Elizabeth Lewis

“ People are not cold when they are with the North Wind—only when they are against it. Now will you come?"
"Yes, dear North Wind. You are so beautiful I am quite ready to go with you."
"Ah, but I may not always look beautiful. If you see me with my face all black, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping wings like bat's wings, as big as the whole sky, don't be afraid. If you hear me raging, you must believe that I am just doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change into a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of me, for it will be I just the same. ”

“ With one sweep of her great white arm, she flung yards deep of darkness, like a great curtain, from before the face of the boy. And lo! it was a blue night lit up with stars. Where it did not shine with stars, it shimmered with a milky whiteness of stars except where, just before them, the gray towers of a cathedral blotted out the sky.
"A good place for you to wait in," said North Wind and swept down upon the cathedral roof. They went in through an open door in one of the towers. Diamond found himself at the top of a stone stair which went twisting away down into the darkness. ”

“ Up among the leafy branches and away at the top, out of sight, he found a safe and comfortable seat which he called his nest.
"What do you see up there, Diamond," some one asked him once.
"I can see the first star peeping out of the sky. I don't see anything more except a few leaves and the big sky over me. It goes swinging about. The earth is all behind my back. There comes another star! The wind with its kisses makes me feel as if I were in North Wind's arms." ”

“ A great fire of sunset burned over the top of the gate that led to the stables. Above the fire in the sky, lay a large lake of green light, above that a golden cloud, and over that the blue of the wintry heavens. Diamond [21] thought that next to his own home, he had never seen any place he would like so much to live in as that sky.
As he wandered about, he came to stand by the little door which opened upon the lawn of the house next door. That made him remember how the wind had driven him to this same spot on the night of his dream. ”

“ Get in, Diamond."
Diamond soon found the woven nest and crept into it. The next moment he was rising in the air. North Wind grew towering up to the place of the clouds. Her hair went streaming out from her till it spread like a mist over the stars. She flung herself abroad in space. Diamond made a little place through the woven meshes of her hair and peeped through that, for he did not dare look over the top of his nest.
The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and water and green grass hurried away beneath. ”

“ How am I to know that it is not a dream?"
"What does it matter?" returned North Wind. "The dream—if it is a dream—is a pleasant one, is it not?"
"That is just why I want it to be true! It is not for the dream itself—I mean it is not for the pleasure of it," answered Diamond, "for I have that whether it is a dream or not. It is for you, North Wind! I [112] cannot bear to find it a dream because then I should lose you! You would be nobody then and I could not bear that. You are not just a dream, dear North Wind, are you? ”

“ I have to shape myself in various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People call me by dreadful names and think they know all about me. But they don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune or Evil Chance or Ruin—as Mr. Evans did when I sank his ship. Then people have another name for me which they think the most dreadful of all."
"What is that?" asked Diamond smiling up in her face. "And does it only mean another way in which you do them good though they think you are doing them ill?"
"Yes," answered North Wind, "it is just like that. ”

“ He heard the two horses, Diamond and Ruby, talking to each other. They talked in a strange language, yet somehow he could understand it.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," old Diamond was saying, "sleek and fat as you are, and so lazy you get along no faster than a big dray-horse that is pulling tons!"
"Oh, I like to be fat and lazy!" said Ruby.
"And you like to hear master abused on account of you, too, I dare say," replied old Diamond angrily. "Why don't you get up a little speed, while you are drawing a fare, at least! The abuse master gets for your sake is quite shameful! ”

“ When his eyes came wide open again, there were no lovely figures—or even windows—but a dark heap of hay all about him. The small panes in the roof of his loft were glimmering blue in the light of the morning. Old Diamond was coming awake down below in the stable. In a moment more he was on his feet and shaking himself so that young Diamond's bed trembled under him.
"He is grand at shaking himself!" said Diamond. "I wish I could shake myself like that. But then I can wash myself and he can't. What fun it would be to see old Diamond washing his face with his hoofs and iron shoes! ”

“ You selfish beast!"
"I might get angry at you," said Ruby, "if I didn't know a little better than you do how things are coming out. What do you think my master would say if he were to come back—and he may come any day now—and find me all worn down to a rack of bones and lamed into the bargain? Do you think anything would make him believe that your master had used me right and as he promised he would? And isn't it better he should live a little hard himself and prove himself to be an honest man who does what he says he'll do? You don't know everything, old Diamond. ”

