asleep.

He woke, not out of his dream, but into it, thinking he heard a child's

voice, calling “Diamond, Diamond!” He jumped up, but all was still about

him. The rose-bushes were pouring out their odours in clouds. He could

see the scent like mists of the same colour as the rose, issuing like

a slow fountain and spreading in the air till it joined the thin rosy

vapour which hung over all the wilderness. But again came the voice

calling him, and it seemed to come from over his head. He looked up, but

saw only the deep blue sky full of stars--more brilliant, however, than

he had seen them before; and both sky and stars looked nearer to the

earth.

While he gazed up, again he heard the cry. At the same moment he saw one

of the biggest stars over his head give a kind of twinkle and jump,

as if it went out and came in again. He threw himself on his back,

and fixed his eyes upon it. Nor had he gazed long before it went out,

leaving something like a scar in the blue. But as he went on gazing he

saw a face where the star had been--a merry face, with bright eyes.

The eyes appeared not only to see Diamond, but to know that Diamond had

caught sight of them, for the face withdrew the same moment. Again came

the voice, calling “Diamond, Diamond;” and in jumped the star to its

place.

Diamond called as loud as he could, right up into the sky:

“Here's Diamond, down below you. What do you want him to do?”

The next instant many of the stars round about that one went out, and

many voices shouted from the sky,--

“Come up; come up. We're so jolly! Diamond! Diamond!”

This was followed by a peal of the merriest, kindliest laughter, and all

the stars jumped into their places again.

“How am I to come up?” shouted Diamond.

“Go round the rose-bush. It's got its foot in it,” said the first voice.

Diamond got up at once, and walked to the other side of the rose-bush.

There he found what seemed the very opposite of what he wanted--a stair

down into the earth. It was of turf and moss. It did not seem to promise

well for getting into the sky, but Diamond had learned to look through

the look of things. The voice must have meant that he was to go down

this stair; and down this stair Diamond went, without waiting to think

more about it.

It was such a nice stair, so cool and soft--all the sides as well as the

steps grown with moss and grass and ferns! Down and down Diamond went--a

long way, until at last he heard the gurgling and splashing of a little

stream; nor had he gone much farther before he met it--yes, met it

coming up the stairs to meet him, running up just as naturally as if

it had been doing the other thing. Neither was Diamond in the least

surprised to see it pitching itself from one step to another as it

climbed towards him: he never thought it was odd--and no more it was,

there. It would have been odd here. It made a merry tune as it came, and

its voice was like the laughter he had heard from the sky. This appeared

promising; and he went on, down and down the stair, and up and up the

stream, till at last he came where it hurried out from under a stone,

and the stair stopped altogether. And as the stream bubbled up, the

stone shook and swayed with its force; and Diamond thought he would try

to lift it. Lightly it rose to his hand, forced up by the stream from

below; and, by what would have seemed an unaccountable perversion of

things had he been awake, threatened to come tumbling upon his head.

But he avoided it, and when it fell, got upon it. He now saw that the

opening through which the water came pouring in was over his head, and

with the help of the stone he scrambled out by it, and found himself

on the side of a grassy hill which rounded away from him in every

direction, and down which came the brook which vanished in the hole.

But scarcely had he noticed so much as this before a merry shouting and

laughter burst upon him, and a number of naked little boys came running,

every one eager to get to him first. At the shoulders of each fluttered

two little wings, which were of no use for flying, as they were mere

buds; only being made for it they could not help fluttering as if they

were flying. Just as the foremost of the troop reached him, one or two

of them fell, and the rest with shouts of laughter came tumbling over

them till they heaped up a mound of struggling merriment. One after

another they extricated themselves, and each as he got free threw his

arms round Diamond and kissed him. Diamond's heart was ready to melt

within him from clear delight. When they had all embraced him,--

“Now let us have some fun,” cried one, and with a shout they all

scampered hither and thither, and played the wildest gambols on the

grassy slopes. They kept constantly coming back to Diamond, however, as

the centre of their enjoyment, rejoicing over him as if they had found a

lost playmate.

There was a wind on the hillside which blew like the very embodiment

of living gladness. It blew into Diamond's heart, and made him so happy

that he was forced to sit down and cry.

“Now let's go and dig for stars,” said one who seemed to be the captain

of the troop.

They all scurried away, but soon returned, one after another, each with

a pickaxe on his shoulder and a spade in his hand. As soon as they were

gathered, the captain led them in a straight line to another part of the

hill. Diamond rose and followed.

“Here is where we begin our lesson for to-night,” he said. “Scatter and

dig.”

There was no more fun. Each went by himself, walking slowly with bent

shoulders and his eyes fixed on the ground. Every now and then one would

stop, kneel down, and look intently, feeling with his hands and parting

the grass. One would get up and walk on again, another spring to his

feet, catch eagerly at his pickaxe and strike it into the ground once

and again, then throw it aside, snatch up his spade, and commence

digging at the loosened earth. Now one would sorrowfully shovel the

earth into the hole again, trample it down with his little bare white

feet, and walk on. But another would give a joyful shout, and after

much tugging and loosening would draw from the hole a lump as big as his

head, or no bigger than his fist; when the under side of it would pour

such a blaze of golden or bluish light into Diamond's eyes that he was

quite dazzled. Gold and blue were the commoner colours: the jubilation

was greater over red or green or purple. And every time a star was

dug up all the little angels dropped their tools and crowded about it,

shouting and dancing and fluttering their wing-buds.

When they had examined it well, they would kneel down one after the

other and peep through the hole; but they always stood back to give

Diamond the first look. All that diamond could report, however, was,

that through the star-holes he saw a great many things and places and

people he knew quite well, only somehow they were different--there was

something marvellous about them--he could not tell what. Every time he

rose from looking through a star-hole, he felt as if his heart would

break for, joy; and he said that if he had not cried, he did not know

what would have become of him.

As soon as all had looked, the star was carefully fitted in again, a

little mould was strewn over it, and the rest of the heap left as a sign

that the star had been discovered.

At length one dug up a small star of a most lovely colour--a colour