"Yes, dear North Wind. You are so beautiful I am quite ready to go with
you."

"Ah, but I may not always look beautiful. If you see me with my face all
black, don't be frightened. If you see me flapping wings like bat's
wings, as big as the whole sky, don't be afraid. If you hear me raging,
you must believe that I am just doing my work. Nay, Diamond, if I change
into a serpent or a tiger, you must not let go your hold of me, for it
will be I just the same. And now, come!"

She turned away and went so swiftly that she was gone before Diamond was
more than started. When he finally got down the stairs and out into the
yard, no one did he see. And there he stood with his bare feet on the
hard stones of the paved yard.

"I dare say she is hiding somewhere to see what I will do," said
Diamond. So around the end of the stable he went to see if he could find
her. But at once, sharp as a knife, the wind came against his little
chest and bare legs. And stronger and stronger the wind seemed to blow.
It was _so_ cold! All at once, he remembered that she had said that
people were not cold if they went _with_ the North Wind. So he turned
his back and trotted again toward the yard and sure enough, he began to
feel almost warm once more!

On and on, North Wind blew him and, presently, she seemed to shove him
right against a small door in a wall. It opened and she blew him through
it and out into the very middle of the lawn of the house next door. It
was here that Mr. Coleman lived who was his father's master and who
owned big Diamond. So little Diamond did not feel entirely strange, and
then, too, there was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long