At the Back of the North Wind

what cannot be described, fo

amond felt North Wind's hair ju

ver, North Wind

You would not like to see the ship sunk, and I am going

rth Wind, but I would rather not see the ship go down. And I'm af

mond, I don't care about your hearing the cry you speak of. I am afrai

th Wind? For I am sure you are kin

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 outs

music of the far-away song; and if they did, it wouldn't do them any good.

hat it is like. Somehow, I can't say how, it tells me tha

any good-the people, I m

oo, 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 sinc

g nearer when you did not hear it

ousand 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 s

hair is all down like a darkness, and I can't see

her great white arm, she swept yards deep of darknes

t shimmered with the milk of the stars, except where, just opposite to Diamond's fa

had never seen a cathedral, and it rose before him with an awful real

," said North Wind. "But we shall go

e 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 central part of the church, on the

e walked gently along, with her hand held out behind her leading h

own there," answered Diam

Wind; "but you were a hundred

," said Diamond, putting his little mouth to t

North Wind. "It is a pity you should talk nonse

gs, and they might slip. I can't t

of you, I tell yo

how I can't fe

hould be down after you in a less moment than a lady's watch c

it though,"

error, for North Wind had let go her hold of his hand, and ha

"Come after me," s

m 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

r, 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

you to walk alon

uch nicer here!

ld a little coward to my hear

eady discovered to be a true child in this, that he was given to metaphysics. "It

dn't know what it was without feeling it: therefore it was given you.

But trying i

test thing of all. To try to be brave is to be brave. The coward who tries to be

you are, N

l kindness is but j

uite under

day. There is no hurry ab

ind on me that

d

n't se

you can b

ow was it that such a littl

I don'

made it

boat, you remember. But how my breath has that power I cannot tell. It was put int

sh you would stop here,

. Will you stop her

u won't

p. Trust me, you shall get

aning about the church, which grew and grew to a roaring. The st

nough 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 gl

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 fond of singing, and at home he used to sing, to tunes of his own, all the nursery rhymes he knew. So he

ainst 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 an

n 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 ou