第91章

"It's a lady," said North Wind. "She can't sleep for pain.""Couldn't you do something for her?" said Diamond.

"No, I can't. But you could."

"What could I do?"

"Sing a little song to her."

"She wouldn't hear me."

"I will take you in, and then she will hear you.""But that would be rude, wouldn't it? You can go where you please, of course, but I should have no business in her room.""You may trust me, Diamond. I shall take as good care of the lady as of you. The window is open. Come."By a shaded lamp, a lady was seated in a white wrapper, trying to read, but moaning every minute. North Wind floated behind her chair, set Diamond down, and told him to sing something.

He was a little frightened, but he thought a while, and then sang:--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, It will die -- no, no;It will only hide From the frost and the snow.

Sure is the summer, Sure is the sun;

The night and the winter Are shadows that run.

The lady never lifted her eyes from her book, or her head from her hand.

As soon as Diamond had finished, North Wind lifted him and carried him away.

"Didn't the lady hear me?" asked Diamond when they were once more floating down the river.

"Oh, yes, she heard you," answered North Wind.

"Was she frightened then?"

"Oh, no."

"Why didn't she look to see who it was?"

"She didn't know you were there."

"How could she hear me then?"

"She didn't hear you with her ears."

"What did she hear me with?"

"With her heart."

"Where did she think the words came from?""She thought they came out of the book she was reading. She will search all through it to-morrow to find them, and won't be able to understand it at all.""Oh, what fun!" said Diamond. "What will she do?""I can tell you what she won't do: she'll never forget the meaning of them; and she'll never be able to remember the words of them.""If she sees them in Mr. Raymond's book, it will puzzle her, won't it?""Yes, that it will. She will never be able to understand it.""Until she gets to the back of the north wind," suggested Diamond.

"Until she gets to the back of the north wind," assented the lady.

"Oh!" cried Diamond, "I know now where we are. Oh! do let me go into the old garden, and into mother's room, and Diamond's stall.

I wonder if the hole is at the back of my bed still. I should like to stay there 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, as 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 little summer-house with the coloured glass and the great elm-tree gone.

He did not like this, and ran into the stable. There were no horses there at all. He ran upstairs. The rooms were empty.

The only thing left that he cared about was the hole in the wall where his little bed had stood; and that was not enough to make him wish to stop. He ran down the stair again, and out upon the lawn.

There he threw himself down and began to cry. It was all so dreary and lost!

"I thought I liked the place so much," said Diamond to himself, "but I find I don't care about it. I suppose it's only the people in it that make you like a place, and when they're gone, it's dead, and you don't care a bit about it. North Wind told me I might stop as long as I liked, and I've stopped longer already. North Wind!"he cried aloud, turning his face towards the sky.

The moon was under a cloud, and all was looking dull and dismal.

A star shot from the sky, and fell in the grass beside him.

The moment it lighted, there stood North Wind.

"Oh!" cried Diamond, joyfully, "were you the shooting star?""Yes, my child."

"Did you hear me call you then?"

"Yes."

"So high up as that?"

"Yes; I heard you quite well."

"Do take me home."

"Have you had enough of your old home already?""Yes, more than enough. It isn't a home at all now.""I thought that would be it," said North Wind. "Everything, dreaming and all, has got a soul in it, or else it's worth nothing, and we don't care a bit about it. Some of our thoughts are worth nothing, because they've got no soul in them. The brain puts them into the mind, not the mind into the brain.""But how can you know about that, North Wind? You haven't got a body.""If I hadn't you wouldn't know anything about me. No creature can know another without the help of a body. But I don't care to talk about that. It is time for you to go home."So saying, North Wind lifted Diamond and bore him away.