NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY
The next night, Diamond was tired, but was waiting eagerly for the
promised visit of North Wind. He was seated by his open window, with his
head on his hand and rather afraid he could not sleep. Suddenly, he
started and found he had already been asleep. He looked out of the
window and saw something white against his beech tree. It was North
Wind. Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the
tree whose top was swaying about while the other trees were quite 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. 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
an opal.
The night was warm and in North Wind's arms he did not feel the wind
which down below was making waves in the ripe grain and ripples on the
rivers and lakes. At length, they came down just where a little spring
bubbled out of a hill side.
"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind. "I am
not needed for anything else to-night and we will just have a lovely
little time."
She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
surface of it glided along, level with its flow, as it ran down the
hill. The song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears and grew and
grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond 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. Then it broke out again, tinkle,
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 in the moonlight below
them, they floated. Now, where it widened out into a little lake, they
would hover for a moment over a bed of water-lilies. They watched them
swing about, folded in sleep, as the water on which they leaned swayed
in the presence of North Wind. Now they would watch the fishes asleep
among their roots below.
Sometimes, North Wind held Diamond over a deep hollow curving into the
bank and let him look far into its 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. Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush from
the opposite bank. Now the willows would dip low branches into its still
waters. Now it would lead them through stately trees and grassy banks
into a lovely garden where the roses and lilies were asleep and the
flowers folded up, or only a few awake sending out strong, sweet 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. In parts, the river was so high that some of the grass and some
of the roots of the trees were under water. As they glided through the
stems, Diamond could see the grass at the bottom of the water. How like
it was to the river which ran through the country at the back of the
north wind! And now he seemed to hear more and more clearly its
murmured song till at last the words came out plainly.
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
Will it die? Oh, no!
It will only hide
From the frost and snow.
Sure is the summer,
Sure is the sun.
The night and the winter
Are shadows that run!
They left the river and began to float about and over the houses one
after another--beautiful rich houses which like fine trees had taken
hundreds of years to grow. 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 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. When he finished, out of the
window they slipped away and floated on.
"Did she hear, North Wind?" said Diamond. "Did she know we were trying
to help her--and will it help her?"
"She heard you," answered North Wind. "She heard with her heart, though,
and not with her ears. She will not forget, but she will never
understand till----"
"Till she gets to the back of the north wind," said Diamond.
North Wind smiled. Then she turned so that he could look down at the
place over which they were passing.
"Oh!" he cried out suddenly. "I know where we are now. This is my old
home before we moved into the city. Do let me get down and go into the
old garden, North Wind, and run into mother's room, and into old
Diamond's stall. I wonder if the hole is at the back of my bed
still--your window, you know. Oh, I should like to stay here all the
rest of the night! It won't take you long to get home from here, will
it, North Wind?"
"No," she answered; "you shall stay as long as you like."
"Oh, how jolly!" cried Diamond.
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 small
summer house and great elm tree were gone. It was so changed! He didn't
like it and ran into the stable. There were no horses there at all. He
ran upstairs but the rooms were all empty. The only thing left that he
cared about was the hole in the wall where his little bed had stood. All
besides was desolate. He turned and ran down the stairs again and out
upon the lawn. There he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all
so dreary and lost!
"I liked the place so much!" he thought to himself. "But now--there is
nothing left to like. 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 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.
"And did you hear me call?"
"Yes."
"As high up as that?"
"Yes, I heard you quite well."
"Take me home, North Wind. Take me home!"
"Have you had enough of your old home already?"
"Yes. It is not home here any more."
"Why is that, do you think?" asked North Wind.
"Is it because its soul is gone? Yes, that must be it, is it not, North
Wind?"
"Yes, Diamond, that is it. Its soul is gone," said North Wind.
She lifted him into her arms to bear him away. How long they floated
about he did not know. But presently all was changed. He was in his own
room again. And there was North Wind in the doorway of the long narrow
room that opened out of his room, and in which the night before he was
dancing when he looked up to find his lifted hands clasped in hers and
saw her lovely face smiling down upon him.
Now she was a different North Wind. She was just as he had seen her
sitting on her own door-step in the far, far north. She was as white as
snow and her eyes as blue as the heart of an iceberg.
"That's how she would look when she thought I might be afraid of her,"
he said to himself. Then he spoke aloud. "I am not afraid of you, dear
North Wind," he cried. "See! I am not a bit afraid of you!" Stretching
out both his hands to clasp her he pressed up close against her and laid
his head upon her breast. And then he fell asleep.
In the morning, they found little Diamond lying on the floor of the big
attic room--fast asleep, as they thought, and with such a happy smile on
his face. But when they took him up, they found he was not asleep. He
had gone to that lovely country at the back of the north wind--to stay.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 25, "litle" changed to "little." (made a little place)
One instance each of "no-where" and "nowhere" were retained.
The frontispiece original says that the text is found on page 334.
It is actually located on page 111 and has been edited to reflect
this.