dear child?" said North Wind, and
the windmill began turning again so swiftly that Dia-
mond could scarcely see it. "What a big voice you've
got! and what a noise you do make with it! What is
it you want? I have little to do, but that little must
be done."

'' I want you to take me to the country at the back
of the north wind."

"That's not so easy," said North Wind, and was
silent for so long that Diamond thought she was gone
indeed. But after he had quite given her up, the voice
began again.

" I almost wish old Herodotus had held his tongue
about it. Much he knew of it!"

" Why do you wish that, North Wind?"

"Because then that clergyman would never have
heard of it, and set you wanting to go. But we shall
see. We shall see. You must go home now, my dear,
for you don't seem very well, and I'll see what can be
done for you. Don't wait for me. I've got to break a
few of old Goody's toys: she's thinking too much of
her new stock. Two or three will do. There! go now."

Diamond rose, quite sorry, and without a word left
the shop, and went home.

It soon appeared that his mother had been right
about him, for that same afternoon his head began
to ache very much, and he had to go to bed.

io6 At the Back of the North Wind

He awoke in the middle of the night. The lattice
window of his room had blown open, and the cur-
tains of his little bed were swinging about in the
wind.

"If that should be North Wind now!" thought Dia-
mond.

But the next moment he heard some one closing
the window, and his aunt came to the bedside. She
put her hand on his face, and said —

'' How's your head, dear?"

" Better, auntie, I think."

*' Would you like something to drink?"

*'Oh, yes! I should, please."

So his aunt gave him some lemonade, for she had
been used to nursing sick people, and Diamond felt
very much refreshed, and laid his head down again to
go very fast asleep, as he thought. And so he did,
but only to come awake again, as a fresh burst of
wind blew the lattice open a second time. The same
moment he found himself in a cloud of North Wind's
hair, with her beautiful face, set in it like a moon,
bending over him.

*' Quick, Diamond!" she said. ** I have found such
a chance!"

*' But I'm not well," said Diamond.

''I know that, but you will be better for a little
fresh air. You shall have plenty of that."

*' You want me to go, then?"

*' Yes, I do. It won't hurt you."

"Very well," said Diamond; and getting out of the
bed-clothes, he jumped into North Wind's arm.s.

How Diamond Got There 107

**We must make haste before your aunt comes,
said she, as she glided out of the open lattice and left
it swinging.

The moment Diamond felt her arms fold around
him he began to feel better. It was a moonless night,
and very dark, with glimpses of stars when the clouds
parted.

*'I used to dash the waves about here," said North
Wind, ''where cows and sheep are feeding now; but
we shall soon get to them. There they are."

And Diamond, looking down, saw the white glimmer
of breaking water far below him.

''You see, Diamond," said North Wind, "it is very
difficult for me to get you to the back of the north wind,
for that country lies in the very north itself, and of
course I can't blow northwards."

" Why not?" asked Diamond.

"You litde silly!" said North Wind. "Don't you
see that if I were to blow northwards I should be South
Wind, and that is as much as to say that one person
could be two persons?"

" But how can you ever get home at all, then?"

"You are quite right — that is my home, though I
never get farther than the outer door. I sit on the
doorstep, and hear the voices inside. I am nobody
there. Diamond."

" I'm very sorry."

"Why?"

"That you should be nobody."

"Oh, I don't mind it. Dear little man! you will
be very glad some day to be nobody yourself. But

io8 At the Back of the North Wind

you can't understand that now, and you had better
not try; for if you do, you will be certain to go fancy-
ing some egregious nonsense, and making yourself
miserable about it."

''Then I won't," said Diamond.

** There's a good boy. It will all come in good time."

** But you haven't told me how you get to the door-
step, you know."

'^ It is easy enough for me. I have only to consent
to be nobody, and there I am. I draw into myself,
and there I am on the doorstep. But you can easily
see, or you have less sense than I think, that to drag
you, you heavy thing, along with me, would take
centuries, and I could not give the time to it."

'^ Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Diamond.

*' What for now, pet?"

"That I'm so heavy for you. I would be lighter if
I could, but I don't know how."

*' You silly darling! Why, I could toss you a hun-
dred miles from me if I liked. It is only when I am
going home that I shall find you heavy.'

"Then you are going home with me?'

"Of course. Did I not come to fetch you just for
that?"

" But all this time you must be going southwards."

"Yes. Of course I am."
* How can you be taking me northwards, then?"

"A very sensible question. But you shall see. I
will get rid of a few of these clouds — only they do come
up so fast! It's like trying to blow a brook dry. There'
What do you see now?"

How Diamond Got There 109

** I think I see a little boat, away there, down below."

"A little boat, indeed! Well! She's a yacht of two
hundred tons; and the captain of it is a friend of mine;
for he is a man of good sense, and can sail his craft
well. I've helped him many a time when he little
thought it. I've heard him grumbling at me, when
I was doing the very best I could for him. Why,
I've carried him eighty miles a day, again and again,
right north."

"He must have dodged for that," said Diamond,
who had been watching the vessels, and had seen
that they went other ways than the w^nd blew.

"Of course he must. But don't you see, it was
the best I could do? I couldn't be South Wind. And
besides it gave him a share in the business. It is not
good at all — mind that. Diamond — to do everything for
those you love, and not give them a share in the doing.
It's not kind. It's making too much of yourself, m)
child. If I had been South Wind, he would only
have smoked his pipe all day, and made himself
stupid."

"But how could he be a man of sense and grumble
at you when you were doing your best for him?"

"Oh! you must make allowances," said North Wind,
"or you will never do justice to anybody. — You do
understand, then, that a captain may sail north "

"In spite of a north wind — yes," supplemented
Diamond.

"Now, I do think you must be stupid, my dear,"
said North Wind. "Suppose the north wind did not
blow, where would he be then ? "

no At the Back of the North Wind

** Why then the south wind would carry him."

^'So you think that when the north wind stops the

south wind blows. Nonsense. If I didn't blow, the

captain couldn't sail his eighty miles a day. No doubt

South Wind would carry him faster, but South Wind

is sitting on her
doorstep then,
and if I stopped
there would be a
dead calm. So
you are all wrong
to say he can sail
north in spite of
me; he sails north
by my help, and
my help alone.
You see that,
Diamond?"

"Yes, I do,
North Wind. I
am stupid, but I
don't want to be
stupid."
''Good boy! I am going to blow you north in that
little craft, one of the finest that ever sailed the sea.
Here we are, right over it. I shall be blow^ing against
you; you will be sailing against me; and all will be
just as we want it. The captain won't get on so fast
as he would like, but he will get on, and so shall we.
I'm just going to put you on board. Do you see in
front of the tiller — that thing the man is working, now

How Diamond Got There m

to one side, now to the other — a round thing hke the
top of a drum?"

*' Yes," said Diamond.

*' Below that is where they keep their spare sails, and
some stores of that sort. I am going- to blow that
cover off. The same moment I will drop you on deck,
and you must tumble in. Don't be afraid, it is of no
depth, and you will fall on a roll of sail-cloth. You
will find it nice and warm and dry — only dark; and
you will know I am near you by every roll and pitch
of the vessel. Coil yourself up and go to sleep. The
yacht shall be my cradle, and you shall be my baby."

"Thank you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit
afraid," said Diamond.

In a moment they were on a level with the bulwarks,
and North Wind sent the hatch of the after-store
rattling- awav over the deck to leeward. The next,
Diamond found himself in the dark, for he had tumbled
through the hole as North Wind had told him, and
the cover was replaced over his head. Away he went
rolling to leeward, for the wind began all at once to
blow hard. He heard the call of the captain, and the
loud trampling of the men over his head, as they
hauled at the main sheet to get the boom on board
that they might take in a reef in the mainsail. Diamond
felt about until he had found what seemed the most
comfortable place, and there he snuggled down and
lay.

Hours after hours, a great many of them, went by;
and still Diamond lay there. He never felt in the
least tired or impatient, for a strange pleasure filled

112 At the Back of the North Wind

his heart. The straining of the masts, the creaking
of the boom, the singing of the ropes, the banging of
the blocks as they put the vessel about, all fell in with
the roaring of the wind above, the surge of the waves
past her sides, and the thud with which every now
and then one would strike her; while through it all
Diamond could hear the gurgling, rippling, talking
flow of the water against her planks, as she slipped
through it, lying now on this side, now on that — like
a subdued air running through the grand music his
North Wind was making about him to keep him from
tiring as they sped on towards the country at the back
of her doorstep.

How long this lasted Diamond had no idea. He
seemed to fall asleep sometimes, only through the
sleep he heard the sounds going on. At length the
weather seemed to get worse. The confusion and
trampling of feet grew more frequent over his head ;
the vessel lay over more and more on her side, and
went roaring through the waves, which banged and
thumped at her as if in anger. All at once arose a
terrible uproar. The hatch was blown off; a cold
fierce wind swept in upon him ; and a long arm came
with it which laid hold of him and lifted him out.
The same moment he saw the little vessel far below
him righting herself. She had taken in all her sails
and lay now tossing on the waves like a sea-bird with
folded wings. A short distance to the south lay a much
larger vessel, with two or three sails set, and towards
it North Wind was carrying Diamond. It was a
German ship, on its way to the North Pole.

<- 145

NORTH WIND S CLOUD OF HAIR

How Diamond Got There 113

'^That vessel down there will give us a lift now,"
said North Wind; "and after that I must do the best
I can."

She managed to hide him amongst the flags of the
big ship, which were all snugly stowed away, and on
and on they sped towards the north. At length one
night she whispered in his ear, "Come on deck.
Diamond;" and he got up at once and crept on deck.
Everything looked very strange. Here and there on
all sides were huge masses of floating ice, looking like
cathedrals, and castles, and crags, while away beyond
was a blue sea.

" Is the sun rising or setting?" asked Diamond.

" Neither or both, which you please. I can hardly
tell which myself. If he is setting now, he will be
rising the next moment."

"What a strange light it isl" said Diamond. "I
have heard that the sun doesn't go to bed all the
summer in these parts. Miss Coleman told me that.
I suppose he feels very sleepy, and that is why the
light he sends out looks so like a dream."

"That will account for it well enough for all practical
purposes," said North Wind.

Some of the icebergs were drifting northward: one
was passing very near the ship. North Wind seized
Diamond, and with a single bound lighted on one of
them — a huge thing, with sharp pinnacles and great
clefts. The same instant a wind began to blow from
the south. North Wind hurried Diamond down the
north side of the iceberg, stepping by its jags and
splintering; for this berg had never got far enough

( a I4fi ^ 8

114 At the Back of the North Wind

south to be melted and smoothed by the summer sun.
She brought him to a cave near the water, where
she entered, and, letting Diamond go, sat down as if
weary on a ledge of ice.

Diamond seated himself on the other side, and for
a while was enraptured with the colour of the air inside
the cave. It was a deep, dazzling, lovely blue, deeper
than the deepest blue of the sky. The blue seemed to
be in constant motion, like the blackness when you
press your eyeballs with your fingers, boiling and
sparkling. But when he looked across to North Wind
he was frightened ; her face was worn and livid.

''What is the matter with you, dear North Wind?"
he said.

*' Nothing much. I feel very faint. But you mustn't
mind it, for I can bear it quite well. South Wind
always blows me faint. If it were not for the cool of
the thick ice between me and her, I should faint alto-
gether. Indeed, as it is, I fear I must vanish."

Diamond stared at her in terror, for he saw that her
form and face were growing, not small, but transparent,
like something dissolving, not in water, but in light.
He could see the side of the blue cave through her
very heart. And she melted away till all that was
left was a pale face, like the moon in the morning,
with two great lucid eyes in it.

** I am going. Diamond," she said.

*' Does it hurt you?" asked Diamond.

''It's very uncomfortable," she answered; "but I
don't mind it, for I shall come all right again before
long. I thought I should be able to go with you all

How Diamond Got There 115

the way, but I cannot. You must not be frightened
though. Just go straight on, and you will come all
right. You'll fmd me on the doorstep."

As she spoke, her face too faded quite away, only
Diamond thought he could still see her eyes shining
through the blue. When he went closer, however,
he found that what he thought her eyes were only two
hollows in the ice. North Wind was quite gone; and
Diamond would have cried, if he had not trusted her
so thoroughly. So he sat still in the blue air of the
cavern listening to the wash and ripple of the water
all about the base of the iceberg, as it sped on and on
into the open sea northwards. It was an excellent craft
to go with a current, for there was twice as much of
it below water as above. But a light south w^ind was
blowing too, and so it went fast.

After a little while Diamond went out and sat on
the edge of his floating island, and looked down into
the ocean beneath him. The white sides of the berg
reflected so much light below the water, that he could
see far down into the green abyss. Sometimes he
fancied he saw the eyes of North Wind looking up at
him from below, but the fancy never lasted beyond
the moment of its birth. And the time passed he did
not know how, for he felt as if he were in a dream.
When he got tired of the green water, he went into
the blue cave; and when he got tired of the blue cave
he went out and gazed all about him on the blue sea,
ever sparkling in the sun, which kept wheeling about
the sky, never going below the horizon. But he chiefly
gazed northwards, to see whether any land were appear-

ii6 At the Back of the North Wind

ing. All this time he never wanted to eat. He broke
off little bits of the berg now and then and sucked them,
and he thought them very nice.

At length, one time he came out of his cave, he
spied, far off upon the horizon, a shining peak that
rose into the sky like the top of some tremendous ice-
berg; and his vessel was bearing him straight towards
it. As it went on the peak rose and rose higher and
higher above the horizon ; and other peaks rose after
it, with sharp edges and jagged ridges connecting
them. Diamond thought this must be the place he
was going to; and he was right; for the mountains
rose and rose, till he saw the line of the coast at their
feet, and at length the iceberg drove into a little bay,
all round which were lofty precipices with snow on
their tops, and streaks of ice down their sides. The
berg floated slowly up to a projecting rock. Diamond
stepped on shore, and without looking behind him
began to follow a natural path which led windingly
towards the top of the precipice.

When he reached it, he found himself on a broad
table of ice, along which he could walk without much
difficulty. Before him, at a considerable distance, rose
a lofty ridge of ice, which shot up into fantastic pin-
nacles and towers and battlements. The air was very
cold, and seemed somehow dead, for there was not
the slightest breath of wind.

In the centre of the ridge before him appeared a gap
like the opening of a valley. But as he walked towards
it, gazing, and wondering whether that could be the
way he had to take, he saw that what had appeared a

How Diamond Got There 117

gap was the form of a woman seated against the ice
front of the ridge, leaning forward with her hands in
her lap, and her hair hanging down to the ground.

*' It is North Wind on her doorstep," said Diamond
joyfully, and hurried on.

He soon came up to the place, and there the form
sat, like one of the great figures at the door of an
Egyptian temple, motionless, with drooping arms and
head. Then Diamond grew frightened, because she
did not move nor speak. He was sure it was North
Wind, but he thought she must be dead at last. Her
face was white as the snow, her eyes were blue as the
air in the ice-cave, and her hair hung down straight,
like icicles. She had on a greenish robe, like the
colour in the hollows of a glacier seen from far off.

He stood up before her, and gazed fearfully into her
face for a few minutes before he ventured to speak.
At length, with a great effort and a trembling voice,
he faltered out —

''North Wind!"

''Well, child?" said the form, without lifting its
head.

"Are you ill, dear North Wind?"

" No. I am waiting."

"What for?"

"Till I'm wanted."

"You don't care for me any more," said Diamond,
almost crying now.

"Yes, I do. Only I can't show it. All my love is
down at the bottom of my heart. But I feel it bubbling
there."

ii8 At the Back of the North Wind

"What do you want me to do next, dear North
Wind?" said Diamond, wishing to show his love by
being obedient.

*' What do you want to do yourself?"

'^ I want to go into the country at your back."

"Then you must go through me."

" I don't know what you mean."

" I mean just what I say. You must walk on as if
I were an open door, and go right through me."

" But that will hurt you."

" Not in the least. It will hurt you, though."

" I don't mind that, if you tell me to do it."

" Do it," said North Wind.

Diamond walked towards her instantly. When he
reached her knees, he put out his hand to lay it on
her, but nothing was there save an intense cold. He
walked on. Then all grew white about him ; and the
cold stung him like fire. He walked on still, groping
through the whiteness. It thickened about him. At
last, it got into his heart, and he lost all sense. 1
would say that he fainted — only whereas in common
faints all grows black about you, he felt swallowed up
in whiteness. It was when he reached North Wind's
heart that he fainted and fell. But as he fell, he rolled
over the threshold, and it was thus that Diamond got
to the back of the north wind.

CHAPTER X

At the Back of the North Wind

I HAVE now come to the most difficult part of my
story. And why? Because I do not know enough
about it. And why should I not know as much
about this part as about any other part? for of course
I could know nothing- about the story except Diamond
had told it; and why should not Diamond tell about
the country at the back of the north wind, as well
as about his adventures in getting there? Because,
when he came back, he had forgotten a great deal,
and what he did remember was very hard to tell.
Things there are so different from things here! The
people there do not speak the same language for one
thing. Indeed, Diamond insisted that there they do
not speak at all. I do not think he was right, but
it may well have appeared so to Diamond. The fact
is, we have different reports of the place from the
most trustworthy people. Therefore we are bound to
believe that it appears somewhat different to different
people. All, however, agree in a general way about
it.

I will tell you something of what two very different
people have reported, both of whom knew more about
it, I believe, than Herodotus. One of them speaks from

119

I20

At the Back of the North Wind

his experience, for he visited the country; the other
from the testimony of a young- peasant girl who came
back from it for a month's visit to her friends. The
former was a great Itahan of noble family, who died
more than five hundred years ago; the latter a Scotch
shepherd who died not forty years ago.

The Italian, then, informs us that he had to enter
that country through a lire so hot that he would have
thrown himself into boiling glass to cool himself. This
was not Diamond's experience, but then Durante — that
was the name of the Italian, and it means Lasting, foi
his books will last as long as there are enough men
in the world worthy of having them — Durante was an
elderly man, and Diamond was a little boy, and so
their experience must be a little different. The pea-
sant girl, on the other hand, fell fast asleep in a wood,
and woke in the same country.

In describing it. Durante says that the ground every-
where smelt sweetly, and that a gentle, even-tempered
wind, which never blew faster or slower, breathed in
his face as he went, making all the leaves point one
way, not so as to disturb the birds in the tops of the
trees, but, on the contrary, sounding a bass to their
song. He describes also a little river which was so
full that its little waves, as it hurried along, bent the
grass, full of red and yellow flowers, through which
it flowed. He says that the purest stream in the world
beside this one would look as if it were mixed with
something that did not belong to it, even although it
was flowing ever in the brown shadow of the trees,
and neither sun nor moon could shine upon it. He

At the Back of the North Wind 121

seems to imply that it is always the month of May
in that country. It would be out of place to describe
here the wonderful sights he saw, for the music of
them is in another key from that of this story, and
I shall therefore only add from the account of this
traveller, that the people there are so free and so just
and so healthy, that every one of them has a crown
like a king and a mitre like a priest.

The peasant girl — Kilmeny was her name — could not
report such grand things as Durante, for, as the shep-
herd says, telling her story as I tell Diamond's —

" Kilmeny had been she knew not where,
And Klhneny had seen what she could not declare ;
Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew,
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew;
But it seemed as the harp of the sky had rung",
And the airs of heaven played round her toni^ue,
When she spoke of the lovely forms she had seen,
And a land where sin had never been ;
A land of love and a land of light,
Withouten sun, or moon, or night;
Where the river swayed a living stream,
And the light a pure and cloudless beam:
The land of vision it would seem,
And still an everlasting dream."

The last two lines are the shepherd's own remark, and
a matter of opinion. But it is clear, I think, that Kil-
meny must have described the same country as Durante
saw, though, not having his experience, she could neither
understand nor describe it so well.

Now I must give you such fragments of recollection
as Diamond was able to brinsr back with him.

122 At the Back of the North Wind

When he came to himself after he fell, he found
himself at the back of the north wind. North Wind
herself was nowhere to be seen. Neither was there
a vestige of snow or of ice within sight. The sun
too had vanished; but that was no matter, for there
was plenty of a certain still rayless light. Where it
came from he never found out; but he thought it be-
longed to the country itself. Sometimes he thought
it came out of the flowers, which were very bright,
but had no strong colour. He said the river — for all
agree that there is a river there — flowed not only
through, but over grass: its channel, instead of being
rock, stones, pebbles, sand, or anything else, was of
pure meadow grass, not over long. He insisted that
if it did not sing tunes in people's ears, it sung tunes
in their heads, in proof of which I may mention, that,
in the troubles which followed. Diamond was often
heard singing; and when asked what he was singing,
would answer, ''One of the tunes the river at the back
of the north wind sung." And I may as well say at once
that Diamond never told these things to any one but —
no, I had better not say who it was ; but whoever it
was told me, and I thought it would be well to write
them for my child-readers.

He could not say he was very happy there, for he
had neither his father nor mother with him, but he
felt so still and quiet and patient and contented, that,
as far as the mere feeling went, it was something better
than mere happiness. Nothing went wrong at the back
of the north wind. Neither was anything quite right,
he thought. Only everything was going to be right

At the Back of the North Wind 123

some day. His account disagreed with that of Durante,
and agreed with that of Kilmeny, in this, that he pro-
tested there was no wind there at all. I fancy he missed
it. At all events we could not do without wind. It all
depends on how big our lungs are whether the wind
is too strong for us or not.

When the person he told about it asked him whether
he saw anybody he knew there, he answered, "Only
a little girl belonging to the gardener, who thought
he had lost her, but was quite mistaken, for there
she was safe enough, and was to come back some
day, as I came back, if they would only wait."

'' Did you talk to her. Diamond?"

*^ No. Nobody talks there. They only look at each
other and understand everything."

*'Is it cold there?"

"No."

"Is it hot?"

"No."

"What is it then?"

" You never think about such thinj::s there."

" What a queer place it must be!"

" It's a very good place."

" Do you want to go back again?"

**No: I don't think I have ever left it; I feel it here,
somewhere."

" Did the people there look pleased?"

" Yes — quite pleased, only a little sad."

"Then they didn't look glad?"

"They looked as if they were waiting to be gladder
some day."

124 At the Back of the North Wind

This was how Diamond used to answer questions
about that country. And now I will take up the
story again, and tell you how he got back to this
country.

CHAPTER XI

How Diamond Got Home Again

HEN one at the back of the north wind
wanted to know how thines were p'oinsf

W ■:■- = ^

^ " with any one he loved, he had to go to

a certain tree, cHmb the stem, and sit down in the
branches. In a few minutes, if he kept very still, he
would see something at least of what was going on
with the people he loved.

One day when Diamond was sitting in this tree,
he began to long very much to get home again, and
no wonder, for he saw his mother crying. Durante
says that the people there may always follow their
wishes, because they never wish but what is good.
Diamond's wish was to get home, and he would fain
follow his wish.

But how was he to set about it? If he could only see
North Wind! But the moment he had got to her back,
she was gone altogether from his sight. He had never
seen her back. She might be sitting on her doorstep
still, looking southwards, and waiting, white and thin
and blue-eyed, until she was wanted. Or she might
have again become a mighty creature, with power
to do that which was demanded of her, and gone far
away upon many missions. She must be somewhere,

126 At the Back of the North Wind

however. He could not go home without her, and
therefore he must find her. She could never have in-
tended to leave him always away from his mother.
If there had been any danger of that, she would have
told him, and given him his choice about going. For

North Wind was

right honest. How-
to find North
Wind, therefore,
occupied all his
thoughts.

In his anxiety
about his mother,
he used to climb
the tree every day,
and sit in its
branches. How-
ever many of the
dwellers there did
so, they never in-
commoded one
another; for the
moment one got
into the tree, he
became invisible to every one else; and it was such a
wide-spreading tree that there was room for every one
of the people of the country in it, without the least inter-
ference with each other. Sometimes, on getting down,
two of them would meet at the root, and then they would
smile to each other more sweetly than at any other time,
as much as to say, '' Ah, you've been up there too!"

%^^^^

How Diamond Got Home 127

One day he was sitting on one of the outer branches
of the tree, looking" southwards after his home. Far
away was a blue shining sea, dotted with gleaming and
sparkling specks of white. Those were the icebergs.
Nearer he saw a great range of snow-capped moun-
tains, and down below him the lovely meadow-grass
of the country, with the stream flowing and flowing
through it, away towards the sea. As he looked he
began to wonder, for the whole country lay beneath
him like a map, and that which was near him looked
just as small as that which he knew to be miles away.
The ridge of ice which encircled it appeared but a few
yards off, and no larger than the row of pebbles with
which a child will mark out the boundaries of the king-
dom he has appropriated on the sea-shore. He thought
he could distinguish the vapoury form of North Wind,
seated as he had left her, on the other side. Hastily he
descended the tree, and to his amazement found that the
map or model of the country still lay at his feet. He
stood in it. With one stride he had crossed the river;
with another he had reached the ridge of ice; with the
third he stepped over its peaks, and sank wearily down
at North Wind's knees. For there she sat on her door-
step. The peaks of the great ridge of ice were as lofty
as ever behind her, and the country at her back had
vanished from Diamond's view.

North Wind was as still as Diamond had left her.
Her pale face was white as the snow, and her motionless
eyes were as blue as the caverns in the ice. But the
instant Diamond touched her, her face began to change
like that of one waking from sleep. Light began to

128 At the Back of the North Wind

glimmer from the blue of her eyes. A moment more,
and she laid her hand on Diamond's head, and began
playing with his hair. Diamond took hold of her hand,
and laid his face to it. She gave a little start.

"How very alive you are, child!" she murmured.

" Come nearer to

By the help of
the stones all
around he clam-
bered up beside
her, and laid him-
self against her
bosom. She gave
a great sigh, slow-
ly lifted her arms,
and slowly folded
them about him,
until she clasped
him close. Yet a
moment, and she
roused herself, and
came quite awake;
and the cold of her

bosom, which had pierced Diamond's bones, vanished.
"Have you been sitting here ever since I went

through you, dear North Wind?" asked Diamond,

stroking her hand.

"Yes," she answered, looking at him with her old

kindness.

" Ain't you very tired?"

'^hH^/dJ^,

me.

How Diamond Got Home 129

**No; I've often had to sit longer. Do you know
how long you have been?"

" Oh! years and years," answered Diamond.

''You have just been seven days," returned North
Wind.

" I thought I had been a hundred years!" exclaimed
Diamond.

''Yes, I dare say," replied North Wind. "You've
been away from here seven days; but how long you
may have been in there is quite another thing. Be-
hind my back and before my face things are so dif-
ferent! They don't go at all by the same rule."

"I'm very glad," said Diamond, after thinking a
while.

" Why?" asked North Wind.

" Because I've been such a long time there, and such
a little while away from mother. Why, she w^on't be
expecting me home from Sandwich yet!"

"No. But we mustn't talk any longer. I've got my
orders now, and we must be off in a few minutes."

Next moment Diamond found himself sitting alone on

the rock. North Wind had vanished. A creature like

a great humble-bee or cockchafer flew past his face; but

it could be neither, for there were no insects amongst

the ice. It passed him again and again, flying in circles

around him, and he concluded that it must be North

Wind herself, no bigger than Tom Thumb when his

mother put him in the nutshell lined with flannel. But

she was no longer vapoury and thin. She was solid,

although tiny. A moment more, and she perched on

his shoulder.

( c 145 ) 9

I30 At the Back of the North Wind

**Come along, Diamond," she said in his ear, in the
smallest and highest of treble voices; "it is time we
were setting out for Sandwich."

Diamond could just see her, by turning his head
towards his shoulder as far as he could, but only
with one eye, for his nose came between her and the
other.

" Won't you take me in your arms and carry me?" he
said in a whisper, for he knew she did not like a loud
voice when she was small.

*'Ah! you ungrateful boy," returned North Wind,
smiling, "how dare you make game of me? Yes, 1
will carry you, but you shall walk a bit for your im-
pertinence first. Come along."

She jumped from his shoulder, but when Desmond
looked for her upon the ground, he could see nothing
but a little spider with long legs that made its way over
the ice towards the south. It ran very fast indeed for a
spider, but Diamond ran a long way before it, and then
waited for it. It was up with him sooner than he had
expected, however, and it had grown a good deal. And
the spider grew and grew and went faster and faster,
till all at once Diamond discovered that it was not a
spider, but a weasel ; and away glided the weasel, and
away went Diamond after it, and it took all the run there
was in him to keep up with the weasel. And the weasel
grew, and grew, and grew, till all at once Diamond saw
that the weasel was not a weasel but a cat. And away
went the cat, and Diamond after it. And when he had
run half a mile, he found the cat waiting for him, sitting
up and washing her face not to lose time. And away

How Diamond Got Home 131

went the cat again, and Diamond after it. But the next
time he came up with the cat, the cat was not a cat, but
a hunting-leopard. And the hunting-leopard grew to a
jaguar, all covered with spots like eyes. And the jaguar
grew to a Bengal tiger. And at none of them was
Diamond afraid, for he had been at North Wind's back,
and he could be afraid of her no longer whatever she
did or grew. And the tiger flew over the snow in a
straight line for the south, growing less and less to
Diamond's eyes till it was only a black speck upon the
whiteness; and then it vanished altogether. And now
Diamond felt that he would rather not run any farther,
and that the ice had got very rough. Besides, he was
near the precipices that bounded the sea, so he slackened
his pace to a walk, saying aloud to himself:

''When North Wind has punished me enough for
making game of her, she will come back to me; I know
she will, for I can't go much farther without her."

"You dear boy! It was only in fun. Here I am!"
said North Wind's voice behind him.

Diamond turned, and saw her as he best liked to see
her, standing beside him, a tall lady.

''Where's the tiger?" he asked, for he knew all the
creatures from a picture book that Miss Coleman had
given him. "But, of course," he added, "you were
the tiger. I was puzzled and forgot. I saw it such
a long way off before me, and there you were behind
me. It's so odd, you know."

"It must look very odd to you. Diamond: I see
that. But it's no more odd to me than to break an old
pine in two."

132 At the Back of the North Wind

*' Well, that's odd enough," remarked Diamond.

^'So it is! I forgot. Well, none of these things are
odder to me than it is to you to eat bread and butter."

*'Well, that's odd too, when I think of it," persisted
Diamond. *' I should just like a slice of bread and
butter! I'm afraid to say how long it is — how long
it seems to me, that is — since I had anything to
eat."

*'Come then," said North Wind, stooping and
holding out her arms. ''You shall have some bread
and butter very soon. I am glad to find you want
some."

Diamond held up his arms to meet hers, and was
safe upon her bosom. North Wind bounded into
the air. Her tresses began to lift and rise and spread
and stream and flow and flutter; and with a roar
from her hair and an answering roar from one of the
great glaciers beside them, whose slow torrent tumbled
two or three icebergs at once into the waves at their
feet. North Wind and Diamond went flying south-
wards.

CHAPTER XII

Who Met Diamond at Sandwich

As they flew, so fast they went that the sea sHd
away from under them like a great web of shot
silk, blue shot with grey, and green shot with
purple. They went so fast that the stars themselves
appeared to sail away past them overhead, *' like golden
boats ", on a blue sea turned upside down. And they
went so fast that Diamond himself went the other way
as fast — I mean he went fast asleep in North Wind's
arms.

When he woke, a face was bending over him ; but
it was not North Wind's; it w^as his mother's. He
put out his arms to her, and she clasped him to her
bosom and burst out crying. Diamond kissed her
again and again to make her stop. Perhaps kissing
is the best thing for crying, but it will not alwivys
stop it.

" What Is the matter, mother?" he said.

''Oh, Diamond, my darling! you have been so ill!"
she sobbed.

" No, mother dear. I've only been at the back of the
north wind," returned Diamond.

'' I thought you were dead," said his mother.

But that moment the doctor came in.

133

134

At the Back of the North Wind

**Oh! there!" said the doctor with gentle cheer-
fulness; ''we're better to-day, I see."

Then he drew the mother aside, and told her not
to talk to Diamond, or to mind what he might say;
for he must be kept as quiet as possible. And indeed

Diamond was not
much inclined to
talk, for he felt very
strange and weak,
which was little
wonder, seeing that
all the time he had
been away he had
only sucked a few
lumps of ice, and
there could not be
much nourishment
in them.

Now while he is
lying there, getting
strong again with
chicken broth and
other nice things,
I will tell my
readers what had been taking place at his home, for
they ought to be told it.

They may have forgotten that Miss Coleman was in
a poor state of health. Now there were three reasons
for this. In the first place, her lungs were not strong.
In the second place, there was a gentleman somewhere
who had not behaved very well to her. In the third

who Met Diamond 135

place, she had not anything particular to do. These
three 7iots together are enough to make a lady very
ill indeed. Of course she could not help the first cause;
but if the other two causes had not existed, that would
have been of little consequence; she would only have
had to be a little careful. The second she could not
help quite; but if she had had anything to do, and
had done it well, it would have been very difficult
for any man to behave badly to her. And for this
third cause of her illness, if she had had anything
to do that was worth doing, she might have borne
his bad behaviour so that even that would not have
made her ill. It is not always easy, I confess, to find
something to do that is worth doing, but the most
difficult things are constantly being done, and she
might have found something if she had tried. Her
fault lay in this, that she had not tried. But, to be
sure, her father and mother were to blame that they
had never set her going. Only then again, nobody
had told her father and mother that they ought to
set her going in that direction. So as none of them
would find it out of themselves. North Wind had to
teach them.

We know that North Wind was very busy that night
on which she left Diamond in the cathedral. She had
in a sense been blowing through and through the
Colemans' house the whole of the night. First, Miss
Coleman's maid had left a chink of her mistress's win-
dow open, thinking she had shut it, and North Wind had
wound a few of her hairs round the lady's throat. She
was considerably worse the next morning. Again, the

136 At the Back of the North Wind

ship which North Wind had sunk that very night
belonged to Mr. Coleman. Nor will my readers under-
stand what a heavy loss this was to him until I have
informed them that he had been getting poorer and
poorer for some time. He was not so successful in
his speculations as he had been, for he speculated a
great deal more than was right, and it was time he
should be pulled up. It is a hard thing for a rich
man to grow poor; but it is an awful thing for him
to grow dishonest, and some kinds of speculation
lead a man deep into dishonesty before he thinks
what he is about. Poverty will not make a man
worthless — he may be worth a great deal more when
he is poor than he was when he was rich; but dis-
honesty goes very far indeed to make a man of no
value — a thing to be thrown out in the dust-hole of the
creation, like a bit of a broken basin, or a dirty rag.
So North Wind had to look after Mr. Coleman, and
try to make an honest man of him. So she sank
the ship which was his last venture, and he was
what himself and his wife and the world called
ruined.

Nor was this all yet. For on board that vessel Miss
Coleman's lover was a passenger; and when the news
came that the vessel had gone down, and that all on
board had perished, we may be sure she did not think
the loss of their fine house and garden and furniture the
greatest misfortune in the world.

Of course, the trouble did not end with Mr. Coleman
and his family. Nobody can suffer alone. When the
cause of suffering is most deeply hidden in the heart.

C145

NORTH WIND CHANGES TO ^ TIGER

Who Met Diamond

137

and nobody knows anything about it but the man him-
self, he must be a great and a good man indeed, such as
few of us have known, if the pain inside him does not
make him behave so as to cause all about him to be
more or less uncomfortable. But when a man brings
money-troubles on
himself by making
haste to be rich,
then most of the
people he has to do
with must suffer in
the same w^ay with
himself. The elm-
tree which North
Wind blew down
that very night, as
if small and great
trials were to be
oathered in one
heap, crushed Miss
Coleman's pretty
summer-house: just
so the fall of Mr.
Coleman crushed

the little family that lived over his coach-house and
stable. Before Diamond was well enough to be taken
home, there was no home for him to go to. Mr. Cole-
man— or his creditors, for I do not know the particulars
— had sold house, carriage, horses, furniture, and every-
thing. He and his wife and daughter and Mrs. Crum^p
had gone to live in a small house in Hoxton, where he

138 At the Back of tiie North Wind

would be unknown, and whence he could walk to his
place of business in the City. For he was not an old
man, and hoped yet to retrieve his fortunes. Let us
hope that he lived to retrieve his honesty, the tail of
which had slipped through his fingers to the very last
joint, if not beyond it.

Of course. Diamond's father had nothing to do for
a time, but it was not so hard for him to have nothing
to do as it was for Miss Coleman. He wrote to his
wife that, if her sister would keep her there till he
got a place, it would be better for them, and he would
be greatly obliged to her. Meantime, the gentleman
who had bought the house had allowed his furniture
to remain where it was for a little while.

Diamond's aunt was quite willing to keep them as
long as she could. And indeed Diamond was not
yet well enough to be moved with safety.

When he had recovered so far as to be able to go out,
one day his mother got her sister's husband, who had a
little pony-cart, to carry them down to the sea-shore, and
leave them there for a few hours. He had some business
to do farther on at Ramsgate, and would pick them up
as he returned. A whiff of the sea-air would do them
both good, she said, and she thought besides she could
best tell Diamond what had happened if she had him
quite to herself.

CHAPTER XIII

The Seaside

DIAMOND and his mother sat down upon the
edge of the rough grass that bordered the
sand. The sun was just far enough past its
highest not to shine in their eyes when they looked
eastward. A sweet h'ttle wind blew on their left side,
and comforted the mother without letting her know
what it was that comforted her. Away before them
stretched the sparkling waters of the ocean, every wave
of which flashed out its own delight back in the face
of the great sun, w^hich looked down from the stillness
of its blue house with gloriously silent face upon its
flashing children. On each hand the shore rounded
outwards, forming a little bay. There were no white
cliffs here, as farther north and south, and the place
was rather dreary, but the sky got at them so much
the better. Not a house, not a creature was within
sight. Dry sand was about their feet, and under them
thin wiry grass, that just managed to grow out of the
poverty-stricken shore.

''Oh dear!" said Diamond's mother, with a deep
sigh, ''it's a sad world!"

'Is it?" said Diamond; "I didn't know."

139

140

At the Back of the North Wind

'*How should you know, child? You've been too
well taken care of, I trust."

"Oh yes, I have," returned Diamond. ** I'm so
sorry! I thought you were taken care of too. I
thought my father took care of you. I will ask him

about it. I think
he must have for-
gotten."

"Dear boy!" said
his mother; " your
father's the best
man in the world."
"Sol thought!"
returned Diamond
with triumph. " I
was sure of it! —
Well, doesn't he
take very good care
of you?"

