him.
"Quick, Diamond!" she said. "I have found such a chance!"
"But I'm not well," said Diamond.
"I know that, but you will be better for a little fresh air. You shall have plenty of that."
"You want me to go, then?"
"Yes, I do. It won't hurt you."
"Very well," said Diamond; and getting out of the bed-clothes, he jumped into North Wind's arms.
"We must make haste before your aunt comes," said she, as she glided out of the open lattice and left it swinging.
The moment Diamond felt her arms fold around him he began to feel better. It was a moonless night, and very dark, with glimpses of stars when the clouds parted.
"I used to dash the waves about here," said North Wind, "where cows and sheep are feeding now; but we shall soon get to them. There they are."
And Diamond, looking down, saw the white glimmer of breaking water far below him.
"You see, Diamond," said North Wind, "it is very difficult for me to get you to the back of the north wind, for that country lies in the very north itself, and of course I can't blow northwards."
"Why not?" asked Diamond.
"You little silly!" said North Wind. "Don't you see that if I were to blow northwards I should be South Wind, and that is as much as to say that one person could be two persons?"
"But how can you ever get home at all, then?"
"You are quite right—that is my home, though I never get farther than the outer door. I sit on the doorstep, and hear the voices inside. I am nobody there, Diamond."
"I'm very sorry."
"Why?"
"That you should be nobody."
"Oh, I don't mind it. Dear little man! you will be very glad some day to be nobody yourself. But you can't understand that now, and you had better not try; for if you do, you will be certain to go fancying some egregious nonsense, and making yourself miserable about it."
"Then I won't," said Diamond.
"There's a good boy. It will all come in good time."
"But you haven't told me how you get to the doorstep, you know."
"It is easy enough for me. I have only to consent to be nobody, and there I am. I draw into myself and there I am on the doorstep. But you can easily see, or you have less sense than I think, that to drag you, you heavy thing, along with me, would take centuries, and I could not give the time to it."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said Diamond.
"What for now, pet?"
"That I'm so heavy for you. I would be lighter if I could, but I don't know how."
"You silly darling! Why, I could toss you a hundred miles from me if I liked. It is only when I am going home that I shall find you heavy."
"Then you are going home with me?"
"Of course. Did I not come to fetch you just for that?"
"But all this time you must be going southwards."
"Yes. Of course I am."
"How can you be taking me northwards, then?"
"A very sensible question. But you shall see. I will get rid of a few of these clouds—only they do come up so fast! It's like trying to blow a brook dry. There! What do you see now?"
"I think I see a little boat, away there, down below."
"A little boat, indeed! Well! She's a yacht of two hundred tons; and the captain of it is a friend of mine; for he is a man of good sense, and can sail his craft well. I've helped him many a time when he little thought it. I've heard him grumbling at me, when I was doing the very best I could for him. Why, I've carried him eighty miles a day, again and again, right north."
"He must have dodged for that," said Diamond, who had been watching the vessels, and had seen that they went other ways than the wind blew.
"Of course he must. But don't you see, it was the best I could do? I couldn't be South Wind. And besides it gave him a share in the business. It is not good at all—mind that, Diamond—to do everything for those you love, and not give them a share in the doing. It's not kind. It's making too much of yourself, my child. If I had been South Wind, he would only have smoked his pipe all day, and made himself stupid."
"But how could he be a man of sense and grumble at you when you were doing your best for him?"
"Oh! you must make allowances," said North Wind, "or you will never do justice to anybody.—You do understand, then, that a captain may sail north——"
"In spite of a north wind—yes," supplemented Diamond.
"Now, I do think you must be stupid, my dear" said North Wind. "Suppose the north wind did not blow where would he be then?"
"Why then the south wind would carry him."
"So you think that when the north wind stops the south wind blows. Nonsense. If I didn't blow, the captain couldn't sail his eighty miles a day. No doubt South Wind would carry him faster, but South Wind is sitting on her doorstep then, and if I stopped there would be a dead calm. So you are all wrong to say he can sail north in spite of me; he sails north by my help, and my help alone. You see that, Diamond?"
"Yes, I do, North Wind. I am stupid, but I don't want to be stupid."
"Good boy! I am going to blow you north in that little craft, one of the finest that ever sailed the sea. Here we are, right over it. I shall be blowing against you; you will be sailing against me; and all will be just as we want it. The captain won't get on so fast as he would like, but he will get on, and so shall we. I'm just going to put you on board. Do you see in front of the tiller—that thing the man is working, now to one side, now to the other—a round thing like the top of a drum?"
"Yes," said Diamond.
"Below that is where they keep their spare sails, and some stores of that sort. I am going to blow that cover off. The same moment I will drop you on deck, and you must tumble in. Don't be afraid, it is of no depth, and you will fall on sail-cloth. You will find it nice and warm and dry-only dark; and you will know I am near you by every roll and pitch of the vessel. Coil yourself up and go to sleep. The yacht shall be my cradle and you shall be my baby."
"Thank you, dear North Wind. I am not a bit afraid," said Diamond.
In a moment they were on a level with the bulwarks, and North Wind sent the hatch of the after-store rattling away over the deck to leeward. The next, Diamond found himself in the dark, for he had tumbled through the hole as North Wind had told him, and the cover was replaced over his head. Away he went rolling to leeward, for the wind began all at once to blow hard. He heard the call of the captain, and the loud trampling of the men over his head, as they hauled at the main sheet to get the boom on board that they might take in a reef in the mainsail. Diamond felt about until he had found
