Diamond took her hand. It was cold, but so pleasant and full of life, it

was better than warm. She led him across the garden. With one bound she

was on the top of the wall. Diamond was left at the foot.

“Stop, stop!” he cried. “Please, I can't jump like that.”

“You don't try” said North Wind, who from the top looked down a foot

taller than before.

“Give me your hand again, and I will, try” said Diamond.

She reached down, Diamond laid hold of her hand, gave a great spring,

and stood beside her.

“This is nice!” he said.

Another bound, and they stood in the road by the river. It was full

tide, and the stars were shining clear in its depths, for it lay still,

waiting for the turn to run down again to the sea. They walked along its

side. But they had not walked far before its surface was covered with

ripples, and the stars had vanished from its bosom.

And North Wind was now tall as a full-grown girl. Her hair was flying

about her head, and the wind was blowing a breeze down the river. But

she turned aside and went up a narrow lane, and as she went her hair

fell down around her.

“I have some rather disagreeable work to do to-night,” she said, “before

I get out to sea, and I must set about it at once. The disagreeable work

must be looked after first.”

So saying, she laid hold of Diamond and began to run, gliding along

faster and faster. Diamond kept up with her as well as he could. She

made many turnings and windings, apparently because it was not quite

easy to get him over walls and houses. Once they ran through a hall

where they found back and front doors open. At the foot of the stair

North Wind stood still, and Diamond, hearing a great growl, started in

terror, and there, instead of North Wind, was a huge wolf by his side.

He let go his hold in dismay, and the wolf bounded up the stair. The

windows of the house rattled and shook as if guns were firing, and the

sound of a great fall came from above. Diamond stood with white face

staring up at the landing.

“Surely,” he thought, “North Wind can't be eating one of the children!”

 Coming to himself all at once, he rushed after her with his little fist

clenched. There were ladies in long trains going up and down the stairs,

and gentlemen in white neckties attending on them, who stared at him,

but none of them were of the people of the house, and they said nothing.

Before he reached the head of the stair, however, North Wind met him,

took him by the hand, and hurried down and out of the house.

“I hope you haven't eaten a baby, North Wind!” said Diamond, very

solemnly.

North Wind laughed merrily, and went tripping on faster. Her grassy robe

swept and swirled about her steps, and wherever it passed over withered

leaves, they went fleeing and whirling in spirals, and running on their

edges like wheels, all about her feet.

“No,” she said at last, “I did not eat a baby. You would not have had

to ask that foolish question if you had not let go your hold of me. You

would have seen how I served a nurse that was calling a child bad names,

and telling her she was wicked. She had been drinking. I saw an ugly gin

bottle in a cupboard.”

“And you frightened her?” said Diamond.

“I believe so!” answered North Wind laughing merrily. “I flew at her

throat, and she tumbled over on the floor with such a crash that they

ran in. She'll be turned away to-morrow--and quite time, if they knew as

much as I do.”

“But didn't you frighten the little one?”

“She never saw me. The woman would not have seen me either if she had

not been wicked.”

“Oh!” said Diamond, dubiously.

“Why should you see things,” returned North Wind, “that you wouldn't

understand or know what to do with? Good people see good things; bad

people, bad things.”

“Then are you a bad thing?”

“No. For you see me, Diamond, dear,” said the girl, and she looked down

at him, and Diamond saw the loving eyes of the great lady beaming from

the depths of her falling hair.

“I had to make myself look like a bad thing before she could see me. If

I had put on any other shape than a wolf's she would not have seen me,

for that is what is growing to be her own shape inside of her.”

“I don't know what you mean,” said Diamond, “but I suppose it's all

right.”

They were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent. It was Primrose

Hill, in fact, although Diamond had never heard of it. The moment they

reached the top, North Wind stood and turned her face towards London The

stars were still shining clear and cold overhead. There was not a cloud

to be seen. The air was sharp, but Diamond did not find it cold.

“Now,” said the lady, “whatever you do, do not let my hand go. I might

have lost you the last time, only I was not in a hurry then: now I am in

a hurry.”

Yet she stood still for a moment.

AND as she stood looking towards London, Diamond saw that she was

trembling.

“Are you cold, North Wind?” he asked.

“No, Diamond,” she answered, looking down upon him with a smile; “I am

only getting ready to sweep one of my rooms. Those careless, greedy,

untidy children make it in such a mess.”

As she spoke he could have told by her voice, if he had not seen with

his eyes, that she was growing larger and larger. Her head went up and

up towards the stars; and as she grew, still trembling through all her

body, her hair also grew--longer and longer, and lifted itself from her

head, and went out in black waves. The next moment, however, it fell

back around her, and she grew less and less till she was only a tall

woman. Then she put her hands behind her head, and gathered some of her

hair, and began weaving and knotting it together. When she had done, she

bent down her beautiful face close to his, and said--

“Diamond, I am afraid you would not keep hold of me, and if I were to

drop you, I don't know what might happen; so I have been making a place

for you in my hair. Come.”

Diamond held out his arms, for with that grand face looking at him,

he believed like a baby. She took him in her hands, threw him over her

shoulder, and said, “Get in, Diamond.”

And Diamond parted her hair with his hands, crept between, and feeling

about soon found the woven nest. It was just like a pocket, or like

the shawl in which gipsy women carry their children. North Wind put her

hands to her back, felt all about the nest, and finding it safe, said--

“Are you comfortable, Diamond?”

“Yes, indeed,” answered Diamond.

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 held on by two of the twisted ropes which, parted and

interwoven, formed his shelter, for he could not help being a little

afraid. As soon as he had come to himself, he peeped through the woven

meshes, for he did not dare to look over the top of the nest. The earth

was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and water and

green grass hurried away beneath. A great roar of wild animals rose

as they rushed over the Zoological Gardens, mixed with a chattering of

monkeys and a screaming of birds; but it died away in a moment behind