"Yes, yes, he
does," answered his
mother, bursting
into tears. "But
who's to take care
of him? And how is he to take care of us if he's got
nothing to eat himself?"

"Oh dear!" said Diamond with a gasp; "hasn't
he got anything to eat? Oh! I must go home to
him."

"No, no. child. He's not come to that yet. But
what's to become of us, I don't know."

The Seaside 141

** Are you very hungry, mother? There's the basket.
I thought you put something to eat in it."

'' Oh you dading stupid! I didn't say I was hungry,"
returned his mother, smihng through her tears.

''Then I don't understand you at all," said Diamond.
" Do tell me what's the matter."

"There are people in the world who have nothing to
eat. Diamond."

''Then I suppose they don't stop in it any longer.
They — they — what you call — die — don't they?"

"Yes, they do. How would you like that?"

" I don't know. I never tried. But I suppose the)'
go where they get something to eat."

"Like enough they don't want it," said his mother
petulantly.

"That's all right then," said Diamond, thinking I
daresay more than he chose to put in words.

" Is it though? Poor boy! how little you know about
things! Mr. Coleman's lost all his money, and your
father has nothing to do, and we shall have nothing to
eat by and by."

"Are you sure, mother?"

"Sure of what?"

" Sure that we shall have nothing to eat."

"No, thank Heaven! I'm not sure of it. I hope
not."

"Then I ca^i'i understand it, mother. There's a piece
of gingerbread in the basket, I know."

"O you little bird! You have no more sense than
a sparrow that picks what it wants, and never thinks
of the winter and the frost and the snow."

142 At the Back of the North Wind

^*Ah — yes — I see. But the birds get through the
winter, don't they?"

" Some of them fall dead on the ground."

''They must die some time. They wouldn't like to be
birds always. Would you, mother?"

''What a child it is!" thought his mother, but she
said nothing.

"Oh! now I remember," Diamond went on. "Father
told me that day I went to Epping Forest with him, that
the rose-bushes, and the may-bushes, and the holly-
bushes were the birds' barns, for there were the hips,
and the haws, and the holly-berries, all ready for the
winter."

"Yes; that's all very true. So you see the birds are
provided for. But there are no such barns for you and
me. Diamond."

"Ain't there?"

" No. We've got to work for our bread."

"Then let's go and work," said Diamond, getting up.

" It's no use. We've not got anything to do."

"Then let's wait."

"Then we shall starve."

"No. There's the basket. Do you know, mother,
I think I shall call that basket the barn."

"It's not a very big one. And when it's empty —
where are we then?"

"At auntie's cupboard," returned Diamond promptly.

" But we can't eat auntie's things all up and leave her
to starve."

" No, no. We'll go back to father before that. He'll
have found a cupboard somewhere by that time."

The Seaside 143

** How do you know that?"

^^ I don't know it. But / haven't got even a cupboard,
and I've always had plenty to eat. I've heard you say I
had too much, sometimes."

'' But I tell you that's because I've had a cupboard for
you, child."

*' And when yours was empty, auntie opened hers."

'' But that can't go on."

'^How do you know? I think there must be a big
cupboard somewhere, out of which the little cupboards
are filled, you know, mother."

"Well, I wish I could find the door of that cup-
board," said his mother. But the same moment she
stopped, and was silent for a good while. I cannot
tell whether Diamond knew what she was thinking,
but I think I know. She had heard something at
church the day before, which came back upon her —
something like this, that she hadn't to eat for to-morrow
as well as for to-day; and that what was not wanted
couldn't be missed. So, instead of saying anything
more, she stretched out her hand for the basket, and she
and Diamond had their dinner.

And Diamond did enjoy it. For the drive and the
fresh air had made him quite hungry; and he did
not, like his mother, trouble himself about what they
should dine off that day week. The fact was he had
lived so long without any food at all at the back of
the north wind, that he knew quite well, that food
was not essential to existence; that in fact, under cer-
tain circumstances, people could live without it well
enough.

144 At the Back of the North Wind

His mother did not speak much during their dinner.
After it was over she helped him to walk about a little,
but he was not able for much and soon got tired. He
did not get fretful, though. He was too glad of having
the sun and the wind again, to fret because he could
not run about. He lay down on the dry sand, and
his mother covered him with a shawl. She then sat
by his side, and took a bit of work from her pocket.
But Diamond felt rather sleepy, and turned on his
side, and gazed sleepily over the sand. A few yards
off he saw something fluttering.

^* What is that, mother?" he said.

^' Only a bit of paper," she answered.

'' It flutters more than a bit of paper would, I think,"
said Diamond.

'* I'll go and see if you like," said his mother. '' My
eyes are none of the best."

So she rose and went and found that they were both
right, for it was a little book, partly buried in the sand.
But several of its leaves were clear of the sand, and
these the wind kept blowing about in a very flutter-
ful manner. She took it up and brought it to Dia-
mond.

"What is it, mother?" he asked.

"Some nursery rhymes, I think," she answered.

" I'm too sleepy," said Diamond. " Do read some of
them to me."

"Yes, I will," she said, and began one. — "But this
is such nonsense!" she said again. " I will try to find
a better one."

She turned the leaves searching, but three times, with

The Seaside 145

sudden puffs, the wind blew the leaves rustling back to
the same verses.

" Do read that one," said Diamond, who seemed to
be of the same mind as the wind. '' It sounded very
nice. I am sure it is a good one."

So his mother thought it might amuse him, though
she couldn't find any sense in it. She never thought
he might understand it, although she could not.

Now I do not exactly know what the mother read, but
this is what Diamond heard, or thought afterwards that
he had heard. He was, however, as I have said, very
sleepy, and when he thought he understood the verses
he may have been only dreaming better ones. This is
how they went —

I know a river

whose waters run asleep

run run ever

singing- In the shallows

dumb in the hollows

sleeping so deep

and all the swallows

that dip their feathers

In the hollows

or in the shallows

are the merriest swallows of all

for the nests they bake

with the clay they cake

with the water they shake

from their wings that rake

the water out of the shallows

or the hollows

will hold together

in any weather

and so the swallows

are the merriest fellows

C 0 145 ) 10

146 At the Back of the North Wind

and have the merriest children

and are built so narrow

like the head of an arrow

to cut the air

and £^o just where

the nicest water is flowing

and the nicest dust is blowing

for each so narrow

like head of an arrow

is only a barrow

to carry the mud he makes

from the nicest water flowing

and the nicest dust that is blowing

to build his nest

for her he loves best

with the nicest cakes

which the sunshine bakes

all for their merry children

all so callow

with beaks that follow

gaping and hollow

wider and wider

after their father

or after their mother

the food-provider

who brings them a spider

or a worm the poor hider

down in the earth

so there 's no dearth

tor their beaks as yellow

as the buttercups growing

beside the flowing

of the singing river

always and ever

growing and blowing

for fast as the sheep

awake or asleep

crop them and crop them

they cannot stop them

The Seaside 147

but up they creep

and on they g-o blowing

and so with the daisies

the little w^iite praises

they grow and they blow

and they spread out their crown

and they praise the sun

and when he goes down

their praising is done

and they fold up their crown

and they sleep every one

till over the plain

he 's shining amain

and they 're at it again

praising and praising

such low songs raising

that no one hears them

but the sun who rears them

and the sheep that bite them

are the quietest sheep

awake or asleep

with the merriest bleat

and the little lambs

they forget to eat

for the frolic in their feet

and the lambs and their dams

are the whitest sheep

with the woolliest wool

and the longest wool

and the trailingest tails

and they shine like snow

in the grasses that grow

by the singing river

that sings for ever

and the sheep and the lambs

are merry for ever

because the river

sings and they drink It

and the lambs and their dams

148 At the Back of the North Wind

are quiet

and white

because of their diet

for what they bite

Is buttercups yellow

and daisies white

and grass as green

as the river can make it

with wind as mellow

to kiss it and shake it

as never was seen

but here in the hollows

beside the river

where all the swallows

are merriest of fellows

for the nests they make

with the clay they cake

in the sunshine bake

till they are like bone

as dry in the wind

as a marble stone

so firm they bind

the grass in the clay

that dries in the wind

the sweetest wind

that blows by the river

flowing for ever

but never you find

whence comes the wind

that blows on the hollows

and over the shallows

where dip the swallows

alive it blows

the life as it goes

awake or asleep

into the river

that sings as it flows

and the life it blows

into the sheep

The Seaside 149

awake or asleep

with the woolliest wool

and the trailingest tails

and it never fails

g^entle and cool

to wave the wool

and to toss the grass

as the lambs and the sheep

over it pass

and tug and bite

with their teeth so white

and then with the sweep

of their trailing tails

smooth it again

and it grows amain

and amain it grows

and the wind as it blows

tosses the swallows

over the hollows

and down on the shallows

till every feather

doth shake and quiver

and all their feathers

go all together

blowing the life

and the joy so rife

into the swallows

that skim the shallows

and have the yellowest children

for the wind that blows

is the life of the river

flowing for ever

that washes the grasses

still as it passes

and feeds the daisies

the little white praises

and buttercups bonny

so golden and sunny

with butter and honey

I50 At the Back of the North Wind

that whiten the sheep

awake or asleep

that nibble and bite

and grow whiter than white

and merry and quiet

on the sweet diet

fed by the river

and tossed for ever

by the wind that tosses

the swallow that crosses

over the shallows

dipping his wings

to gather the water

and bake the cake

that the wind shall make

as hard as a bone

as dry as a stone

it's all in the wind

that blows from behind

and all in the river

that flows for ever

and all in the grasses

and the white daisies

and the merry sheep

awake or asleep

and the happy swallows

skimming the shallows

and it 's all in the wind

that blows from behind

Here Diamond became aware that his mother had
stopped reading.

*' Why don't you go on, mother dear?" he asked.

** It's such nonsense!" said his mother. ^' I beHeve it
would go on for ever."

'' That's just what it did," said Diamond.

^' What did?" she asked.

The Seaside 151

*'Why, the river. That's almost the very tune it
used to sing-."

His mother was frightened, for she thought the fever
was coming on again. So she did not contradict him.

*' Who made that poem?" asked Diamond.

" I don't know," she answered. ''Some silly woman
for her children, I suppose — and then thought it good
enough to print."

"She must have been at the back of the north wind
some time or other, anyhow," said Diamond. "She
couldn't have got a hold of it anywhere else. That's
just how it went." And he began to chant bits of it
here and there; but his mother said nothing for fear
of making him worse; and she was very glad indeed
when she saw her brother-in-law jogging along- in his
little cart. They lifted Diamond in, and got up them-
selves, and away they went, "home again, home again,
home again," as Diamond sang. But he soon grew
quiet, and before they reached Sandwich he was fast
asleep and dreaming of the country at the back of the
north wind.

CHAPTER XIV

Old Diamond

AFTER this Diamond recovered so fast, that in
a few days he was quite able to go home as
soon as his father had a place for them to go
to. Now his father having saved a little money, and
finding that no situation offered itself, had been thinking
over a new plan. A strange occurrence it was which
turned his thoughts in that direction. He had a friend
in the Bloomsbury region, who lived by letting out cabs
and horses to the cabmen. This man, happening to
meet him one day as he was returning from an un-
successful application, said to him :

" Why don't you set up for yourself now — in the cab
line, I mean?"

'^ I haven't enough for that," answered Diamond's
father.

^'You must have saved a goodish bit, I should
think. Just come home with me now and look at a
horse I can let you have cheap. I bought him only
a few weeks ago, thinking he'd do for a Hansom, but
I was wrong. He's got bone enough for a wagon,
but a v/agon ain't a Hansom. He ain't got enough
go for a Hansom. You see parties as takes Hansoms
wants to go like the wind, and he ain't got wind enough,

152

Cl^iS

THE WIND AND THE SWALLOWS

old Diamond 153

for he ain't so young as he once was. But for a
four-wheeler as takes families and their luggages,
he's the very horse. He'd carry a small house
any day. I bought him cheap, and I'll sell him
cheap."

"Oh, I don't want him," said Diamond's father.
'*A body must have time to think over an affair of
so much importance. And there's the cab too. That
would come to a deal of money."

'* I could fit you there, I daresay," said his friend.
"But come and look at the animal, anyhow."

"Since I lost my own old pair, as was Mr. Cole-
man's," said Diamond's father, turning to accompany
the cab-master, " I ain't almost got the heart to look
a horse in the face. It's a thousand pities to part man
and horse."

"So it is," said his friend sympathetically.

But what was the ex-coachman's delight, when, on
going into the stable where his friend led him, he found
the horse he wanted him to buy was no other than his
own old Diamond, grown very thin and bony and long-
legged, as if they had been doing what they could to
fit him for Hansom work!

'■'■ He ain't a Hansom horse," said Diamond's father
indignantly.

"Well, you're right. He ain't handsome, but he's
a good un," said his owner.

"Who says he ain't handsome? He's one of the
handsomest horses a gentleman's coachman ever druv,"
said Diamond's father; remarking to himself under his
breath — "though I says it as shouldn't" — for he did not

154 At the Back of the North Wind

feel inclined all at once to confess that his own old horse

could have sunk so low.

''Well," said his friend, ''all I say is — There's a

animal for you, as strong as a church; an' '11 go like

a train, leastways a parly," he added, correcting him-
self.

But the coach-
man had a lump
in his throat and
tears in his eyes.
For the old horse,
hearing his voice,
had turned his long
neck, and when his
old friend went up
to him and laid his
hand on his side,
he whinnied for

joy^

and laid his

big head on his
master's breast.
This settled the
matter. The

coachman's arms
were round the horse's neck in a moment, and he fairly
broke down and cried. The cab-master had never been
so fond of a horse himself as to hug him like that, but he
saw in a moment how it was. And he must have been a
good-hearted fellow, for I never heard of such an idea
coming into the head of any other man with a horse
to sell: instead of putting something on to the price

old Diamond 155

because he was now pretty sure of selling him, he
actually took a pound off what he had meant to ask
for him, saying to himself it was a shame to part old
friends.

Diamond's father, as soon as he came to himself,
turned and asked how much he wanted for the horse.

*' I see you're old friends," said the owner.

'* It's my own old Diamond. I liked him far the
best of the pair, though the other was good. You
ain't got him too, have you?"

'' No; nothing in the stable to match him there."

*'I believe you," said the coachman. ** But you'll
be wanting a long price for liim^ I know."

*' No, not so much. I bought him cheap, and as I
say, he ain't for my work."

The end of it was that Diamond's father bought old
Diamond again, along with a four-wheeled cab. And
as there were some rooms to be had over the stable,
he took them, wrote to his wife to come home, and
set up as a cabman.

CHAPTER XV

The Mews

T was late in the afternoon when Diamond and
his mother and the baby reached London. I
was so full of Diamond that I forgot to tell you
a baby had arrived in the meantime. His father was
waiting for them Avith his own cab, but they had not
told Diamond who the horse was ; for his father wanted
to enjoy the pleasure of his surprise when he found it out.
He got in with his mother without looking at the horse,
and his father having put up Diamond's carpet-bag and
his mother's little trunk, got upon the box himself and
drove off; and Diamond was quite proud of riding home
in his father's own carriage. But when he got to the
mews, he could not help being a little dismayed at
first; and if he had never been to the back of the
north wind, I am afraid he would have cried a little.
But instead of that, he said to himself it was a fine
thing all the old furniture was there. And instead of
helping his mother to be miserable at the change, he
began to find out all the advantages of the place; for
every place has some advantages, and they are always
better worth knowing than the disadvantages. Cer-
tainly the weather was depressing, for a thick dull
persistent rain was falling by the time they reached

156

The Mews

157

home. But happily the weather is very changeable;
and besides, there was a good fire burning in the
room, which their neighbour with the drunken hus-
band had attended to for them ; and the tea-things
were put out, and the kettle was boiling on the fire.
And with a good
fire, and tea and
bread and butter,
things cannot be
said to be miser-
able.

Diamond's fa-
ther and mother
were, notwith-
standing, rather
miserable, and
Diamond began
to feel a kind of
darkness begin-
ning to spread
over his own
mind. But the
same moment he
said to himself,

*' This will never do. I can't give in to this. I've been
to the back of the north wind. Things go right there,
and so I must try to get things to go right here. I've
got to fight the miserable things. They shan't make
me miserable if I can help it." I do not mean that
he thought these very words. They are perhaps too
grown-up for him to have thought, but they repre-

158 A.t the Back of the North Wind

sent the kind of thing" that was in his heart and his
head. And when heart and head go together, nothing
can stand before them.

''What nice bread and butter this is!" said Dia-
mond.

'* I'm glad you
Hke it, my dear,"
said his father.
" I bought the
butter myself at
the little shop
round the corner."
" It's very nice,
thank you, father.
Oh, there's baby
waking! I'll take
him."

''Sit still. Dia-
mond," said his
mother. " Go on
with your bread
and butter. You're
not strong enough
to lift him yet."
So she took the baby herself, and set him on her
knee. Then Diamond began to amuse him, and went
on till the little fellow was shrieking with laughter.
For the baby's world was his mother's arms; and
the drizzling" rain, and the dreary mews, and even
his father's troubled face could not touch him. What
cared baby for the loss of a hundred situations? Yet

The Mews 159

neither father nor mother thought him hard-hearted
because he crowed and laughed in the middle of their
troubles. On the contrary, his crowing and laughing
were infectious. His little heart was so full of merri-
ment that it could not hold it all, and it ran over into
theirs. Father and mother began to laugh too, and
Diamond laughed till he had a fit of coughing which
frightened his mother, and made them all stop. His
father took the baby, and his mother put him to
bed.

But it was indeed a change to them all, not only
from Sandwich, but from their old place. Instead ol
the great river where the huge barges with their mighty
brown and yellow sails went tacking from side to side
like little pleasure-skiffs, and where the long thin boats
shot past w^ith eight and sometimes twelve rowers, their
windows now looked out upon a dirty paved yard. And
there was no garden more for Diamond to run into when
he pleased, with gay flowers about his feet, and solemn
sun-filled trees over his head. Neither was there a
wooden wall at the back of his bed with a hole in it
for North Wind to come in at when she liked. Indeed,
there was such a high wall, and there were so many
houses about the mews, that North Wind seldom got
into the place at all, except when something must be
done, and she had a grand cleaning out like other
housewives ; while the partition at the head of Dia-
mond's new bed only divided it from the room occupied
by a cabman who drank too much beer, and came home
chiefly to quarrel with his wife and pinch his children.
It was dreadful to Diamond to hear the scolding and

i6o At the Back of the North Wind

the crying. But it could not make him miserable, be-
cause he had been at the back of the north wind.

If my reader find it hard to believe that Diamond
should be so good, he must remember that he had
been to the back of the north wind. If he never
knew a boy so good, did he ever know a boy that
had been to the back of the north wind? It was not
in the least strange of Diamond to behave as he did ;
on the contrary, it was thoroughly sensible of him.

We shall see how he got on.

CHAPTER XVI

Diamond Makes a Beginning

THE wind blew loud, but Diamond slept a deep
sleep, and never heard it. My own impression
is that every time when Diamond slept well and
remembered nothing about it in the morning, he had
been all that nie^ht at the back of the north wind. I
am almost sure that was how he woke so refreshed,
and felt so quiet and hopeful all the day. Indeed he
said this much, though not to me, — that always when
he woke from such a sleep there was a something in his
mind, he could not tell what — could not tell whether
it was the last far-off sounds of the river dying away
in the distance, or some of the words of the endless
song his mother had read to him on the seashore.
Sometimes he thought it must have been the twitter-
ing of the swallows — over the shallows, you know;
but it may have been the chirping of the dingy spar-
rows picking up their breakfast in the yard — how can
I tell? I don't know what I know, I only know what
I think; and to tell the truth, I am more for the
swallows than the sparrows. When he knew he was
coming awake, he w^ould sometimes try hard to keep
hold of the words of what seemed a new song, one

( C 145 ) 161 1 1

i62 At the Back of the North Wind

he had not heard before — a song in which the words
and the music somehow appeared to be all one; but
even when he thought he had got them well fixed in
his mind, ever as he came awaker — as he would say
— one line faded away out of it, and then another, and
then another, till at last there was nothing left but some
lovely picture of water or grass or daisies, or something
else very common, but with all the commonness polished
off it, and the lovely soul of it, which people so seldom
see, and, alas! yet seldomer believe in, shining out.
But after that he would sing the oddest, loveliest little
songs to the baby — of his own making, his mother said;
but Diamond said he did not make them ; they were
made somewhere inside of him, and he knew nothing
about them till they were coming out.

When he woke that first morning he got up at once,
saying to himself, "I've been ill long enough, and
have given a great deal of trouble; I must try and be
of use now, and help my mother." When he went
into her room he found her lighting the fire, and his
father just getting out of bed. They had only the one
room, besides the little one, not much more than a
closet, in which Diamond slept. He began at once to
set things to rights, but the baby waking up, he took
him, and nursed him till his mother had got the break-
fast ready. She was looking gloomy, and his father
was silent; and indeed except Diamond had done all
he possibly could to keep out the misery that was
trying to get in at doors and windows, he too would
have grown miserable, and then they would have been
all miserable together. But to try to make others com-

Diamond Makes a Beginning 163

fortable Is the only way to get right comfortable our-
selves, and that comes partly of not being able to think
so much about ourselves when we are helping other
people. For our Selves will always do pretty well
if we don't pay them too much attention. Our Selves
are like some little children who will be happy enough
so long as they are left to their own games, but when
we begin to interfere with them, and make them presents
of too nice playthings, or too many sweet things, they
begin at once to fret and spoil.

"Why, Diamond, child!" said his mother at last,
''you're as good to your mother as if you were a girl —
nursing the baby, and toasting the bread, and sweeping
up the hearth! I declare a body would think you had
been among the fairies."

Could Diamond have had greater praise or greater
pleasure? You see when he forgot his Self his mother
took care of his Self, and loved and praised his Self.
Our own praises poison our Selves, and puff and swell
them up, till they lose all shape and beauty, and be-
come like great toadstools. But the praises of father
or mother do our Selves good, and comfort them and
make them beautiful. They never do them any harm.
If they do any harm, it comes of our mixing some of
our own praises with them, and that turns them nasty
and slimy and poisonous.

When his father had finished his breakfast, which he
did rather in a hurry, he got up and went down into the
yard to get out his horse and put him to the cab.

''Won't you come and see the cab. Diamond?" he
said.

i64 At the Back of the North Wind

mm,

*'Yes, please, father — if mother can spare me a
minute," answered Diamond.

'' Bless the child! I don't want him," said his mother
cheerfully.

But as he was following his father out of the door,

she called him
back.

'' Diamond,
just hold the
baby one minute.
I have something
to say to your
father."

So Diamond
sat down again,
took the baby in
his lap, and be-
gan poking his
face into its little
body, laughing
and singing all
the while, so that
the baby crowed
like a little ban-
tam. And what
he sang was something like this — such nonsense to
those that couldn't understand it! but not to the baby,
who got all the good in the world out of it; —

baby 's a-sleeping*

wake up baby

for all the swallows

Diamond Makes a Beginning 165

are the merriest fellows

and have the yellowest children

who would go sleeping

and snore like a gaby

disturbing his mother

and father and brother

and all a-boring

their ears with his snoring

snoring snoring

for himself and no other

for himself in particular

wake up baby

sit up perpendicular

hark to the gushing

hark to the rushing

where the sheep are the woolliest

and the lambs the unruliest

and their tails the whitest

and their eyes the brightest

and baby's the bonniest

and baby 's the funniest

and baby 's the shiniest

and baby 's the tiniest

and baby's the merriest

and baby's the worriest

of all the Iambs

that plague their dams

and mother's the whitest

of all the dams

that feed the lambs

that go crop-cropping

without stop-stopping

and father 's the best

of all the swallows

that build their nest

out of the shining shallows

and he has the merriest children

that's baby and Diamond

and Diamond and baby

and baby and Diamond

and Diamond and baby

i66 At the Back of the North Wind

Here Diamond's knees went off in a wild dance which
tossed the baby about and shook the laughter out of
him in immoderate peals. His mother had been lis-
tening at the door to the last few lines of his song, and
came in with the tears in her eyes. She took the baby
from him, gave him a kiss, and told him to run to his
father.

By the time Diamond got into the yard, the horse
was between the shafts, and his father was looping the
traces on. Diamond went round to look at the horse.
The sight of him made him feel very queer. He did
not know much about different horses, and all other
horses than their own were very much the same to
him. But he could not make it out. This was Diamond
and it wasn't Diamond. Diamond didn't hang his head
like that; yet the head that was hanging was very like
the one that Diamond used to hold so high. Diamond's
bones didn't show through his skin like that; but the
skin they pushed out of shape so Avas very like Diamond's
skin; and the bones might be Diamond's bones, for he
had never seen the shape of them. But when he came
round in front of the old horse, and he put out his long
neck, and began sniffing at him and rubbing his upper
lip and his nose on him, then Diamond saw it could be
no other than old Diamond, and he did just as his father
had done before — put his arms round his neck and cried
— but not much.

'* Ain't it jolly, father?" he said. ^*Was there ever
anybody so lucky as me? Dear old Diamond!"

And he hugged the horse again, and kissed both his
big hairy cheeks. He could only manage one at a

Diamond Makes a Beginning 167

time however — the other cheek was so far off on the
other side of his big head.

His father mounted the box with just the same air,
as Diamond thought, with which he had used to get
upon the coach-box, and Diamond said to himself,
'' Father's as grand as ever anyhow." He had kept
his brown livery-coat, only his wife had taken the silver
buttons off and put brass ones instead, because they did
not think it polite to Mr. Coleman in his fallen fortunes
to let his crest be seen upon the box of a cab. Old
Diamond had kept just his collar ; and that had the
silver crest upon it still, for his master thought nobody
would notice that, and so let it remain for a memorial
of the better days of which it reminded him — not un-
pleasantly, seeing it had been by no fault either of his
or of the old horse's that they had come down in the
world together.

**Oh, father, do let me drive a bit," said Diamond,
jumping up on the box beside him.

His father changed places with him at once, putting
the reins into his hands. Diamond gathered them up
eagerly.

''Don't pull at his mouth," said his father; **just
feel at it gently to let him know you're there and attend-
ing to him. That's what I call talking to him through
the reins."

*'Yes, father, I understand," said Diamond. Then
to the horse he said, ''Go on. Diamond." And old
Diamond's ponderous bulk began at once to move to
the voice of the little boy.

But before they had reached the entrance of the mews,

i68 At the Back of the North Wind

another voice called after young Diamond, which, in his
turn, he had to obey, for it was that of his mother.
** Diamond! Diamond!" it cried ; and Diamond pulled
the reins, and the horse stood still as a stone.

*' Husband," said his mother, coming- up, *' you're
never going to trust him with the reins — a baby like
that?"

** He must learn some day, and he can't begin too
soon. I see already he's a born coachman," said his
father proudly. ''And I don't see well how he could
escape it, for my father and n'y grandfather, that's his
great-grandfather, was all coachmen, I'm told; so it
must come natural to him, any one would think. Be-
sides, you see, old Diamond's as proud of him as we
are our own selves, wife. Don't you see how he's
turning round his ears, with the mouths of them open,
for the first word he speaks to tumble in? He's too
well bred to turn his head, you know."

''Well, but, husband, I can't do without him to-day.
Everything's got to be done, you know. It's my first
day here. And there's that baby!"

" Bless you, wife! I never meant to take him away —
only to the bottom of Endell Street. He can watch his
way back."

"No, thank you, father; not to-day," said Diamond.
" Mother wants me. Perhaps she'll let me go another
day."

"Very well, my man," said his father, and took the
reins which Diamond was holding out to him.

Diamond got down, a little disappointed of course,
and went in with his mother, who was too pleased to

Diamond Makes a Beginning 169

speak. She only took hold of his hand as tight as if
she had been afraid of his running away instead of glad
that he would not leave her.

Now, although they did not know it, the owner of
the stables, the same man who had sold the horse to
his father, had been standing just inside one of the
stable-doors, with his hands in his pockets, and had
heard and seen all that passed; and from that day John
Stonecrop took a great fancy to the little boy. And
this was the beginning of what came of it.

That same evening, just as Diamond was feeling
tired of the day's work, and wishing his father would
come home, Mr. Stonecrop knocked at the door. His
mother went and opened it.

"Good evening, ma'am," said he. '* Is little master
in?"

''Yes, to be sure he is — at your service, I'm sure,
Mr. Stonecrop," said his mother.

''No, no, ma'am; it's I'm at his service. I'm just
a-going out with my own cab, and if he likes to come
with me, he shall drive my old horse till he's tired."

" It's getting rather late for him," said his mother
thoughtfully. "You see he's been an invalid."

Diamond thought, w^hat a funny thing! How could
he have been an invalid when he did not even know
what the word meant? But, of course, his mother was
right.

" Oh, well," said Mr. Stonecrop, " I can just let him
drive through Bloomsbury Square, and then he shall
run home again."

"Very good, sir. And I'm much obliged to you,"

I70 At the Back of the North Wind

said his mother. And Diamond, dancing- with delight,
got his cap, put his hand in Mr. Stonecrop's, and went
with him to the yard where the cab was waiting. He
did not think the horse looked nearly so nice as Dia-
mond, nor Mr. Stonecrop nearly so grand as his father;
but he was none the less pleased. He got up on the
box, and his new friend got up beside him.

*' What's the horse's name?" whispered Diamond, as
he took the reins from the man.

*'It's not a nice name," said Mr. Stonecrop. *^ You
needn't call him by it. I didn't give it him. He'll go
well enough without it. Give the boy a whip. Jack.
I never carries one when I drives old "

He didn't finish the sentence. Jack handed Diamond
a whip, with which, by holding it half down the stick,
he managed just to flack the haunches of the horse ; and
away he went.

''Mind the gate," said Mr. Stonecrop; and Diamond
did mind the gate, and guided the nameless horse
through it in safety, pulling him this way and that
according as was necessary. Diamond learned to
drive all the sooner that he had been accustomed
to do what he was told, and could obey the smallest
hint in a moment. Nothing helps one to get on like
that. Some people don't know how to do what they
are told; they have not been used to it, and they
neither understand quickly nor are able to turn what
they do understand into action quickly. With an
obedient mind one learns the rig-hts of thing-s fast
enough ; for it is the law of the universe, and to obey
is to understand.

Diamond Makes a Beginning 171

** Look out!" cried Mr. Stonecrop, as they were
turning the corner into Bloomsbury Square.

It was getting dusky now. A cab was approaching
rather rapidly from the opposite direction, and Diamond
pulling aside, and the other driver pulling up, they
only just escaped a collision. Then they knew each
other.

"Why, Diamond, it's a bad beginning to run into
your own father," cried the driver.

'' But, father, wouldn't it have been a bad ending to
run into your own son?" said Diamond in return; and
the two men laughed heartily.

"This is very kind of you, I'm sure, Stonecrop,"
said his father.

"Not a bit. He's a brave fellow, and'll be fit to
drive on his own hook in a week or two. But I think
you'd better let him drive you home now, for his
mother don't like his having over much of the night
air, and I promised not to take him farther than the
square."

"Come along then. Diamond," said his father, as
he brought his cab up to the other, and moved off the
box to the seat beside it. Diamond jumped across,
caught at the reins, said "Good night, and thank you,
Mr. Stonecrop," and drove away home, feeling more
of a man than he had ever yet had a chance of feeling
in all his life. Nor did his father find it necessary
to give him a single hint as to his driving. Only
I suspect the fact that it was old Diamond, and old
Diamond on his way to his stable, may have had
something to do with young Diamond's success.

172 At the Back of the North Wind

" Well, child," said his mother, when he entered
the room, *' you've not been long gone."

^' No, mother; here I am. Give me the baby."

*'The baby's asleep," said his mother.

''Then give him to me, and I'll lay him down."

But as Diamond took him, he woke up and began
to laugh. For he was indeed one of the merriest
children. And no wonder, for he was as plump as a
plum-pudding, and had never had an ache or a pain
that lasted more than five minutes at a time. Diamond
sat down with him and began to sing to him.

baby baby babbing

your father's g;one a-cabblng-

to catch a shilling for its pence

to make the baby babbing dance

for old Diamond 's a duck

they say he can swim

but the duck of diamonds

is baby that 's him

and of all the swallows

the merriest fellows

that bake their cake

with the water they shake

out of the river

flowing for ever

and make dust into clay

on the shiniest day

to build their nest

father 's the best

and mother 's the whitest

and her eyes are the brightest

of all the dams

that watch their lambs

cropping the grass

where the waters pass

singing for ever

Diamond Makes a Beginning

and of all the lambs
with the shakingest tails
and the jumpingest feet
baby 's the funniest
baby 's the bonniest
and he never wails
and he 's always sweet
and Diamond 's his nurse
and Diamond 's his nurse
and Diamond 's his nurse

When Diamond's rhymes grew scarce, he always
began dancing the baby. Some people wondered that
such a child could rhyme as he did, but his rhymes
were not very good, for he was only trying to re-
member what he had heard the river sing at the back
of the north wind.

CHAPTER XVII

Diamond Goes On

DIAMOND became a great favourite with all the
men about the mews. Some may think it was
not the best place in the world for him to be
brought up in; but it must have been, for there he
was. At first, he heard a good many rough and bad
words; but he did not like them, and so they did him
little harm. He did not know in the least what they
meant, but there was something in the very sound of
them, and in the tone of voice in which they were
said, which Diamond felt to be ugly. So they did not
even stick to him, not to say get inside him. He never
took any notice of them, and his face shone pure and
good in the middle of them, like a primrose in a hail-
storm. At first, because his face was so quiet and
sweet, with a smile always either awake or asleep in
his eyes, and because he never heeded their ugly words
and rough jokes, they said he wasn't all there, meaning
that he was half an idiot, whereas he was a great deal
more there than they had the sense to see. And before
long the bad words found themselves ashamed to come
out of the men's mouths when Diamond was near.
The one would nudge the other to remind him that
the boy was within hearing, and the words choked

174

Diamond Goes On

175

themselves before they got any farther. When they
talked to him nicely he had always a good answer,
sometimes a smart one, ready, and that helped much
to make them change their minds about him.

One day Jack
gave him a
curry-comb and
a brush to trv
his hand upon
old Diamond's
coat. He used
them so deftly,
so gently, and
yet so thorough-
ly, as far as he
could reach, that
the man could
not help admir-
ing him.

'* You must
make haste and
grow," he said.
" It won't do to
have a horse's
belly clean and his back dirty, you know."

*'Give me a leg," said Diamond, and in a moment
he was on the old horse's back with the comb and
brush. He sat on his withers, and reaching forward
as he ate his hay, he curried and he brushed, first at
one side of his neck, and then at the other. When
that was done he asked for a dressing-comb, and

176 At the Back of the North Wind

combed his mane thoroughly. Then he pushed him-
self on to his back, and did his shoulders as far down
as he could reach. Then he sat on his croup, and
did his back and sides; then he turned round like a
monkey, and attacked his hind-quarters, and combed
his tail. This last was not so easy to manage, for he
had to lift it up, and every now and then old Diamond
would whisk it out of his hands, and once he sent the
comb flying out of the stable-door, to the great amuse-
ment of the men. But Jack fetched it again, and
Diamond began once more, and did not leave off till
he had done the whole business fairly well, if not in
a first-rate, experienced fashion. All the time the old
horse went on eating his hay, and, but with an occa-
sional whisk of his tail when Diamond tickled or
scratched him, took no notice of the proceeding. But
that was all a pretence, for he knew very well who it
was that was perched on his back, and rubbing away
at him with the comb and the brush. So he was
quite pleased and proud, and perhaps said to himself
something like this, —

'' I'm a stupid old horse, who can't brush his own
coat; but there's my young godson on my back,
cleaning me like an angel."

I won't vouch for what the old horse was thinking,
far it is very difficult to find out what any old horse is
thinking.

'*Oh dear!" said Diamond when he had done, *' I'm
so tired!"

And he laid himself down at full length on old
Diamond's back.

Diamond Goes On 177

By this time all the men in the stable were gathered
about the two Diamonds, and all much amused. One
of them lifted him down, and from that time he was
a orreater favourite than before. And if ever there was
a boy who had a chance of being a prodigy at cab-
driving, Diamond was that boy, for the strife came
to be who should have him out with him on the box.

His mother, however, was a little shy of the com-
pany for him, and besides she could not always spare
him. Also his father liked to have him himself when
he could; so that he was more desired than enjoyed
among the cabmen.

But one way and another he did learn to drive all
sorts of horses, and to drive them well, and that
through the most crowded streets in London city. Of
course there was the man always on the box-seat be-
side him, but before long there was seldom the least
occasion to take the reins out of his hands. For one
thing he never got frightened, and consequently was
never in too great a hurry. Yet when the moment
came for doing something sharp, he was always ready
for it. I must once more remind my readers that he
had been to the back of the north wind.

One day, which was neither washing-day nor clean-
ing-day, nor marketing-day, nor Saturday, nor Monday
— upon which consequently Diamond could be spared
from the baby — his father took him on his own cab.
After a stray job or two by the way, they drew up in
the row upon the stand between Cockspur Street and
Pall Mall. They waited a long time, but nobody

seemed to want to be carried anywhere. By and
( c 145 ) 12

?78 At the Back of the North Wind

by ladies would be going home from the Academy

exhibition, and there would be a chance of a job.
*' Though, to be sure," said Diamond's father — with

what truth I cannot say, but he believed what he said —

*' some ladies is
very hard, and
keeps you to the
bare sixpence a
mile, when every
one knows that
ain't enough to
keep a family
and a cab upon.
To be sure it's
the law ; but
mayhap they
may get more
law than they
like some day
themselves."

As it was very
hot, Diamond's
father got down
to have a glass

of beer himself, and give another to the old waterman.

He left Diamond on the box.

A sudden noise got up, and Diamond looked round

to see what was the matter.

There was a crossing near the cab-stand, where a

girl was sweeping. Some rough young imps had

picked a quarrel with her, and were now hauling at

Diamond Goes On 179

her broom to get it away from her. But as they did
not pull all together, she was holding it against them,
scolding and entreating alternately.

Diamond was off his box in a moment, and running
to the help of the girl. He got hold of the broom at her
end and pulled along with her. But the boys proceeded
to rougher measures, and one of them hit Diamond on
the nose, and made it bleed; and as he could not let go
the broom to mind his nose, he was soon a dreadful
figure. But presently his father came back, and missing
Diamond, looked about. He had to look twice, how-
ever, before he could be sure that that was his boy in
the middle of the tumult. He rushed in, and sent the
assailants flying in all directions. The girl thanked
Diamond, and began sweeping as if nothing had
happened, while his father led him away. With the
help of old Tom, the waterman, he was soon washed
into decency, and his father set him on the box again,
perfectly satisfied with the account he gave of the cause
of his being in a fray.

