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AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
Eleventh Impression
* * * * *
THE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS
Each beautifully illustrated in color and tastefully bound
BY WASHINGTON IRVING
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
RIP VAN WINKLE
SELECTED
TALES OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S
ALHAMBRA
BY JOHN RUSKIN
THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
SELECTED
HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
BY MISS MULOCK
THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE
THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE
BY EMMA GELLIBRAND
J. COLE
BY JOHANNA SPYRI
MONI THE GOAT BOY
BY OUIDA
MOUFFLOU AND OTHER STORIES
THE NÜRNBERG STOVE
A DOG OF FLANDERS
SELECTED
WONDERLAND STORIES
ALL TIME TALES
BY JONATHAN SWIFT
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
(LILLIPUT LAND)
BY GEORGE MACDONALD
THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN
THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE
AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
* * * * *
[Illustration: NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE
LONG BARE ROOM _Page 111_]
George Macdonald
Stories For Little Folks
AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
Simplified by
ELIZABETH LEWIS
Author of "The Princess and the Goblin Simplified"
With Six Full Page Illustrations in Color by Maria L. Kirk
[Illustration]
Philadelphia and London
J. B. Lippincott Company
Copyright, 1914
By J. B. Lippincott Company
Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND 9
II. DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND 20
III. NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP 31
IV. THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND 41
V. DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT 52
VI. DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE 62
VII. DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB 73
VIII. DIAMOND VISITS NANNY 84
IX. THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY 93
X. DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME 102
XI. ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND 109
XII. NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY 119
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND
THE LONG BARE ROOM _Frontispiece_
AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE
VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY 12
IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN 29
HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND, BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST
BE DEAD AT LAST 47
WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE
VERSES FOR HIMSELF 73
HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY 78
AT THE BACK OF THE
NORTH WIND
CHAPTER I
DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND
There was once a little boy named Diamond and he slept in a low room
over a coach house. In fact, his room was just a loft where they kept
hay and straw and oats for the horses. Little Diamond's father was a
coachman and he had named his boy after a favorite horse.
Diamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all around
it, because there was so little room in their own end of the coach
house. So when little Diamond lay there in bed, he could hear the horses
under him munching away in the dark or moving sleepily in their dreams.
His father put old Diamond, the horse after whom he was named, in the
stall under the bed because he was quiet and did not go to sleep
standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature.
Little Diamond sometimes woke in the middle of the night and felt his
bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind. Then he could not help
wondering if the wind should blow the house down and he should fall down
into the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew
him in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long,
yet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little 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!
Often there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay
at his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there
was none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet
bought more. Soon they bought more, and then it was only through a
little lane with two or three turnings in it that he could reach his bed
at all.
Sometimes when his mother undressed him in her room and told him to trot
away to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay first.
There he would lie, thinking how cold it was outside in the wind and how
warm it would be inside his bed; and how he would go to his bed when he
pleased; only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first.
As he grew colder lying in the hay, his bed seemed to him to grow
warmer. Then at last, he would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an
arrow into his bed, cover himself up, snuggle down, and think what a
happy boy he was!
He had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall
and blew about him all night. But the back of his bed was of boards only
an inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now
these boards were soft and crumbly, and it happened that a soft part in
them had worn away.
One night after he lay down, little Diamond found that a knot had come
out of one of them and the wind was blowing in upon him. He jumped out
of bed again, got a little wisp of hay, twisted it up and folded it in
the middle. In this way, he made it into a cork and stuck it into the
knot-hole to keep the wind out. But the wind began to blow loudly and
angrily. Just as Diamond was falling asleep, out blew his hay cork and
hit him on the nose!
It was just hard enough to wake him up and let him hear the wind
whistling through the hole. He searched about for his hay cork, found
it, and stuck it in harder. He was just dropping off to sleep 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, got some more hay to make
a new cork, and stuck it into the hole as hard as ever he could. But he
was scarcely laid down again, before pop! it came on his forehead. So he
gave it up, drew the bed-clothes over his head, and was soon fast
asleep.
[Illustration: AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE
QUITE DISTINCTLY]
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. Was it the
wind? He moved about to find out who or what it was, and at last,
happened to put his hand upon the knot-hole with the paper pasted over
it. Against this he laid his ear and then he heard the voice quite
distinctly.
"What do you mean, little boy, by 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 is a hole in my
bed."
"I did not say _a_ window. I said it was _my_ window!"
"But it can't be a window!" said Diamond. "Windows are holes to see out
of."
"Well, that is just what I made this window for."
"But you are outside," answered Diamond. "You can't want a window."
"You are quite mistaken. Windows are to see out of, you say. Well, I am
in my house, and I want windows to see out of."
"But you have made a window into my bed."
"Well, your mother has three windows into my dancing hall, and you have
three into my garret."
"Dear me!" said Diamond. "Still you can hardly expect me to keep a
window in my bed for you. Now, can you?"
