At the Back of the North Wind

were so comfortable that they could not bear it any longer, and drowned themselves. My story is not the same as his. I do

t 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

e 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 reasonable 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 wond

pen before his open eyes as he lay in bed; sometimes 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 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

ncy for leaving things wrong that might be set right; so he jumped out of bed again, got 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 began 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 sh

r's fire with a broken chair, a three-legged stool, and a blanket, and then sitting in it. His mother, however, discovered it, a

kened. 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, which sounded very loud indeed. The moment, however, that he moved his head from the wall, he heard the vo

, little boy-clos

dow?" ask

e times last night. I had to

le hole! It isn't a windo

as a window: I said

dow, because windows a

st what I made t

tside: you can'

see out of, you say. Well, I'm in my hou

ade a window

windows into my dancing room, a

o make a window through the wall, that it was agains

ice la

e some trouble to

now," said Diamond, "that's n

m above that law,

tall house, the

use: the clouds

hen, you can hardly expect me to keep a window in my bed f

" said the voice, rather sadly. "I like

I have, though mine is very nice-so

out: it's what is in it.-Bu

ing; but it's rather hard. You see the nor

he Nort

y. "Then will you promise not to bl

t promi

the toothache. Mothe

become of me wi

ll I say is, it will be w

promise you that. You will be much the better for it

nd, and feeling with his little sharp nails, he got hol

ctly-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 Diamond-and made windows into people's beds! But the v

name, little b

ed Diamond, under

a funn

ice name," ret

w that," sai

torted Diamond,

to whom you a

said D

know a person's name is not al

y with you.-You had bett

" persisted the boy, vexed that

less thing rather

quiet all night! And doesn't he make a jolly row in the mo

m to know what

mond, and I am young Diamond; or, if you like it better, for you're very particular, Mr. North Wi

musical, sounded somewhere beside him, bu

North Wind,"

u were the North Win

ister North Wind

or mother tells me I

't think it at all polite o

know better. I

ught to kn

't kno

head under the bed-clothes, and never look up to see what kind

very nearly crying, for he did not like

all the better

n Mr. Dyves's garden, and I can't get t

of the bed-clothes?" said the

mond, half peevish

ade her look as if she were going to cry. What was the most strange was that away from her head streamed out her black hair in every direction, so that the darkness in the hay-loft looked as if it were made of her, hair but as Diamond gazed at her in speechless amazement, mingled with confidence-for the boy was entranced wi

Diamond? I am sorry I was forced to

s arms. "But," he added, dropping them, "how shall I get my

not be cold. I shall take care of tha

erybody was,"

it, however. They are cold because they a

ought the lady was joking. But he was not older, and did not fancy himself wiser, and therefore

, Diamond,

amond, only a

fraid?" said

without shoes: she never said anything about

an. I have visited her often. I was with her when you were born.

y name, then, ma'am? Please am

wanted to hear what you would say for it. Don't you remember that day

. And the wind-you, ma'am-came in, and blew the Bible out of the man's hands, and the leaves went all

e-the sixth stone in the h

id Diamond. "I thought it

a stone any day. Well, you see, I

will go

all me ma'am. You must call me just my own

you are so beautiful, I am

go with everything beaut

can't be bad. You're

nd it takes some time for their badness to spoil their beauty. So little

you because you are be

hould look ugly without being bad-look ugly myself b

and you, North Wind. Y

h'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 m

," said lit

orth Wind, and disappeared

out of bed and