" I couldn't let them behave so to a poor girl — could
I, father?" he said.

"Certainly not. Diamond," said his father, quite
pleased, for Diamond's father was a gentleman.

A moment after, up came the girl, running, with her
broom over her shoulder, and calling, "Cab, there!
cab!"

Diamond's father turned instantly, for he was the
foremost in the rank, and followed the girl. One or
two other passing cabs heard the cry, and made for
the place, but the girl had taken care not to call till

i8o At the Back of the North Wind

she was near enough to give her friends the first chance.
When they reached the curbstone — who should it be
waiting for the cab but Mrs. and Miss Coleman! They
did not look at the cabman, however. The girl opened

thedoorforthemj
they gave her the
address, and a
penny; she told
the cabman, and
away they drove.
When they
reached the

house, Dia-

mond's father
got down and
rang the bell.
As he opened the
door of the cab,
he touched his
hat as he had
been wont to do.
The ladies both
stared for a mo-
ment, and then
exclaimed together:

" Why, Joseph! can it be you?"

*' Yes, ma'am; yes, miss;" answered he, again touch-
ing his hat, with all the respect he could possibly put
into the action. *' It's a lucky day which I see you once
more upon it."

*'Who would have thought it?" said Mrs. Coleman.

Diamond Goes On i8i

" It's changed times for both of us, Joseph, and it's not
very often we can have a cab even ; but you see my
daughter is still very poorly, and she can't bear the
motion of the omnibuses. Indeed we meant to walk
a bit first before we took a cab, but just at the corner, for
as hot as the sun was, a cold wind came down the street,
and I saw that Miss Coleman must not face it. But to
think that we should have fallen upon you, of all the
cabmen in London! I didn't know you had got a
cab."

'' Well, you see, ma'am, I had a chance of buying the
old horse, and I couldn't resist him. There he is, look-
ing at you, ma'am. Nobody knows the sense in that
head of his."

The two ladies went near to pat the horse, and then
they noticed Diamond on the box.

"Why, you've got both Diamonds with you," said
Miss Coleman. " How do you do, Diamond?"

Diamond lifted his cap, and answered politely.

"He'll be fit to drive himself before long," said his
father, proudly. " The old horse is a -teaching of
him." -

"Well, he must come and see us, now you've found
us out. Where do you live?"

Diamond's father gave the ladies a ticket with his
name and address printed on it; and then Mrs. Cole-
man took out her purse, saying:

" And what's your fare, Joseph?"

"No, thank you, ma'am," said Joseph. "It was
your own old horse as took you ; and me you paid long
ago."

i82 At the Back of the North Wind

He jumped on his box before she could say another
word, and with a parting salute drove off, leaving them
on the pavement, with the maid holding the door for
them.

It was a long time now since Diamond had seen
North Wind, or even thought much about her. And
as his father drove along, he was thinking not about
her, but about the crossing-sweeper, and was wondering
what made him feel as if he knew her quite well, when
he could not remember anything of her. But a picture
arose in his mind of a little girl running before the wind
and dragging her broom after her; and from that, by
degrees, he recalled the whole adventure of the night
when he got down from North Wind's back in a London
street. But he could not quite satisfy himself whether
the whole affair was not a dream which he had dreamed
when he was a very little boy. Only he had been to the
back of the north wind since — there could be no doubt of
that; for when he woke every morning, he always knew
that he had been there again. And as he thought and
thought, he recalled another thing that had happened
that morning, which, although it seemed a mere ac-
cident, might have something to with what had happened
since. His father had intended going on the stand at
King's Cross that morning, and had turned into Gray's
Inn Lane to drive there, when they found the way
blocked up, and upon inquiry were informed that a
stack of chimneys had been blown down in the night,
and had fallen across the road. They were just clearing
the rubbish away. Diamond's father turned, and made
for Charing Cross.

Diamond Goes On 183

That night the father and mother had a great deal to
talk about.

'* Poor things!" said the mother; ** it's worse for them
than it is for us. You see they've been used to such
grand things, and for them to come down to a Httle poky
house like that — it breaks my heart to think of it."

** I don't know," said Diamond thoughtfully, *' whether
Mrs. Coleman had bells on her toes."

*' What do you mean, child?" said his mother.

''She had rings on her fingers, anyhow," returned
Diamond.

"Of course she had, as any lady would. What has
that to do with it?"

"When we were down at Sandwich," said Diamond,
"you said you would have to part with your mother's
ring, now we were poor."

"Bless the child! he forgets nothing," said his
mother. " Really, Diamond, a body would need to
mind what they say to you."

" Why?" said Diamond. " I only think about it."

" That's just why," said the mother.

"Why is that why?" persisted Diamond, for he had
not yet learned that grown-up people are not often so
much grown up that they never talk like children — and
spoilt ones too.

" Mrs. Coleman is none so poor as all that yet. No,
thank Heaven! she's not come to that."

"Is it a great disgrace to be poor?" asked Diamond,
because of the tone in which his mother had spoken.

But his mother, whether conscience-stricken I do not
know, hurried him away to bed, where after various

i84 At the Back of the North Wind

attempts to understand her, resumed and resumed again
in spite of invading sleep, he was conquered at last, and
gave in, murmuring over and over to himself, '' Why is
why?" but getting no answer to the question.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Drunken Cabman

FEW nights after this, Diamond woke up sud-
denly, believing he heard the North Wind
thundering along. But it was something quite
different. South Wind was moaning round the chim-
neys, to be sure, for she was not very happy that night,
but it was not her voice that had wakened Diamond.
Her voice would only have lulled him the derper asleep.
It was a loud, angry voice, now growling liKe that of
a beast, now raving like that of a madman; and when
Diamond came a little wider awake, he knew that it was
the voice of the drunken cabman, the wall of whose room
was at the head of his bed. It was anything but plea-
sant to hear, but he could not help hearing it. At length
there came a cry from the woman, and then a scream
from the baby. Thereupon Diamond thought it time
that somebody did something, and as himself was the
only somebody at hand, he must go and see whether
he could not do the something. So he got up and put
on part of his clothes, and went down the stair, for the
cabman's room did not open upon their stair, and he had
to go out into the yard, and in at the next door. This,
fortunately, the cabman, being drunk, had left open.

185

[86 At the Back of the North Wind

By the time he reached their stair, all was still except
the voice of the crying baby, which guided him to the
right door. He opened it softly and peeped in. There,
leaning back in a chair, with his arms hanging down by
his sides, and his legs stretched out before him and

supported on his
heels, sat the
drunken cabman.
His wife lay in
her clothes upon
the bed, sobbing,
and the baby was
wailing in the
cradle. It was
very miserable
altogether.

Now the way
most people do
when they see
anything very
miserable is to
turn away from
the sight, and
try to forget it.
But Diamond began as usual to try to destroy the
misery. The little boy was just as much one of
God's messengers as if he had been an angel with a
flaming sword, going out to fight the devil. The
devil he had to fight just then w^as Misery. And the
way he fought him was the very best. Like a wise
soldier, he attacked him first in his weakest point — that

The Drunken Cabman 187

was the baby; for Misery can never get such a hold of a
baby as of a grown person. Diamond was knowing in
babies, and he knew he could do something to make the
baby happy; for although he had only known one baby
as yet, and although not one baby is the same as another,
yet they are so very much alike in some things, and he
knew that one baby so thoroughly, that he had good
reason to believe he could do something for any other.
I have known people who would have begun to fight the
devil in a very different and a very stupid way. They
would have begun by scolding the idiotic cabman; and
next they would make his wife angry by saying it must
be her fault as well as his, and by leaving ill-bred
though well-meant shabby little books for them to read,
which they were sure to hate the sight of; while all the
time they would not have put out a finger to touch the
wailing baby. But Diamond had him out of the cradle
in a moment, set him up on his knee, and told him to
look at the light. Now all the light there was came
only from a lamp in the yard, and it was a very dingy
and yellow light, for the glass of the lamp w^as dirty, and
the gas was bad ; but the light that came from it was,
notwithstanding, as certainly light as if it had come from
the sun itself, and the baby knew that, and smiled to it;
and although it was indeed a wretched room which that
lamp lighted — so dreary, and dirty, and empty, and
hopeless! — there in the middle of it sat Diamond on
a stool, smiling to the baby, and the baby on his knees
smiling to the lamp. The father of him sat staring at
nothing, neither asleep nor awake, not quite lost in
stupidity either, for through it all he w^as dimly angry

i88 At the Back of the North Wind

with himself, he did not know why. It was that he had
struck his wife. He had forgotten it, but was miserable
about it, notwithstanding. And this misery was the
voice of the great Love that had made him and his wife
and the baby and Diamond, speaking in his heart, and
telling him to be good. For that great Love speaks in
the most wretched and dirty hearts; only the tone of its
voice depends on the echoes of the place in which it
sounds. On Mount Sinai, it was thunder; in the cab-
man's heart it was misery] in the soul of St. John it was
perfect blessedness.

By and by he became aware that there was a voice
of singing in the room. This, of course, was the voice
of Diamond singing to the baby — song after song, every
one as foolish as another to the cabman, for he was too
tipsy to part one word from another: all the words mixed
up in his ear in a gurgle without division or stop; for
such was the way he spoke himself, when he was in this
horrid condition. But the baby was more than content
with Diamond's songs, and Diamond himself was so con-
tented with what the songs were all about, that he did
not care a bit about the songs themselves, if only baby
liked them. But they did the cabman good as well as
the baby and Diamond, for they put him to sleep, and
the sleep was busy all the time it lasted, smoothing the
wrinkles out of his temper.

At length Diamond grew tired of singing, and began
to talk to the baby instead. And as soon as he stopped
singing, the cabman began to wake up. His brain was
a little clearer now, his temper a little smoother, and his
heart not quite so dirty. He began to listen and he

The Drunken Cabman

189

went on listening, and heard Diamond saying to the
baby something hke this, for he thought the cabman
was asleep:

"Poor daddy! Baby's daddy takes too much beer
and gin, and that makes him somebody else, and
not his own self
at all. Baby's
daddy would
never hit baby's
mammy if he
didn't take too
much beer. He's
very fond of
baby's mammy,
and works from
morning to night
to get her break-
fast and dinner
and supper, only
at night he for-
gets, and pays
the money away
for beer. And
they put nasty

stuff in the beer, I've heard my daddy say, that drives all
the good out, and lets all the bad in. Daddy says w^hen
a man takes to drink there's a thirsty devil creeps into
his inside, because he knows he will always get enough
there. And the devil is always crying out for more
drink, and that makes the man thirsty, and so he
drinks more and more, till he kills himself with it.

190 At the Back of the North Wind

And then the ugly devil creeps out of him, and crawls
about on his belly, looking for some other cabman to
get into, that he may drink, drink, drink. That's what
my daddy says, baby. And he says, too, the only way
to make the devil come out, is to give him plenty ot cold
water and tea and coffee, and nothing at all that comes
from the public-house; for the devil can't abide that kind
of stuff, and creeps out pretty soon, for fear of being
drowned in it. But your daddy will drink the nasty
stuff, poor man ! I wish he wouldn't, for it makes
mammy cross with him, and no wonder! and then
when mammy's cross, he's crosser, and there's nobody
in the house to take care of them but baby; and you
do take care of them, baby — don't you, baby? I know
you do. Babies always take care of their fathers and
mothers — don't they, baby? That's what they come
for — isn't it, baby? And when daddy stops drinking
beer and nasty gin with turpentine in it, father says,
then mammy will be so happy, and look so pretty!
and daddy will be so good to baby! and baby will
be as happy as a swallow, which is the merriest fel-
low! And Diamond will be so happy too! And
when Diamond's a man, he'll take baby out with him
on the box, and teach him to drive a cab."

He went on with chatter like this till baby was asleep,
by which time he was tired, and father and mother were
both wide awake, — only rather confused — the one from
the beer, the other from the blow — and staring, the one
from his chair, the other from her bed, at Diamond.
But he was quite unaware of their notice, for he sat
half-asleep, with his eyes wide openj staring in his

The Drunken Cabman 191

turn, though without knowing it, at the cabman,
while the cabman could not withdraw his gaze from
Diamond's white face and big eyes. For Diamond's
face was always rather pale, and now it was paler
than usual with sleeplessness, and the light of the
street-lamp upon it. At length he found himself
nodding, and he knew then it was time to put the
baby down, lest he should let him fall. So he rose
from the little three-legged stool, and laid the baby
in the cradle, and covered him up — it was well it was
a warm night, and he did not want much covering —
and then he all but staggered out of the door, he was
so tipsy himself with sleep.

"Wife," said the cabman, turning towards the bed,
"I do somehow believe that wur a angel just gone.
Did you see him, wife? He warn't wery big, and
he hadn't got none o' them wingses, you know. It
wur one o' them baby-angels you sees on the grave-
stones, you know."

"Nonsense, hubby!" said his wife; "but it's just as
good. I might say better, for you can ketch hold of
liim when you like. That's little Diamond as ever)'-
body knows, and a duck o' diamonds he is! No woman
could wish for a better child than he be,"

"I ha' heerd on him in the stable, but I never see
the brat afore. Come, old girl, let bygones be by-
gones, and gie us a kiss, and we'll go to bed."

The cabman kept his cab in another yard, although
he had his room in this. He was often late in coming
home, and was not one to take notice of children,
especially when he was tipsy, which was oftener than

192 At the Back of the North Wind

not. Hence, if he had ever seen Diamond, he did not
know him. But his wife knew him well enough, as
did every one else who lived all day in the yard.
She was a good-natured woman. It was she who
had got the fire lighted and the tea ready for them
when Diamond and his mother came home from
Sandwich. And her husband was not an ill-natured
man either, and when in the morning he recalled
not only Diamond's visit, but how he himself had be-
haved to his wife, he was very vexed with himself,
and gladdened his poor wife's heart by telling her
how sorry he was. And for a whole week after, he
did not go near the public-house, hard as it was to
avoid it, seeing a certain rich brewer had built one,
like a trap to catch souls and bodies in, at almost
every corner he had to pass on his way home. In-
deed, he was never quite so bad after that, though it
was some time before he began really to reform.

CHAPTER XIX

Diamond's Friends

ONE day when old Diamond was standing- with
his nose in his bag between Pall Mall and
Cockspur Street, and his master was read-
ing the newspaper on the box of his cab, which was
the last of a good many in the row, little Diamond
got down for a run, for his legs were getting cramped
with sitting. And first of all he strolled with his hands
in his pockets up to the crossing, where the girl and
her broom were to be found in all weathers. Just as
he was going to speak to her, a tall gentlemen stepped
upon the crossing. He was pleased to find it so clean,
for the streets were muddy, and he had nice boots on ;
so he put his hand in his pocket, and gave the girl a
penny. But when she gave him a sweet smile in re-
turn, and made him a pretty courtesy, he looked at
her again, and said:

*' Where do you live, my child?"

"Paradise Row," she answered; "next door to the
Adam and Eve — down the area."

" Whom do you live with?" he asked.

" My wicked old grannie," she replied.

"You shouldn't call your grannie wicked," said the
gentleman.

(C145) 193 13

194 At the Back ol the North Wind

*' But she is," said the girl, looking" up confidently in
his face. '^ If you don't believe me, you can come and
take a look at her."

The words sounded rude, but the girl's face looked
so simple that the gentleman saw that she did not
mean to be rude, and became still more interested in
her.

^* Still you shouldn't say so," he insisted.

'^ Shouldn't I? Everybody calls her wicked old gran-
nie— even them that's as wicked as her. You should
hear her swear. There's nothing like it in the Row.
Indeed, I assure you, sir, there's ne'er a one of them
can shut my grannie up once she begins and gets
right a-going. You must put her in a passion first,
you know. It's no good till you do that — she's so
old now. How she do make them laugh, to be sure!"

Although she called her wicked, the child spoke so
as plainly to indicate pride in her grannie's pre-emi-
nence in swearing.

The gentleman looked very grave to hear her, for he
was sorry that such a nice little girl should be in such
bad keeping. But he did not know what to say next,
and stood for a moment with his eyes on the ground.
When he lifted them, he saw the face of Diamond look-
ing up in his.

"Please, sir," said Diamond, "her grannie's very
cruel to her sometimes, and shuts her out in the streets
at night, if she happens to be late."

" Is this your brother?" asked the gentleman of the
girl.

"No, sir."

Diamond's Friends 195

''How does he know your grandmother, then? He
does not look like one of her sort."

''Oh no, sir! He's a good boy — quite."

Here she tapped her forehead with her finger In a
significant manner.

"What do you mean by that?" asked the gentleman,
while Diamond looked on smiling.

"The cabbies call him God's baby," she whispered.
"He's not right in the head, you know. A tile loose."

Still Diamond, though he heard every word, and
understood it too, kept on smiling. What could it
matter what people called him, so long as he did
nothing that he ought not to do? And, besides, God's
baby was surely the best of names!

" Well, my little man, and what can you do?" asked
the gentleman, turning towards him — ^just for the sake
of saying something.

" Drive a cab," said Diamond.

"Good; and what else?" he continued; for, accept-
ing what the girl had said, he regarded the still sweet-
ness of Diamond's face as a sign of silliness, and wished
to be kind to the poor little fellow.

" Nurse a baby," said Diamond.

"Well— and what else?"

" Clean father's boots, and make him a bit of toast for
his tea."

"You're a useful little man," said the gentleman.
"What else can you do?"

"Not much that I know of," said Diamond. "I
can't curry a horse, except somebody puts me on his
back. So I don't count that."

196 At the Back of the North Wind

^^ Can you read?"

*'No; but mother can and father can, and they're
going to teach me some day soon."

** Well, here's a penny for you."

'* Thank you, sir."

**And when you have learned to read, come to me,
and I'll give you sixpence and a book with fine pictures
in it."

'' Please, sir, where am I to come?" asked Diamond,
who was too much a man of the world not to know that
he must have the gentleman's address before he could
go and see him.

*' You're no such silly!" thought he, as he put his
hand in his pocket, and brought out a card. "There,"
he said, **your father will be able to read that, and tell
you where to go."

*'Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," said Diamond, and put
the card in his pocket.

The gentleman walked away, but turning round a few
paces off, saw Diamond give his penny to the girl, and,
walking slower, heard him say:

*' I've got a father, and mother, and little brother, and
you've got nothing but a wicked old grannie. You may
have my penny."

The girl put it beside the other in her pocket, the
only trustworthy article of dress she wore. Her
grandmother always took care that she had a stout
pocket.

" Is she as cruel as ever?" asked Diamond.

'' Much the same. But I gets more coppers now than
I used to, and I can get summats to eat, and take browns

Diamond's Friends 197

enough home besides to keep her from grumbling. It's
a good thing she's so bHnd, though."

"Why?" asked Diamond.

** 'Cause if she was as sharp in the eyes as she used to
be, she would find out I never eats her broken wittles,
and then she'd know as I must get something some-
wheres."

*' Doesn't she watch you, then?"

''O' course she do. Don't she just! But I make
believ^e and drop it in my lap, and then hitch it into
my pocket."

'* What would she do if she found you out?"

'* She'd never give me no more."

" But you don't want it!"

"Yes, I do want it."

" What do you do with it, then?"

" Give it to cripple Jim."

"Who's cripple Jim?"

"A boy in the Row. His mother broke his leg when
he wur a kid, so he's never come to much; but he's a
good boy, is Jim, and I love Jim dearly. I always
keeps off a penny for Jim — leastways as often as I can.
— But there, I must sweep again, for them busses makes
no end o' dirt."

"Diamond! Diamond!" cried his father, who was
afraid he might get no good by talking to the girl;
and Diamond obeyed, and got up again upon the box.
He told his father about the gentleman, and what he
had promised him if he would learn to read, and showed
him the gentleman's card.

"Why, it's not many doors from the Mews!" said

igs At the Back of the North Wind

his father, giving him back the card. *^Take care of
it, my boy, for it may lead to something. God knows,
in these hard times a man wants as many friends as
he's ever likely to get."

'* Haven't you got friends enough, father?" asked
Diamond.

"Well, I have no right to complain; but the more
the better, you know."

** Just let me count," said Diamond.

And he took his hands from his pockets, and spread-
ing out the fingers of his left hand, began to count,
beginning at the thumb.

"There's mother first; and then baby, and then me.
Next there's old Diamond — and the cab — no, I won't
count the cab, for it never looks at you, and when
Diamond's out of the shafts, it's nobody. Then there's
tlie man that drinks next door, and his wife, and his
baby."

" They're no friends of mine," said his father.

"Well, they're friends of mine," said Diamond.

His father laughed.

" Much good they'll do you !" he said.

" How do you know they won't?" returned Diamond.

"Well, go on," said his father.

"Then there's Jack and Mr. Stonecrop, and, deary
me! not to have mentioned Mr. Coleman and Mrs.
Coleman, and Miss Coleman, and Mrs. Crump. And
then there's the clergyman that spoke to me in the
garden that day the tree was blown down."

"What's his name?"

" I don't know his name."

Diamond's Friends 199

"Where does he live?'*

^*I don't know."

*' How can you count him, then?"

*' He did talk to me, and very kindlike too."

His father laughed again.

*'Why, child, you're just counting everybody you
know. That don't make 'em friends."

^' Don't it? I thought it did. Well, but they shall
be my friends. I shall make 'em."

'' How will you do that?"

*'They can't help themselves then, If they would.
If I choose to be their friend, you know, they can't
prevent me. Then there's that girl at the crossing."

'*A fine set of friends you do have, to be sure,
Diamond!"

''Surely she's a friend anyhow, father. If It hadn't
been for her, you would never have got Mrs. Coleman
and Miss Coleman to carry home."

His father was silent, for he saw that Diamond was
right, and was ashamed to find himself more ungrateful
than he had thought.

*'Then there's the new gentleman," Diamond went
on.

*' If he do as he say," interposed his father.

''And why shouldn't he? I daresay sixpence ain't
too much for him to spare. But I don't quite under-
stand, father: is nobody your friend but the one that
does something for you?"

"No, I won't say that, my boy. You would have
to leave out baby, then."

"Oh no, I shouldn't. Baby can laugh in your face,

200

At the Back of the North Wind

and crow in your ears, and make you feel so happy.
Call you that nothing, father?"

The father's heart was fairly touched now. He made
no answer to this last appeal, and Diamond ended off
with saying:

'* And there's the best of mine to come yet — and that's
you, daddy — except it be mother, you know. You're
my friend, daddy, ain't you? And I'm your friend,
ain't I?"

"And God for us all," said his father, and then they
were both silent, for that was very solemn.

CHAPTER XX

Diamond Learns to Read

THE question of the tall gentleman as to whether
Diamond could read or not, set his father think-
ing it was high time he could; and as soon as
old Diamond was suppered and bedded, he began the
task that very night. But it was not much of a task
to Diamond, for his father took for his lesson-book those
very rhymes his mother had picked up on the sea-shore;
and as Diamond was not beginning too soon, he learned
very fast indeed. Within a month he could spell out
most of the verses for himself.

But he had never come upon the poem he thought
he had heard his mother read from it that day. He
had looked through and through the book several times
after he knew the letters and a few words, fancying he
could tell the look of it, but had always failed to find
one more like it than another. So he wisely gave up
the search till he could really read. Then he resolved
to begin at the beginning, and read them all straight
through. This took him nearly a fortnight. When he
had almost reached the end, he came upon the following
verses, which took his fancy much, although they were
certainly not very like those he was in search of.

201

202 At the Back of the North Wind

LITTLE BOY BLUE

Little Boy Blue lost his way in a wood.

Sijig- apples and cherries, roses and honey;
He said, "I would not go back if I could,

It^s all so joJly and fujiny.''^

He sang, "This wood is all my own.

Apples and cherries, roses and honey;

So here I '11 sit, like a king on my throne,
All so jolly and funny.''''

A little snake crept out of the tree,

Apples and cherries, roses and honey;

"Lie down at my feet, little snake," said he,
All so jolly and Ju7iny.

A Jittle bird sang in the tree overhead.

Apples and chej'ries, roses and honey ,

*' Come and sing your song on my finger instead,
All so jolly and funny.''''

The snake coiled up ; and the bird flew down,
And sang him the song of Birdie Brown.

Little Boy Blue found it tiresome to sit.
And he thought he had better walk on a bit.

So up he got, his way to take,

And he said, "Come along, little bird and snake."

And waves of snake o'er the damp leaves passed.
And the snake went first and Birdie Brown last;

By Boy Blue's head, with flutter and dart.
Flew Birdie Brown with its song in its heart.

He came where the apples grew red and sweet :
"Tree, drop me an apple down at my feet."

He came where the cherries hung plump and red:
*' Come to my mouth, sweet kisses," he said.

Diamond Learns to Read 203

And the boughs bow down, and the apples they dapple
The grass, too many for huii to grapple.

And the cheeriest cherries, with never a miss,
Fall to his mouth, each a full-grown kiss.

He met a little brook singing a song.

He said, " Little brook, you are going wrong.

"You nmst follow me, follow me, follow, I say,
Do as I tell you, and come this way."

And the song-singing, sing-songing forest brook
Leaped from its bed and after him took,

Followed him, followed. And pale and wan,
The dead leaves rustled as the water ran.

And every bird high up on the bough.
And every creature low down below.

He called,, and the creatures obeyed the call.

Took their legs and their wings and followed him all;

Squirrels that carried their tails like a sack.
Each on his own little humpy brown back;

Householder snails, and slugs all tails.
And butterflies, flutterbies, ships all sails;

And weasels, and ousels, and mice, and larks.
And owls, and rere-mice, and harkydarks.

All went running, and creeping, and flowing.
After the merry boy fluttering and going;

The dappled fawns fawning, the fallow-deer following;

The swallows and flies, flying and swallowing;

Cockchafers, henchafers, cockioli-birds,
Cockroaches, henroaches, cuckoos in herds.

The spider forgot and followed him spinning.
And lost all his thread from end to beginning.

204 At the Back of the North Wind

The gay wasp forgot his rhigs and his waist,
He never had made such undignified haste.

The dragon-flies melted to mist with their hurrying.
The mole in his moleskins left his harrowing burrowing,

The bees went buzzing, so busy and beesy,

And the midges in columns so upright and easy.

But Little Boy Blue was not content,
Calling for followers still as he went,

Blowing his horn, and beating his drum,
And crying aloud, "Come all of you, come!"

He said to the shadows, "Come after me;'
And the shadows began to flicker and flee,

Diamond Learns to Read 205

And they flew through the wood all flattering' and fluttering,
Over the dead leaves flickering and muttering.

And he said to the wind, "Come, follow; come, follow.
With whistle and pipe, and rustle and hollo."

And the wind wound round at his desire,

As if he had been the gold cock on the spire.

And the cock itself flew down from the church.
And left the farmers all in the lurch.

They run and they fly, they creep and they come,
Ever}'thing, everything, all and some.

The very trees they tugged at their roots,
Only their feet were too fast in their boots.

After him leaning and straining and bending,

As on through their boles he kept walking and wending.

Till out of the wood he burst on a lea,
Shouting and calling, "Come after me!"

And then they rose up with a leafy hiss,
And stood as if nothing had been amiss.

Little Boy Blue sat down on a stone,

And the creatures came round him every one.

And he said to the clouds, "I want you there;"
And down they sank through the thin blue air.

And he said to the sunset far in the west,
"Come here; I want you; I know best."

And the sunset came and stood up on the wold.
And burned and glowed in purple and gold.

Then Little Boy Blue began to ponder:
"What's to be done with them all, I wonder."

Then Little Boy Blue, he said, quite low,

"What to do with you all I am sure I don't know.

)»

2o6 At the Back of the North Wind

Then the clouds clodded down till dismal it grew;
The snake sneaked close; round Birdie Brown flew;

The brook sat up like a snake on its tail ;

And the wind came up with a what-will-you wail;

And all the creatures sat and stared;

The mole opened his very eyes and glared;

And for rats and bats and the world and his wife,
Little Boy Blue was afraid of his life.

Then Birdie Brown began to sing,
And what he sang was the very thing:

"You have brought us all hither, Little Boy Blue,
Pray what do you want us all to do?"

"Go away! go away!" said Little Boy Blue;
I'm sure I don't want you — get away — do."

"No, no; no, no; no, 5'es, and no, no,"
Sang Birdie Brown, "it mustn't be so.

"We cannot for nothing come here, and away.
Gives us some work, or else we stay."

"Oh dear! and oh dear!" with sob and with sigh,
Said Little Boy Blue, and began to cry.

But before he got far, he thought of a thing;
And up he stood, and spoke like a king.

"Why do you hustle and jostle and bother?

Off with you all! Take me back to my mother."

The sunset stood at the gates of the west.

" Follovi^ ine^ follow ;«^," came from Birdie Brown's breast-

" I am going that way as fast as I can,"
Said the brook, as it sank and turned and ran.

Back to the woods fled the shadows like ghosts:
"If we stay, we shall all be missed from our posts."

Diamond Learns to Read

207

Said the wind with a voice that had chang-ed its cheer,
" I was just going there, when you brought nie here."

"That's where I Uve," said the sack-backed squirrel,
And he turned his sack with a swing and a swirl.

Said the cock of the spire, "His father's churchwarden."
Said the brook running faster, "I run through his garden.'

Said the mole, "Two hundred worms — there I caught 'em
Last year, and I'm going again next autumn."

Said they all, "If that's where you want us to steer for,
What in earth or in water did you bring us here for?"

"Never you mind," said Little Boy Blue;
"That's what I tell you. If that you won't do,

2o8 At the Back of the North Wind

" 1 '11 get up at once, and go home without you.
I think I will; I begin to doubt you."

He rose; and up rose the snake on its tail,
And hissed three times, half a hiss, half a wail.

Little Boy Blue he tried to go past him ;

But wherever he turned, sat the snake and faced him.

" If you don't get out of my way," he said,
** I tell you, snake, I will break your head."

The snake he neither would go nor come;

So he hit him hard with the stick of his drum.

The snake fell down as if he were dead.
And Little Boy Blue set his foot on his head.

And all the creatures they marched before him,
And marshalled him home with a high cockolorum.

And Birdie Brown sang Twirrrr twitter twirrrr twee —
Apples and cherries, roses and honey;

Little Boy Blue has listened to me —
All so joily and funny.

mmtmma

^^-^ic*^

Cl4i

LITTLE BOY BLUE IN THE WOOD

CHAPTER XXI

Sal's Nanny

DIAMOND managed with many blunders to read
this rhyme to his mother.
*' Isn't it nice, mother?" he said.
" Yes, it's pretty," she answered.
'' I think it means something," returned Diamond,
'* I'm sure I don't know what," she said.
'' I wonder if it's the same boy — yes, it must be the
same — Little Boy Blue, you know. Let me see — how
does that rhyme go?

Little Boy Blue, come blow me your horn —

Yes, of course it is — for this one went * blowing his
horn and beating his drum.' He had a drum too.

Little Boy Blue, come blow me your horn ;

The sheep 's in the meadow, the cow 's in the corn.

He had to keep them out, you know. But he wasn't
minding his work. It goes —

Where's the little boy that looks after the sheep?
He 's under the haystack, fast asleep.

There, you see, mother! And then, let me see —

Who'll go and wake him? No, not I;

For if I do he '11 be sure to cry.
(C145) 209 14

210 At the Back of the North Wind

So I suppose nobody did wake him. He was a rather
cross little boy, I daresay, when woke up. And when
he did wake of himself, and saw the mischief the cow
had done to the corn, instead of running- home to his
mother, he ran away into the wood and lost himself.
Don't you think that's very likely, mother?"

''I shouldn't wonder," she answered.

"So you see he was naughty; for even when he
lost himself he did not want to go home. Any of the
creatures would have shown him the way if he had
asked it — all but the snake. He followed the snake,
you know, and he took him farther away. I suppose
it was a young one of the same serpent that tempted
Adam and Eve. Father was telling us about it last
Sunday, you remember."

''Bless the child!" said his mother to herself; and
then added aloud, finding that Diamond did not go
on, "Well, what next?"

" I don't know, mother. I'm sure there's a great deal
more, but what it is I can't say. I only know that he
killed the snake. I suppose that's what he had a drum-
stick for. He couldn't do it with his horn."

" But surely you're not such a silly as to take it all for
true, Diamond?"

'' I think it must be. It looks true. That killing of
the snake looks true. It's what /'ve got to do so often."

His mother looked uneasy. Diamond smiled full in
her face, and added —

"When baby cries and won't be happy, and when
father and you talk about your troubles, I mean."

This did little to reassure his mother; and lest my

Sal's Nanny 211

reader should have his qualms about it too, I venture
to remind him once more that Diamond had been to
the back of the north wind.

Finding she made no reply, Diamond went on —

"In a week or so, I shall be able to go to the tall
ofentleman and tell him I can read. And I'll ask him
if he can help me to understand the rhyme."

But before the week was out, he had another reasor
for going to Mr. Raymond.

For three days, on each of w^hich, at one time or
other, Diamond's fatlier was on the same stand near
the National Gallery, the girl was not at her cross-
ing, and Diamond got quite anxious about her, fear-
ing she must be ill. On the fourth day, not seeing
her yet, he said to his father, who had that moment
shut the door of his cab upon a fare —

"Father, I want to go and look after the girl. She
can't be well."

"All right," said his father. "Only take care of
yourself, Diamond."

So saying he climbed on his box and drove off.

He had great confidence in his boy, you see, and
would trust him anywhere. But if he had known the
kind of place in which the girl lived, he would per-
haps have thought twice before he allowed him to go
alone. Diamond, who did know something of it, had
not, however, any fear. From talking to the girl he
had a good notion of where about it was, and he re-
membered the address well enough; so by asking his
way some twenty times, mostly of policemen, he came
at length pretty near the place. The last policeman

2 12

At the Back of the North Wind

he questioned looked down upon him from the sum-
mit of six feet two inches, and replied with another
question, but kindly:

*'What do you want there, my small kid? It ain't

where you was
bred, I guess."

''No, sir," an-
swered Diamond.
"I livein Blooms-
bury."

"That's a long
way off," said the
policeman.

"Yes, it's a
good distance,"
answered Dia-
mond; " but I
find my way
about pretty well.
Policemen are
always kind to
me."

"But what on
earth do you
want here?"
Diamond told him plainly what he was about, and
of course the man believed him, for nobody ever dis-
believed Diamond. People might think he was mis-
taken, but they never thought he was telling a story.
" It's an ugly place," said the policeman.
" Is it far off?" asked Diamond.

Sal's Nanny 213

'*No. It's next door almost. But it's not safe."

*' Nobody hurts me," said Diamond.

** I must go with you, I suppose."

"Oh, no! please not," said Diamond. **They might
think I was going to meddle with them, and I ain't, you
know."

*'Well, do as you please," said the man, and gave
him full directions.

Diamond set off, never suspecting that the policeman,
who was a kind-hearted man, with children of his own,
was following him close, and watching him round every
corner. As he went on, all at once he thought he re-
membered the place, and whether it really was so, or
only that he had laid up the policeman's instructions well
in his mind, he went straight for the cellar of old Sal.

'* He's a sharp little kid, anyhow, for as simple as
he looks," said the man to himself. ''Not a wrong
turn does he take! But old Sal's a rum un for such
a child to pay a morning visit to. She's worse when
she's sober than when she's half drunk. I've seen her
when she'd have torn him in pieces."

Happily then for Diamond, old Sal had gone out
to get some gin. When he came to her door at the
bottom of the area-stair and knocked, he received no
answer. He laid his ear to the door, and thought he
heard a moaning within. So he tried the door, and
found it was not locked. It was a dreary place indeed,
— and very dark, for the window was below the level
of the street, and covered with mud, while over the
grating which kept people from falling into the area,
stood a chest of drawers, placed there by a dealer in

214 At the Back of the North Wind

second-hand furniture, which shut out ahnost all the
light. And the smell in the place was dreadful. Dia-
mond stood still for a while, for he could see next to
nothing, but he heard the moaning plainly enough
now. When he got used to the darkness, he dis-
covered his friend
lying with closed
eyes and a white
suffering face on
a heap of little
better than rags
in a corner of the
den. He went
up to her and
spoke ; but she
made him no
answer. Indeed,
she was not in
the least aware
of his presence,
and Diamond
saw that he could
do nothing for
her without help.
So taking a
lump of barley-sugar from his pocket, which he had
bought for her as he came along, and laying it be-
side her, he left the place, having already made up
his mind to go and see the tall gentleman, Mr. Ray-
mond, and ask him to do something for Sal's Nanny,
as the girl was called.

Sal's Nanny 215

By the time he g"ot up the area-steps, three or four
women who had seen him go down were standing" to-
gether at the top waiting for him. They wanted his
clothes for their children; but they did not follow him
down lest Sal should fmd them ther2. The moment he
appeared, they laid their hands on him, and all began
talking at once, for each wanted to get some advantage
over her neighbours. He told them quite quietly, for
he was not frightened, that he had come to see what
was the matter with Nanny.

"What do you know about Nanny?" said one of
them fiercely. "Wait till old Sal comes home, and
you'll catch it, for going prying into her house when
she's out. If you don't give me your jacket directly,
I'll go and fetch her."

" I can't give you my jacket," said Diamond. " It
belongs to my father and mother, you know. It's not
mine to give. Is it now? You would not think it
right to give away what w^asn't yours — would you
now?"

"Give it away! No, that I wouldn't; I'd keep it,"
she said, with a rough laugh. "But if the jacket ain't
yours, w^hat right have you to keep it? Here, Cherry,
make haste. It'll be one go apiece."

They all began to tug at the jacket, while Diamond
stooped and kept his arms bent to resist them. Before
they had done him or the jacket any harm, however,
suddenly they all scampered away; and Diamond,
looking in the opposite direction, saw the tall police-
man coming tow^ards him.

"You had better have let me come with you, little

2i6 At the Back of the North Wind

man," he said, looking down in Diamond's face, which
was flushed with his resistance.

"You came just in the right time, thank you,'* re-
turned Diamond. *' They've done me no harm."

*'They would have if I hadn't been at hand, though."

*'Yes; but you were at hand, you know, so they
couldn't."