"Come!" said the voice. "You just open that window!"
"Well," said Diamond, "mother says I should be obliging. Still it is
rather hard. You see, the north wind will blow right in my face if I
do!"
"I am the North Wind!" said the voice.
"O-o-oh!" said Diamond. "Then will you promise not to blow in my face if
I open your window?"
"I cannot promise that," said the North Wind.
"But you will give me the tooth-ache. Mother has it already."
"But what is to become of me without a window!" cried the voice.
"I am sure I don't know. All I say is that it will be worse for me than
for you."
"No, it will not," replied the voice. "You shall not be the worse for
it--I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe
what I say, and do as I tell you."
"Well, I _can_ pull the clothes over my head," said Diamond. So he felt
around with his little sharp nails, got hold of one edge of the paper
and tore it off. In came a long whistling stream of cold that struck his
little naked chest. He scrambled and tumbled in under the bed-clothes
and covered himself up. There was no paper between him and the voice
now, and he felt--not frightened exactly--but a little queer.
"What a strange person this North Wind must be," thought Diamond, "to
live in what they call 'Out-of-Doors,' I suppose, and make windows into
people's beds."
Now the voice began again. He could hear it quite plainly, even with his
head under the bed-clothes. It was still more gentle now, though it was
six times as large and loud as before. 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 is a very nice name," replied the boy.
"I am not so sure of that," said the voice.
"Well, I am!" returned Diamond. "I think it is a very pretty name."
"Diamond is a useless thing, rather," said the voice.
"That is not true. Diamond is very useful--and as big as two--and so
quiet all night! But doesn't he make a jolly row in the morning, getting
up on his four great legs! It is like thunder!"
"You do not seem to know what a diamond is!" cried the voice.
"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, Mr. North Wind, if you are so particular, he is big
Diamond and I am little Diamond. And I do not know which of us my father
likes best!"
A beautiful laugh, soft and musical, sounded somewhere near him. But the
boy kept his head under the clothes.
"I am not Mr. North Wind," said the voice.
"You told me you were the North Wind," cried Diamond.
"I did not say _Mr._ North Wind," said the voice.
"Well, I _do_ say Mr. for my mother tells me always to be polite."
"Then let me tell you that I do not think it at all polite for you to
say Mr. to me," answered the voice.
"Isn't it? Well, I am sorry then."
"But you ought to know better," said the voice. "You can't think it is
polite to lie there with your head under the bed-clothes and never look
to see what kind of a person you are talking to! I want you to come out
with me."
"I want to go to sleep!" said Diamond.
"Will you take your head out of the bed-clothes?" said the voice a
little angrily.
"No!" said Diamond crossly.
The moment he said the word a fierce blast of wind crashed in the wall
and swept the clothes off him. He started up in a fright. 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. Soon it
fell down about her again and then her face came out of it like the
moon out of the clouds.
"Will you go with me now, little Diamond?" asked the North Wind bending
over him and speaking very gently.
"Yes, yes!" cried Diamond, stretching out his arms toward her. "Yes, I
will go with you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit afraid. I will go!
But," he added, "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. Nobody is cold with
the North Wind."
"I thought everybody was," said Diamond.
"That is a great mistake. 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. And now, come!"
She turned away and went so swiftly that she was gone before Diamond was
more than started. When he finally got down the stairs and out into the
yard, no one did he see. And there he stood with his bare feet on the
hard stones of the paved yard.
"I dare say she is hiding somewhere to see what I will do," said
Diamond. So around the end of the stable he went to see if he could find
her. But at once, sharp as a knife, the wind came against his little
chest and bare legs. And stronger and stronger the wind seemed to blow.
It was _so_ cold! All at once, he remembered that she had said that
people were not cold if they went _with_ the North Wind. So he turned
his back and trotted again toward the yard and sure enough, he began to
feel almost warm once more!
On and on, North Wind blew him and, presently, she seemed to shove him
right against a small door in a wall. It opened and she blew him through
it and out into the very middle of the lawn of the house next door. It
was here that Mr. Coleman lived who was his father's master and who
owned big Diamond. So little Diamond did not feel entirely strange, and
then, too, there was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long
as he could see that, Diamond could not feel quite alone or lonely. But
all at once, the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it
was dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone
to bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he
burst out crying.
Some one in the house heard the sound of his sobbing and came out and
found him there. He was taken into the house and into a room which had a
bright light and a warm fire in it. Beside this, he found Miss Coleman,
the young lady daughter of the house, who was having her long dark hair
brushed out before going to bed. Somehow in that state, she looked just
like the beautiful North Wind that he had been searching for. Without
stopping to think, he ran right into her arms for comfort.
After he was warmed and comforted, they took him back home and knocked
on the door to arouse his mother, to come and get him. She was much
surprised to see him, you may be sure. She carried him up to his bed
again and tucked him snugly in. And there he fell fast asleep.