“ Diamond felt that in a few minutes, he would be just as miserable. But he tried with all his might to be jolly with the baby and presently his mother just had to smile.
"Why, Diamond, child!" she said at last. "You are as good to your mother as if you were a girl—nursing the baby and toasting the bread, and sweeping up the hearth. I declare a body would think you had been among the fairies."
"I've been at the back of the north wind," said Diamond to himself happily.
And now his father was more cheerful too. "Won't you come out and see the cab, Diamond?" he asked. ”

“ It was Friday night, and Diamond like the rest of the household had had very little to eat that day. His mother would always pay the week's rent before she spent anything even for food. His father had been very gloomy—so gloomy that he was very cross. It had been a stormy winter and even now that spring had come, the north wind often blew. When Diamond went to his bed, which was in a tiny room in the roof, he heard it like the sea, moaning. As he fell asleep, he still heard the moaning, and presently, he heard the voice of North Wind calling him. ”

“ Scarcely a light was to be seen, and not a movement to be heard. All the people lay fast asleep in dreams.
But a little later they came floating past a window [123] in which a light was burning. Diamond heard a moan coming from it and looked up anxiously into North Wind's face. By a shaded lamp, a lady in a soft white wrapper sat trying to read and forget the pain which made her moan softly while she read. North Wind seemed to read Diamond's thought and floated silently in at the window. Diamond began singing softly the song of the river with its soothing murmuring strain. ”

“ Raymond went on, "she might get a place as nurse maid somewhere. People would give her money for that."
"Why, I'll ask mother!" cried Diamond. "She could learn to dress our baby, you know, with me to show her how!"
"But you will have to give her food then. And your father, not being strong, has enough to do already without that."
"Still there am I!" said Diamond. "I'll help him out with it. When he gets tired of driving, up I get. And I could drive more if Nanny was at home to help mother." ”

“ Raymond had been turning over in his mind what he could do for Diamond and for Nanny. He knew Diamond's father somewhat. But he wanted to find out better what sort of a man he was and whether he was worth doing anything for. He decided to see if he would do anything for any body else. For that would be the very best way to find out if it were worth while to do anything for him. So as they walked away together, he said to little Diamond, "Nanny must leave the hospital soon, Diamond. They cannot keep her as long as they would like. They cannot keep her till she is quite strong. ”

“ He would not ask any one to help him because he was afraid he would be kept from doing what he wanted. With the aid of an old chair, he got the harness on old Diamond. The dear old horse opened his mouth for the bit just as if Diamond was giving him an apple. He fastened the cheek-strap very carefully, and got all the pieces of harness on and buckled. By this time some of the men were watching him to see if he would get it all done by himself. And when he put old Diamond between the shafts, got his whip, and jumped up on the box, the men broke into a cheer. ”

“ North Wind broke out into a little laugh like the breaking of silver bubbles and was gone in a moment. [23] Diamond saw the gleam of something vanishing down the stair. He dressed himself as fast as ever he could and crept out into the yard, through the door in the wall, and away to the primrose. ”

“ When Diamond went home that night, he carried one pound, one shilling and six-pence. His mother had grown very anxious and was almost afraid to look when she heard his cab coming at last. But there was the old horse, and there was the cab, all right! And there was Diamond on the box his face as triumphant as a full moon! One of the men took the horse to put him up and Diamond ran into the house and into the arms of his mother! ”

“ He had to begin again to work and learn how much better it is to be honest and contented than to try to get rich quickly. And poor Miss Coleman thought her lover was drowned and was very, very unhappy.
Nobody suffers alone. When old Diamond was sold, young Diamond's father was thrown out of work. Then he had no way to earn money to keep Diamond and his mother and the new little baby brother who had come to them. How Diamond did wish he was big enough to do something! ”

“ It sounds like your wicked old granny to say that!"
"Do you know, Diamond," said Nanny, "I do not think my old granny is my real old granny at all. I don't think she was ever any one's granny or mother. That was why she was not good to me. Perhaps she never had any mother when she was little to be good to her. And somebody must first be good to you, don't you think, before you can learn how to be good to any body else? Isn't that so? But where [92] was I in my dream? Oh yes, the big yellow moon came down closer and closer to the grass in front of me. Then somehow, it seemed to be my ruby lady. ”