Perhaps the answer was deeper in purport than
either Diamond or the policeman knew. They walked
away together, Diamond telling his new friend how ill
poor Nanny was, and that he was going to let the
tall gentleman know. The policeman put him in the
nearest way for Bloomsbury, and stepping out in
good earnest, Diamond reached Mr. Raymond's door
in less than an hour. When he asked if he was at
home, the servant, in return, asked what he wanted.

"I want to tell him something."

'' But I can't go and trouble him with such a message
as that."

"He told me to come to him — that is, when I could
read — and I can."

"How am I to know that?"

Diamond stared with astonishment for one moment,
then answered :

"Why, I've just told you. That's how you know it."

But this man was made of coarser grain than the
policeman, and, instead of seeing that Diamond could
not tell a lie, he put his answer down as Impudence,
and saying, " Do you think I'm going to take your
word for it?" shut the door in his face.

Diamond turned and sat down on the doorstep, think-

Sal's Nanny 217

ing with himself that the tall gentleman must either
come in or come out, and he was therefore in the best
possible position for finding him. He had not waited
long before the door opened again; but when he looked
round, it was only the servant once more.

*' Get away," he said. '^Wliat are you doing on the
doorstep?"

''Waiting for Mr. Raymond," answered Diamond
getting up.

*' He's not at home."

"Then I'll wait till he comes,' returned Diamond,
sitting down again with a smile.

What the man would have done next I do not know,
but a step sounded from the hall, and when Diamond
looked round yet again, there was the tall gentleman.

" Who's this, John?" he asked.

*' I don't know, sir. An imperent little boy as will sit
on the doorstep."

''Please, sir," said Diamond, "he told me you
weren't at home, and I sat down to wait for you."

"Eh, what!" said Mr. Raymond. "John! John!
This won't do. Is it a habit of yours to turn away
my visitors? There'll be some one else to turn away,
I'm afraid, if I find any more of this kind of thing.
Come in, my little man. I suppose you've come to
claim your sixpence?"

"No, sir, not that."

" What! can't you read yet?"

"Yes, I can now, a little. But I'll come for that
next time. I came to tell you about Sal's Nanny."

"Who's Sal's Nanny?"

2i8 At the Back of the North Wind

*^ The girl at the crossing- you talked to the same day."

''Oh, yes; I remember. What's the matter? Has
she got run over?"

Then Diamond told him all.

Now Mr. Raymond was one of the kindest men in
London. He sent at once to have the horse put to the
brougham, took Diamond with him, and drove to the
Children's Hospital. There he was well known to
everybody, for he was not only a large subscriber,
but he used to go and tell the children stories of an
afternoon. One of the doctors promised to go and find
Nanny, and do what could be done — have her brought
to the hospital, if possible.

That same night they sent a litter for her, and as she
could be of no use to old Sal until she was better, she
did not object to having her removed. So she was
soon lying in the fever ward — for the first time in her
life in a nice clean bed. But she knew nothing of the
whole affair. She was too ill to know anything.

CHAPTER XXII

Mr. Raymond's Riddle

R. RAYMOND took Diamond home with him,
stopping at the mews to tell his mother that
he would send him back soon. Diamond ran
in with the message himself, and when he reappeared
he had in his hand the torn and crumpled book which
North Wind had given him.

"Ah! I see," said Mr. Raymond: "you are going to
claim your sixpence now."

" I wasn't thinking of that so much as of another
thing," said Diamond. "There's a rhyme in this book
I can't quite understand. I want you to tell me what it
means, if you please."

"I will if I can," answered Mr. Raymond. "You
shall read it to me when we get home, and then I shall
see."

Still with a good many blunders, Diamond did read it
after a fashion. Mr. Raymond took the little book and
read it over again.

Now Mr. Raymond was a poet himself, and so,
although he had never been at the back of the north
wind, he was able to understand the poem pretty well.
But before saying anything about it, he read it over

219

220

At the Back of the North Wind

aloud, and Diamond thought he understood it much
better already.

"ril tell you what I think it means," he then said.
'* It means that people may have their way for a while,
if they like, but it will get them into such troubles they'll
wish they hadn't had it."

*' I know, I know!" said Diamond. ** Like the poor
cabman next door. He drinks too much."

**Just so," returned Mr. Raymond. '*But when
people want to do right, things about them will try to
help them. Only they must kill the snake, you know."

** I was sure the snake had something to do with it,"
cried Diamond triumphantly.

A good deal more talk followed, and Mr. Raymond
gave Diamond his sixpence.

*' What will you do with it?" he asked.

*'Take it home to my mother," he answered. ** She
has a teapot — such a black one! — with a broken spout,
and she keeps all her money in it. It ain't much; but
she saves it up to buy shoes for me. And there's baby
coming on famously, and he'll want shoes soon. And
every sixpence is something — ain't it, sir?"

*'To be sure, my man. I hope you'll always make
as good a use of your money."

*'I hope so, sir," said Diamond.

^^And here's a book for you, full of pictures and
stories and poems. I wrote it myself, chiefly for the
children of the hospital where I hope Nanny is going.
I don't mean I printed it, you know. I made it," added
Mr. Raymond, wishing Diamond to understand that he
was the author of the book.

Mr. Raymond's Riddle 221

'* I know what you mean. I make songs myself.
They're awfully silly, but they please baby, and that's
all they're meant for."

*' Couldn't you let me hear one of them now?" said
Mr. Raymond.

"No, sir, I couldn't. I forget them as soon as I've
done with them. Besides, I couldn't make a line with-
out baby on my knee. We make them together, you
know. They're just as much baby's as mine. It's he
that pulls them out of me."

" I suspect the child's a genius," said the poet to
himself, "and that's what makes people think him
silly."

Now if any of my child readers want to know what
a genius is — shall I try to tell them or shall I not? I
will give them one very short answer: it means one who
understands things without any other body telling him
what they mean. God makes a few such now and then
to teach the rest of us.

" Do you like riddles?" asked Mr. Raymond, turning
over the leaves of his own book.

" I don't know what a riddle is," said Diamond.

" It's something that means something else, and
you've got to find out what the something else is."

Mr. Raymond liked the old-fashioned riddle best, and
had written a few — one of which he now read.

I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;

My one foot stands, but never goes.

I have many arms, and they're mighty all ;

And hundreds of fingers, large and small.

From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows.

I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toe^.

222 At the Back of the North Wind

I i^row bigger and bigger about the waist,

And yet 1 am always very tight laced.

None e'er saw me eat — I 've no mouth to bite ;

Yet I eat all day in the full sunlight.

In the summer with song I shake and quiver,

But in winter I fast and groan and shiver.

*' Do you know what that means, Diamond?" he
asked, when he had finished.

*'No, indeed, I don't," answered Diamond.

''Then you can read it for yourself, and think over it,
and see if you can find it out," said Mr. Raymond,
giving him the book. "And now you had better go
home to your mother. When you've found the riddle,
you can come again."

If Diamond had had to find out the riddle in order to
see Mr. Raymond again, 1 doubt if he would ever have
seen him.

''Oh then," I think I hear some little reader say, "he
could not have been a genius, for a genius finds out
things without being told."

I answer, "Genius finds out truths, not tricks". And
if you do not understand that, I am afraid you must be
content to wait till you grow older and know more.

CHAPTER XXIII

The Early Bird

WHEN Diamond got home he found his father
at home already, sitting by the fire and look-
ing rather miserable, for his head ached and
he felt sick. He had been doing night work of late,
and it had not agreed with him, so he had given it up,
but not in time, for he had taken some kind of fever.
The next day he was forced to keep his bed, and his
wife nursed him, and Diamond attended to the baby.
If he had not been ill, it would have been delightful
to have him at home; and the first day Diamond sang
more songs than ever to the baby, and his father listened
with some pleasure. But the next he could not bear
even Diamond's sweet voice, and was very ill indeed ;
so Diamond took the baby into his own room, and had
no end of quiet games with him there. If he did pull
all his bedding on the fioor, it did not matter, for he
kept baby very quiet, and made the bed himself again,
and slept in it with baby all the next night, and many
nights after.

But long before his father got well, his mother's
savings were all but gone. She did not say a word
about it in the hearing of her husband, lest she should
distress him ; and one night, when she could not help

223

224 At the Back of the North Wind

crying, she came into Diamond's room that his father
might not hear her. She thought Diamond was asleep,
but he was not. When he heard her sobbing, he was
frightened, and said —

" Is father worse, mother?"

'' No, Diamond," she answered, as well as she could;
*' he's a good bit better."

**Then what are you crying for, mother?"

** Because my money is almost all gone," she replied.

*' O mammy, you make me think of a little poem baby
and I learned out of North Wind's book to-day. Don't
you remember how I bothered you about some of the
words?"

'*Yes, child," said his mother heedlessly, thinking
only of what she should do after to-morrow.

Diamond began and repeated the poem, for he had
a wonderful memory.

A little bird sat on the edge of her nest ;

Her yellow-beaks slept as sound as tops;
That day she had done her very best,

And had filled every one of their little crops.
She had filled her own just over-full,
And hence she was feeling a little dull.

"Oh dear!" she sighed, as she sat v^ith her bead

Sunk in her chest, and no neck at all,
While her crop stuck out like a feather bed

Turned inside out, and rather small ;
"What shall I do if things don't reform?
I don't know where there 's a single worm.

** I 've had twenty to-day, and the children five each,

Besides a few flies, and some very fat spiders:
No one will say I don't do as I preach —

The Early Bird 225

I 'm one of the best of bird-providers ;
But where 's the use? We want a storm —
I don't know where there's a sinsrle worm."

"There's five in my crop," said a wee, wee bird,
Which woke at the voice of his mother's pain ;

" I know where there's five." And with the word
He tucked in his head, and went off ai^^ain.

** The folly of childhood," sighed his mother,

"Has always been m}- especial bother."

The yellow-beaks they slept on and on —

They never had heard of the bogy To-morrow;

But the mother sat outside, making her moan —
She'll soon have to beg, or steal, or borrow;

For bhe never can tell the night before

Where she shall find one red worm more.

The fact, as I say, was, she'd had too many;

She couldn't sleep, and she called it \irtue,
Motherly foresight, affection, any

Name you may call it that will not hurt you;
So it was late ere she tucked her head in,
And she slept so late it was almost a sin.

But the little fellow who knew of five,

Nor troubled his head about any more,
Woke very early, felt quite alive.

And wanted a sixth to add to his store:
He pushed his mother, the greedy elf.
Then thought he had better try for himself.

When his m.other awoke and had rubbed her eyes
Feeling less like a bird, and more like a mole,

She saw him — fancy with what surprise —
Dragging a huge worm out of a hole !

'T was of this same hero the proverb took form :

^Tis the early bird that catches the worm.

'* There, mother!" said Diamond, as he finished;
"ain't it funny?"

(C145) 15

226 At the Back of the North Wind

*• I wish you were like that little bird, Diamond, and
could catch worms for yourself," said his mother, as she
rose to go and look after her husband.

Diamond lay awake for a few minutes, thinking what
he could do to catch worms. It was very little trouble
to make up his mind, however, and still less to go to
sleep after it.

CHAPTER XXIV

Another Early Bird

HE got up in the morning' as soon as he heard
the men moving in the yard. He tucked in
his little brother so that he could not tumble
out of bed, and then went out, leaving the door open,
so that if he should cry his mother might hear him at
once. When he got into the yard he found the stable-
door just opened.

''I'm the early bird, I think," he said to himself.
''I hope I shall catch the worm."

He would not ask any one to help him, fearing his
project might meet with disapproval and opposition.
With great difiiculty, but with the help of a broken
chair he brought down from his bedroom, he managed
to put the harness on Diamond. If the old horse had
had the least objection to the proceeding, of course he
could not have done it; but even when it came to the
bridle, he opened his mouth for the bit, just as if he had
been taking the apple which Diamond sometimes gave
him. He fastened the cheek-strap very carefully, just
in the usual hole, for fear of choking his friend, or else
letting the bit get amongst his teeth. It was a job to
get the saddle on; but with the chair he managed it.
If old Diamond had had an education in physics to

227

8 At the Back of the North Wind

equal that of the camel, he would have knelt down to
let him put it on his back, but that was more than could
be expected of him, and then Diamond had to creep
quite under him to get hold of the girth. The collar

was almost the
worst part of the
business; but
there Diamond
could help Dia-
mond. He held
his head very low
till his little
master had got it
over and turned
it round, and
then he lifted his
head, and shook
it on to his
shoulders. The
yoke was rather
difficult ; but

when he had laid
the traces over the
horse's neck, the
weight was not too much for him. He got him right
at last, and led him out of the stable.

By this time there were several of the men watching
him, but they would not interfere, they were so anxious
to see how he would get over the various difficulties.
They followed him as far as the stable-door, and there
stood watching him again as he put the horse between

Another Early Bird 229

the shafts, got them up one after the other into the
loops, fastened the traces, the belly-band, the breeching,
and the reins.

Then he got his whip. The moment he mounted the
box, the men broke into a hearty cheer of delight at his
success. But they would not let him go without a
general inspection of the harness; and although they
found it right, for not a buckle had to be shifted, they
never allowed him to do it for himself again all the
time his father was ill.

The cheer brought his mother to the window, and
there she saw her little boy setting out alone with the
cab in the gray of the morning. She tugged at the
window, but it was stiff; and before she could open
it. Diamond, who was in a great hurry, was out of
the mews, and almost out of the street. She called
''Diamond! Diamond!" but there was no answer
except from Jack.

*' Never fear for him, ma'am," said Jack. '' It 'ud be
only a devil as would hurt him, and there ain't so many
o' them as some folk 'ud have you believe. A boy o'
Diamond's size as can 'arness a 'oss o' t'other Diamond's
size, and put him to, right as a trivet — if he do upset
the keb — '11 fall on his feet, ma'am."

'' But he won't upset the cab, will he. Jack?"

''Not he, ma'am. Leastways he won't go for to
do it."

"I know as much as that myself. What do you
mean?"

" I mean he's as little likely to do it as the oldest man
in the stable. How's the guv'nor to-day, ma'am?"

230 At the Back of the North Wind

**A good deal better, thank you," she answered,
closing the window in some fear lest her husband
should have been made anxious by the news of Dia-
mond's expedition. He knew pretty well, however,
what his boy was capable of, and although not quite
easy was less anxious than his mother. But as the
evening drew, the anxiety of both of them increased,
and every sound of wheels made his father raise him-
self in his bed, and his mother peep out of the window.

Diamond had resolved to go straight to the cabstand
where he was best known, and never to crawl for fear
of getting annoyed by idlers. Before he got across
Oxford Street, however, he was hailed by a man who
wanted to catch a train, and was in too great a hurry
to think about the driver. Having carried him to
King's Cross in good time, and got a good fare in
return, he set off again in great spirits, and reached
the stand in safety. He was the first there after all.

As the men arrived they all greeted him kindly, and
inquired after his father.

^* Ain't you afraid of the old 'oss running away with
you?" asked one.

'' No, he wouldn't run away with me,^^ answered
Diamond. *' He knows I'm getting the shillings for
father. Or if he did he would only run home."

"'* Well, you're a plucky one, for all your girl's looks!"
said the man; ''and I wish ye luck."

''Thank you, sir," said Diamond. "I'll do what
I can. I came to the old place, you see, because I
knew you would let me have my turn here."

In the course of the day one man did try to cut him

Another Early Bird 231

out, but he was a stranger; and the shout the rest of
them raised let him see it would not do, and made him
so far ashamed besides, that he went away crawling.

Once, in a block, a policeman came up to him, and
asked him for his number. Diamond showed him his
father's badge, saying with a smile:

"Father's ill at home, and so I came out with the
cab. There's no fear of me. I can drive. Besides, the
old horse could go alone."

''Just as well, I daresay. You're a pair of 'em.
But you are a rum 'un for a cabby — ain't you now?"
said the policeman. *'I don't know as I ought to let
you go."

''I ain't done nothing," said Diamond. "It's not
my fault I'm no bigger. I'm big enough for my

age."

"That's where it is," said the man. "You ain't
fit."

"How do you know that?" asked Diamond, with his
usual smile, and turning his head like a little bird.

"Why, how are you to get out of this ruck now,
when it begins to move?"

"Just you get up on the box," said Diamond, "and
I'll show you. There, that van's a-moving now.
Jump up."

The policeman did as Diamond told him, and was
soon satisfied that the little fellow could drive.

"Well," he said, as he got down again, "I don't
know as I should be right to interfere. Good luck to
you, my little man!"

"Thank you, sir," said Diamond, and drove awav.

232 At the Back of the North Wind

In a few minutes a gentleman hailed him.

^* Are you the driver of this cab?" he asked.

''Yes, sir," said Diamond, showing his badge, of
which he was proud.

''You're the youngest cabman I ever saw. How am
I to know you won't break all my bones?"

"I would rather break all m}^ own," said Diamond.
"But if you're afraid, never mind me; I shall soon
get another fare."

"I'll risk it," said the gentleman; and, opening the
door himself, he jumped in.

He was going a good distance, and soon found that
Diamond got him over the ground well. Now when
Diamond had only to go straight ahead, and had not
to mind so much what he was about, his thoughts
always turned to the riddle Mr. Raymond had set
him; and this gentleman looked so clever that he
fancied he must be able to read it for him. He had
given up all hope of finding it out for himself, and
he could not plague his father about it when he was
ill. He had thought of the answer himself, but fancied
it could not be the right one, for to see how it all fitted
required some knowledge of physiology. So, when he
reached the end of his journey, he got down very quicklv,
and with his head just looking in at the window, said, as
the gentleman gathered his gloves and newspapers:

"Please, sir, can you tell me the meaning of a
riddle?"

"You must tell me the riddle first," answered the
gentleman, amused.

Diamond repeated the riddle.

Another Early Bird 233

*'Oh! that's easy enough," he returned. ''It's a
tree."

''Well, it ain't got no mouth, sure enough; but how
then does it eat all day long?"

" It sucks in its food throucrh the tiniest holes in
its leaves," he answered. " Its breath is its food.
And it can't do it except in the daylight."

"Thank you, sir, thank you," returned Diamond.
" I'm sorry I couldn't find it out myself; Mr. Raymond
would have been better pleased with me."

" But you needn't tell him any one told you."

Diamond erave him a stare which came from the back
of the north wind, where that kind of thing is unknown.

"That would be cheating," he said at last.

" Ain't you a cabby, then?"

" Cabbies don't cheat."

" Don't they? I am of a different opinion."

" I'm sure my father don't."

"What's your fare, young innocent?"

" Well, I think the distance is a good deal over three
miles — that's two shillings. Only father says sixpence
a mile is too little, though we can't ask for more."

" You're a deep one. But I think you're wrong. It's
over four miles — not much, but it is."

"Then that's half-a-crown," said Diamond.

" Well, here's three shillings. Will that do?"

" Thank you kindly, sir. I'll tell my father how good
you were to me — first to tell me my riddle, then to put
me right about the distance, and then to give me six-
pence over. It'll help father to get well again, it
will."

234 At the Back of the North Wind

*' I hope it may, my man. I shouldn't wonder if
youVe as good as you look, after all."

As Diamond returned, he drew up at a stand he had
never been on before : it was time to give Diamond his
bag of chopped beans and oats. The men got about
him, and began to chaff him. He took it all good-
humouredly, until one of them, who was an ill-con-
ditioned fellow, began to tease old Diamond by poking
him roughly in the ribs, and making general game of
him. That he could not bear, and the tears came in his
eyes. He undid the nose-bag, put it in the boot, and
was just going to mount and drive away, when the
fellow interfered, and would not let him get up. Dia-
mond endeavoured to persuade him, and was very civil,
but he would have his fun out of him, as he said. In
a few minutes a group of idle boys had assembled, and
Diamond found himself in a very uncomfortable position.
Another cab drew up at the stand, and the driver got off
and approached the assemblage.

'^ What's up here?" he asked, and Diamond knew the
voice. It was that of the drunken cabman.

'' Do you see this young oyster? He pretends to
drive a cab," said his enemy.

*'Yes, I do see him. And I sees you too. You'd
better leave him alone. He ain't no oyster. He's a
angel come down on his own business. You be off,
or I'll be nearer you than quite agreeable."

The drunken cabman was a tall, stout man, who did
not look one to take liberties with.

'* Oh! if he's a friend of yours," said the other, draw-
ing back.

Another Early Bird 235

Diamond got out the nose-bag again. Old Diamond
should have his feed out now.

*' Yes, he is a friend o' mine. One o' the best I ever
had. It's a pity he ain't a friend o' yourn. You'd be
the better for it, but it ain't no fault of hisn."

When Diamond went home at night, he carried with
him one pound one shilling and sixpence, besides a
few coppers extra, which had followed some of the
fares.

His mother had got very anxious indeed — so much so
that she was almost afraid, when she did hear the sound
of his cab, to go and look, lest she should be yet again
disappointed, and should break down before her hus-
band. But there was the old horse, and there was the
cab all right, and there was Diamond on the box, his
pale face looking triumphant as a full moon in the
twilight.

When he drew up at the stable-door, Jack came out,
and after a good many friendly questions and congratu-
lations, said:

**You go in to your mother. Diamond. I'll put up
the old 'oss. I'll take care on him. He do deserve
some small attention, he do."

"Thank you. Jack," said Diamond, and bounded into
the house, and into the arms of his mother, who was
waiting him at the top of the stair.

The poor, anxious woman led him into his own room,
sat down on his bed, took him on her lap as if he
had been a baby, and cried.

** How's father?" asked Diamond, almost afraid
to ask.

236

At the Back of the North Wind

*' Better, my child," she answered, " but uneasy about
you, my dear."

" Didn't you tell him I was the early bird gone out to
catch the worm?"

''^ That was what put it into your head, was it, you

monkey?" said his
mother, begi n n ing"
to get better.

" That or some-
thing else," an-
swered Diamond,
so very quietly
that his mother
held his head
back and stared
in his face.

"Well! of all the
( hildren!"shesaid,
M.nd said no more.
"And here's my
worm," resumed
Diamond.

But to see her

face as he poured

the shillings and

sixpences and pence into her lap! She burst out crying

a second time, and ran with the money to her husband.

And how pleased he was! It did him no end of good.
But while he was counting the coins, Diamond turned
to baby, who was lying awake in his cradle, sucking
his precious thumb, and took him up, saying:

Another Early Bird 237

** Baby, baby! I haven't seen you for a whole year."
And then he began to sing to him as usual. And
what he sang was this, for he was too happy either
to make a song of his own or to sing sense. It was one
out of Mr. Raymond's book.

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE

Hey, dkldle, diddle !

The cat and tlie fiddle!
He played such a merry tune,

That the cow went mad

With the pleasure she had,
And jumped right over the moon.

But then, don't you see?

Before that could be,
The moon had come down and listened.

The little dog hearkened.

So loud that he barkened,
** There's nothing like it, there isn't."

Hey, diddle, diddle!

Went the cat and the fiddle,
Hey diddle, diddle, dee, dee !

The dog laughed at the sport

Till his cough cut him short,
It was hey diddle, diddle, oh me I

And back came the cow

With a merry, merry low,
For she 'd humbled the man in the moon.

The dish got excited.

The spoon was delighted,
And the dish waltzed away with the spoon.

But the man in the moon,
Coming back too soon
From the famous town of Norwich,

238 At the Back of the North Wind

Caught up the dish,

Said, "It's just what I wish
To hold my cold plum-porridge!"

Gave the cow a rat-tat,

Flung water on the cat.
And sent him away like a rocket.

Said, "O Moon there you are!"

Got into her car,
And went ofif with the spoon in his pocket.

Hey ho ! diddle, diddle !

The wet cat and wet fiddle,
They made such a caterwauling,

That the cow in a fright

Stood bolt upright
Bellowing now, and bawling;

And the dog on his tail.

Stretched his neck with a wail.
But "Ho! ho!" said the man in the moon —

*' No more in the South

Shall I burn my mouth,
For 1 've found a dish and a spoon.'*

CHAPTER XXV

Diamond's Dream

THERE, baby!" said Diamond; ^^Vm so happy
that I can only sing nonsense. Oh, father,
think if you had been a poor man, and hadn't
had a cab and old Diamond! What should I have
done?"

*'I don't know indeed what you could have done,"
said his father from the bed.

''We should have all starved, my precious Dia-
mond," said his mother, whose pride in her boy was
even greater than her joy in the shillings. Both of
them together made her heart ache, for pleasure can
do that as well as pain.

''Oh, no! we shouldn^t," said Diamond. "I could
have taken Nanny's crossing till she came back; and
then the money, instead of going for Old Sal's gin,
would have gone for father's beef-tea. I wonder what
Nanny will do when she gets well again. Somebody
else will be sure to have taken the crossing by that
time. I wonder if she will fight for it, and whether
I shall have to help her. I won't bother my head
about that. Time enough yet! Hey diddle! hey
diddle! hey diddle diddle! I wonder whether Mr.
Raymond would take me to see Nanny. Hey diddle!

239

240 At the Back of the North Wind

hey diddle! hey diddle diddle! The baby and fiddle!
O, mother, I'm such a silly! But I can't help it. 1
wish I could think of something else, but there's
nothing" will come into my head but hey diddle diddle!
the cat and the fiddle! I wonder what the angeis do
— when they're extra happy, you know — when they've
been driving cabs all day and taking home the money
to their mothers. Do you think they ever sing non-
sense, mother?"

" I daresay they've got their own sort of it," an-
swered his mother, ''else they w^ouldn't be like other
people."

She w^as thinking more of her twenty-one shillings
and sixpence, and of the nice dinner she would get
for her sick husband next day, than of the angels and
their nonsense, when she said it. But Diamond found
her answer all right.

''Yes, to be sure," he replied. "They wouldn't be
like other people if they hadn't their nonsense some-
times. But it must be very pretty nonsense, and not
like that silly hey diddle diddle! the cat and the fiddle!
I wish I could get it out of my head. I wonder what
the angels' nonsense is like. Nonsense is a very good
thing, ain't it, mother? — a little of it now and then ;
more of it for baby, and not so much for grown people
like cabmen and their mothers? It's like the pepper
and salt that goes in the soup — that's it — isn't it,
mother? There's baby fast asleep! Oh, what a non-
sense baby it is — to sleep so much! Shall I put him
down, mother?"

Diamond chattered away. What rose in his happy

Diamond's Dream

241

little heart ran out of his mouth, and did his father
and mother good. When he went to bed, which he
did early, being more tired, as you may suppose, than
usual, he was still thinking what the nonsense could
be like which the
angels sang when

they were too
happy to sing
sense. But before
coming to any
conclusion he fell
fast asleep. And
no wonder, for it
must be acknow-
ledged a difficult
question.

That night he
had a very curi-
ous dream which
I thinkmyreaders
would like to have
told them. They
would, at least,
if they are as fond

of nice dreams as I am, and don't have enough of
them of their own.

He dreamed that he was runningr- about in the twi-
light in the old garden. He thought he was waiting
for North Wind, but she did not come. So he would
run down to the back gate, and see if she were there.
He ran and ran. It was a good long garden out of

( C 145 )

242 At the Back of the North Wind

his dream, but in his dream it had grown so long
and spread out so wide that the gate he wanted was
nowhere. He ran and ran, but instead of coming to
the gate found himself in a beautiful country, not like
any country he had ever been in before. There were
no trees of any size ; nothing bigger in fact than
hawthorns, which were full of may- blossom. The
place in which they grew was wild and dry, mostly
covered with grass, but having patches of heath. It
extended on every side as far as he could see. But
although it was so wild, yet wherever in an ordinary
heath you might have expected furze bushes, or holly,
or broom, there grew roses — wild and rare — all kinds.
On every side, far and near, roses were glowing.
There too was the gum-cistus, whose flowers fall every
night and come again the next morning, lilacs and
syringas and laburnums, and many shrubs besides,
of which he did not know the names ; but the roses
were everywhere. He wandered on and on, wonder-
ing when it would come to an end. It was of no use
going back, for there was no house to be seen any-
where. But he was not frightened, for you know
Diamond was used to things that were rather out of
the way. He threw himself down under a rose-bush,
and fell asleep.

He woke, not out of his dream, but into it, thinking
he heard a child's voice, calling '' Diamond, Diamond!"
He jumped up, but all was still about him. The rose-
bushes were pouring out their odours in clouds. He
could see the scent like mists of the same colour as
the rose, issuing like a slow fountain and spreading in

Diamond's Dream 243

the air till it joined the thin rosy vapour which hung
over -all the wilderness. But again came the voice
calling him, and it seemed to come from over his
head. He looked up, but saw only the deep blue
sky full of stars — more brilliant, however, than he had
seen them before; and both sky and stars looked nearer
to the earth.

While he gazed up, again he heard the cry. At
the same moment he saw one of the biggest stars over
his head give a kind of twinkle and jump, as if it went
out and came in again. He threw himself on his back,
and fixed his eyes upon it. Nor had he gazed long
before it went out, leaving something like a scar in
the blue. But as he went on gazing he saw a face
where the star had been — a merry face, with bright
eyes. The eyes appeared not only to see Diamond,
but to know that Diamond had caught sight of them,
for the face withdrew the same moment. Again came
the voice, calling '* Diamond, Diamond"; and in
jumped the star to its place.

Diamond called as loud as he could, right up into
the sky:

" Here's Diamond, down below you. What do you
want him to do?"

The next instant many of the stars round about that
one went out, and many voices shouted from the sky, —

"Come up; come up. We're so jolly! Diamond!
Diamond!"

This was followed by a peal of the merriest, kindliest
laughter, and all the stars jumped into their places
again.

244 At the Back of the North Wind

'^ How am I to come up?" shouted Diamond.

''Go round the rose-bush. It's got its foot in it,"
said the first voice.

Diamond got up at once, and walked to the other
side of the rose-bush.

There he found what seemed the very opposite of
what he wanted — a stair down into the earth. It was
of turf and moss. It did not seem to promise well for
getting into the sky, but Diamond had learned to look
through the look of things. The voice must have
meant that he was to go down this stair; and down
this stair Diamond went, without waiting to think
more about it.

It was such a nice stair, so cool and soft — all
the sides as well as the steps grown with moss and
grass and ferns! Down and down Diamond went
— a long way, until at last he heard the gurgling
and plashing of a little stream; nor had he gone
much farther before he met it — yes, met it coming
up the stairs to meet him, running up just as
naturally as if it had been doing the other thing.
Neither was Diamond in the least surprised to see it
pitching itself from one step to another as it climbed
towards him : he never thought it was odd — and no
more it was, there. It would have been odd here. It
made a merry tune as it came, and its voice was like
the laughter he had heard from the sky. This appeared
promising; and he went on, down and down the stair,
and up and up the stream, till at last he came where
it hurried out from under a stone, and the stair stopped
altogether. And as the stream bubbled up, the stone

Diamond's Dream

245

shook and swayed with its force; and Diamond thought
he would try to hft it. Lightly it rose to his hand,
forced up by the stream from below; and, by what
would have seemed an unaccountable perversion of
things had he been awake, threatened to come tumbl-
ing upon his
head. But he
avoided it, and
when it fell, got
upon it. He
now saw that
the opening

through which
the water came
pouring in was
over his head,
and with the help
of the stone he
scrambled out by
it, andfound him-
self on the side
of a grassy hill
which rounded
away from him in
every direction,

and down which came the brook which vanished in
the hole. But scarcely had he noticed so much as
this before a merry shouting and laughter burst upon
him, and a number of naked little boys came running,
every one eager to get to him first. At the shoulders
of each fluttered two little wings, which were of no

246 At the Back of the North Wind

use for flying-, as they were mere buds; only being
made for it they could not help fluttering as if they
were flying. Just as the foremost of the troop reached
him, one or two of them fell, and the rest with shouts
of laughter came tumbling over them till they heaped
up a mound of struggling merriment. One after
another they extricated themselves, and each as he
got free threw his arms round Diamond and kissed
him. Diamond's heart was ready to melt within him
from clear delight. When they had all embraced
him, —

" Now let us have some fun," cried one, and with
a shout they all scampered hither and thither, and
played the wildest gambols on the grassy slopes.
They kept constantly coming back to Diamond, how-
ever, as the centre of their enjoyment, rejoicing over
him as if they had found a lost playmate.

There was a wind on the hillside which blew like the
very embodiment of living gladness. It blew into
Diamond's heart, and made him so happy that he
was forced to sit down and cry.

*'Now let's go and dig for stars," said one who
seemed to be the captain of the troop.

They all scurried away, but soon returned, one after
another, each with a pickaxe on his shoulder and a
spade in his hand. As soon as they were gathered,
the captain led them in a straight line to another part
of the hill. Diamond rose and followed.

** Here is where we begin our lesson for to-night,"
he said. '* Scatter and dig."

There was no more fun. Each went by himself,

Diamond's Dream 247

walking slowly with bent shoulders and his eyes fixed
on the ground. Every now and then one would stop,
kneel down, and look intently, feeling with his hands
and parting the grass. One would get up and walk
on again, another spring to his feet, catch eagerly at
his pickaxe and strike it into the ground once and
again, then throw it aside, snatch up his spade, and
commence digging at the loosened earth. Now one
would sorrowfully shovel the earth into the hole again,
trample it down with his little bare white feet, and
walk on. But another would give a joyful shout, and
after much tugging and loosening would draw from
the hole a lump as big as his head, or no bigger than
his fist; when the under side of it would pour such a
blaze of golden or bluish light into Diamond's eyes
that he was quite dazzled. Gold and blue were the
commoner colours: the jubilation was greater over red
or green or purple. And every time a star was dug
up all the little angels dropped their tools and crowded
about it, shouting and dancing and fluttering their
wing-buds.

When they had examined it well, they w^ould kneel
down one after the other and peep through the hole;
but they always stood back to give Diamond the first
look. All that Diamond could report, however, was,
that through the star-holes he saw a great many things
and places and people he knew quite well, only
somehow they were different — there w^as something
marvellous about them — he could not tell what. Every
time he rose from looking through a star-hole, he felt
as if his heart would break for joy; and he said that

248 At the Back of the North Wind

if he had not cried, he did not know what would have
become of him.

As soon as all had looked, the star was carefully
fitted in again, a little mould was strewn over it, and
the rest of the heap left as a sign that that star had
been discovered.

At length one dug up a small star of a most lovely
colour — a colour Diamond had never seen before. The
moment the angel saw what it was, instead of showing
it about, he handed it to one of his neighbours, and
seated himself on the edge of the hole, saying:

'^ This will do for me. Good-bye. I'm off."

They crowded about him, hugging and kissing him;
then stood back with a solemn stillness, their wings
lying close to their shoulders. The little fellow looked
round on them once with a smile, and then shot himself
headlong through the star-hole. Diamond, as privileged,
threw himself on the ground to peep after him, but he
saw nothing.

** It's no use," said the captain. *'I never saw any-
thing more of one that went that way."

'' His wings can't be much use," said Diamond, con-
cerned and fearful, yet comforted by the calm looks of
the rest.

''That's true," said the captain. ''He's lost them by
this time. They all do that go that way. You haven't
got any, you see."

" No," said Diamond. " I never did have any."

" Oh! didn't you?" said the captain.

"Some people say," he added, after a pause, "that
they come again. I don't know. I've never found the

•C«*>-'-^.\,> /

" 4

i \

> \

f^^^NK c. ^'^"pjirf

liC

THE LITTLE BOYS GAMBOLS

Diamond's Dream 249

colour I care about myself. I suppose I shall some
day."

Then they looked again at the star, put it carefully
into its hole, danced round it and over it — but solemnly,
and called it by the name of the finder.

^' Will you know it again?" asked Diamond.

'* Oh yes. We never forget a star that's been made a
door of."

Then they went on with their searching and digging.

Diamond having neither pickaxe nor spade, had the
more time to think.

'' I don't see any little girls," he said at last.

The captain stopped his shovelling, leaned on his
spade, rubbed his forehead thoughtfully with his left
hand — the little angels were all left-handed — repeated
the words ''little girls", and then, as if a thought had
struck him, resumed his work, saying —

" I think I know what you mean. I've never seen
any of them, of course; but I suppose that's the sort
you mean. I'm told — but mind I don't say it is so,
for I don't know — that when we fall asleep, a troop
of angels very like ourselves, only quite different, goes
round to all the stars we have discovered, and discovers
them after us. I suppose with our shovelling and
handling we spoil them a bit; and I daresay the
clouds that come up from below make them smoky
and dull sometimes. They say — mind, I say they say
— these other angels take them out one by one, and
pass each round as we do, and breathe over it, and
rub it with their white hands, which are softer than
ours, because they don't do any pick-and-spade work,

250 At the Back of the North Wind

and smile at it, and put it in again; and that is what
keeps them from growing" dark."

^* How jolly!" thought Diamond. *' I should like to
see them at their work too. — When do you go to sleep?"
he asked the captain.

''When we grow sleepy," answered the captain.
''They do say — but mind I say tliey say — that it is
when those others — what do you call them? I don't
know if that is their name; I am only guessing that
may be the sort you mean — when they are on their
rounds and come near any troop of us we fall asleep.
They live on the west side of the hill. None of us
have ever been to the top of it yet."

Even as he spoke, he dropped his spade. He tumbled
down beside it, and lay fast asleep. One after the other
each of the troop dropped his pickaxe or shovel from his
listless hands, and lay fast asleep by his work.

"Ah!" thought Diamond to himself, with delight,
"now the girl-angels are coming, and I, not being
an angel, shall not fall asleep like the rest, and I
shall see the girl-angels."

But the same moment he felt himself growing sleepy.
He struggled hard with the invading power. He put
up his fingers to his eyelids and pulled them open. But
it was of no use. He thought he saw a glimmer of pale
rosy light far up the green hill, and ceased to know.

When he awoke, all the angels were starting up wide
awake too. He expected to see them lift their tools, but
no, the time for play had come. They looked happier
than ever, and each began to sing where he stood. He
had not heard them sing before.

Diamond's Dream 251

** Now," he thought, '' I shall know what kind of non-
sense the angels sing when they are merry. They don't
drive cabs, I see, but they dig for stars, and they work
hard enough to be merry after it."

And he did hear some of the angels' nonsense; for if
it was all sense to them, it had only just as much sense
to Diamond as made good nonsense of it. He tried
hard to set it down in his mind, listening as closely
as he could, now to one, now to another, and now to
all together. But while they were yet singing he began,
to his dismay, to find that he was coming awake — faster
and faster. And as he came awake, he found that, for
all the goodness of his memory, verse after verse of the
angels' nonsense vanished from it. He always thought
he could keep the last, but as the next began he lost the
one before it, and at length awoke, struggling to keep
hold of the last verse of all. He felt as if the effort to
keep from forgetting that one verse of the vanishing
song nearly killed him. And yet by the time he was
wide awake he could not be sure of that even. It
was something like this:

White hands of whiteness
Wash the stars' faces,
Till glitter, ghtter, gVit, goes their brightness
Down to poor places.

