“I'll try, sir. But they don't mind me much. They think I'm silly,”

 added Diamond, with one of his sweetest smiles.

What Mr. Raymond thought, I dare hardly attempt to put down here. But

one part of it was, that the highest wisdom must ever appear folly to

those who do not possess it.

“I think he would come though--after dark, you know,” Diamond continued.

“He does well at shining boots. People's kind to lame boys, you know,

sir. But after dark, there ain't so much doing.”

Diamond succeeded in bringing Jim to Mr. Raymond, and the consequence

was that he resolved to give the boy a chance. He provided new clothes

for both him and Nanny; and upon a certain day, Joseph took his wife and

three children, and Nanny and Jim, by train to a certain station in the

county of Kent, where they found a cart waiting to carry them and their

luggage to The Mound, which was the name of Mr. Raymond's new residence.

I will not describe the varied feelings of the party as they went, or

when they arrived. All I will say is, that Diamond, who is my only care,

was full of quiet delight--a gladness too deep to talk about.

Joseph returned to town the same night, and the next morning drove Ruby

and Diamond down, with the carriage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a

lady in the carriage. For Mr. Raymond was an old bachelor no longer: he

was bringing his wife with him to live at The Mound. The moment Nanny

saw her, she recognised her as the lady who had lent her the ruby-ring.

That ring had been given her by Mr. Raymond.

The weather was very hot, and the woods very shadowy. There were not a

great many wild flowers, for it was getting well towards autumn, and the

most of the wild flowers rise early to be before the leaves, because

if they did not, they would never get a glimpse of the sun for them. So

they have their fun over, and are ready to go to bed again by the time

the trees are dressed. But there was plenty of the loveliest grass and

daisies about the house, and Diamond's chief pleasure seemed to be to

lie amongst them, and breathe the pure air. But all the time, he was

dreaming of the country at the back of the north wind, and trying to

recall the songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at

the back of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it.

Sometimes he would have his little brother, sometimes his little sister,

and sometimes both of them in the grass with him, and then he felt just

like a cat with her first kittens, he said, only he couldn't purr--all

he could do was to sing.

These were very different times from those when he used to drive the

cab, but you must not suppose that Diamond was idle. He did not do so

much for his mother now, because Nanny occupied his former place; but

he helped his father still, both in the stable and the harness-room, and

generally went with him on the box that he might learn to drive a pair,

and be ready to open the carriage-door. Mr. Raymond advised his father

to give him plenty of liberty.

“A boy like that,” he said, “ought not to be pushed.”

Joseph assented heartily, smiling to himself at the idea of pushing

Diamond. After doing everything that fell to his share, the boy had a

wealth of time at his disposal. And a happy, sometimes a merry time it

was. Only for two months or so, he neither saw nor heard anything of

North Wind.

MR. RAYMOND'S house was called The Mound, because it stood upon a little

steep knoll, so smooth and symmetrical that it showed itself at once to

be artificial. It had, beyond doubt, been built for Queen Elizabeth as a

hunting tower--a place, namely, from the top of which you could see the

country for miles on all sides, and so be able to follow with your eyes

the flying deer and the pursuing hounds and horsemen. The mound had been

cast up to give a good basement-advantage over the neighbouring heights

and woods. There was a great quarry-hole not far off, brim-full of

water, from which, as the current legend stated, the materials forming

the heart of the mound--a kind of stone unfit for building--had been

dug. The house itself was of brick, and they said the foundations were

first laid in the natural level, and then the stones and earth of the

mound were heaped about and between them, so that its great height

should be well buttressed.

Joseph and his wife lived in a little cottage a short way from the

house. It was a real cottage, with a roof of thick thatch, which, in

June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals it shook

from the loose topmost sprays of the rose-trees climbing the walls. At

first Diamond had a nest under this thatch--a pretty little room with

white muslin curtains, but afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted to

have him for a page in the house, and his father and mother were quite

pleased to have him employed without his leaving them. So he was dressed

in a suit of blue, from which his pale face and fair hair came out like

the loveliest blossom, and took up his abode in the house.

“Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?” asked his mistress.

“I don't know what you mean, ma'am,” said Diamond. “I never was afraid

of anything that I can recollect--not much, at least.”

“There's a little room at the top of the house--all alone,” she

returned; “perhaps you would not mind sleeping there?”

“I can sleep anywhere, and I like best to be high up. Should I be able

to see out?”

“I will show you the place,” she answered; and taking him by the hand,

she led him up and up the oval-winding stair in one of the two towers.

Near the top they entered a tiny little room, with two windows from

which you could see over the whole country. Diamond clapped his hands

with delight.

“You would like this room, then, Diamond?” said his mistress.

“It's the grandest room in the house,” he answered. “I shall be near the

stars, and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That's just what I

like.”

I daresay he thought, also, that it would be a nice place for North

Wind to call at in passing; but he said nothing of that sort. Below him

spread a lake of green leaves, with glimpses of grass here and there at

the bottom of it. As he looked down, he saw a squirrel appear suddenly,

and as suddenly vanish amongst the topmost branches.

“Aha! little squirrel,” he cried, “my nest is built higher than yours.”

“You can be up here with your books as much as you like,” said his

mistress. “I will have a little bell hung at the door, which I can ring

when I want you. Half-way down the stair is the drawing-room.”

So Diamond was installed as page, and his new room got ready for him.

It was very soon after this that I came to know Diamond. I was then a

tutor in a family whose estate adjoined the little property belonging

to The Mound. I had made the acquaintance of Mr. Raymond in London some

time before, and was walking up the drive towards the house to call upon

him one fine warm evening, when I saw Diamond for the first time. He was

sitting at the foot of a great beech-tree, a few yards from the road,

with a book on his knees. He did not see me. I walked up behind

the tree, and peeping over his shoulder, saw that he was reading a

fairy-book.

“What are you reading?” I said, and spoke suddenly, with the hope of