“ After Nanny had been well seen to, Mr. Raymond took the boy home with him and they soon settled the matter of the six-pence between them.
"And now, what will you do with it?" the gentleman asked him.
"Take it home to my mother," answered Diamond. "She has a tea-pot with a broken spout and she keeps all her money in it. It isn't much but she saves it up to buy shoes for me. And there's the baby—he'll want shoes soon. And every six-pence is something, isn't it?" ”

“ Next day, little Diamond forgot all about the hole. But his mother found it when she was making up his bed and pasted a piece of thick brown paper over it. So when Diamond snuggled down into his bed that night, he did not think of it at all. But before he dropped asleep, he heard a queer sound and lifted his head to listen. Was somebody talking to him? The wind was rising again and beginning to blow and whistle. ”

“ Will you promise, Diamond?"
"Yes, North Wind, I promise," said Diamond. "I will never be afraid of you."
"Do you remember having to go through me to get into the country at my back?" asked North Wind, [116] "after the long, long, long ride in the ship and the journey on the iceberg?"
"Yes, yes, I do! How tired you were, North Wind, when we got at last on to the iceberg and South Wind began to blow! And how thin and weak you grew in the beautiful blue cave in the side of the ice. ”

“ One day when their cab was waiting for a fare, Diamond jumped down to run a little and stretch his legs. He strolled up to the crossing where Nanny and her broom were to be found in all weathers. Just as he was going to speak to her a tall gentleman stepped upon the crossing. He was glad to find it clean and he gave the girl a penny. When she made him a courtesy, he looked at her again and said, "Where do you live, my child?"
"Paradise Row," she answered. "Next door to the Adam and Eve—down the area."
"Whom do you live with?" he asked.
"My wicked old granny," she replied. ”

“ Nobody ever so beautiful or so good will make up to [113] you for that one going out of sight. So you see, North Wind, I cannot help being frightened to think that perhaps I am only dreaming and that you are nowhere at all! Do tell me that you are my own real beautiful North Wind!"
Again she rose and shot high up into the air. Diamond lay quiet in her arms waiting for her to speak. He tried to see up into her face, for he was dreadfully afraid she did not answer him because she could not tell him she was not a dream. ”

“ One day, they gave him a curry comb and brush to try his hand on old Diamond's coat. He used them deftly and thoroughly as far as he could reach.
"You must make haste and grow," the men told him. "It won't do to clean a horse half way up and leave his back dirty, you know."
"Put me up," said Diamond. In a moment he was on the old horse's back with the comb and brush. There he combed and brushed and combed and brushed. Every now and then, old Diamond would whisk his tail and once he sent the comb flying out of the stable door to the great amusement of the men. ”

“ Leaning over him was the large, beautiful, pale face of a woman. Her dark eyes had begun to flash a little but the rest of her face was very sweet and beautiful. What was very strange, though, was that away from her head streamed out her black hair in every direction like dark clouds. ”

“ I suppose it is only the people in a place that make you like it and when they are gone there is nothing left to like. It's as if it were dead! North Wind told [125] me I might stop as long as I wanted to, but I have stopped too long already! Oh, North Wind!" he cried aloud turning his face up toward the sky.
The moon was under a cloud and all was looking dull and dismal. A star shot from the sky. It fell in the grass beside him. The moment it lighted, there stood North Wind!
"Oh!" cried Diamond joyfully. "Were you the shooting star?"
"Yes," said North Wind. ”

“ Nanny had been so happy since she left the hospital and had been living with Diamond's family that she did not think the country would make her any happier. Besides she would have to leave cripple Jim behind and maybe never see him again. She had known cripple Jim much longer than she had known Diamond and he had no one else to care about him.
Diamond had taken a great deal of time and trouble to find Jim. For Jim had moved his home and had not heard of Nanny's illness till long after she was taken to the hospital. He was much too shy to go and inquire about her there. ”

“ And now Diamond felt that he would rather not run any further and that the ice had got very rough. Besides he was near the precipices that bounded the sea. So he slowed up his pace to a walk and said to himself, "North Wind will come back for me, I know. She is just teasing me a little. Then, too, she must get started some way to grow bigger and bigger all the time!" ”