This, however, was so near sense that he thought it
could not be really what they did sing.

CHAPTER XXVI

Diamond Takes a Fare the Wrong

Way Right

THE next morning Diamond was up almost as
early as before. He had nothing to fear from
his mother now, and made no secret of what
he was about. By the time he reached the stable,
several of the men were there. They asked him a
good many questions as to his luck the day before,
and he told them all they wanted to know. But when
he proceeded to harness the old horse, they pushed
him aside with rough kindness, called him a baby,
and began to do it all for him. So Diamond ran in
and had another mouthful of tea and bread and butter;
and although he had never been so tired as he was
the night before, he started quite fresh this morning.
It was a cloudy day, and the wind blew hard from
the north — so hard sometimes that, perched on the
box with just his toes touching the ground, Diamond
wished that he had some kind of strap to fasten him-
self down with lest he should be blown away. But
he did not really mind it.

His head was full of the dream he had dreamed; but
it did not make him neglect his work, for his work was
not to dig stars but to drive old Diamond and pick up

Diamond Takes a Fare 253

fares. There are not many people who can think about
beautiful things and do common work at the same
time. But then there are not many people who have
been to the back of the north wind.

There was not much business doing". And Diamond
felt rather cold, notwithstanding his mother had herself
put on his comforter and helped him with his greatcoat.
But he was too well aware of his dignity to get inside
his cab as some do. A cabman ought to be above
minding the weather — at least so Diamond thought.
At length he was called to a neighbouring house,
where a young woman with a heavy box had to be
taken to Wapping for a coast-steamer.

He did not find it at all pleasant, so far east and
so near the river; for the roughs were in great force.
However, there being no block, not even in Nightin-
gale Lane, he reached the entrance of the wharf, and
set down his passenger without annoyance. But as
he turned to go back, some idlers, not content with
chaffing him, showed a mind to the fare the young
woman had given him. They were just pulling him
off the box, and Diamond was shouting for the police,
when a pale-faced man, in very shabby clothes, but
with the look of a gentleman somewhere about him,
came up, and making good use of his stick, drove
them off.

'* Now, my little man,'* he said, '^get on while you
can. Don't lose any time. This is not a place for you."

But Diamond was not in the habit of thinking only of
himself. He saw that his new friend looked weary, if
not ill, and very poor.

254 At the Back of the North Wind

*' Won't you jump in, sir?" he said. '*I will take
you wherever you Hke."

'^ Thank you, my man; but I have no money; so
I can't."

"Oh! I don't want any money. I shall be much

happier if you
will oret in.
You have saved
me all I had.
I owe you a lift,
sir."

'* Which way
are you going?"
" To Charing
Cross ; but I
don't mind where
I go."

''Well, I am
verv tired. If
you will take
me to Charing
Cross, I shall be
greatly obliged
to you. I have
walked from Gravesend, and had hardly a penny left
to get through the tunnel."

So saying, he opened the door and got in, and Dia-
mond drove away.

But as he drove, he could not help fancying he had
seen the gentleman — for Diamond knew he was a gentle-
man— before. Do all he could, however, he could not

Diamond Takes a Fare 255

recall where or when. Meantime his fare, if we may
call him such, seeing he was to pay nothing, whom
the relief of being carried had made less and less in-
clined to carry himself, had been turning over things
in his mind, and, as they passed the Mint, called to
Diamond, who stopped his horse, got down, and went
to the window.

" If you didn't mind taking me to Chiswick, I should
be able to pay you when we got there. It's a long way,
but you shall have the whole fare from the Docks — and
something over."

"Very well, sir," said Diamond. ''I shall be most
happy."

He was just clambering up again, when the gentle-
man put his head out of the window and said —

" It's The Wilderness — Mr. Coleman's place; but I'll
direct you when we come into the neighbourhood."

It flashed upon Diamond who he was. But he got

upon his box to arrange his thoughts before making
any reply.

The gentleman was Mr. Evans, to whom Miss Cole-
man was to have been married, and Diamond had seen
him several times with her in the garden. I have said
that he had not behaved very well to Miss Coleman.
He had put off their marriage more than once in a
cowardly fashion, merely because he was ashamed to
marry upon a small income, and live in a humble
way. When a man thinks of what people will say
in such a case, he may love, but his love is but a
poor affair. Mr. Coleman took him into the firm as
a junior partner, and it was in a measure through

256 At the Back af the North Wind

his influence that he entered upon those speculations
which ruined him. So his love had not been a bless-
ing. The ship which North Wind had sunk was
their last venture, and Mr. Evans had gone out with
it in the hope of turning its cargo to the best advan-
tage. He was one of the single boat-load which man-
aged to reach a desert island, and he had gone through
a great many hardships and sufferings since then. But
he was not past being taught, and his troubles had done
him no end of good, for they had made him doubt him-
self, and begin to think, so that he had come to see that
he had been foolish as well as wicked. For, if he had
had Miss Coleman with him in the desert island, to
build her a hut, and hunt for her food, and make
clothes for her, he would have thought himself the
most fortunate of men ; and when he was at home,
he would not marry till he could afford a man-ser-
vant. Before he got home again, he had even begun
to understand that no man can make haste to be rich
without going against the will of God, in which case
it is the one frightful thing to be successful. So he
had come back a more humble man, and longing to
ask Miss Coleman to forgive him. But he had no
idea what ruin had fallen upon them, for he had never
made himself thoroughly acquainted with the firm's
affairs. Few speculative people do know their own
affairs. Hence he never doubted he should find mat-
ters much as he left them, and expected to see them
all at The Wilderness as before. But if he had not
fallen in with Diamond, he would not have thought
of going there first.

Diamond Takes a Fare 257

What was Diamond to do? He had heard his father
and mother drop some remarks concerning Mr. Evans
which made him doubtful of him. He understood that
he had not been so considerate as he might have been.
So he went rather slowly till he should make up his
mind. It was, of course, of no use to drive Mr. Evans
to Chiswick. But if he should tell him what had befallen
them, and where they lived now, he might put off going
to see them, and he w^as certain that Miss Coleman, at
least, must want very much to see Mr. Evans. He was
pretty sure also that the best thing in any case was to
bring them together, and let them set matters right
for themselves.

The moment he came to this conclusion, he changed
his course from westward to northward, and went
straight for Mr. Coleman's poor little house in Hoxton.
Mr. Evans was too tired and too much occupied with
his thoughts to take the least notice of the streets they
passed through, and had no suspicion, therefore, of
the change of direction.

By this time the wind had increased almost to a hurri-
cane, and as they had often to head it, it was no joke
for either of the Diamonds. The distance, however,
was not great. Before they reached the street where
Mr. Coleman lived it blew so tremendously, that when
Miss Coleman, who was going out a little way, opened
the door, it dashed against the wall with such a bang,
that she was afraid to venture, and went in again. In
five minutes after. Diamond drew up at the door. As
soon as he had entered the street, however, the wind
blew right behind them, and when he pulled up, old

(C146) 17

258 At the Back of the North Wind

Diamond had so much ado to stop the cab against it,
that the breeching broke. Young Diamond jumped of(
his box, knocked loudly at the door, then turned to the
cab and said — before Mr. Evans had quite begun to
think something must be amiss:

*' Please, sir, my harness has given way. Would
you mind stepping in here for a few minutes? They're
friends of mine. I'll take you where you like after I've
got it mended. I shan't be many minutes, but you
can't stand in this wind."

Half stupid with fatigue and want of food, Mr. Evans
yielded to the boy's suggestion, and walked in at the
door which the maid held with difficulty against the
wind. She took Mr. Evans for a visitor, as indeed he
was, and showed him into the room on the ground-floor.
Diamond, who had followed into the hall, whispered
to her as she closed the door —

"Tell Miss Coleman. It's Miss Coleman he wants
to see."

"I don't know," said the maid. — "He don't look
much like a gentleman."

"He is, though; and I know him, and so does Miss
Coleman."

The maid could not but remember Diamond, having
seen him when he and his father brought the ladies
home. So she believed him, and went to do what he
told her.

What passed in the little parlour when Miss Coleman
came down does not belong to my story, which is all
about Diamond. If he had known that Miss Coleman
thought Mr. Evans was dead, perhaps he would have

Diamond Takes a Fare

259

managed it differently. There was a cry and a running
to and fro in the house, and then all was quiet again.

Almost as soon as Mr. Evans went in, the wind began
to cease, and was now still. Diamond found that by
making the breeching just a little tighter than was quite
comfortable for
the old horse he
could do very well
for the present;
and, thinking it
better to let him
have his bag in
this quiet place,
he sat on the box
till the old horse
should have eaten
his dinner. In a
little while Mr.
Evans came out,
and asked him to
come in. Dia-
mond obeyed,
and to his de-
light Miss Cole-
man put her

arms round him and kissed him, and there was pay-
ment for him ! not to mention the five precious
shillings she gave him, which he could not refuse be-
cause his mother wanted them so much at home for
his father. He left them nearly as happy as they were
themselves.

26o At the Back of the North Wind

The rest of the day he did better, and, although he
had not so much to take home as the day before, yet on
the whole the result was satisfactory. And what a
story he had to tell his father and mother about his
adventures, and how he had done, and what was the
result! They asked him such a multitude of questions!
some of which he could answer, and some of which he
could not answer; and his father seemed ever so much
better from finding that his boy was already not only
useful to his family but useful to other people, and quite
taking his place as a man who judged what was wise,
and did work worth doing.

For a fortnight Diamond went on driving his cab,
and keeping his family. He had begun to be known
about some parts of London, and people would prefer
taking his cab because they liked what they heard of
him. One gentleman who lived near the mews, engaged
him to carry him to the City every morning at a certain
hour; and Diamond was punctual as clockwork — though
to effect that, required a good deal of care, for his
father's watch was not much to be depended on, and
had to be watched itself by the clock of St. George's
church. Between the two, however, he did make a
success of it.

After that fortnight, his father was able to go out
again. Then Diamond went to make inquiries about
Nanny, and this led to something else.

CHAPTER XXVII

The Children's Hospital

THE first day his father resumed his work, Dia-
mond went with him as usual. In the after-
noon, however, his father, having taken a fare
to the neighbourhood, went home, and Diamond drove
the cab the rest of the day. It was hard for old Dia-
mond to do all the work, but they could not afford to
have another horse. They contrived to save him as
much as possible, and fed him well, and he did bravely.
The next morning his father was so much stronger
that Diamond thought he might go and ask Mr. Ray-
mond to take him to see Nanny. He found him at
home. His servant had grown friendly by this time,
and showed him in without any cross-questioning. Mr.
Raymond received him with his usual kindness, con-
sented at once, and walked with him to the Hospital,
which was close at hand. It was a comfortable old-
fashioned house, built in the reign of Queen Anne, and
in her day, no doubt, inhabited by rich and fashionable
people: now it was a home for poor sick children, who
were carefully tended for love's sake. There are regions
in London where a hospital in every other street might
be full of such children, whose fathers and mothers are
dead, or unable to take care of them.

261

262 At the Back of the North Wind

When Diamond followed Mr. Raymond into the
room where those children who had got over the worst
of their illness and were growing better lay, he saw
a number of little iron bedsteads, with their heads to
the walls, and in every one of them a child, whose
face was a story in itself. In some, health had begun
to appear in a tinge upon the cheeks, and a doubtful
brightness in the eyes, just as out of the cold dreary
winter the spring comes in blushing buds and bright
crocuses. In others there were more of the signs of
winter left. Their faces reminded you of snow and
keen cutting winds, more than of sunshine and soft
breezes and butterflies; but even in them the signs of
suffering told that the suffering was less, and that if the
spring-time had but arrived, it had yet arrived.

Diamond looked all round, but could see no Nanny.
He turned to Mr. Raymond with a question in his eyes.

*^ Well?" said Mr. Raymond.

*^ Nanny's not here," said Diamond.

'* Oh, yes, she is."

** I don't see her."

'* I do, though. There she is."

He pointed to a bed right in front of where Diamond
was standing.

^'That's not Nanny," he said.

*' It is Nanny. I have seen her many times since you
have. Illness makes a great difference."

** Why, that girl must have been to the back of the
north wind!" thought Diamond, but he said nothing,
only stared; and as he stared, something of the old
Nanny began to dawn through the face of the new

The Children's Hospital 263

Nanny. The old Nanny, though a good girl, and a
friendly girl, had been rough, blunt in her speech,
and dirty in her person. Her face would always have
reminded one who had already been to the back of the
north wind of something he had seen in the best of
company, but it had been coarse notwithstanding,
partly from the weather, partly from her living amongst
low people, and partly from having to defend herself:
now it was so sweet, and gentle, and refined, that she
might have had a lady and a gentleman for a father
and mother. And Diamond could not help thinking
of words which he had heard in the church the day
before: ''Surely it is good to be afflicted;" or some-
thing like that. North Wind, somehow or other, must
have had to do with her! She had grown from a rough
girl into a gentle maiden.

Mr. Raymond, however, was not surprised, for he
was used to see such lovely changes — something like
the change which passes upon the crawling, many-footed
creature, when it turns sick and ill, and revives a butter-
fly, with two wings instead of many feet. Instead of
her having to take care of herself, kind hands ministered
to her, making her comfortable and sweet and clean,
soothing her aching head, and giving her cooling drink
when she was thirsty; and kind eyes, the stars of the
kingdom of heaven, had shone upon her; so that, what
with the fire of the fever and the dew of tenderness, that
which was coarse in her had melted away, and her
whole face had grown so refined and sweet that Dia-
mond did not know her. But as he gazed, the best
of the old face, all the true and good part of it, that

264 At the Back of the North Wind

which was Nanny herself, dawned upon him, Hke the
moon coming out of a cloud, until at length, instead
of only believing Mr. Raymond that this was she, he
saw for himself that it was Nanny indeed — very worn,

but grown beauti-
ful.

He went up to
her. She smiled.
He had heard her
laugh, but had
never seen her
smile before.

" Nanny, do you
know me?" said
Diamond.

She only smiled
again, as if the
question was amus-

ing.

She was not like-
ly to forget him ;
for although she did
not yet know it was he who had got her there, she had
dreamed of him often, and had talked much about him
when delirious. Nor was it much wonder, for he was
the only boy except Joe who had ever shown her
kindness.

Meantime Mr. Raymond was going from bed to bed,
talking to the little people. Every one knew him, and
every one was eager to have a look, and a smile, and a
kind word from him. Diamond sat down on a stool at

The Children's Hospital 265

the head of Nanny's bed. She laid her hand in his.
No one else of her old acquaintance had been near her.

Suddenly a little voice called out —

*' Won't Mr. Raymond tell us a story?"

*'Oh, yes, please do! please do!" cried several little
voices which also were stronger than the rest. For
Mr. Raymond was in the habit of tellin*:;- them a story
when he went to see them, and they enjoyed it far more
than the other nice things which the doctor permitted
him to give them.

**Very well," said Mr. Raymond, ''I will. What
sort of a story shall it be?"

" A true story," said one little girl.

*' A fairy tale," said a little boy.

**Well," said Mr. Raymond, "I suppose, as there is
a difference, I may choose. I can't think of any true
story just at this moment, so I will tell you a sort of
a fairy one."

'*Oh, jolly!" exclaimed the little boy who had called
out for a fairy tale.

" It came into my head this morning as I got out
of bed," continued Mr. Raymond; "and if it turns
out pretty well, I will write it down, and get somebody
to print it for me, and then you shall read it when
you like."

"Then nobody ever heard it before?" asked one
older child.

"No, nobody."

"Oh!" exclaimed several, thinking it very grand to
have the first telling; and I daresay there might be
a peculiar freshness about it, because everything would

266 At the Back of the North Wind

be nearly as new to the story-teller himself as to the
listeners.

Some were only sitting up and some were lying- down,
so there could not be the same busy gathering, and
bustling, and shifting to and fro with which children
generally prepare themselves to hear a story; but their
faces, and the turning of their heads, and many feeble
exclamations of expected pleasure, showed that all such
preparations were making within them.

Mr. Raymond stood in the middle of the room, that
he might turn from side to side, and give each a share
of seeing him. Diamond kept his place by Nanny's
side, with her hand in his. I do not know how much
of Mr. Raymond's story the smaller children under-
stood; indeed, I don't quite know how much there was
in it to be understood, for in such a story every one
has just to take what he can get. But they all listened
with apparent satisfaction, and certainly with great
attention. Mr. Raymond wrote it down afterwards,
and here it is — somewhat altered no doubt, for a good
story-teller tries to make his stories better every time he
tells them. I cannot myself help thinking that he was
somewhat indebted for this one to the old story of The
Sleeping Beauty.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Little Daylight

No house of any pretension to be called a palace
is in the least worthy of the name, except it has
a wood near it — very near it — and the nearer the
better. Not all round it — I don't mean that, for a palace
ought to be open to the sun and wind, and stand high
and brave, with w^eathercocks glittering and flags flying;
but on one side of every palace there must be a wood.
And there was a very grand wood indeed beside the
palace of the king who was going to be Daylight's
father; such a grand wood, that nobody yet had ever
got to the other end of it. Near the house it was kept
very trim and nice, and it was free of brushwood for
a long way in ; but by degrees it got wild, and it grew
wilder, and wilder, and wilder, until some said w^ild
beasts at last did what they liked in it. The king and
his courtiers often hunted, however, and this kept the
wild beasts far away from the palace.

One glorious summer morning, when the wind and
sun were out together, when the vanes were flashing and
the flags frolicking against the blue sky, little Daylight
made her appearance from somewhere — nobody could
tell where — a beautiful baby, with such bright eyes that
she might have come from the sun, only by and by she

267

268 At the Back of the North Wind

might equally well have come out of the wind. There
was great jubilation in the palace, for this was the
first baby the queen had had, and there is as much
happiness over a new baby in a palace as in a cottage.
But there is one disadvantage of living near a wood:

you do not know
quite who your
neighbours may be.
Everybody knew
there were in it
several fairies, liv-
ing within a few
miles of the palace,
whoalways had had
something to do
with each new baby
that came ; for
fairies live so much
longer than we,
that they can have
business with a
good many gen-
erations of human
mortals. The curious houses they lived in were well
known also, — one, a hollow oak; another, a birch-
tree, though nobody could ever find how that fairy
made a house of it; another, a hut of growing trees
intertwined, and patched up with turf and moss. But
there was another fairy who had lately come to the
place, and nobody even knew she was a fairy except
the other fairies. A wicked old thing she was, always

Littjc Daylight 269

concealing her power, and being as disagreeable as
she could, in order to tempt people to give her offence,
that she might have the pleasure of taking vengeance
upon them. The people about thought she was a witch,
and those who knew her by sight were careful to avoid
offending her. She lived in a mud house, in a swampy
part of the forest.

In all history we find that fairies give their remarkable
gifts to prince or princess, or any child of sufficient im-
portance in their eyes, always at the christening. Now
this we can understand, because it is an ancient custom
amongst human beings as well; and it is not hard to
explain why wicked fairies should choose the same time
to do unkind things; but it is difficult to understand
how they should be able to do them, for you would
fancy all wicked creatures would be powerless on such
an occasion. But I never knew of any interference on
the part of a wicked fairy that did not turn out a good
thing in the end. What a good thing, for instance,
it was that one princess should sleep for a hundred
years! Was she not saved from all the plague of young
men who were not worthy of her? And did she not
come awake exactly at the right moment when the right
prince kissed her? For my part, I cannot help wishing
a good many girls would sleep till just the same fate
overtook them. It would be happier for them, and more
agreeable to their friends.

Of course all the known fairies were invited to the
christening. But the king and queen never thought of
inviting an old witch. For the power of the fairies they
have by nature; whereas a witch gets her power by

270 At the Back of the North Wind

wickedness. The other fairies, however, knowing the
danger thus run, provided as well as they could against
accidents from her quarter. But they could neither
render her powerless, nor could they arrange their
gifts in reference to hers beforehand, for they could

not tell what those
might be.

Of course the old
hag was there with-
out being asked.
Not to be asked
was just what she
wanted, that she
might have a sort

of a reason for
doing what she
wished to do.
For somehow

even the wicked-
est of creatures
likes a pretext for
doing the wrong
thing.
Five fairies had one after the other given the child
such gifts as each counted best, and the fifth had just
stepped back to her place in the surrounding splendour
of ladies and gentlemen, when, mumbling a laugh
between her toothless gums, the wicked fairy hobbled
out into the middle of the circle, and at the moment when
the archbishop was handing the baby to the lady at the
head of the nursery department of state affairs, addressed

Little Daylight 271

him thus, giving a bite or two to every word before she
could part with it:

'' Please your Grace, Tm very deaf: would your Grace
mind repeating the princess's name?"

"With pleasure, my good woman," said the arch-
bishop, stooping to shout in her ear: ''the infant's
name is little Daylight."

''And little daylight it shall be," cried the fairy, in
the tone of a dry axle, "and little good shall any of
her gifts do her. For I bestow upon her the gift of
sleeping all day long, whether she will or not. Ha, ha!
He, he! Hi, hi!"

Then out started the sixth fairy, who, of course, the
others had arranged should come after the wicked one,
in order to undo as much as she might.

"If she sleep all day," she said mournfully, "she
shall, at least, wake all night."

"A nice prospect for her mother and me!" thought
the poor king; for they loved her far too much to
give her up to nurses, especially at night, as most
kings and queens do — and are sorry for it after-
wards.

" You spoke before I had done," said the wicked
fairy. "That's against the law. It gives me another
chance."

" I beg your pardon," said the other fairies, all
together.

"She did. I hadn't done laughing," said the crone.
" I had only got to Hi, hi ! and I had to go through Ho,
ho! and Hu, hu! So I decree that if she wakes all
night she shall wax and wane with its mistress the

272 At the Back of the North Wind

moon. And what that may mean I hope her royal
parents will live to see. Ho, ho! Hu, hu!"

But out stepped another fairy, for they had been wise
enough to keep two in reserve, because every fairy knew
the trick of one.

** Until," said the seventh fairy, '*a prince comes who
shall kiss her without knowing it."

The wicked fairy made a horrid noise like an angry
cat, and hobbled away. She could not pretend that she
had not finished her speech this time, for she had
laughed Ho, ho! and Hu, hu!

'* I don't know what that means," said the poor king
to the seventh fairy.

'* Don't be afraid. The meaning will come with the
thing itself," said she.

The assembly broke up, miserable enough — the
queen, at least, prepared for a good many sleepless
nights, and the lady at the head of the nursery de-
partment anything but comfortable in the prospect
before her, for of course the queen could not do it all.
As for the king, he made up his mind, with what
courage he could summon, to meet the demands of
the case, but wondered whether he could with any
propriety require the First Lord of the Treasury to
take a share in the burden laid upon him.

I will not attempt to describe what they had to go
through for some time. But at last the household settled
into a regular system — a very irregular one in some
respects. For at certain seasons the palace rang all
night with bursts of laughter from little Daylight,
whose heart the old fairy's curse could not reach; she

Little Daylight 273

was Daylight still, only a little in the wrong place,
for she always dropped asleep at the first hint of dawn
in the east. But her merriment was of short duration.
When the moon was at the full, she w^as in glorious
spirits, and as beautiful as it was possible for a child
of her age to be. But as the moon waned, she faded,
until at last she was wan and withered like the poorest,
sickliest child you might come upon in the streets of
a great city in the arms of a homeless mother. Then
the night was quiet as the day, for the little creature
lay in her gorgeous cradle night and day with hardly
a motion, and indeed at last without even a moan, like
one dead. At first they often thought she was dead,
but at last they got used to it, and only consulted the
almanac to find the moment w'hen she would begin to
revive, which, of course, w^as with the first appearance
of the silver thread of the crescent moon. Then she
would move her lips, and they would give her a little
nourishment; and she would grow better and better
and better, until for a few days she was splendidly well.
When well, she was always merriest out in the moon-
light; but even when near her worst, she seemed better
when, in warm summer nights, they carried her cradle
out into the light of the waning moon. Then in her
sleep she would smile the faintest, most pitiful smile.
For a long time few people ever saw her awake. As*
she grew older she became such a favourite, however,
that about the palace there were always some who
would contrive to keep awake at night, in order to be
near her. But she soon began to take every chance
of getting away from her nurses and enjoying her moon

( 0 145 ) 18

274 At the Back of the North Wind

light alone. And thus things went on until she was
nearly seventeen years of age. Her father and mother
had by that time got so used to the odd state of things
that they had ceased to wonder at them. All their ar-
rangements had reference to the state of the Princess
Daylight, and it is amazing how things contrive to
accommodate themselves. But how any prince was
ever to find and deliver her, appeared inconceivable.

As she grew older she had grown more and more
beautiful, with the sunniest hair and the loveliest eyes
of heavenly blue, brilliant and profound as the sky
of a June day. But so much more painful and sad
was the change as her bad time came on. The more
beautiful she was in the full moon, the more withered
and worn did she become as the moon waned. At the
time at which my story has now arrived, she looked,
when the moon was small or gone, like an old woman
exhausted with suffering. This was the more painful
that her appearance was unnatural; for her hair and
eyes did not change. Her wan face was both drawn
and wrinkled, and had an eager hungry look. Her
skinny hands moved as if wishing, but unable, to lay
hold of something. Her shoulders were bent forward,
her chest went in, and she stooped as if she were
eighty years old. At last she had to be put to bed,
and there await the flow of the tide of life. But she
grew to dislike being seen, still more being touched
by any hands, during this season. One lovely summer
evening, when the moon lay all but gone upon the verge
of the horizon, she vanished from her attendants, and it
was only after searching for her a long time in great

Little Daylight 275

terror, that they found her fast asleep in the forest, at
the foot of a silver birch, and carried her home.

A Httle way from the palace there was a great open
glade, covered with the greenest and softest grass. This
was her favourite haunt; for here the full moon shone
free and glorious, while through a vista in the trees
she could generally see more or less of the dying moon
as it crossed the opening. Here she had a little rustic
house built for her, and here she mostly resided. None
of the court might go there without leave, and her own
attendants had learned by this time not to be officious in
waiting upon her, so that she was very much at liberty.
Whether the good fairies had anything to do with it or
not I cannot tell, but at last she got into the way of re-
treating further into the wood every night as the moon
waned, so that sometimes they had great trouble in find-
ing her; but as she was always very angry if she dis-
covered they were watching her, they scarcely dared to
do so. At length one night they thought they had lost
her altogether. It was morning before they found her.
Feeble as she was, she had wandered into a thicket a
long way from the glade, and there she lay— fast asleep,
of course.

Although the fame of her beauty and sweetness had
gone abroad, yet as everybody knew she was under a
bad spell, no king in the neighbourhood had any desire
to have her for a daughter-in-law. There were serious
objections to such a relation.

About this time in a neighbouring kingdom, in conse-
quence of the wickedness of the nobles, an insurrection
took place upon the death of the old king, the greater

276 At the Back of the North Wind

part of the nobility was massacred, and the young
prince was compelled to flee for his life, disguised like
a peasant. For some time, until he got out of the
country, he suffered much from hunger and fatigue;
but when he got into that ruled by the princess's
father, and had no longer any fear of being recog-
nized, he fared better, for the people were kind. He
did not abandon his disguise, however. One toler-
able reason was that he had no other clothes to put
on, and another that he had very little money, and
did not know where to get any more. There was no
good in telling- everybody he met that he was a prince,
for he felt that a prince ought to be able to get on like
other people, else his rank only made a fool of him.
He had read of princes setting out upon adventure;
and here he was out in similar case, only without
having had a choice in the matter. He would go on,
and see what would come of it.

For a day or two he had been walking through the
palace-wood, and had had next to nothing to eat, when
he came upon the strangest little house, inhabited by a
very nice tidy motherly old woman. This was one ol
the good fairies. The moment she saw him she knew
quite well who he was and what was going to come of
it; but she was not at liberty to interfere with the orderly
march of events. She received him with the kindness
she would have shown to any other traveller, and gave
him bread and milk, which he thought the most de-
licious food he had ever tasted, wondering that they
did not have it for dinner at the palace sometimes.
The old woman pressed him to stay all night. When

Little Daylight 277

he awoke he was amazed to find how well and strong
he felt. She would not take any of the money he
offered, but begged him, if he found occasion of con-
tinuing in the neighbourhood, to return and occupy
the same quarters.

*' Thank you much, good mother," answered the
prince; '' but there is little chance of that. The sooner
I get out of this wood the better."

*' I don't know that," said the fairy.

'' What do you mean?" asked the prince.

'^ Why how should I know?" returned she.

*' I can't tell," said the prince.

'* Very well," said the fairy.

*^ How strangely you talk!" said the prince.

"Do I?" said the fairy.

" Yes, you do," said the prince.

'* Very well," said the fairy.

The prince was not used to be spoken to in this
fashion, so he felt a little angry, and turned and
walked away. But this did not offend the fairy. She
stood at the door of her little house looking after him
till the trees hid him quite. Then she said "At last!"
and went in.

The prince wandered and wandered, and got no-
where. The sun sank and sank and went out of sight,
and he seemed no nearer the end of the wood than ever.
He sat down on a fallen tree, ate a bit of bread the old
woman had given him, and waited for the moon; for,
although he was not much of an astronomer, he knew
the moon would rise some time, because she had risen
the night before. Up she came, slow and slow, but

278 At the Back of the North Wind

of a good size, pretty nearly round indeed; where-
upon, greatly refreshed with his piece of bread, he
got up and went — he knew not whither.

After walking a considerable distance, he thought he
was coming to the outside of the forest; but when he
reached what he thought the last of it, he found him-
self only upon the edge of a great open space in it,
covered with grass. The moon shone very bright, and
he thought he had never seen a more lovely spot. Still
it looked dreary because of its loneliness, for he could
not see the house at the other side. He sat down weary
again, and gazed into the glade. He had not seen so
much room for several days.

All at once he spied something in the middle of the
grass. What could it be? It moved; it came nearer.
Was it a human creature, gliding across — a girl dressed
in white, gleaming in the moonshine? She came nearer
and nearer. He crept behind a tree and watched, won-
dering. It must be some strange being of the wood — a
nymph whom the moonlight and the warm dusky air
had enticed from her tree. But when she came close
to where he stood, he no longer doubted she was human
— for he had caught sight of her sunny hair, and her
clear blue eyes, and the loveliest face and form that
he had ever seen. All at once she began singing like
a nightingale, and dancing to her own music, with
her eyes ever turned towards the moon. She passed
close to where he stood, dancing on by the edge of
the trees and away in a great circle towards the other
side, until he could see but a spot of white in the
yellowish green of the moonlit grass. But when he

Little Daylight 279

feared once more it would vanish quite, the spot grew,
and became a figure once more. She approached him
again, singing and dancing and waving her arms over
her head, until she had completed the circle. Just
opposite his tree she stood, ceased her song, dropped
her arms, and broke out into a long clear laugh,
musical as a brook. Then, as if tired, she threw her-
self on the grass, and lay gazing at the moon. The
prince was almost afraid to breathe lest he should
startle her, and she should vanish from his sight. As
to venturing near her, that never came into his head.

She had lain for a long hour or longer, when the
prince began again to doubt concerning her. Per-
haps she was but a vision of his own fancy. Or was
she a spirit of the wood, after all? If so, he too would
haunt the wood, glad to have lost kingdom and every-
thing for the hope of being near her. He would build
him a hut in the forest, and there he would live for the
pure chance of seeing her again. Upon nights like this
at least she would come out and bask in the moonlight,
and make his soul blessed. But while he thus dreamed
she sprang to her feet, turned her face full to the moon,
and began singing as if she would draw her down from
the sky by the power of her entrancing voice. She looked
more beautiful than ever. Again she began dancing
to her own music, and danced away into the distance.
Once more she returned in a similar manner; but
although he was watching as eagerly as before, what
with fatigue and what with gazing, he fell fast asleep
before she came near him. When he awoke it was
broad daylight, and the princess was nowhere.

28o At the Back of the North Wind

He could not leave the place. What if she should
come the next night! He would gladly endure a day's
hunger to see her yet again: he would buckle his belt
quite tight. He walked round the glade to see if he
could discover any prints of her feet. But the grass
was so short, and her steps had been so light, that
she had not left a single trace behind her.

He walked half-way round the wood without seeing
anything to account for her presence. Then he spied
a lovely little house, with thatched roof and low eaves,
surrounded by an exquisite garden, with doves and pea-
cocks walking in it. Of course this must be where the
gracious lady who loved the moonlight lived. Forget-
ting his appearance, he walked towards the door, deter-
mined to make inquiries, but as he passed a little pond
full of gold and silver fishes, he caught sight of himself
and turned to find the door to the kitchen. There he
knocked, and asked for a piece of bread. The good-
natured cook brought him in, and gave him an excellent
breakfast, which the prince found nothing the worse for
being served in the kitchen. While he ate, he talked
with his entertainer, and learned that this was the
favourite retreat of the Princess Daylight. But he
learned nothing more, both because he was afraid of
seeming inquisitive, and because the cook did not
choose to be heard talking about her mistress to a
peasant lad who had begged for his breakfast.

As he rose to take his leave, it occurred to him that he
might not be so far from the old woman's cottage as he
had thought, and he asked the cook whether she knew
anything of such a place, describing it as well as he

Little Daylight

281

could. She said she knew it well enough, adding with
a smile —

" It's there you're going, is it?"

''Yes, if it's not far off."

''It's not more than three miles. But mind what
you are about, you
know."

" Why do you
say that?"

" If you're after
any mischief, she'll
make you repent it. "

" The best thing
that could happen
under the circum-
stances," remarked
the prince.

"What do you
mean by that?"
asked the cook.

" Why, it stands
to reason," an-
swered the prince,

"that if you wish to do anything wrong, the best
thing for you is to be made to repent of it."

"I see," said the cook. "Well, I think you may
venture. She's a good old soul."

"Which way does it lie from here?" asked the
prince.

She gave him full instructions; and he left her with
many thanks.

282 At the Back of the North Wind

Being now refreshed, however, the prince did not go
back to the cottage that day: he remained in the forest,
amusing himself as best he could, but waiting anxiously
for the night, in the hope that the princess would again
appear. Nor was he disappointed, for, directly the moon
rose, he spied a glimmering shape far across the glade.
As it drew nearer, he saw it was she indeed — not dressed
in white as before: in a pale blue like the sky, she looked
lovelier still. He thought it was that the blue suited her
yet better than the white; he did not know that she was
really more beautiful because the moon was nearer the
full. In fact the next night was full moon, and the
princess would then be at the zenith of her loveliness.

The prince feared for some time that she was not
coming near his hiding-place that night; but the
circles in her dance ever widened as the moon rose,
until at last they embraced the whole glade, and she
came still closer to the trees where he was hiding than
she had come the night before. He was entranced
with her loveliness, for it was indeed a marvellous
thing. All night long he watched her, but dared not
go near her. He would have been ashamed of watch-
ing her too, had he not become almost incapable of
thinking of anything but how beautiful she was. He
watched the whole night long, and saw that as the
moon went down she retreated in smaller and smaller
circles, until at last he could see her no more.

Weary as he was, he set out for the old woman's
cottage, where he arrived just in time for her breakfast,
which she shared with him. He then went to bed, and
slept for many hours. When he awoke, the sun was

Little Daylight 283

down, and he departed in great anxiety lest he should
lose a glimpse of the lovely vision. But whether it
was by the machinations of the swamp-fairy, or merely
that it is one thing to go and another to return by the
same road, he lost his way. I shall not attempt to
describe his misery when the moon rose, and he saw
nothing but trees, trees, trees. She was high in the
heavens before he reached the glade. Then indeed
his troubles vanished, for there was the princess com-
ing dancing towards him, in a dress that shone like
gold, and with shoes that glimmered through the
grass like fire-flies. She was of course still more
beautiful than before. Like an embodied sunbeam
she passed him, and danced aw^ay into the distance.

Before she returned in her circle, clouds had begun
to gather about the moon. The wind rose, the trees
moaned, and their lighter branches leaned all one way
before it. The prince feared that the princess would
go in, and he should see her no more that night. But
she came dancing on more jubilant than ever, her
golden dress and her sunny hair streaming out upon
the blast, waving her arms towards the moon, and in
the exuberance of her delight ordering the clouds
away from off her face. The prince could hardly
believe she was not a creature of the elements, after all.

By the time she had completed another circle, the
clouds had gathered deep, and there were growlings
of distant thunder. Just as she passed the tree where
he stood, a flash of lightning blinded him for a
moment, and when he saw again, to his horror, the
princess lay on the ground. He darted to her, think-

284 At the Back of the North Wind

ing she had been struck; but when she heard him
coming, she was on her feet in a moment.

*' What do you want?" she asked.

'* I beg your pardon. I thought — the h'ghtning "

said the prince, hesitating.

** There is nothing the matter," said the princess,
waving him off rather haughtily.

The poor prince turned and walked towards the wood.

**Come back," said Daylight: "I like you. You
do what you are told. Are you good?"

''Not so good as I should like to be," said the
prince.

''Then go and grow better," said the princess.

Again the disappointed prince turned and went.

" Come back," said the princess.

He obeyed, and stood before her waiting.

*' Can you tell me what the sun is like?" she asked.

*' No," he answered. "But where's the good of
asking what you know?"

" But I don't know," she rejoined.

"Why, everybody knows."

"That's the very thing: I'm not everybody. I've
never seen the sun."

"Then you can't know what it's like till you do
see it."

" I think you must be a prince," said the princess.

" Do I look like one?" said the prince.

" I can't quite say that."

"Then why do you think so?"

"Because you both do what you are told and speak
the truth. — Is the sun so very bright?"

Little Daylight 285

** As bright as the lightning."

** But it doesn't go out like that, does it?"

'*Oh no. It shines like the moon, rises and sets
like the moon, is much the same shape as the moon,
only so bright that you can't look at it for a moment."

** But I would look at it," said the princess.

*' But you couldn't," said the prince.

** But I could," said the princess.

** Why don't you, then?"

** Because I can't."

<^ Why can't you?"

*' Because I can't wake. And I never shall wake
until "

Here she hid her face in her hands, turned away,
and walked in the slowest, stateliest manner towards
the house. The prince ventured to follow her at a
little distance, but she turned and made a repellent
gesture, which, like a true gentleman-prince, he obeyed
at once. He waited a long time, but as she did not
come near him again, and as the night had now
cleared, he set off at last for the old woman's cottage.

