At the Back of the North Wind | Page 6

like vulgar emperors, or ill-natured cooks; for all emperors
are not gentlemen, and all cooks are not ladies--nor all queens and
princesses for that matter, either.
But it can't be denied that a little gentle crying does one good. It did
Diamond good; for as soon as it was over he was a brave boy again.
"She shan't say it was my fault, anyhow!" said Diamond. "I daresay she
is hiding somewhere to see what I will do. I will look for her."
So he went round the end of the stable towards the kitchen-garden. But
the moment he was clear of the shelter of the stable, sharp as a knife
came the wind against his little chest and his bare legs. Still he would
look in the kitchen-garden, and went on. But when he got round the
weeping-ash that stood in the corner, the wind blew much stronger, and
it grew stronger and stronger till he could hardly fight against it. And it
was so cold! All the flashy spikes of the stars seemed to have got
somehow into the wind. Then he thought of what the lady had said
about people being cold because they were not with the North Wind.
How it was that he should have guessed what she meant at that very
moment I cannot tell, but I have observed that the most wonderful thing
in the world is how people come to understand anything. He turned his
back to the wind, and trotted again towards the yard; whereupon,
strange to say, it blew so much more gently against his calves than it
had blown against his shins that he began to feel almost warm by
contrast.
You must not think it was cowardly of Diamond to turn his back to the
wind: he did so only because he thought Lady North Wind had said
something like telling him to do so. If she had said to him that he must
hold his face to it, Diamond would have held his face to it. But the
most foolish thing is to fight for no good, and to please nobody.

Well, it was just as if the wind was pushing Diamond along. If he
turned round, it grew very sharp on his legs especially, and so he
thought the wind might really be Lady North Wind, though he could
not see her, and he had better let her blow him wherever she pleased.
So she blew and blew, and he went and went, until he found himself
standing at a door in a wall, which door led from the yard into a little
belt of shrubbery, flanking Mr. Coleman's house. Mr. Coleman was his
father's master, and the owner of Diamond. He opened the door, and
went through the shrubbery, and out into the middle of the lawn, still
hoping to find North Wind. The soft grass was very pleasant to his bare
feet, and felt warm after the stones of the yard; but the lady was
nowhere to be seen. Then he began to think that after all he must have
done wrong, and she was offended with him for not following close
after her, but staying to talk to the horse, which certainly was neither
wise nor polite.
There he stood in the middle of the lawn, the wind blowing his
night-gown till it flapped like a loose sail. The stars were very shiny
over his head; but they did not give light enough to show that the grass
was green; and Diamond stood alone in the strange night, which looked
half solid all about him. He began to wonder whether he was in a dream
or not. It was important to determine this; "for," thought Diamond, "if I
am in a dream, I am safe in my bed, and I needn't cry. But if I'm not in
a dream, I'm out here, and perhaps I had better cry, or, at least, I'm not
sure whether I can help it." He came to the conclusion, however, that,
whether he was in a dream or not, there could be no harm in not crying
for a little while longer: he could begin whenever he liked.
The back of Mr. Coleman's house was to the lawn, and one of the
drawing-room windows looked out upon it. The ladies had not gone to
bed; for the light was still shining in that window. But they had no idea
that a little boy was standing on the lawn in his night-gown, or they
would have run out in a moment. And as long as he saw that light,
Diamond could not feel quite lonely. He stood staring, not at the great
warrior Orion in the sky, nor yet at the disconsolate, neglected moon
going down in the west, but