It was long past midnight when he reached it, but,
to his surprise, the old woman was paring potatoes at
the door. Fairies are fond of doing odd things. In-
deed, however they may dissemble, the night is always
their day. And so it is with all who have fairy blood
in them.

*^Why, what are you doing there, this time of the
night, mother?" said the prince; for that was the kind
way in which any young man in his country would
address a woman who was much older than himself.

286 At the Back of the North Wind

*' Getting your supper ready, my son," she answered.

'^Oh! I don't want any supper," said the prince.

*' Ah! you've seen Daylight," said she.

** I've seen a princess who never saw it," said the
prince.

*' Do you like her?" asked the fairy.

^'Oh! don't I?" said the prince. *' More than you
would believe, mother."

'*A fairy can believe anything that ever was or ever
could be," said the old woman.

'* Then are you a fairy?" asked the prince.

** Yes," said she.

'^Then what do you do for things not to believe?"
asked the prince.

*' There's plenty of them — everything that never was
nor ever could be."

''Plenty, I grant you," said the prince. "But do
you believe there could be a princess who never saw
the daylight? Do you believe that, now?"

This the prince said, not that he doubted the princess,
but that he wanted the fairy to tell him more. She was
too old a fairy, however, to be caught so easily.

*' Of all people, fairies must not tell secrets. Besides,
she's a princess."

" Well, I'll teUyoii a secret. I'm a prince."

''I know that."

*' How do you know it?"

*'By the curl of the third eyelash on your left
eyelid."

" Which corner do you count from?"

** That's a secret."

Little Daylight 287

'* Another secret? Well, at least, if I am a prince,
there can be no harm in telling me about a princess."

'^ It's just princes I can't tell."

** There ain't any more of them — are there?" said
the prince.

"What! you don't think you're the only prince in
the world, do you?"

"Oh, dear, no! not at all. But I know there's one
too many just at present, except the princess "

"Yes, yes, that's it," said the fairy.

" What's //?" asked the prince.

But he could get nothing more out of the fairy, and had
to go to bed unanswered, which was something of a trial.

Now wicked fairies will not be bound by the laws
which the good fairies obey, and this always seems to
give the bad the advantage over the good, for they
use means to gain their ends which the others will
not. But it is all of no consequence, for what they do
never succeeds; nay, in the end it brings about the
very thing they are trying to prevent. So you see that
somehow, for all their cleverness, wicked fairies are
dreadfully stupid, for, although from the beginning
of the world they have really helped instead of thwart-
ing the good fairies, not one of them is a bit the wiser
for it. She will try the bad thing just as they all did
before her; and succeeds no better of course.

The prince had so far stolen a march upon the
swamp-fairy that she did not know he was in the
neighbourhood until after he had seen the princess
those three times. When she knew it, she consoled
herself by thinking that the princess must be far too

288 At the Back of the North Wind

proud and too modest for any young man to venture
even to speak to her before he had seen her six times
at least. But there was even less danger than the
wicked fairy thought; for, however much the princess
might desire to be set free, she was dreadfully afraid
of the wrong prince. Now, however, the fairy was
going to do all she could.

She so contrived it by her deceitful spells, that the
next night the prince could not by any endeavour
find his way to the glade. It would take me too long
to tell her tricks. They would be amusing to us, who
know that they could not do any harm, but they were
something other than amusing to the poor prince. He
wandered about the forest till daylight, and then fell
fast asleep. The same thing occurred for seven follow-
ing days, during which neither could he find the good
fairy's cottage. After the third quarter of the moon,
however, the bad fairy thought she might be at ease
about the affair for a fortnight at least, for there was
no chance of the prince wishing to kiss the princess
during that period. So the first day of the fourth
quarter he did find the cottage, and the next day he
found the glade. For nearly another week he haunted
it. But the princess never came. I have little doubt
she was on the farther edge of it some part of every
night, but at this period she always wore black, and,
there being little or no light, the prince never saw her.
Nor would he have known her if he had seen her.
How could he have taken the worn decrepit creature
she was now, for the glorious Princess Daylight?

At last, one night when there was no moon at all,

Little Daylight 289

he ventured near the house. There he heard voices
talking, although it was past midnight; for her women
were in considerable uneasiness, because the one whose
turn it was to watch her had fallen asleep, and had not
seen which way she went, and this was a night when
she would probably wander very far, describing a
circle which did not touch the open glade at all, but
stretched away from the back of the house, deep into
that side of the forest — a part of which the prince
knew nothing. When he understood from what they
said that she had disappeared, and that she might have
gone somewhere in the said direction, he plunged at
once into the wood to see if he could find her. For
hours he roamed with nothing to guide him but the
vague notion of a circle which on one side bordered
on the house, for so much had he picked up from the
talk he had overheard.

It was getting towards the dawn, but as yet there
was no streak of light in the sky, when he came to a
great birch-tree, and sat down weary at the foot of it.
While he sat — very miserable, you may be sure — full
of fear for the princess, and wondering how her attend-
ants could take it so quietly, he bethought himself that
it would not be a bad plan to light a fire, which, if
she were anywhere near, would attract her. This he
managed with a tinder-box, which the good fairy had
given him. It was just beginning to blaze up, when
he heard a moan, which seemed to come from the
other side of the tree. He sprung to his feet, but his
heart throbbed so that he had to lean for a moment
against the tree before he could move. When he got

(C145) 19

290 At the Back of the North Wind

round, there lay a human form in a little dark heap
on the earth. There was light enough from his fire
to show that it was not the princess. He lifted it in
his arms, hardly heavier than a child, and carried it
to the flame. The countenance was that of an old
woman, but it had a fearfully strange look. A black
hood concealed her hair, and her eyes were closed.
He laid her down as comfortably as he could, chafed
her hands, put a little cordial from a bottle, also the
gift of the fairy, into her mouth; took off his coat and
wrapped it about her, and in short did the best he
could. In a little while she opened her eyes and looked
at him — so pitifully! The tears rose and flowed down
her gray wrinkled cheeks, but she said never a word.
She closed her eyes again, but the tears kept on flow-
ing, and her whole appearance was so utterly pitiful
that the prince was very near crying too. He begged
her to tell him what was the matter, promising to do

all he could to help her; but still she did not speak.
He thought she was dying, and took her in his arms
again to carry her to the princess's house, where he
thought the good-natured cook might be able to do
something for her. When he lifted her, the tears
flowed yet faster, and she gave such a sad moan that
it went to his very heart.

'* Mother, mother!" he said "Poor mother!" and

kissed her on the withered lips.

She started ; and what eyes they were that opened
upon him! But he did not see them, for it was still
very dark, and he had enough to do to make his way
through the trees towards the house.

Little Daylight 291

Just as he approached the door, feeling more tired
than he could have imagined possible — she was such
a little thin old thing — she began to move, and became
so restless that, unable to carry her a moment longer,
he thought to lay her on the grass. But she stood
upright on her feet. Her hood had dropped, and her
hair fell about her. The first gleam of the morning
was caught on her face: that face was bright as the
never-ageing Dawn, and her eyes were lovely as the
sky of darkest blue. The prince recoiled in over-
mastering wonder. It was Daylight herself whom he
had brought from the forest! He fell at her feet, nor
dared look up until she laid her hand upon his head.
He rose then.

''You kissed me when I was an old woman: there!
I kiss you when I am a young princess," murmured
Daylight. — "Is that the sun coming?'*

CHAPTER XXIX

Ruby

THE children were delighted with the story, and
made many amusing remarks upon it. Mr.
Raymond promised to search his brain for
another, and when he had found one promised to
bring it to them. Diamond having taken leave of
Nanny, and promised to go and see her again soon,
went away with him.

Now Mr. Raymond had been turning over in his
mind what he could do both for Diamond and for
Nanny. He had therefore made some acquaintance
with Diamond's father, and had been greatly pleased
with him. But he had come to the resolution, before
he did anything so good as he would like to do for
them, to put them all to a certain test. So as they
walked away together, he began to talk with Diamond
as follows: —

'' Nanny must leave the hospital soon. Diamond."

^' I'm glad of that, sir."

*' Why? Don't you think it's a nice place?"

''Yes, very. But it's better to be well and doing
something, you know, even if it's not quite so com-
fortable."

"But they can't keep Nanny so long as they would

292

Ruby

293

like. They can't keep her till she's quite strong-. There
are always so many sick children they want to take in
and make better. And the question is, What will she
do when they send her out again?"

''That's just what I can't tell, though I've been think-
ing of it over and over, sir. Her crossing was taken
long ago, and I couldn't bear to see Nanny fighting
for it, especially with such a poor fellow as has taken
it. He's quite lame, sir."

"She doesn't look much like fighting now, does she.
Diamond?"

" No, sir. She looks too like an angel. Angels don't
fight — do they, sir?"

" Not to get things for themselves, at least," said Mr.
Raymond.

"Besides," added Diamond, "I don't quite see that
she would have any better right to the crossing than
the boy who has got it. Nobody gave it to her; she
only took it. And now he has taken it."

" If she were to sweep a crossing — soon at least —
after the illness she has had, she would be laid up
again the very first wet day," said Mr. Raymond.

"And there's hardly any money to be got except
on the wet days," remarked Diamond reflectively. " Is
there nothing else she could do, sir?"

" Not without being taught, I'm afraid."

"Well, couldn't somebody teach her something?"

"Couldn't you teach her. Diamond?"

" I don't know anything myself, sir. I could teach
her to dress the baby; but nobody would give her
anything for doing things like that: they are so easy.

294 At the Back of the North Wind

There wouldn't be much good in teaching" her to drive
a cab, for where would she get the cab to drive? There
ain't fathers and old Diamonds everywhere. At least
poor Nanny can't find any of them, I doubt."

*' Perhaps if she were taught to be nice and clean,
and only speak gentle words "

'* Mother could teach her that," interrupted Diamond.

**And to dress babies, and feed them, and take care
of them," Mr. Raymond proceeded, "she might get a
place as a nurse somewhere, you know. People do
give money for that."

'*Then Pll ask mother," said Diamond.

"But you'll have to give her her food then; and
your father, not being strong, has enough to do already
without that."

"But here's me," said Diamond: "I help him out
with it. When he's tired of driving, up I get. It don't
make any difference to old Diamond. I don't mean he
likes me as well as my father — of course he can't, you
know — nobody could; but he does his duty all the
same. It's got to be done, you know, sir; and Dia-
mond's a good horse — isn't he, sir?"

"From your description I should say certainly; but
I have not the pleasure of his acquaintance myself."

" Don't you think he will go to heaven, sir?"

"That I don't know anything about," said Mr. Ray-
mond. " I confess I should be glad to think so," he
added, smiling thoughtfully.

" I'm sure he'll get to the back of the north wind,
anyhow," said Diamond to himself; but he had learned
to y^e very careful of saying such things aloud.

Ruby

295

** Isn't it rather too much for him to go in the cab
all day and every day?" resumed Mr. Raymond.

"So father says, when he feels his ribs of a morning.
But then he says the old horse do eat v/ell, and the
moment he's had his supper, down he goes, and never
gets up till he's called; and, for the legs of him, father
says that makes no end of a differ. Some horses, sir!
they won't lie down all night long, but go to sleep on
tiieir four pins, like a haystack, father says. / think
it's very stupid of them, and so does old Diamond.
But then I suppose they don't know better, and so
they can't help it. We musn't be too hard upon them,
father says."

*' Your father must be a good man. Diamond."

Diamond looked up in ]\Ir. Raymond's face, won-
dering what he could mean.

"I said your father must be a good man, Dia-
mond."

"Of course," said Diamond. "How could he drive
a cab if he wasn't?"

"There are some men who drive cabs who are noi
very good," objected Mr. Raymond.

Diamond remembered the drunken cabman, and saw
that his friend was right.

"Ah! but," he returned, "he 77zz/i"^ be, you know, with
such a horse as old Diamond."

"That does make a difference," said Mr. Raymond.
" But it is quite enough that he is a good man, with-
out our trying to account for it. Now, if you like, J
will give you a proof that / think him a good man.
I am going away on the Continent for a while — for

296 At the Back of the North Wind

three months, I believe — and I am going to let my
house to a gentleman who does not want the use of
my brougham. My horse is nearly as old, I fancy,
as your Diamond, but I don't want to part with him,
and I don't want him to be idle; for nobody, as you
say, ought to be idle; but neither do I want him to be
worked very hard. Now, it has come into my head
that perhaps your father would take charge of him,
and work him under certain conditions."

''My father will do what's right," said Diamond.
^'I'm sure of that."

" Well, so I think. Will you ask him when he comes
home to call and have a little chat with me — to-day,
some time?"

'* He must have his dinner first," said Diamond.
*' No, he's got his dinner with him to-day. It must
be after he's had his tea."

"Of course, of course. Any time will do. I shall
be at home all day."

*'Very well, sir. I will tell him. You may be sure
he will come. My father thinks you a very kind gentle-
man, and I know he is right, for I know your very own
self, sir."

Mr. Raymond smiled, and as they had now reached
his door, they parted, and Diamond went home. As
soon as his father entered the house, Diamond gave him
Mr. Raymond's message, and recounted the conversa-
tion that had preceded it. His father said little, but
took thought -sauce to his bread and butter, and as
soon as he had finished his meal, rose, saying:

" I will go to your friend directly, Diamond. It

Ruby

297

would be a grand thing- to get a little more money.
We do want it."

Diamond accompanied his father to Mr. Raymond's
door, and there left him.

He was shown at once into Mr. Raymond's study,
where he gazed
with some won-
der at the multi-
tude of books on
the walls, and
thought what a
learned man Mr.
Raymond must
be.

Presently Mr.
Raymond en-
tered, and after
saying much the
same about his
old horse, made
the following dis-
tinct proposal —
one not over-ad-
vantageous to

Diamond's father, but for which he had reasons —
namely, that Joseph should have the use of Mr. Ray-
mond's horse while he was away, on condition that he
never w^orked him more than six hours a day, and fed
him well, and that, besides, he should take Nanny home
as soon as she was able to leave the hospital, and
provide for her as for one of his own children — neither

=^^^:^?/^/T'C.

298 At the Back of the North Wind

better nor worse — so long, that is, as he had the
horse.

Diamond's father could not help thinking it a pretty
close bargain. He should have both the girl and the
horse to feed, and only six hours' work out of the
horse.

*' It will save your own horse," said Mr. Raymond.

**That is true," answered Joseph; ''but all I can
get by my own horse is only enough to keep us, and
if I save him and feed your horse and the girl — don't
you see, sir?"

"Well, you can go home and think about it, and
let me know by the end of the week. I am in no
hurry before then."

So Joseph went home and recounted the proposal to
his wife, adding that he did not think there was much
advantage to be got out of it.

*'Not much that way, husband," said Diamond's
mother; "but there would be an advantage, and what
matter who gets it!"

" I don't see it," answered her husband. " Mr. Ray-
mond is a gentleman of property, and I don't discover
any much good in helping him to save a little more.
He won't easily get one to make such a bargain, and
I don't mean he shall get me. It would be a loss
rather than a gain — I do think — at least, if I took
less work out of our own horse."

" One hour would make a difference to old Diamond.
But that's not the main point. You must think what
an advantage it would be to the poor girl that hasn't
a home to go to!"

Ruby

299

**She is one of Diamond's friends," thought his
father.

'' I could be kind to her, you know," the mother
went on, "and teach her housework, and how to handle
a baby; and, besides, she would help me, and I should
be the stronger
for it, and able
to do an odd
bit of charing
now and then,
when I got the
chance."

" I won't hear
of that," said her
husband. "Have
the girl by all
means. I'm a-
shamed I did
not think of both
sides of the thing
at once. I won-
der if the horse
is a great eater.

To be

sure,
I gave Diamond

two hours' additional rest, it would be all the better
for the old bones of him, and there would be four hours
extra out of the other horse. That would give Diamond
something to do every day. He could drive old Dia-
mond after dinner, and I could take the other horse
out for six hours after tea, or in the morning, as I

300 At the Back of the North Wind

found best. It might pay for the keep of both of them,
— that is, if I had good luck. I should like to oblige
Mr. Raymond, though he be rather hard, for he has
been very kind to our Diamond, wife. Hasn't he,
now?"

** He has indeed, Joseph," said his wife, and there
the conversation ended.

Diamond's father went the very next day to Mr.
Raymond, and accepted his proposal ; so that the week
after, having got another stall in the same stable, he
had two horses instead of one. Oddly enough, the
name of the new horse was Ruby, for he was a very
red chestnut. Diamond's name came from a white
lozenge on his forehead. Young Diamond said they
were rich now, with such a big diamond and such a
big ruby.

CHAPTER XXX

Nanny's Dream

NANNY was not fit to be removed for some time
yet, and Diamond went to see her as often as
he could. But being more regularly engaged
now, seeing he went out every day for a few hours with
old Diamond, and had his baby to mind, and one of the
horses to attend to, he could not go so often as he would
have liked.

One evening, as he sat by her bedside, she said to
him:

'Tve had such a beautiful dream, Diamond! I should
like to tell it you."

''Oh! do," said Diamond; "I am so fond of
dreams!"

''She must have been to the back of the north
wind," he said to himself.

" It was a very foolish dream, you know. But some-
how it was so pleasant! What a good thing it is that
you believe the dream all the time you are in it!"

My readers must not suppose that poor Nanny was
able to say what she meant so well as I put it down
here. She had never been to school, and had heard
very little else than vulgar speech until she came to
the hospital. But I have been to school, and al-

301

302 At the Back of the North Wind

though that could never make me able to dream so
well as Nanny, it has made me able to tell her dream
better than she could herself. And I am the more
desirous of doing this for her that I have already
done the best I could for Diamond's dream, and it
would be a shame to give the boy all the advantage.

" I will tell you all I know about it," said Nanny.
"The day before yesterday a lady came to see us — a
very beautiful lady, and very beautifully dressed. I
heard the matron say to her that it was very kind
of her to come in blue and gold; and she answered
that she knew we didn't like dull colours. She had
such a lovely shawl on, just like redness dipped in
milk, and all worked over with flowers of the same
colour. It didn't shine much; it was silk, but it kept
in the shine. When she came to my bedside, she sat
down, just where you are sitting. Diamond, and laid
her hand on the counterpane. I was sitting up with
my table before me, ready for my tea. Her hand
looked so pretty in its blue glove, that I was tempted
to stroke it. I thought she wouldn't be angry, for
everybody that comes to the hospital is kind. It's
only in the streets they ain't kind. But she drew
her hand away, and I almost cried, for I thought I
had been rude. Instead of that, however, it was only
that she didn't like giving me her glove to stroke,
for she drew it off, and then laid her hand where it
was before. I wasn't sure, but I ventured to put out
my ugly hand."

** Your hand ain't ugly, Nanny," said Diamond; but
Nanny went on —

Nanny's Dream 303

*^ And I stroked it ag-ain, and then she stroked mine,
— think of that! And there was a ring on her finger,
and I looked down to see what it was like. And she
drew it off, and put it upon one of my fingers. It
was a red stone, and she told me they called it a
ruby."

"Oh, that is funny!" said Diamond. "Our new
horse is called Ruby. We've got another horse — a
red one — such a beauty!"

But Nanny went on with her story.

" I looked at the ruby all the time the lady was
talking to me, — it was so beautiful! And as she
talked I kept seeing deeper and deeper into the
stone. At last she rose to go away, and I began to
pull the ring off my finger; and what do you think
she said? — 'Wear it all night, if you like. Only you
must take care of it. I can't give it you, for some
one gave it to me; but you may keep it till to-
morrow.' Wasn't it kind of her? I could hardly
take my tea, I was so delighted to hear it; and I do
think it was the ring that set me dreaming; for, after
I had taken my tea, I leaned back, half lying and
half sitting, and looked at the ring on my finger.
By degrees I began to dream. The ring grew larger
and larger, until at last I found that I was not look-
ing at a red stone, but at a red sunset, which shone
in at the end of a long street near where Grannie
lives. I was dressed in rags as I used to be, and
I had great holes in my shoes, at which the nasty
mud came through to my feet. I didn't use to mind
it before, but now I thought it horrid. And there

304 At the Back of the North Wind

was the great red sunset, with streaks of green and
gold between, standing looking at me. Why couldn't
I live in the sunset instead of in that dirt? Why was
it so far away always? Why did it never come into
our wretched street? It faded away, as the sunsets
always do, and at last went out altogether. Then a
cold wind began to blow, and flutter all my rags
about "

*'That was North Wind herself," said Diamond.

^^ Eh?" said Nanny, and went on with her story.

** I turned my back to it, and wandered away. 1
did not know where I was going, only it was warmer
to go that way. I don't think it was a north wind, foi
I found myself somewhere in the west end at last.
But it doesn't matter in a dream which wind it
was."

^*I don't know that," said Diamond. ''I believe
North Wind can get into our dreams — yes, and blow
in them. Sometimes she has blown me out of a
dream altogether."

*^I don't know what you mean, Diamond," said
Nanny.

''Never mind," answered Diamond. ''Two people
can't always understand each other. They'd both be
at the back of the north wind directly, and what
would become of the other places without them?"

"You do talk so oddly!" said Nanny. "I some-
times think they must have been right about you."

" What did they say about me?" asked Diamond.

''They called you God's baby."

*' How kind of them ! But I knew that."

Nanny's Dream 305

** Did you know what it meant though? It meant
that you were not right in the head."

''I feel all right," said Diamond, putting both his
hands to his head, as if it had been a globe he could
take off and set on again.

*'Well, as long as you are pleased I am pleased,"
said Nanny.

''Thank you, Nanny. Do go on with your story.
I think I like dreams even better than fairy tales.
But they must be nice ones, like yours, you know."

"Well, 1 went on, keeping my back to the wind,
until I came to a fine street on the top of a hill
How it happened I don't know, but the front door of
one of the houses was open, and not only the front
door, but the back door as well, so that I could see
right through the house — and what do you think I
saw? A garden place with green grass, and the
moon shining upon it! Think of that! There was
no moon in the street, but through the house there
was the moon. I looked and there was nobody near:
I would not do any harm, and the grass was so
much nicer than the mud ! But I couldn't think of
going on the grass with such dirty shoes: I kicked
them off in the gutter, and ran in on my bare feet,
up the steps, and through the house, and on to the
grass; and the moment I came into the moonlight, 1
began to feel better."

"That's why North Wind blew you there," said
Diamond.

" It came of Mr. Raymond's story about the Prin-
cess Daylight," returned Nanny. "Well, I lay down

( 0 146 ) 20

.^o6 At the Back of the North Wind

upon the grass in the moonlight without thinking
how I was to get out again. Somehow the moon
suited me exactly. There was not a breath of the
north wind you talk about; it was quite gone."

"You didn't want her any more, just then. She
never goes where she's not wanted," said Diamond.
"But she blew you into the moonlight, anyhow."

"Well, we won't dispute about it," said Nanny:
"you've got a tile loose, you know."

"Suppose I have," returned Diamond, "don't you
see it may let in the moonlight, or the sunlight for
that matter?"

" Perhaps yes, perhaps no," said Nanny.

"And you've got your dreams, too, Nanny."

"Yes, but I know they're dreams."

"So do I. But I know besides they are something
more as well."

" Oh! do you?" rejoined Nanny. " I don't."

"All right," said Diamond. "Perhaps you will some
day."

" Perhaps I won't," said Nanny.

Diamond held his peace, and Nanny resumed her
story.

" I lay a long time, and the moonlight got in at every
tear in my clothes, and made me feel so happy "

"There, I tell you!" said Diamond.

"What do you tell me?" returned Nanny.

"North Wind "

"It was the moonlight, I tell you," persisted Nanny,
and again Diamond held his peace.

"All at once I felt that the moon was not shining so

Nanny's Dream 307

strong. I looked up, and there was a cloud, all crapey
and fluffy, trying" to drown the beautiful creature. But
the moon was so round, just like a whole plate, that
the cloud couldn't stick to her; she shook it off, and
said there^ and shone out clearer and brighter than
ever. But up came a thicker cloud, — and 'You sha'n't'
said the moon ; and ' I will ' said the cloud, — but it
couldn't: out shone the moon, quite laughing at its
impudence. I knew her ways, for I've always been
used to watch her. She's the only thing worth look-
ing at in our street at night."

"Don't call \\. your street," said Diamond. ''You're
not going back to it. You're coming to us, you know."

"That's too good to be true," said Nanny.

"There are very few things good enough to be true,"
said Diamond; "but I hope this is. Too good to be
true it can't be. Isn't true good? and isn't good true?
And how, then, can anything be too good to be true?
That's like old Sal — to say that."

" Don't abuse Grannie, Diamond. She's a horrid old
thing, she and her gin bottle; but she'll repent some
day, and then you'll be glad not to have said anything
against her."

"Why?" said Diamond.

" Because you'll be sorry for her."

" I'm sorry for her now."

" Very well. That's right. She'll be sorry too. And
there'll be an end of it."

"All right. You come to us," said Diamond.

"Where was I?" said Nanny.

' Telling me how the moon served the clouds.

>»

3o8 At the Back of the North Wind

**Yes, but it wouldn't do, all of it. Up came the
clouds and the clouds, and they came faster and faster,
until the moon was covered up. You couldn't expect
her to throw off a hundred of them at once — could
you?"

" Certainly not," said Diamond.

'*So it grew very dark; and a dog began to yelp
in the house. I looked and saw that the door to the
garden was shut. Presently it was opened — not to let
me out, but to let the dog in — yelping and bounding.
I thought if he caught sight of me, I was in for a
biting first, and the police after. So I jumped up,
and ran for a little summer-house in the corner of
the garden. The dog came after me, but I shut the
door in his face. It was well it had a door — wasn't
it?"

"You dreamed of the door because you wanted it,"
said Diamond.

'' No, I didn't; it came of itself. It was there, in the
true dream."

*' There — I've caught you!" said Diamond. "I knew
you believed in the dream as much as I do."

"Oh, well, if you will lay traps for a body!" said
Nanny. "Anyhow, I was safe inside the summer-
house. And what do you think? — There was the
moon beginning to shine again — but only through one
of the panes — and that one was just the colour of the
ruby. Wasn't it funny?"

" No, not a bit funny," said Diamond.

" If you will be contrary!" said Nanny.

"No, no," said Diamond; "I only meant that was

Nanny's Dream

309

the very pane I should have expected her to shine
through."

*'Oh, very well!" returned Nanny.

What Diamond meant, I do not pretend to say. He
had curious no-
tionsabout things.

((

And

now,

said Nanny, " I

didn't know what

to do, for the dog

kept barking at

the door, and I

couldn't get out.

But the moon was

so beautiful that I

couldn't keep from

looking at it

through the red

pane. And as I

looked itgot larger

and larger till it

filled the whole

pane and outgrew

it, so that I could see it through the other panes;

and it grew till it filled them too and the whole

window, so that the summer-house was nearly as bright

as day.

*'The dog stopped barking, and I heard a gentle
tapping at the door, like the wind blowing a little
branch against it."

"Just like her," said Diamond, who thought every-

3IO At the Back of the North Wind

thing strange and beautiful must be done by North
Wind.

'*So I turned from the window and opened the door;
and what do you think I saw?"

'* A beautiful lady," said Diamond.

^* No — the moon itself, as big as a little house, and
as round as a ball, shining like yellow silver. It stood
on the grass — down on the very grass: I could see
nothing else for the brightness of it. And as I stared
and wondered, a door opened in the side of it, near
"he ground, and a curious little old man, with a crooked
thing over his shoulder, looked out, and said: 'Come
along, Nanny, my lady wants you. We're come to
fetch you.' I wasn't a bit frightened. I went up to
the beautiful bright thing, and the old man held down
his hand, and I took hold of it, and gave a jump, and
he gave me a lift, and I was inside the moon. And
what do you think it was like? It was such a pretty
little house, with blue windows and white curtains!
At one of the windows sat a beautiful lady, with her
head leaning on her hand, looking out. She seemed
rather sad, and I was sorry for her, and stood staring
at her.

'*'You didn't think I had such a beautiful mistress
as that!' said the queer little man. 'No, indeed!' I
answered: 'who would have thought it?' 'Ah! who
indeed? But you see you don't know everything.'
The little man closed the door, and began to pull at
a rope which hung behind it with a weight at the
end. After he had pulled a while, he said — ' There,
th.at will do; we're all right now.' Then he took me

Nanny's Dream

by the hand and opened a little trap in the floor, and
let me down two or three steps, and I saw like a great
hole below me. ' Don't be frightened,' said the little
man. ' It's not a hole. It's only a window. Put
your face down and look through.' I did as he told
me, and there

w^as the garden
and the summer-
house, far away,
lying at the bot-
tom of the moon-
light. 'There!'
said the little man;
' we've brought
you off! Do you
see the little dog
barking at us
down there in the
garden?' I told
him I couldn't see
anything so far.
' Can you see any-
thing so small and
so far off?' 1 said.

'Bless you, child!' said the little man; 'I could pick
up a needle out of the grass if I had only a long enough
arm. There's one lying by the door of the summer-
house now.' I looked at his eyes. They were very
small, but so bright that I think he saw^ by the light
that went out of them. Then he took me up, and up
again by a little stair in a corner of the room, and

g^^^j^/^y/e

312 At the Back of the North Wind

through another trap-door, and there was one great
round window above us, and I saw the blue sky and
the clouds, and such lots of stars, all so big, and shining
as hard as ever they could!"

** The little girl-angels had been polishing them," said
Diamond.

'^ What nonsense you do talk!" said Nanny.

''But my nonsense is just as good as yours, Nanny.
When you have done, I'll tell you my dream. The
stars are in it — not the moon, though. She was away
somewhere. Perhaps she was gone to fetch you then.
I don't think that, though, for my dream was longer ago
than yours. She might have been to fetch some one
else, though ; for we can't fancy it's only us that get
such fine things done for them. But do tell me what
came next."

Perhaps one of my child- readers may remember
whether the moon came down to fetch him or her
the same night that Diamond had his dream. I cannot
tell, of course. I know she did not come to fetch me,
though I did think I could make her follow me when
I was a boy — not a very tiny one either.

''The little man took me all round the house, and
made me look out of every window. Oh, it was
beautiful ! There we were, all up in the air, in such
a nice clean little house! 'Your work will be to keep
the windows bright,' said the little man. 'You won't
find it very difficult, for there ain't much dust up here.
Only, the frost settles on them sometimes, and the
drops of rain leave marks on them.' 'I can easily
clean them inside,' 1 said; 'but how am I to get the

C 14S

AT THE ENTRAiNXE TO THE MOON

Nanny's Dream 31.

frost and the rain off the outside of them?' *Oh!' he
said, * it's quite easy. There are ladders all about.
You've only got to go out at the door, and climb
about. There are a great many windows you haven't
seen yet, and some of them look into places you don't
know anything about. I used to clean them myself,
but I'm getting rather old, you see. Ain't I now?' ' 1
can't tell,' I answered. 'You see I never saw you when
you were younger.' ' Never saw the man in the moon?'
said he. ' Not very near,' I answered — 'not to tell you
how young or how old he looked. I have seen the
bundle of sticks on his back.' For Jim had pointed
that out to me. Jim was very fond of looking at the
man in the moon. Poor Jim! I wonder he hasn't been
to see me. I'm afraid he's ill too."

"I'll try to find out," said Diamond, "and let you
know."

"Thank you," said Nanny. "You and Jim ought
to be friends."

" But what did the man in the moon say, when you
told him you had seen him with the bundle of sticks
on his back?"

"He laughed. But I thought he looked offended
too. His little nose turned up sharper, and he drew
the corners of his mouth down from the tips of his
ears into his neck. But he didn't look cross, you
know."

" Didn't he say anything?"

"Oh, yes! He said: 'That's all nonsense. What
you saw was my bundle of dusters. I was going to
clean the windows. It takes a good many, you know.

314 At the Back of the North Wind

Really, what they do say of their superiors down there!'
' It's only because they don't know better,' I ventured
to say. 'Of course, of course,' said the little man.
' Nobody ever does know better. Well, I forgive them,
and that sets it all right, I hope.' ' It's very good of
you,' I said. 'No!' said he, 'it's not in the least good
of me. I couldn't be comfortable otherwise.' After this
he said nothing for a while, and I laid myself on the
floor of his garret, and stared up and around at the great
blue beautifulness. 1 had forgotten him almost, when
at last he said: 'Ain't you done yet?' 'Done what?'
I asked. 'Done saying your prayers,' says he. 'I
wasn't saying my prayers,' I answered. 'Oh yes, you
were,' said he, 'though you didn't know it! And now
I must show you something else.'

" He took my hand and led me down the stair again,
and through a narrow passage, and through another,
and another, and another. I don't know how there
could be room for so many passages in such a little
house. The heart of it must be ever so much farther
from the sides than they are from each other. How
could it have an inside that was so independent of its
outside? There's the point. It was funny — wasn't it,
Diamond?"

" No," said Diamond. He was going to say that that
was very much the sort of thing at the back of the north
wind; but he checked himself and only added, "All
right. I don't see it. I don't see why the inside should
depend on the outside. It ain't so with the crabs. They
creep out of their outsides and make new ones. Mr.
Raymond told me so."

Nanny's Dream 315

"I don't see what that has got to do with it," said
Nanny.

"Then go on with your story, please," said Diamond.
*'What did you come to, after going through all those
winding passages into the heart of the moon?"

" I didn't say they were wmding passages. I said
they were long and narrow. They didn't wind. They
went by corners."

" That's worth knowing," remarked Diamond. *' For
who knows how soon he may have to go there? But the
main thing is, what did you come to at last?"

" We came to a small box against the wall of a tiny
room. The little man told me to put my ear against it.
I did so, and heard a noise something like the purring
of a cat, only not so loud, and much sweeter. 'What
is it?' I asked. * Don't you know the sound?' returned
the little man. ' No,' I answered. * Don't you know
the sound of bees?' he said. I had never heard bees,
and could not know the sound of them. ' Those are my
lady's bees,' he went on. I had heard that bees gather
honey from the flowers. * But where are the flowers for
them?' I asked. * My lady's bees gather their honey
from the sun and the stars,' said the little man. 'Do
let me see them,' I said. ' No. I daren't do that,' he
answered. ' I have no business with them. I don't
understand them. Besides, they are so bright that it
one were to fly into your eye, it would blind you alto-
gether.' 'Then you have seen them?' 'Oh, yes!
Once or twice, I think. But I don't quite know: they
are so very bright — like buttons of lightning. Now
I've showed you all I can to-night, and wi'll go back

3i6 At the Back of the North Wind

to the room.' I followed him, and he made me sit
down under a lamp that hung from the roof, and gave
me some bread and honey.

**The lady had never moved. She sat with her
forehead leaning on her hand, gazing out of the little
window, hung like the rest with white cloudy curtains.
From where I was sitting I looked out of it too, but
I could see nothing. Her face was very beautiful,
and very white, and very still, and her hand was as
white as the forehead that leaned on it. I did not see
her whole face — only the side of it, for she never moved
to turn it full upon me, or even to look at me.

*^ How long I sat after I had eaten my bread and
honey, I don't know. The little man was busy about
the room, pulling a string here, and a string there,
but chiefly the string at the back of the door. I was
thinking with some uneasiness that he would soon be
wanting me to go out and clean the windows, and
I didn't fancy the job. At last he came up to me
with a great armful of dusters. * It's time you set
about the windows,' he said; ^ for there's rain coming,
and if they're quite clean before, then the rain can't
spoil them.' I got up at once. 'You needn't be
afraid,' he said. * You won't tumble off. Only you
must be careful. Always hold on with one hand while
you rub with the other.' As he spoke, he opened the
door. I started back in a terrible fright, for there was
nothing but blue air to be seen under me, like a great
water without a bottom at all. But what must be must,
and to live up here was so much nicer than down in the
mud with holes in my shoes, that I never thought of not

Nanny's Dream 317

doing as I was told. The little man showed me how
and where to lay hold while I put my foot round the
edge of the door on to the first round of a ladder.
'Once you're up,' he said, * you'll see how you have
to go well enough.' I did as he told me, and crept
out very carefully. Then the little man handed me
the bundle of dusters, saying, ' I always carry them
on my reaping hook, but I don't think you could
manage it properly. You shall have it if you like.'
I wouldn't take it, however, for it looked dangerous.
" I did the best 1 could with the dusters, and crawled
up to the top of the moon. But what a grand sight
it was ! The stars were all over my head, so bright
and so near that I could almost have laid hold of them.
The round ball to which I clung went bobbing and
floating away through the dark blue above and below
and on every side. It was so beautiful that all fear
left me, and I set to work diligently. I cleaned window
after window. At length I came to a very little one,
in at which I peeped. There was the room with the
box of bees in it! I laid my ear to the window, and
heard the musical hum quite distinctly. A great long-
ing to see them came upon me, and I opened the
window and crept in. The little box had a door like
a closet. I opened it — the tiniest crack — when out
came the light with such a sting that I closed it again
in terror — not, however, before three bees had shot out
into the room, where they darted about like flashes
of lightning. Terribly frightened, I tried to get out
of the window again, but I could not: there was no
way to the outside of the moon but through the door;

3i8 At the Back of the North Wind

and that was in the room where the lady sat. No
sooner had I reached the room, than the three bees,
which had followed me, flew at once to the lady, and
settled upon her hair. Then first I saw her move.
She started, put up her hand, and caught them; then
rose and, having held them into the flame of the lamp
one after the other, turned to me. Her face was not
so sad now as stern. It frightened me much. ' Nanny,
you have got me into trouble,' she said. 'You have
been letting out my bees, which it is all I can do to
manage. You have forced me to burn them. It is
a great loss, and there will be a storm.' As she spoke,
the clouds had gathered all about us. I could see
them come crowding up white about the windows. ^ I
am sorry to find,' said the lady, 'that you are not to
be trusted. You must go home again — you won't do
for us.' Then came a great clap of thunder, and the
moon rocked and swayed. All grew dark about me,
and I fell on the floor, and lay half-stunned. I could
hear everything but could see nothing. ' Shall I throw
her out of the door, my lady?' said the little man. ' No,'
she answered; 'she's not quite bad enough for that. I
don't think there's much harm in her; only she'll never
do for us. She would make dreadful mischief up here.
She's only fit for the mud. It's a great pity. I am
sorry for her. Just take that ring ofl" her finger. I am
sadly afraid she has stolen it.' The little man caught
hold of my hand, and I felt him tugging at the ring. I
tried to speak what was true about it, but, after a terrible
efl"ort, only gave a groan. Other things began to come
into my head. Somebody else had a hold of me. The

Nanny's Dream 319

little man wasn't there. I opened my eyes at last, and
saw the nurse. I had cried out in my sleep, and she
had come and waked me. But, Diamond, for all it was
only a dream, I cannot help being- ashamed of myself
yet for opening- the lady's box of bees."

"You wouldn't do it again — would you — if she were
to take you back?" said Diamond.

" No. I don't think anything would ever make me
do it again. But where's the good? I shall never have
the chance."

" I don't know that," said Diamond.

'* You silly baby! It was only a dream," said Nanny.

" I know that, Nanny, dear. But how can you tell
you mayn't dream again?"

''That's not a bit likely."

" I don't know that," said Diamond.

"You're always saying that," said Nanny. *' I don't
like it."

"Then I won't say it again — if I don't forget," said
Diamond. "' But it was such a beautiful dream! — wasn't
it, Nanny? What a pity you opened that door and let
the bees out! You might have had such a long dream,
and such nice talks with the moon-lady! Do try to go
again, Nanny. I do so want to hear more."

But now the nurse came and told him it was time
to go; and Diamond went, saying to himself, "I can't
help thinking that North Wind had something to do
with that dream. It would be tiresome to lie there
all day and night too — without dreaming. Perhaps
if she hadn't done that, the moon might have carried
her to the back of the north wind — who knows?"

CHAPTER XXXI

The North Wind Doth Blow

IT was a great delight to Diamond when at length
Nanny was well enough to leave the hospital and
go home to their house. She was not very strong
y^et, but Diamond's mother was very considerate of her,
and took care that she should have nothing to do she
was not quite fit for. If Nanny had been taken straight
from the street, it is very probable she would not have
been so pleasant in a decent household, or so easy to
teach; but after the refining influences of her illness
and the kind treatment she had had in the hospital,
she moved about the house just like some rather sad
pleasure haunting the mind. As she got better, and
the colour came back to her cheeks, her step grew
lighter and quicker, her smile shone out more readily,
and it became certain that she would soon be a treasure
of help. It was great fun to see Diamond teaching
her how to hold the baby, and wash and dress him,
and often they laughed together over her awkward-
ness. But she had not many such lessons before she
was able to perform those duties quite as well as Dia-
mond himself.

Things however did not go well with Joseph from
the very arrival of Ruby. It almost seemed as if the

320

The North Wind Doth Blow

121

red beast had brought ill luck with him. The fares
were fewer, and the pay less. Ruby's services did in-
deed make the week's income at first a little beyond
what it used to be, but then there were two more to
feed. After the first month he fell lame, and for the
whole of the
next, Joseph

dared not at-
tempt to work
him. I cannot
say that he never
grumbled, for
his own health
was far from
what it had
been ; but I can
say that he tried
to do his best.
During all that

month, theylived
on very short
commons in-
deed, seldom
tasting meat ex-
cept on Sundays, and poor old Diamond, who worked
hardest of all, not even then — so that at the end of it he
was as thin as a clothes-horse, while Ruby was as plump
and sleek as a bishop's cob.

Nor was it much better after Ruby was able to work
again, for it was a season of great depression in busi-
ness, and that is very soon felt amongst the cabmen.

( C 145 )

322 At the Back of the North Wind

City men look more after their shillings, and their
wives and daughters have less to spend. It was be-
sides a wet autumn, and bread rose greatly in price.
When I add to this that Diamond's mother was but
poorly, for a new baby was coming, you will see that
these were not very jolly times for our friends in the
mevv's.

Notwithstanding the depressing influences around
him, however, Joseph was able to keep a little hope
alive in his heart; and when he came home at night,
would get Diamond to read to him, and would also
make Nanny produce her book that he might see
how she was getting on. For Diamond had taken her
education in hand, and as she was a clever child, she
was very soon able to put letters and words together.

Thus the three months passed away, but Mr. Ray-
mond did not return. Joseph had been looking an-
xiously for him, chiefly with the desire of getting rid
of Ruby — not that he was absolutely of no use to
him, but that he was a constant weight upon his
mind. Indeed, as far as provision went, he was
rather worse off with Ruby and Nanny than he had
been before, but on the other hand, Nanny was a
great help in the house, and it was a comfort to him
to think that when the new baby did come, Nanny
would be with his wife.

Of God's gifts a baby is of the greatest; therefore it
is no wonder that when this one came, she was as
heartily welcomed by the little household as if she
had brought plenty with her. Of course she made a
great difference in the work to be done — far more dif-

The North Wind Doth Blow

323

ference than her size warranted, but Nanny was no
end of help, and Diamond was as much of a sun-
beam as ever, and began to sing to the new baby
the first moment he got her in his arms. But he did
not sing the same songs to her that he had sung to
his brother; for,
he said, she was
a new baby and
must have new
songs ; and be-
sides, she was a
sister- baby and
not a brother-
baby, and of
course would not
like the same
kind of songs.
Where the dif-
ference in his
songs lay, how-
ever, I do not
pretend to be
able to point
out. One thing

I am sure of, that they not only had no small share
in the education of the little girl, but helped the whole
family a great deal more than they were aware.

How they managed to get through the long dreary
expensive winter, I can hardly say. Sometimes things
were better, sometimes worse. But at last the spring
came, and the winter was over and gone, and that

324 At the Back of the North Wind

was much. Still Mr. Raymond did not return, and
although the mother would have been able to manage
without Nanny now, they could not look for a place
for her so long as they had Ruby; and they were
not altogether sorry for this.

One week at last was worse than they had yet had.
They were almost without bread before it was over.
But the sadder he saw his father and mother look-
ing, the more Diamond set himself to sing to the
two babies.

One thing which had increased their expenses was,
that they had been forced to hire another little room
for Nanny. When the second baby came. Diamond
gave up his room that Nanny might be at hand to
help his mother, and went to hers, which, although a
fine place to what she had been accustomed to, was
not very nice in his eyes. He did not mind the change
though, for was not his mother the more comfortable
for it? And was not Nanny more comfortable too?
And indeed was not Diamond himself more comfort-
able that other people were more comfortable? And
if there was more comfort every way, the change was
a happy one.

CHAPTER XXXII

Diamond and Ruby

IT was Friday night, and Diamond, like the rest of
the household, had had very little to eat that day.
The mother would always pay the week's rent be-
fore she laid out anything even on food. His father had
been very gloomy — so gloomy that he had actually been
cross to his wife. It is a strange thing how the pain
of seeing the suffering of those we love will sometimes
make us add to their suffering by being cross with them.
This comes of not having faith enough in God, and
shows how necessary this faith is, for when we lose it,
we lose even the kindness which alone can soothe the
suffering. Diamond in consequence had gone to bed
very quiet and thoughtful — a little troubled indeed.

It had been a very stormy winter; and even now
that the spring had come, the north wind often blew.
When Diamond went to his bed, which was in a tiny
room in the roof, he heard it like the sea moan-
ing; and when he fell asleep he still heard the moan-
ing. All at once he said to himself, ''Am I awake,
or am I asleep?" But he had no time to answer the
question, for there was North Wind calling him. His
heart beat very fast, it was such a long time since he
had heard that voice. He jumped out of bed, and

826

326 At the Back of the North Wind

looked everywhere, but could not see her. ** Diamond,
come here," she said again and again; but where the
here was he could not tell. To be sure the room was
all but quite dark, and she might be close beside him.

''Dear North Wind," said Diamond, ''I want so
much to go to you, but I can't tell where."

''Come here. Diamond," was all her answer.

Diamond opened the door, and went out of the room,
and down the stair and into the yard. His little heart
was in a flutter, for he had long given up all thought
of seeing her again. Neither now was he to see her.
When he got out, a great puff of wind came against
him, and in obedience to it he turned his back, and
went as it blew. It blew him right up to the stable-
door, and went on blowing.

"She wants me to go into the stable," said Dia-
mond, to himself; "but the door is locked."

He knew where the key was, in a certain hole in
the wall — far too high for him to get at. He ran to
the place, however: just as he reached it there came
a wild blast, and down fell the key clanging on the
stones at his feet. He picked it up, and ran back
and opened the stable-door, and went in. And what
do you think he saw?

A little light came through the dusty window from
a gas lamp, sufficient to show him Diamond and
Ruby with their two heads up, looking at each other
across the partition of their stalls. The light showed
the white mark on Diamond's forehead, but Ruby's
eye shone so bright, that he thought more light came
out of it than went in. This is what he saw.

Diamond and Ruby

327

But what do you think he heard?

He heard the two horses talking to each other — in
a strange language, which yet, somehow or other, he
could understand, and turn over in his mind in Eng-
lish. The first words he heard were from Diamond,
who apparently
had been already
quarrelling with
Ruby.

" Look how
fat you are,
Ruby!" said old
Diamond. "You
are so plump
and your skin
shines so, you
ought to be a-
shamed of your-
self."

'' There's no
harm in being
fat," said Ruby
in a deprecat-
ing tone. " No,
nor in being sleek. I may as well shine as not.'

"No harm?" retorted Diamond. "Is it no harm to
go eating up all poor master's oats, and taking up so
much of his time grooming you, when you only work
six hours — no, not six hours a day, and, as I hear,
get along no faster than a big dray-horse with two
tons behind him? — So they tell me."

328 At the Back of the North Wind

((

Your master's not mine," said Ruby. ** I must
attend to my own master's interests, and eat all that is
given me, and be as sleek and fat as I can, and go
no faster than I need."

''Now really if the rest of the horses weren't all
asleep, poor things — they work till they're tired — I do
believe they would get up and kick you out of the
stable. You make me ashamed of being a horse.
You dare to say my master ain't your master! That's
your gratitude for the way he feeds you and spares
you ! Pray where would your carcass be if it weren't
for him?"

"He doesn't do it for my sake. If I were his
own horse, he would work me as hard as he does
you."

*'And I'm proud to be so worked. I wouldn't be
as fat as you — not for all you're worth. You're a dis-
grace to the stable. Look at the horse next you.
He's something like a horse — all skin and bone. And
his master ain't over kind to him either. He put a
stinging lash on his whip last week. But that old
horse knows he's got the wife and children to keep
— as well as his drunken master — and he works like
a horse. I daresay he grudges his master the beer
he drinks, but I don't believe he grudges anything
else."

''Well, I don't grudge yours what he gets by me,"
said Ruby.

"Gets!" retorted Diamond. "What he gets isn't
worth grudging. It comes to next to nothing — what
with vour fat and your shine."

Diamond and Ruby 329

*^Well, at least you ought to be thankful you're the
better for it. You get a two hours' rest a day out
of it."

** I thank my master for that — not you, you lazy
fellow! You go along like a buttock of beef upon
castors — you do."

'*Ain't you afraid I'll kick, if you go on like that,
Diamond?"

''Kick! You couldn't kick if you tried. You might
heave your rump up half a foot, but for lashing out —
oho! If you did, you'd be down on your belly be-
fore you could get your legs under you again. It's
my belief, once out, they'd stick out for ever. Talk
of kicking! Why don't you put one foot before the
other now and then when you're in the cab? The
abuse master gets for your sake is quite shameful.
No decent horse would bring it on him. Depend
upon it, Ruby, no cabman likes to be abused any
more than his fare. But his fares, at least when you
are between the shafts, are very much to be excused.
Indeed they are."

" Well, you see. Diamond, I don't want to go lame
again."

" I don't believe you were so very lame, after all,
—there!"

"Oh, but I was."

"Then I believe it was all your own fault. I'm not
lame. I never was lame in all my life. You don't take
care of your legs. You never lay them down at night.
There you are with your huge carcass crushing down
your poor legs all night long. You don't even care

330 At the Back of the North Wind

for your own legs — so long as you can eat, eat, and
sleep, sleep. You ahorse indeed!"

'* But I tell you I was lame."

*' I'm not denying there was a puffy look about your
off-pastern. But my belief is, it wasn't even grease —
it was fat."

''I tell you I put my foot on one of those horrid
stones they make the roads with, and it gave my ankle
such a twist."

** Ankle indeed! Why should you ape your betters?
Horses ain't got any ankles: they're only pasterns.
And so long as you don't lift your feet better, but fall
asleep between every step, you'll run a good chance
of laming all your ankles as you call them, one after
another. It's not your lively horse that comes to grief
in that way. I tell you I believe it wasn't much, and
if it was it was your own fault. There! I've done. I'm
going to sleep. I'll try to think as well of you as I can.
If you would but step out a bit and run off a little of
your fat!"

Here Diamond began to double up his knees; but
Ruby spoke again, and, as young Diamond thought,
in a rather different tone.

" I say, Diamond, I can't bear to have an honest
old horse like you, think of me like that. I will tell
you the truth: it was my own fault that I fell lame."

*' I told you so," returned the other, tumbling against
the partition as he rolled over on his side to give his
legs every possible privilege in their narrow circum-
stances.

** I meant to do it, Diamond,"

Diamond and Ruby 331

At the words, the old horse arose with a scramble like
thunder, shot his angry head and glaring eye over into
Ruby's stall, and said —

*' Keep out of my way, you unworthy wretch, or I'll
bite you. You a horse! Why did you do that?"

*' Because I wanted to grow fat."

''You grease-tub! Oh! my teeth and tail! I thought
you were a humbug! Why did you want to get fat?
There's no truth to be got out of you but by cross-
questioning. You ain't fit to be a horse."

*' Because once I am fat, my nature is to keep fat
for a long time; and I didn't know when master might
come home and want to see me."

'' You conceited, good-for-nothing brute ! You're only
fit for the knacker's yard. You wanted to look hand-
some, did you? Hold your tongue, or I'll break my
halter and be at you — with your handsome fat!"

*' Never mind. Diamond. You're a good horse. You
can't hurt me."

'' Can't hurt you! Just let me once try."

'' No, you can't."

''Why then?"

"Because I'm an angel."

"What's that?"

" Of course you don't know."

" Indeed I don't."

" I know you don't. An ignorant, rude old human
horse, like you, couldn't know it. But there's young
Diamond listening to all we're saying; and he knows
well enough there are horses in heaven for angels to
ride upon, as well as other animals, lions and eagles

332 At the Back of the North Wind

and bulls, in more important situations. The horses
the angels ride, must be angel-horses, else the angels
couldn't ride upon them. Well, I'm one of them."

^* You ain't."

** Did you ever know a horse tell a lie?"

*' Never before. But you've confessed to shamming
lame."

*' Nothing of the sort. It was necessary I should
grow fat, and necessary that good Joseph, your master,
should grow lean. I could have pretended to be lame,
but that no horse, least of all an angel-horse, would do.
So I must he lame, and so I sprained my ankle — for the
angel-horses have ankles — they don't talk horse-slang up
there — and it hurt me very much, I assure you, Dia-
mond, though you mayn't be good enough to be able to
believe it."

Old Diamond made no reply. He had lain down
again, and a sleepy snort, very like a snore, revealed
that, if he was not already asleep, he was past under-
standing a word that Ruby was saying. When young
Diamond found this, he thought he might venture to
take up the dropt shuttlecock of the conversation.

'* I'm good enough to believe it. Ruby," he said.

But Ruby never turned his head, or took any notice
of him. I suppose he did not understand more of
English than just what the coachmen and stablemen
were in the habit of addressing him with. Finding,
however, that his companion made no reply, he shot
his head over the partition and looking down at him
said —

** You just wait till to-morrow, and you'll see whether

Diamond and Ruby 333

I'm speaking the truth or not. — I declare the old horse
is fast asleep! — Diamond! — No I won't."

Ruby turned away, and began pulling at his hay-rack
in silence.

Diamond gave a shiver, and looking round saw that
the door of the stable was open. He began to feel as
if he had been dreaming, and after a glance about the
stable to see if North Wind was anywhere visible he
thought he had better go back to bed.

CHAPTER XXXIII

The Prospect Brightens

THE next morning, Diamond's mother said to his
father, ^'Tm not quite comfortable about that
child again."

''Which child, Martha?" asked Joseph. "You've
got a choice now."

"Well, Diamond I mean. I'm afraid he's getting
into his queer ways again. He's been at his old trick
of walking in his sleep. I saw him run up the stair in
the middle of the night."

" Didn't you go after him, wife?"

"Of course I did — and found him fast asleep in his
bed. It's because he's had so little meat for the last
six weeks, I'm afraid."

" It may be that. I'm very sorry. But if it don't
please God to send us enough, what am I to do,
wife?"

"You can't help it, I know, my dear good man,"
returned Martha. "And after all I don't know. I
don't see why he shouldn't get on as well as the rest
of us. There I'm nursing baby all this time, and I
get along pretty well. I'm sure to hear the little man
singing, you wouldn't think there was much amiss with
him."

334

The Prospect Brightens 335

For at that moment Diamond was singing like a lark
in the clouds. He had the new baby in his arms, while
his mother was dressing herself. Joseph was sitting at
his breakfast — a little weak tea, dry bread, and very
dubious butter — which Nanny had set for him, and
which he was enjoying because he was hungry. He
had groomed both horses, and had got old Diamond
ready to put to.

''Think of a fat angel. Dulcimer!" said Diamond.

The baby had not been christened yet, but Diamond,
in reading his bible, had come upon the word dulcimer^
and thought it so pretty that ever after he called his
sister Dulcimer.

''Think of a red fat angel. Dulcimer!" he repeated;
"for Ruby's an angel of a horse, Dulcimer. He
sprained his ankle and got fat on purpose."

" What purpose. Diamond?" asked his father.

"Ah! that I can't tell. I suppose to look handsome
when his master comes," answered Diamond. — "What
^o you think. Dulcimer? It must be for some good, for
Ruby's an angel."

" I wish I were rid of him, anyhow," said his father;
" for he weighs heavy on my mind."

" No wonder, father: he's so fat," said Diamond.
" But you needn't be afraid, for everybody says he's
in better condition than when you had him."

" Yes, but he may be as thin as a tin horse before his
owner comes. It was too bad to leave him on my
hands this way."

" Perhaps he couldn't help it," suggested Diamond.
" I daresay he has some good reason for it."

336 At the Back of the North Wind

**So I should have said," returned his father, ^'if he
had not driven such a hard bargain with me at first.''

'* But we don't know what may come of it yet, hus-
band," said his wife. " Mr. Raymond may give a Httle
to boot, seeing you've had more of the bargain than you
wanted or reckoned upon."

** I'm afraid not: he's a hard man," said Joseph, as
he rose and went to get his cab out.

Diamond resumed his singing. For some time he
carolled snatches of everything or anything; but at last
it settled down into something like what follows. I
cannot tell where or how he got it.

Where did you come from, baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into here.

Where did you get your eyes so blue?
Out of the sky as I came through.

What makes the light In them sparkle and spin?
Some of the starry spikes left In.

Where did you get that little tear?
I found It waiting when I got here.

What makes your forehead so smooth and high?
A soft hand stroked It as I went by.

What makes your cheek Hke a warm white rose?
I saw something better than any one knows.

Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?
Three angels gave me at once a kiss.

Where did you get this pearly ear?
God spoke, and It came out to hear.

Where did 5'ou get those arms and hands?
Love made Itseh' Into hooks and bands.

The Prospect Brightens 337

Feet, whence did you come, you darling;;- things?
From the same box as the cherubs' wings.

How did they all just come to be you?
God thought about me, and so I grew.

But how did you come to us, you dear?
God thought about you, and so I am here.

" You never made that song", Diamond," said his
mother.

''No, mother. I wish I had. No, I don't. That
would be to take it from somebody else. But it's mine
for all that."

" What makes it yours?"

'' I love it so."

*' Does loving a thing make it yours?"

" I think so, mother — at least more than anything
else can. If I didn't love baby (which couldn't be,
you know), she wouldn't be mine a bit. But I do love
baby, and baby is my very own Dulcimer."

"The baby's mine. Diamond."

"That makes her the more mine, mother."

" How do you make that out?"

" Because you're mine, mother."

" Is that because you love me?"

"Yes, just because. Love makes the only myness,"
said Diamond.

When his father came home to have his dinner, and
change Diamond for Ruby, they saw him look very
sad, and he told them he had not had a fare worth
mentioning the whole morning.

"We shall all have to go to the workhouse, wife,"
he said.

( 0 146 ) 22

338 At the Back of the North Wind

*' It would be better to go to the back of the north wind,"
said Diamond, dreamily, not intending" to say it aloud.

"So it would," answered his father. *' But how are
we to get there. Diamond?"

" We must wait till we're taken," returned Diamond.

Before his fa-
ther could speak
again, a knock
came to the door,
and in walked
Mr. Raymond
with a smile on
his face. Joseph
got up and re-
ceived him re-
spectfully, but
not very cordial-
ly. Martha set
a chair for him,
but he would not
sit down.

" You are not
very glad to see
me," he said to
Joseph. " You don't want to part with the old horse."

*' Indeed, sir, you are mistaken there. What with
anxiety about him, and bad luck, I've wished I were
rid of him a thousand times. It was only to be for
three months, and here it's eight or nine."

"I'm sorry to hear such a statement," said Mr. Ray
mond. " Hasn't he been of service to you?"

The Prospect Brightens 339

'' Not much, not with his lameness "

'*Ah!" said Mr. Raymiond, hastily — ''you've been
laming him — have you? That accounts for it. I see,
I see."

''It wasn't my fault, and he's all right now. I don't
know how it happened, but "

"He did it on purpose," said Diamond. "He put
his foot on a stone just to twist his ankle."

"How do you know that. Diamond?" said his father,
turning to him. " I never said so, for I could not think
how it came."

" I heard it — in the stable," said Diamond.

" Let's have a look at him," said Mr. Raymond.

" If you'll step into the yard," said Joseph, " I'll bring
him out."

They went, and Joseph, having first taken off his
harness, walked Ruby into the middle of the yard.

"Why," said Mr. Raymond, "you've not been using
him well."

" I don't know what you mean by that, sir. I didn't
expect to hear that from you. He's sound in wind and
limb — as sound as a barrel."

" And as big, you might add. Why, he's as fat as a
pig! You don't call that good usage!"

Joseph was too angry to make any answer.

"You've not worked him enough, I say. That's not
making a good use of him. That's not doing as you'd
be done by."

" I shouldn't be sorry if I was served the same, sir."

"He's too fat, I say."

"There was a whole month I couldn't work him at

340 At the Back of the North Wind

all, and he did nothing but eat his head off. He's an
awtul eater. I've taken the best part of six hours a day
out of him since, but I'm always afraid of his coming to
grief again, and so I couldn't make the most even of
that. I declare to you, sir, when he's between the
shafts, I sit on the box as miserable as if I'd stolen him.
He looks all the time as if he was a-bottling up of com-
plaints to make of me the minute he sets eyes on you
again. There! look at him now, squinting round at me
with one eye! I declare to you, on my word, I haven't
laid the whip on him more than three times."

*' I'm glad to hear it. He never did want the whip."

**I didn't say that, sir. If ever a horse wanted the
whip, he do. He's brought me to beggary almost with
his snail's pace. I'm very glad you've come to rid me
of him."

^' I don't know that," said Mr. Raymond. ^'Suppose
I were to ask you to buy him of me — cheap."

*^I wouldn't have him in a present, sir. I don't like
him. And I wouldn't drive a horse that I didn't like —
no, not for gold. It can't come to good where there's
no love between 'em."

** Just bring out your own horse, and let me see what
sort of a pair they'd make."

Joseph laughed rather bitterly as he went to fetch
Diamond.

When the two were placed side by side, Mr. Raymond
could hardly keep his countenance, but from a mingling
of feelings. Beside the great red round barrel Ruby, all
body and no legs. Diamond looked like a clothes-horse
with a skin thrown over it. There was hardly a spot of

The Prospect Brightens 34'

him where you could not descry some sign of a bone
underneath. Gaunt and grim and weary he stood,
kissing his master, and heeding no one else.

'*You haven't been using him well," said Mr.
Raymond.

*' I must say," returned Joseph, throwing an arm
round his horse's neck, **that the remark had better
have been spared, sir. The horse is worth three of
the other now."

** I don't think so. I think they make a very nice
pair. If the one's too fat, the other's too lean — so
that's all right. And if you won't buy my Ruby, I
must buy your Diamond."

'* Thank you, sir," said Joseph, in a tone implying
anything but thanks.

*'You don't seem to like the proposal," said Mr.
Raymond.

"I don't," returned Joseph. ^' I wouldn't part with
my old Diamond for his skin as full of nuggets as it
is of bones."

*' Who said anything about parting with him?"

''You did now, sir."

''No; I didn't. I only spoke of buying him to make
a pair with Ruby. We could pare Ruby and patch
Diamond a bit. And for height, they are as near a
match as I care about. Of course you would be the
coachman — if only you would consent to be reconciled
to Ruby."

Joseph stood bewildered, unable to answer.

" I've bought a small place in Kent," continued Mr.
Raymond, "and I must have a pair to my carriage,

342 At the Back of the North Wind

for the roads are hilly thereabouts. I don't want to
make a show with a pair of high-steppers. I think
these will just do. Suppose for a week or two, you
set yourself to take Ruby down and bring Diamond
up. If we could only lay a pipe from Ruby's sides
into Diamond's, it would be the work of a moment.
But I fear that wouldn't answer."

A strong inclination to laugh intruded upon Joseph's
inclination to cry, and made speech still harder than
before.

*^I beg your pardon, sir," he said at length. ^* I've
been so miserable, and for so long, that I never thought
you was only a-chaffing of me when you said I hadn't
used the horses well. I did grumble at you, sir, many's
the time in my trouble; but whenever I said anything,
my little Diamond would look at me with a smile, as
much as to say: 'I know him better than you, father;'
and upon my word, I always thought the boy must be
right."

*' Will you sell me old Diamond then?"

** I will, sir, on one condition — that if ever you want
to part with him or me, you give me the option of
buying him. I could not part with him, sir. As to
who calls him his, that's nothing; for, as Diamond
says, it's only loving a thing that can make it yours
— and I do love old Diamond, sir, dearly."

*'Well, there's a cheque for twenty pounds, which
I wrote to offer you for him, in case I should find
you had done the handsome thing by Ruby. Wil)
that be enough?"

** It's too much, sir. His body ain't worth it — shoes

The Prospect Brightens 343

and all. It's only his heart, sir — that's worth millions
— but his heart'U be mine all the same — so it's too
much, sir."

''I don't think so. It won't be, at least, by the
time we've got him fed up again. You take it and
welcome. Just go on with your cabbing for another
month, only take it out of Ruby and let Diamond
rest; and by that time I shall be ready for you to go
down into the country."

"Thank you, sir; thank you. Diamond set you
down for a friend, sir, the moment he saw you. I
do believe that child of mine knows more than other
people."

''I think so too," said Mr. Raymond as he walked
away.

He had meant to test Joseph when he made the bar-
gain about Ruby, but had no intention of so greatly
prolonging the trial. He had been taken ill in Switzer-
land, and had been quite unable to return sooner. He
went away now highly gratified at finding that he had
stood the test, and was a true man.

Joseph rushed in to his wife who had been stand-
ing at the window anxiously waiting the result of the
long colloquy. When she heard that the horses were
to go together in double harness, she burst forth into
an immoderate fit of laughter. Diamond came up with
the baby in his arms and made big anxious eyes at her,
saying:

" What is the matter with you, mother dear? Do cry
a little. It will do you good. When father takes ever
so small a drop of spirits, he puts water to it."

344 At the Back of the North Wind

** You silly darling!" said his mother; ''how could I
but laugh at the notion of that great fat Ruby going
side by side with our poor old Diamond?"

''But why not, mother? With a month's oats, and
nothing to do, Diamond'll be nearer Ruby's size than
you will father's. I think it's very good for different
sorts to go together. Now Ruby will have a chance
of teaching Diamond better manners."

" How dare you say such a thing. Diamond?" said
his father, angrily. " To compare the two for manners,
there's no comparison possible. Our Diamond's a gen-
tleman."

"I don't mean to say he isn't, father; for I dare-
say some gentlemen judge their neighbours unjustly.
That's all I mean. Diamond shouldn't have thought
such bad things of Ruby. He didn't try to make the
best of him."

" How do you know that, pray?"

" I heard them talking about it one night."

"Who?"

" Why, Diamond and Ruby. Ruby's an angel."

Joseph stared and said no more. For all his new
gladness, he was very gloomy as he re-harnessed the
angel, for he thought his darling Diamond was going
out of his mind.

He could not help thinking rather differently, how-
ever, when he found the change that had come over
Ruby. Considering his fat, he exerted himself amaz-
ingly, and got over the ground with incredible speed.
So willing, even anxious, was he to go now, that Joseph
had to hold him quite tight.

The Prospect Brightens 345

Then, as he laughed at his own fancies, a new fear
came upon him lest the horse should break his wind,
and Mr. Raymond have good cause to think he had
not been using him well. He might even suppose
that he had taken advantage of his new instructions,
to let out upon the horse some of his pent-up dislike;
whereas in truth, it had so utterly vanished that he
felt as if Ruby too had been his friend all the time.

CHAPTER XXXIV

In the Country

BEFORE the end of the month Ruby had got
respectably thin, and Diamond respectably
stout. They really began to look fit for
double harness.

Joseph and his wife had got their affairs in order,
and everything ready for migrating at the shortest
notice; and they felt so peaceful and happy that they
judged all the trouble they had gone through well
worth enduring. As for Nanny, she had been so
happy ever since she left the hospital, that she ex-
pected nothing better, and saw nothing attractive in
the notion of the country. At the same time, she
had not the least idea of what the word country
meant, for she had never seen anything about her
but streets and gas-lamps. Besides, she was more
attached to Jim than to Diamond: Jim was a reason-
able being. Diamond in her eyes at best only an
amiable, over-grown baby, whom no amount of ex-
postulation would ever bring to talk sense, not to
say think it. Now that she could manage the baby
as well as he, she judged herself altogether his
superior. Towards his father and mother, she was
all they could wish.

S4«

In the Country 347

Diamond had taken a great deal of paius and trouble
to find Jim, and had at last succeeded through the help
of the tall policeman, who was glad to renew his ac-
quaintance with the strange child. Jim had moved his
quarters, and had not heard of Nanny's illness till some
time after she was taken to the hospital, where he was
too shy to go and inquire about her. But when at
length she went to live with Diamond's family, Jim
was willing enough to go and see her. It was after
one of his visits, during which they had been talking
of her new prospects, that Nanny expressed to Dia-
mond her opinion of the country.

'* There ain't nothing in it but the sun and moon,
Diamond."

''There's trees and flowers," said Diamond.

"Well, they ain't no count," returned Nanny.

''Ain't they? They're so beautiful, they make you
happy to look at them."

" That's because you're such a silly."

Diamond smiled with a far-away look, as if he were
gazing through clouds of green loaves and the vision
contented him. But he was thinking with himself what
more he could do for Nanny; and that same evening he
went to find Mr. Raymond, for he had heard that he
had returned to town.

"Ah! how do you do. Diamond?" said Mr. Ray-
mond; "I am glad to see you."

And he was indeed, for he had grown very fond of
him. His opinion of him was very different from
Nanny's.

" What do you want now, my child?" he asked.

348 At the Back of the North Wind

** I'm always wanting something, sir,'* answered Dia-
mond.

** Well, that's quite right, so long as what you want
is right. Everybody is always wanting something;
only we don't mention it in the right place often
enough. What is it now?"

'* There's a friend of Nanny's, a lame boy called Jim."

'' I've heard of him," said Mr. Raymond. '' Well?"

*^ Nanny doesn't care much about going to the
country, sir."

'' Well, what has that to do with Jim?"

**You couldn't find a corner for Jim to work in —
could you, sir?"

** I don't know that I couldn't. That is if you could
show good reason for it."

'^ He's a good boy, sir."

'* Well, so much the better for him.'

'' I know he can shine boots, sir."

"So much the better for us."

*^You want your boots shined in the country — don't
you, sir?"

" Yes, to be sure."

"It wouldn't be nice to walk over the fiowers with
dirty boots — would it, sir?"

"No, indeed."

"They wouldn't like it — would they?"

"No, they wouldn't."

"Then Nanny would be better pleased to go, sir."

" If the flowers didn't like dirty boots to walk over
them, Nanny wouldn't mind going to the country? Is
that it? I don't quite see it."

In the Country 349

**No, sir; I didn't mean that. I meant, if you would
take Jim with you to clean your boots, and do odd jobs,
you know, sir, then Nanny would like it better. She's
so fond of Jim!"

''Now you come to the point. Diamond. I see what
you mean, exactly. I will turn it over in my mind.
Could you bring Jim to see me?"

'' I'll try, sir. But they don't mind me much. —
They think I'm silly," added Diamond, with one of
his sweetest smiles.

What Mr. Raymond thought, I dare hardly attempt
to put down here. But one part of it was, that the
highest wisdom must ever appear folly to those who
do not possess it.

" I think he would come though — after dark, you
know," Diamond continued. " He does well at shin-
ing boots. People's kind to lame boys, you know, sir.
But after dark, there ain't so much doing."

Diamond succeeded in bringing Jim to Mr. Ray-
mond, and the consequence was that he resolved to
give the boy a chance. He provided new clothes for
both him and Nanny; and upon a certain day, Joseph
took his wife and three children, and Nanny and Jim,
by train to a certain station in the county of Kent,
where they found a cart waiting to carry them and
their luggage to The Mound, which was the name of
Mr. Raymond's new residence. I will not describe
the varied feelings of the party as they went, or when
they arrived. All I will say is, that Diamond, who
is my only care, was full of quiet delight — a gladness
too deep to talk about.

350 At the Back of the North Wind

Joseph returned to town the same night, and the next
morning" drove Ruby and Diamond down, with the car-
riage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a lady in the
carriage. For Mr. Raymond was an old bachelor no
longer: he was bringing his wife with him to live at

The Mound. The
moment Nanny
saw her she recoo-
nized her as the
lady who had
lent her the ruby-
ring. That ring
had been given
her by Mr. Ray-
mond.

The weather
was very hot, and
the woods very
shadowy. There
were not a great
many wild flowers,
for it was getting
well towards au-
tumn, andthemost
of the wild flowers rise early to be before the leaves,
because if they did not, they would never get a glimpse
of the sun for them. So they have their fun over, and
are ready to go to bed again by the time the trees are
dressed. But there was plenty of the loveliest grass and
daisies about the house, and Diamond's chief pleasure
seemed to be to lie amongst them, and breathe the pure

In the Country 351

air. But all the time, he was dreaming" of the country
at the back of the north wind, and trying to recall the
songs the river used to sing. For this was more like
being" at the back of the north wind than anything" he
had known since he left it. Sometimes he would have
his little brother, sometimes his little sister, and some-
times both of them in the grass with him, and then
he felt just like a cat with her first kittens, he said, only
he couldn't purr — all he could do was to sing.

These were very different times from those when he
used to drive the cab, but you must not suppose that
Diamond was idle. He did not do so much for his
mother now, because Nanny occupied his former place;
but he helped his father still, both in the stable and the
harness-room, and generally went with him on the box
that he might learn to drive a pair, and be ready to
open the carriage-door. Mr. Raymond advised his
father to give him plenty of liberty.

"A boy like that," he said, "ought not to be
pushed."

Joseph assented heartily, smiling to himself at the
idea of pushing Diamond. After doing everything that
fell to his share, the boy had a wealth of time at his dis-
posal. And a happy, sometimes a merry time it was.
Only for two months or so, he neither saw nor heard
anything of North Wind.

CHAPTER XXXV

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance

R. RAYMOND'S house was called The Mound,
because it stood upon a little steep knoll, so
smooth and symmetrical that it showed itself
at once to be artificial. It had, beyond doubt, been
built for Queen Elizabeth as a hunting-tower — a place,
namely, from the top of which you could see the country
for miles on all sides, and so be able to follow with your
eyes the flying deer and the pursuing hounds and horse-
men. The mound had been cast up to give a good
basement-advantage over the neighbouring heights and
woods. There was a great quarry-hole not far off, brim-
ful of water, from which, as the current legend stated,
the materials forming the heart of the mound — a kind
of stone unfit for building — had been dug. The house
itself was of brick, and they said the foundations were
first laid in the natural level, and then the stones and
earth of the mound were heaped about and between
them, so that its great height should be well but-
tressed.

Joseph and his wife lived in a litde cottage a short
way from the house. It was a real cottage, with a roof
of thick thatch, which, in June and July, the wind
sprinkled with the red and white petals it shook from

852

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 353

the loose topmost sprays of the rose-trees climbing
the walls. At first Diamond had a nest under this
thatch — a pretty little room with white muslin cur-
tains; but afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted
to have him for a page in the house, and his father
and mother were quite pleased to have him employed
ivithout his leaving them. So he was dressed in a
suit of blue, from which his pale face and fair hair
came out like the loveliest blossom, and took up his
abode in the house.

''Would you be afraid to sleep alone. Diamond?"
asked his mistress.

''I don't know what you mean, ma'am," said Dia-
mond. ''I never was afraid of anything that I can
recollect — not much, at least."

''There's a little room at the top of the house — all
alone," she returned: "perhaps you would not mind
sleeping there?"

" I can sleep anywhere, and I like best to be high up.
Should I be able to see out?"

"I will show you the place," she answered; and
taking him by the hand, she led him up and up the
oval-winding stair in one of the two towers.

Near the top they entered a tiny little room, with two
windows from which you could see over the whole
country. Diamond clapped his hands with delight.

"You would like this room, then. Diamond?" said
his mistress.

"It's the grandest room In the house," he answered.
" I shall be near the stars, and yet not far from the tops
of the trees. That's just what I like."

( 0 145 ) 23

354 At the Back of the North Wind

I daresay he thought also, that it would be a nice
place for North Wind to call at in passing; but he
said nothing of that sort. Below him spread a lake
of green leaves, with glimpses of grass here and there
at the bottom of it. As he looked down, he saw a
squirrel appear suddenly, and as suddenly vanish
amongst the topmost branches.

"Aha! little squirrel," he cried, '^my nest is built
higher than yours."

*'You can be up here with your books as much
as you like," said his mistress. '* I will have a little
bell hung at the door, which I can ring when I
want you. Half-way down the stair is the drawing-
room."

So Diamond was installed as page, and his new
room got ready for him.

It was very soon after this that I came to know
Diamond. I was then a tutor in a family whose estate
adjoined the little property belonging The Mound. I
had made the acquaintance of Mr. Raymond in London
some time before, and was walking up the drive towards
the house to call upon him one fine warm evening, when
I saw Diamond for the first time. He was sitting at the
foot of a great beech-tree, a few yards from the road,
with a book on his knees. He did not see me. I walked
up behind the tree, and peeping over his shoulder, saw
that he was reading a fairy-book.

*' What are you reading?" I said, and spoke sud-
denly, with the hope of seeing a startled little face
look round at me. Diamond turned his head as quietly
^s if he were only obeying his mother's voice, and the

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 355

calmness of his face rebuked my unkind desire and made
me ashamed of it.

** I am reading the story of the Little Lady and the
Goblin Prince," said Diamond.

''I am sorry I don't know the story," I returned.
''Who is it by?"

" Mr. Raymond made it."

" Is he your uncle?" I asked at a guess.

" No. He's my master."

" What do you do for him?" I asked respectfully.

"Anything he wishes me to do," he answered. "I
am busy for him now. He gave me this story to read.
He wants my opinion upon it."

"Don't you find it rather hard to make up your mind?"

"Oh dear no! Any story always tells me itself what
I'm to think about it. Mr. Raymond doesn't want me
to say whether it is a clever story or not, but whether
I like it, and why I like it. I never can tell what they
call clever from what they call silly, but I always know
whether I like a story or not."

" And can you always tell why you like it or not?"

"No. Very often I can't at all. Sometimes I can.
I always know, but I can't always tell why. Mr. Ray-
mond writes the stories, and then tries them on me.
Mother does the same when she makes jam. She's
made such a lot of jam since we came here! And she
always makes me taste it to see if it'll do. Mother
knows by the face I make whether it will or not."

At this moment I caught sight of two more children
approaching. One was a handsome girl, the other
a pale-faced, awkward-looking boy, who limped much

356 At the Back of the North Wind

on one leg. I withdrew a little, to see what would
follow, for they seemed in some consternation. After
a few hurried words, they w^ent off tog"ether, and I
pursued my way to the house, where I was as kindly
received by Mr. and Mrs. Raymond as I could have
desired. From them I learned something of Diamond,
and was in consequence the more glad to find him, when
I returned, seated in the same place as before.

*'What did the boy and girl want with you, Dia-
mond?" I asked.

*' They had seen a creature that frightened them."

'* And they came to tell you about it?"

"They couldn't get water out of the well for it. So
they wanted me to go with them."

'* They're both bigger than you."

''Yes, but they were frightened at it."

''And weren't you frightened at it?"

"No."

"Why?"

" Because I'm silly. I'm never frightened at things."

I could not help thinking of the old meaning of the
word silly,

" And what was it?" I asked.

" I think it was a kind of an angel — a very little one.
It had a long body and great wings, which it drove
about it so fast that they grew a thin cloud all round it.
It flew backwards and forwards over the well, or hung
right in the middle, making a mist of its wings, as if its
business was to take care of the water."

" And what did you do to drive it away?"

■ ' I didn't drive it away. I knew, whatever the crea-

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 357

ture was, the well was to get water out of. So I took
the jug-, dipped it in, and drew the water."

''And what did the creature do?"

"Flew about."

''And it didn't hurt you?"

"No. Why should it? I wasn't doing anything
wrong."

" What did your companions say then?"

"They said — 'Thank you, Diamond. What a dear
silly you are!' "

" And weren't you angry with them?"

"No! Why should I? I should like if they would
play with me a little; but they always like better to go
away together when their work is over. They never
heed me. I don't mind it much, though. The other
creatures are friendly. They don't run away from me.
Only they're all so busy with their own work, they
don't mind me much."

" Do you feel lonely, then?"

"Oh, no! When nobody minds me, I get into my
nest, and look up. And then the sky does mind me,
and thinks about me."

" Where is your nest?"

He rose, saying " I will show you," and led me to the
other side of the tree.

There hung a little rope-ladder from one of the lower
boughs. The boy climbed up the ladder and got upon
the bough. Then he climbed farther into the leafy
branches, and went out of sight.

After a little while, I heard his voice coming down
out of the tree.

358 At the Back of the North Wind

** I am in my nest now," said the voice.

** I can't see you," I returned.

** I can't see you either, but I can see the first star
peeping out of the sky. I should Hke to get up into the
sky. Don't you think I shall, some day?"

** Yes, I do. Tell me what more you see up there."

*' I don't see anything more, except a few leaves, and
the big sky over me. It goes swinging about. The
earth is all behind my back. There comes another
star! The wind is like kisses from a big lady. When
I get up here I feel as if I were in North Wind's arms."

This was the first I heard of North Wind.

The whole ways and looks of the child, so full of quiet
wisdom, yet so ready to accept the judgment of others
in his own dispraise, took hold of my heart, and I felt
myself wonderfully drawn towards him. It seemed to
me, somehow, as if little Diamond possessed the secret
of life, and was himself what he was so ready to think
the lowest thing living — an angel of God with some-
thing special to say or do. A gush of reverence came
over me, and with a single good nighty I turned and left
him in his nest.

I saw him often after this, and gained so much of his
confidence that he told me all I have told you. I cannot
pretend to account for it. I leave that for each philo-
sophical reader to do after his own fashion. The easiest
way is that of Nanny and Jim, who said often to each
other that Diamond had a tile loose. But Mr. Ray-
mond was much of my opinion concerning the boy;
while Mrs. Raymond confessed that she often rang her
bell just to have once more the pleasure of seeing the

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 359

lovely stillness of the boy's face, with those blue eyes
which seemed rather made for other people to look into
than for himself to look out of.

It was plainer to others than to himself that he felt the
desertion of Nanny and Jim. They appeared to regard
him as a mere
toy, except when
they found he
could minister to
the increase of
their privileges or
indulgences, when
they made no
scruple of using
him — p-enerallv
with success.

They were how-
ever well-behaved
to a wonderful
degree; while I
have little doubt
that much of their
behaviour

good

was owmg to

the unconscious influence of the boy they called God's

baby.

One very strange thing is, that I could never find out
where he got some of his many songs. At times they
would be but bubbles blown out of a nursery rhyme,
as was the following, w^hich I heard him sing one
evening to his little Dulcimer. There were about a

36o At the Back of the North Wind

score of sheep feeding in a paddock near him, their
white wool dyed a pale rose in the light of the set-
ting sun. Those in the long shadows from the trees
were dead white; those in the sunlight were half glorified
with pale rose.

Little Bo Peep, she lost her sheep,

And didn't know where to find them ;
They were over the height and out of sight,

Trailing their tails behind them.

Little Bo Peep woke out of her sleep,

Jump'd up and set out to find them:
"The silly things, they've got no wings,

And they've left their trails behind them :

"They've taken their tails, but they've left their trails,

And so I shall follow and find them;"
For wherever a tail had dragged a trail,

The long grass grew behind them.

And day's eyes and butter-cups, cow's lips and crow's feet

Were glittering in the sun.
She threw down her book, and caught up her crook,

And after her sheep did run.

She ran, and she ran, and ever as she ran,

The grass grew higher and higher;
Till over the hill the sun began

To set in a flame of fire.

She ran on still — up the grassy hill.

And the grass grew higher and higher ;
When she reached its crown, the sun was down,

And had left a trail of fire.

The sheep and their tails were gone, all gone —

And no more trail behind them !
Yes, yes! they were there— long-tailed and fair,

But, alas ! she could not find them.

^t:

\i.

'-1..A

^<</

c 'vS)

>-!

H-'-

LITTLE BO PEEP ASLEEP

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 3^*

Purple and gold, and rosy and blue,

With their tails all white behind them.
Her sheep they did run in the trail of the sun ;

She saw them, but could not find them.

After the sun, like clouds they did run,

But she knew they were her sheep ;
She sat down to cry, and look up at the sky,

But she cried herself asleep.

And as she slept the dew fell fast.

And the wind blew from the sky;
And strange things took place that shun the day's face,

Because they are sweet and shy.

Nibble, nibble, crop! she heard as she woke:

A hundred little lambs
Did pluck and eat the grass so sweet

That grew in the trails of their dams.

Little Bo Peep caught up her crook.

And wiped the tears that did blind her;
And nibble nibble crop ! without a stop,

The lambs came eating behind her.

Home, home she came, both tired and lame,

With three times as many sheep.
In a month or more, they'll be as big as before,

And then she '11 laugh in her sleep.

But what would you say, If one fine day,

When they've got their bushiest tails.
Their grown up game should be just the same.

And she have to follow their trails?

Never weep. Bo Peep, though you lose your sheep,

And do not know where to find them ;
'TIs after the sun the mothers have run,

And there are their lambs behind them.

I confess again to having touched up a little, but it

362 At the Back of the North Wind

loses far more in Diamond's sweet voice singing it than
it gains by a rhyme here and there.

Some of them were out of books Mr. Raymond had
given him. These he always knew, but about the
others he could seldom tell. Sometimes he would
say, '* I made that one;" but generally he would say,
*'I don't know; I found it somewhere;" or ''I got it
at the back of the north wind."

One evening I found him sitting on the grassy slope
under the house, with his Dulcimer in his arms and
his little brother rolling on the grass beside them. He
was chanting in his usual way, more like the sound of
a brook than anything else I can think of. When I
went up to them he ceased his chant.

'* Do go on. Diamond. Don't mind me," I said.

He began again at once. While he sang, Nanny
and Jim sat a little way off, one hemming a pocket-
handkerchief, and the other reading a story to her,
but they never heeded Diamond. This is as near
what he sang as I can recollect, or reproduce rather.

What would you see if I took you up

To my little nest in the air?
You would see the sky like a clear blue cup

Turned upside downwards there.

What would you do if I took your there

To my little nest in the tree?
My child with cries would trouble the air,

To get what she could but see.

What would you get in the top of the tree

For all your crying and grief?
Not a star would you clutch of all you see —

You could only gather a leaf.

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 363

But when you had lost your greedy grief,

Content to see from afar,
You would find in your hand a withering leaf,

In your heart a shining star.

As Diamond went on singing-, it grew very dark,
and just as he
ceased, there came
a great flash of
lightning, that
blinded us all for
a moment. Dul-
':imer crowed with
pleasure; but

when the roar of
thunder came after
it, the little bro-
ther gave a loud
cry of terror.
Nanny and Jim
came running up
to us, pale with
fear. Diamond's
face too was paler
than usual, but

with delight. Some of the glory seemed to have clung
to it, and remained shining.

''You're not frightened — are you, Diamond?" I
said.

*' No. Why should I be?" he answered with his
usual question, looking up in my face with calm
shining eyes.

364 At the Back of the North Wind

*'He ain't got sense to be frightened," said Nanny,
going up to him and giving him a pitying hug.

*' Perhaps there's more sense in not being frightened,
Nanny," I returned. '' Do you think the hghtning can
do as it likes?"

** It might kill you," said Jim.

'*Oh no, it mightn't!" said Diamond.

As he spoke there came another great flash, and a
tearing crack.

*' There's a tree struck!" I said; and when we looked
round, after the blinding of the flash had left our eyes,
we saw a huge bough of the beech-tree in which was
Diamond's nest, hanging to the ground like the broken
wing of a bird.

''There!" cried Nanny; ''I told you so. If you had
been up there you see what would have happened,
you little silly!"

**No, I don't," said Diamond, and began to sing to
Dulcimer. All I could hear of the song, for the other
children were going on with their chatter, was —

The clock struck one,

And the mouse came down.

Dickery, dickery, dock !

Then there came a blast of wind, and the rain fol-
lowed in straight-pouring lines, as if out of a watering-
pot. Diamond jumped up with his little Dulcimer in
his arms, and Nanny caught up the little boy, and they
ran for the cottage. Jim vanished with a double shuffle,
and I went into the house.

When I came out again to return home, the clouds

I Make Diamond's Acquaintance 365

were gone, and the evening" sky glimmered through the
trees, blue, and pale-green towards the west, I turned
my steps a little aside to look at the stricken beech.
I saw the bough torn from the stem, and that was all
the twiliglit would allow me to see. While 1 stood

gazing, down from the sky came a sound of singing,
but the voice was neither of lark nor of nightingale:
it was sweeter than either: it was the vOiCe of Dia-
mond, up in his airy nest: —

The lightning and thunder,

They go and they come ;
But the stars and the stillness

Are always at home.

366 At the Back of the North Wind

And then the voice ceased.

''Good night, Diamond," I said.

''Good night, sir," answered Diamond.

As I walked away pondering, I saw the great black
top of the beech swaying about against the sky in an
upper wind, and heard the murmur as of many dim
half-articulate voices filling the solitude around Dia-
mond's nest.

CHAPTER XXXVI

Diamond Questions North Wind

Y readers will not wonder that, after this, I did
my very best to gain the friendship of Dia-
mond. Nor did I find this at all difiicult,
the child was so ready to trust. Upon one subject
alone was he reticent — the story of his relations with
North Wind. I fancy he could not quite make up
his mind what to think of them. At all events it was
some little time before he trusted me with this, only
then he told me everything". If I could not regard it
all in exactly the same light as he did, I was, while
guiltless of the least pretence, fully sympathetic, and
he was satisfied without demanding of me any theory
of difficult points involved. I let him see plainly
enough, that whatever might be the explanation of
the marvellous experience, I would have given much
for a similar one myself.

On an evening soon after the thunderstorm, in a late
twilight, with a half-moon high in the heavens, I came
upon Diamond in the act of climbing by his little ladder
into the beech-tree.

"What are you always going up there for. Dia-
mond?" I heard Nanny ask, rather rudely, I thought.

367

368 At the Back of the North Wind

'* Sometimes for one thing-, sometimes for another,
Nanny," answered Diamond, looking skywards as he
climbed.

" You'll break your neck some day," she said.

" I'm going up to look at the moon to-night," he
added, without heeding her remark.

"You'll see the moon just as well down here," she
returned.

*^I don't think so."

'' You'll be no nearer to her up there."

"Oh, yes! I shall. I must be nearer her, you know.
I wish I could dream as pretty dreams about her as you
can, Nanny."

"You silly! you never have done about that dream.
I never dreamed but that one, and it was nonsense
enough, I'm sure." ^"^'^

" It wasn't nonsense. It was a beautiful dream — and
a funny one too, both in one."

"But what's the good of talking about it that way,
when you know it was only a dream? Dreams ain't
true."

"That one Tvas true, Nanny. You know it was-
Didn't you come to grief for doing what you were
told not to do? And isn't that true?"

"I can't get any sense into him," exclaimed Nanny,,
with an expression of mild despair. " Do you really
believe, Diamf>nd, that there's a house in the moon, with
a beautiful lady, and a crooked old man and dusters
in it?"

" If there isn't, there's something better," he an^*
swered, anci Y9;ni§h ed in the leaves over our heads..

Diamond Questions North Wind 369

I went into the house, where I visited often in the
evenings. When I came out, there was a Httle wind
blowing, very pleasant after the heat of the day, for
although it was late summer now it was still hot.
The tree-tops were swinging about in it. I took my
way past the beech, and called up to see if Diamond
were still in his nest in its rocking head.

'* Are you there. Diamond?" I said.

" Yes, sir," came his clear voice in reply.

" Isn't it growing too dark for you to get down
safely?"

** Oh, no, sir — if I take time to it. I know my way so
well, and never let go with one hand till I've a good
hold with the other."

*' Do be careful," I insisted — foolishly, seeing the boy
was as careful as he could be already.

*' I'm coming," he returned. ^* I've got all the moon
f want to-night."

I heard a rustling and a rustling drawing nearer and
nearer. Three or four minutes elapsed, and he ap-
peared at length creeping down his little ladder. I
took him in my arms, and set him on the ground.

''Thank you, sir," he said. ''That's the north wind
olowing, isn't it, sir?"

"I can't tell," I answered. "It feels cool and kind,
and I think it may be. But I couldn't be sure except it
were stronger, for a gentle wind might turn any way
amongst the trunks of the trees."

" I shall know when I get up to my own room," said
Diamond. " I think I hear my mistress's bell. Good
night, sir."

( 0 145 ) 24

370 At the Back of the North Wind

He ran to the house, and I went home.

His mistress had rung for him only to send him to
bed, for she was very careful over him, and I dare-
say thought he was not looking well. When he reached
his own room, he opened both his windows, one of
which looked to the north and the other to the east,
to find how the wind blew. It blew right in at the
northern window. Diamond was very glad, for he
thought perhaps North Wind herself would come now:
a real north wind had never blown all the time since
he left London. But, as she always came of herself,
and never when he was looking for her, and indeed
almost never when he was thinking of her, he shut
the east window, and went to bed. Perhaps some of
my readers may wonder that he could go to sleep with
such an expectation ; and, indeed, if I had not known
him, I should have wondered at it myself; but it was
one of his peculiarities, and seemed nothing strange
in him. He was so full of quietness that he could go
to sleep almost at any time, if he only composed him-
self and let the sleep come. This time he went fast
asleep as usual.

But he woke in the dim blue night. The moon had
vanished. He thought he had heard a knocking at
his door.

** Somebody wants me," he said to himself, and
jumping out of bed, ran to open it.

But there was no one there. He closed it again,
and, the noise still continuing, found that another
door was rattling. It belonged to a closet, he thought,
but he had never been able to open it. The wind

Diamond Questions North Wind 371

blowing in at the window must be shaking it. He
would go and see if it was so.

The door now opened quite easily, but to his sur-
prise, instead of a closet he found a long narrow room.
The moon, which was sinking in the west, shone in
at an open window at the further end. The room
was low with a coved ceiling, and occupied the whole
top of the house, immediately under the roof. It was
quite empty. The yellow light of the half- moon
streamed over the dark floor. He was so delighted at
the discovery of the strange desolate moonlit place close
to his own snug little room, that he began to dance
and skip about the floor. The wind came in through
the door he had left open, and blew about him as he
danced, and he kept turning towards it that it might
blow in his face. He kept picturing to himself the
many places, lovely and desolate, the hill-sides and
farm-yards and tree-tops and meadows, over which it
had blown on its way to the Mound. And as he danced
he grew more and more delighted with the motion and
the wind ; his feet grew stronger, and his body lighter,
until at length it seemed as if he were borne up on
the air, and could almost fly. So strong did his feeling
become that at last he began to doubt whether he was
not in one of those precious dreams he had so often had,
in which he floated about on the air at will. But some-
thing made him look up, and to his unspeakable de-
light, he found his uplifted hands lying in those of
North Wind, who was dancing with him, round and
round the long bare room, her hair now falling to the
floor, now filling the arched ceiling, her eyes shining

372 At the Back of the North Wind

on him like thinking stars, and the sweetest of grand
smiles playing breezily about her beautiful mouth. She
was, as so often before, of the height of a rather tall
lady. She did not stoop in order to dance with him,
but held his hands high in hers. When he saw her,
he gave one spring, and his arms were about her neck,
and her arms holding him to her bosom. The same
moment she swept with him through the open window
in at which the moon was shining, made a circuit like
a bird about to alight, and settled with him in his
nest on the top of the great beech-tree. There she
placed him on her lap and began to hush him as if he
were her own baby, and Diamond was so entirely happy
that he did not care to speak a word. At length, how-
ever, he found that he was going to sleep, and that
would be to lose so much, that, pleasant as it was, he
could not consent.

*' Please, dear North Wind," he said, *' I am so happy
that I'm afraid it's a dream. How am I to know that it's
not a dream?"

*^ What does it matter?" returned North Wind.

*' I should cry," said Diamond.

*^ But why should you cry? The dream, if it is a
dream, is a pleasant one — is it not?"

^'That's just why I want it to be true."

** Have you forgotten what you said to Nanny about
her dream?"

^^ It's not for the dream itself — I mean, it's not for the
pleasure of it," answered Diamond, "for I have that,
whether it be a dream or not; it's for you, North Wind:
I can't bear to find it a dream, because then I should

Diamond Questions North Wind 373

lose you. You would be nobody then, and I could
not bear that. You ain't a dream, are you, dear North
Wind? Do say No, else I shall cry, and come awake,
and you'll be gone for ever. I daren't dream about you
once again if you
ain't anybody.'

" I'm either not
a dream, or there's
somethincr better
that's not a dream,
Diamond," said
North Wind, in a
rather sorrowful
tone, he thought.

" But it's not
something better
— it's you I want,
North Wind," he
persisted, already
beginning to cry
a little.

She made no
answer, but rose

with him in her arms and sailed away over the tree-
tops till they came to a meadow, where a flock of sheep
was feeding.

" Do you remember what the song you were singing
a week ago says about Bo Peep — how she lost her sheep,
but got twice as many lambs?" asked North Wind,
sitting down on the grass, and placing him in her lap
as before.

374 At the Back of the North Wind

**Oh yes, I do, well enough," answered Diamond;
** but I never just quite liked that rhyme."

"Why not, child?"

** Because it seems to say one's as good as another,
or two new ones are better than one that's lost. I've
been thinking about it a great deal, and it seems to me
that although any one sixpence is as good as any other
sixpence, not twenty lambs would do instead of one
sheep whose face you knew. Somehow, when once
you've looked into anybody's eyes, right deep down
into them, I mean, nobody will do for that one any
more. Nobody, ever so beautiful or so good, will make
up for that one going out of sight. So you see. North
Wind, I can't help being frightened to think that per-
haps I am only dreaming, and you are nowhere at
all. Do tell me that you are my own real beautiful
North Wind."

Again she rose, and shot herself into the air, as if
uneasy because she could not answer him ; and Dia-
mond lay quiet in her arms, waiting for what she would
say. He tried to see up into her face, for he was dread-
fully afraid she was not answering him because she could
not say that she was not a dream ; but she had let her
hair fall all over her face so that he could not see it.
This frightened him still more.

*' Do speak. North Wind," he said at last.

**I never speak when I have nothing to say," she
replied.

''Then I do think you must be a real North Wind,
and no dream," said Diamond.

" But I'm looking for something to say all the time."

Diamond Questions North Wind 375

" But I don't want you to say what's hard to find.
If you were to say one word to comfort me that wasn't
true, then I should know you must be a dream, for a
great beautiful lady like you could never tell a lie."

"But she mightn't know how to say what she had
to say, so that
a little boy like
you would un-
derstand it," said
North Wind.
" Here, let us
get down again,
and I will try
to tell you what
I think. You
mustn't suppose
I am able to an-
swer all your ques-
tions, though.
There are a great
many things I
don't understand
more than you
do."

She descended on a grassy hillock, in the midst of
a wild furzy common. There was a rabbit-warren
underneath, and some of the rabbits came out of their
holes, in the moonlight, looking very sober and wise,
just like patriarchs standing in their tent-doors, and
looking about them before going to bed. When they
saw North Wind, instead of turning round and vanish-

376 At the Back of the North Wind

ing again with a thump of their heels, they cantered
slowly up to her and snuffed all about her with their
long upper lips, which moved every way at once. That
was their way of kissing her; and, as she talked to
Diamond, she would every now and then stroke down
their furry backs, or lift and play with their long ears.
They would, Diamond thought, have leaped upon her
lap, but that he was there already.

^*I think," said she, after they had been sitting silent
for a while, ''that if I were only a dream, you would
not have been able to love me so. You love me when
you are not with me, don't you?"

'* Indeed I do," answered Diamond, stroking her
hand. "I see! I see! How could I be able to love
you as I do if you weren't there at all, you know?
Besides, I couldn't be able to dream anything half so
beautiful out of my own head; or if I did, I couldn't
love a fancy of my own like that, could I?"

" I think not. You might have loved me in a dream,
dreamily, and forgotten me when you woke, I daresay,
but not loved me like a real being as you love me.
Even then, I don't think you could dream anything
that hadn't something real like it somewhere. But you've
seen me in many shapes. Diamond: you remember I was
a wolf once — don't you?"

"Oh yes — a good wolf that frightened a naughty
drunken nurse."

"Well, suppose I were to turn ugly, would you rather
I weren't a dream then?"

"Yes; for I should know that you were beautiful
inside all the same. You would love me, and I should

€l4o

THE FEARLESS RABBITS

Diamond Questions North Wind 377

love you all the same. I shouldn't like you to look
ugly, you know. But I shouldn't believe it a bit."

" Not if you saw it?"

** No, not if I saw it ever so plain."

''There's my Diamond! I will tell you all I know
about it then. I don't think I am just what you fancy
me to be. I have to shape myself various ways to
various people. But the heart of me is true. People
call me by dreadful names, and think they know all
about me. But they don't. Sometimes they call me
Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil Chance, sometimes Ruin;
and they have another name for me which they think
the most dreadful of all."

"What is that?" asked Diamond, smiling up in her
face.

'* I won't tell you that name. Do you remember
having to go through me to get into the country at
my back?"

"Oh yes, I do. How cold you were. North Wind!
and so white, all but your lovely eyes! My heart grew
like a lump of ice, and then I forgot for a while."

"You were very near knowing what they call me
then. Would you be afraid of me if you had to go
through me again?"

"No. Why should I? Indeed I should be glad
enough, if it was only to get another peep of the coun-
try at your back."

" You've never seen it yet."

"Haven't I, North Wind? Oh! I'm so sorry! I
thought I had. What did I see then?"

"Only a picture of it. The real country at my real

378 At the Back of the North Wind

back is ever so much more beautiful than that. You
shall see it one day — perhaps before very long."

*' Do they sing songs there?"

''Don't you remember the dream you had about the
little boys that dug for the stars?"

** Yes, that I do. I thought you must have had some-
thing to do with that dream, it was so beautiful."

''Yes; I gave you that dream."

"Oh! thank you. Did you give Nanny her dream
too — about the moon and the bees?"

"Yes. I was the lady that sat at the window of the
moon."

"Oh, thank you. I was almost sure you had some-
thing to do with that too. And did you tell Mr. Ray-
mond the story about the Princess Daylight?"

" I believe I had something to do with it. At all
events he thought about it one night when he couldn't
sleep. But I want to ask you whether you remember
the song the boy-angels sang in that dream of yours."

"No. I couldn't keep it, do what I would, and 1
did try."

"That was my fault."

" How could that be, North Wind?"

" Because I didn't know it properly myself, and so
I couldn't teach it to you. I could only make a rough
guess at something like what it would be, and so I
wasn't able to make you dream it hard enough to
remember it. Nor would I have done so if I could,
for it was not correct. I made you dream pictures o(
it, though. But you will hear the very song itself
when you get to the back of "

Diamond Questions North Wind 379

'^ My own dear North Wind," said Diamond, finish-
ing the sentence for her, and kissing the arm that held
him leaning against her.

''And now we've settled all this — for the time, at
least," said North Wind.

'* But I can't feel quite sure yet," said Diamond.

"You must wait a while for that. Meantime you
may be hopeful, and content not to be quite sure.
Come now, I will take you home again, for it won't
do to tire you too much."

**Oh! no, no. I'm not the least tired," pleaded
Diamond.

''It is better, though."

"Very well; if you wish it," yielded Diamond with
a sigh.

"You are a dear good boy," said North Wind. "I
will come for you again to-morrow night and take you
out for a longer time. We shall make a little journey
together, in fact. We shall start earlier; and as the
moon will be later, we shall have a little moonlight
all the way."

She rose, and swept over the meadow and the trees.
In a few moments the Mound appeared below them.
She sank a little, and floated in at the window of
Diamond's room. There she laid him on his bed,
covered him over, and in a moment he was lapt in a
dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Once More

THE next night Diamond was seated by his open
window, with his head on his hand, rather
tired, but so eagerly waiting for the promised
visit that he was afraid he could not sleep. But he
started suddenly, and found that he had been already
asleep. He rose, and looking out of the window saw
something white against his beech-tree. It was North
Wind. She was holding by one hand to a top branch.
Her hair and her garments went floating away behind
her over the tree, whose top was swaying about while
the others were still.

^* Are you ready. Diamond?" she asked.
**Yes," answered Diamond, ''quite ready."
In a moment she was at the window, and her arms
came in and took him. She sailed away so swiftly that
he could at first mark nothing but the speed with which
the clouds above and the dim earth below went rushing
past. But soon he began to see that the sky was very
lovely, with mottled clouds all about the moon, on which
she threw faint colours like those of mother-of-pearl, or
an opal. The night was warm, and in the lady's arms
he did not feel the wind which down below was making
waves in the ripe corn, and ripples on the rivers and

380

Once More

381

lakes. At length they descended on the side of an
open earthy hill, just where, from beneath a stone, a
spring came bubbling out.

*' I am going to take you along this little brook," said
North Wind. *'I am not wanted for anything else
to-night, so I can
p"ive vou a treat."

She stooped
over the stream,
and holdinfr Dia-
mond down close
to the surface of
it, glided along
level with its flow
as it ran down
the hill. And
the song of the
brook came up
into Diamond's
ears, and grew and
grew and changed
with every turn.
It seemed to Dia-
mond to be singing the story of its life to him. And
so it was. It began with a musical tinkle which changed
to a babble and then to a gentle rushing. Sometimes
its song would almost cease, and then break out again,
tinkle, and babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom
of the hill they came to a small river, into which the
brook flowed with a muffled but merry sound. Along
the surface of the river, darkly clear below them in the

382 At the Back of the North Wind

moonlight, they floated ; now, where it widened out into
a little lake, they would hover for a moment over a bed
of water-lilies, and watch them swing about, folded in
sleep, as the water on which they leaned swayed in
the presence of North Wind; and now they would
watch the fishes asleep among their roots below. Some-
times she would hold Diamond over a deep hollow
curving into the bank, that he might look far into
the cool stillness. Sometimes she would leave the river
and sweep across a clover-field. The bees were all at
home, and the clover was asleep. Then she would
return and follow the river. It grew wider and wider
as it went. Now the armies of wheat and of oats
would hang over its rush from the opposite banks;
now the willows would dip low branches in its still
waters; and now it would lead them through stately
trees and grassy banks into a lovely garden, where the
roses and lilies were asleep, the tender flowers quite
folded up, and only a few wide-awake and sending out
their life in sweet strong odours. Wider and wider
grew the stream, until they came upon boats lying along
its banks, which rocked a little in the flutter of North
Wind's garments. Then came houses on the banks,
each standing in a lovely lawn, with grand trees; and
in parts the river was so high that some of the grass
and the roots of some of the trees were under water,
and Diamond, as they glided through between the stems,
could see the grass at the bottom of the water. Then
they would leave the river and float about and over the
houses, one after another — beautiful rich houses, which,
like fine trees, had taken centuries to grow. There was

Once More 383

scarcely a light to be seen, and not a movement to be
heard: all the people in them lay fast asleep.

^' What a lot of dreams they must be dreaming!" said
Diamond.

''Yes," returned North Wind. *'They can't surely
be all lies — can they?"

"I should think it depends a little on who dreams
them," suggested Diamond.

"Yes," said North Wind. "The people who think
lies, and do lies, are very likely to dream lies. But
the people who love what is true will surely now and
then dream true things. But then something depends
on whether the dreams are home-grown, or whether
the seed of them is blown over somebody else's garden-
wall. Ah! there's some one awake in this house!"

They were floating past a window in which a light
was burning. Diamond heard a moan, and looked up
anxiously in North Wind's face.

"It's a lady," said North Wind. "She can't sleep
for pain."

"Couldn't you do something for her?" said Dia-
mond.

" No, I can't. But you could."

"What could I do?"

" Sing a little song to her."

"She wouldn't hear me."

" I will take you in, and then she will hear you."

"But that would be rude, wouldn't it? You can go
where you please, of course, but I should have no
business in her room."

"You may trust me, Diamond. I shall take as good

384 At the Back of the North Wind

care of the lady as of you. The window is open.
Come."

By a shaded lamp, a lady was seated in a white
wrapper, trying to read, but moaning every minute.
North Wind floated behind her chair, set Diamond
down, and told him to sing something. He was a
little frightened, but he thought a while, and then

sang:-

The sun is gone down.

And the moon's in the sky:

But the sun will come up,
And the moon be laid by.

The flower is asleep

But it is not dead,
When the morning" shines.

It will lift its head.

When winter comes,

It will die — no, no;
It will only hide

From the frost and the snow.

Sure is the summer,

Sure is the sun ;
The night and the winter

Are shadows that run.

The lady never lifted her eyes from her book, or her
head from her hand.

As soon as Diamond had finished, North Wind
lifted him and carried him away.

''Didn't the lady hear me?" asked Diamond, when
they were once more floating down with the river.

*' Oh, yes, she heard you," answered North Wind.

Once More 385

**Was she frightened then?"

^'Oh, no."

" Why didn't she look to see who it was?"

'' She didn't know you were there."

** How could she hear me then?"

"She didn't hear you with her ears.**

" What did she hear me with?"

♦'With her heart."

*♦ Where did she think the words came from?"

♦'She thought they came out of the book she was
reading. She will search all through it to-morrow to
find them, and won't be able to understand it at all."

"Oh, what fun!" said Diamond. "What will
she do?"

"I can tell you what she won't do: she'll never
forget the meaning of them ; and she'll never be able
to remember the words of them."

'.' If she sees them in Mr. Raymond's book, it will
puzzle her, won't it?"

"Yes, that it will. She will never be able to under-
stand it."

"Until she gets to the back of the north wind,"
suggested Diamond.

"Until she gets to the back of the north wind,"
assented the lady.

"Oh!" cried Diamond, "I know now where we
are. Oh! do let me go into the old garden, and into
mother's room, and Diamond's stall. I wonder if the
hole is at the back of my bed still. I should like to
stay there all the rest of the night. It won't take you
long to get home from here, will it, North Wind?"

( 0 14& ) 2$

386 At the Back of the North Wind

"No," she answered; "you shall stay as long as
you like."

"Oh, how jolly!" cried Diamond, as North Wind
sailed over the house with him, and set him down on
the lawn at the back.

Diamond ran about the lawn for a little while in the
moonlight. He found part of it cut up into flower-
beds, and the little summer-house with the coloured
glass and the great elm-tree gone. He did not like
this, and ran into the stable. There were no horses
there at all. He ran upstairs. The rooms were empty.
The only thing left that he cared about was the hole
in the wall where his little bed had stood; and that
was not enough to make him wish to stop. He ran
down the stair again, and out upon the lawn. There
he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all
so dreary and lost!

" I thought I liked the place so much," said Diamond
to himself, "but I find I don't care about it. I suppose
it's only the people in it that make you like a place,
and when they're gone, it's dead, and you don't care
a bit about it. North Wind told me I might stop as
long as I liked, and I've stopped longer already. —
North Wind!'' he cried aloud, turning his face towards
the sky.

The moon was under a cloud, and all was looking
dull and dismal. A star shot from the sky, and fell
in the grass beside him. The moment it lighted, there
stood North Wind.

"Oh!" cried Diamond, joyfully, "were you the
shooting star?"

Once More 387

*'Yes, my child."

** Did you hear me call you then?'*

^*Yes."

*' So high up as that?"

"Yes; I heard you quite well."

" Do take me home."

" Have you had enough of your old home already?"

*'Yes, more than enough. It isn't a home at all

now."

*'I thought that would be it," said North Wind.
" Everything, dreaming and all, has got a soul in it,
or else it's worth nothing, and we don't care a bit
about it. Some of our thoughts are worth nothing,
because they've got no soul in them. The brain puts
them into the mind, not the mind into the brain."

*'But how can you know about that, North Wind?
You haven't got a body."

*' If I hadn't, you wouldn't know anything about
me. No creature can know another without the help
of a body. But I don't care to talk about that. It is
time for you to go home."

So saying. North Wind lifted Diamond and bore
him away.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

At the Back of the North Wind

I DID not see Diamond for a week or so after this,
and then he told me what I have now told you.
I should have been astonished at his being- able
even to report such conversations as he said he had
had with North Wind, had I not known already that
some children are profound in metaphysics. But a
fear crosses me, lest, by telling so much about my
friend, I should lead people to mistake him for one ot
those consequential, priggish little monsters, who are
always trying to say clever things, and looking to see
whether people appreciate them. When a child like
that dies, instead of having a silly book written about
him, he should be stuffed like one of those awful big-
headed fishes you see in museums. But Diamond
never troubled his head about what people thought
of him. He never set up for knowing better than
others. The wisest things he said came out when he
wanted one to help him with some difficulty he was
in. He was not even offended with Nanny and Jim
for calling him a silly. He supposed there was some-
thing in it, though he could not quite understand
what. I suspect however that the other name they

388

At the Back of the North Wind 389

gave him, God's Baby, had some share in reconciling
him to it.

Happily for me, I was as much interested in meta-
physics as Diamond himself, and therefore, while he
recounted his conversations with North Wind, I did
not find myself at all in a strange sea, although cer-
tainly I could not always feel the bottom, being indeed
convinced that the bottom was miles away.

** Could it be all dreaming, do you think, sir?" he
asked anxiously.

"I daren't say, Diamond," I answered. ''But at
least there is one thing you may be sure of, that there
is a still better love than that of the wonderful being you
call North Wind. Even if she be a dream, the dream
of such a beautiful creature could not come to you by
chance."

''Yes, I know," returned Diamond; "I know."

Then he was silent, but, I confess, appeared more
thoughtful than satisfied.

The next time I saw him, he looked paler than usual.

" Have you seen your friend again?" I asked him.

"Yes," he answered, solemnly.

" Did she take you out with her?"

" No. She did not speak to me. I woke all at once,
as I generally do when I am going to see her, and
there she was against the door into the big room,
sitting just as I saw her sit on her own door-step, as
white as snow, and her eyes as blue as the heart of
an iceberg. She looked at me, but never moved or
spoke."

" Weren't you afraid?" I asked.

390 At the Back of the North Wind

^'No. Why should I?" he answered. ** I only felt
little cold."
'' Did she stay long?"

''I don't know. I fell asleep again. I think I have

been rather cold
ever since

though," he add-
ed with a smile.

I did not quite
like this, but I
said nothing.

Fourdays after,
I called again at
the Mound. The
maid who opened
the door looked
grave, but I sus-
pected nothing.
When I reached
the drawing-
room, I saw
Mrs. Raymond
had been crying.
*' Haven't you heard?" she said, seeing my question-
ing looks.

" I've heard nothing," I answered.
^'This morning we found our dear little Diamond
lying on the floor of the big attic-room, just outside
his own door — fast asleep, as we thought. But when
we took him up, we did not think he was asleep. We
saw that—

At the Back of the North Wind 391

Here the kind-hearted lady broke out crying afresh.

'* May I go and see him?" I asked.

*^Yes," she sobbed. "You know your way to the
top of the tower."

I walked up the winding stair, and entered his
room. A lovely figure, as white and almost as clear
as alabaster, was lying on the bed. I saw at once how
it was. They thought he was dead. I knew that he
had gone to the back of the north wind.

THE NEW YOPK pnBHC LlBKAHt

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "At the back of the north wind;"

See other formats