dreadful! Still I cannot believe you are cruel, North Wind!"

"No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to
those who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry
away to the back of the north wind--only I never saw the place."

"But how can you carry them there if you never saw the place? And how is
it that you never saw it?"

"Because it is behind me. You cannot see your own back, you know. But
run along now if you want to go with me to-night. I cannot take you till
you have been to bed and gone to sleep. I'll look about and do something
till you are ready. Do you see that man over there on the river in the
boat who is just floating about? Now watch!"

She flashed like a dragon-fly across the water whose surface rippled and
puckered as she passed. The next moment, the man in the boat glanced
about him and bent to his oars. The boat flew over the rippling water.
The same instant almost, North Wind perched again upon the river wall.

"How did you do that?" asked Diamond.

"I just blew in his face and blew the mist out of him."

"But what for? I don't understand!" said Diamond. Hearing no answer, he
looked down at the wall. North Wind was gone. Away across the river
went a long ripple--what sailors call a cat's paw. The man in the boat
at once put up his sail. The moon was coming to herself on the edge of a
great cloud and the sail began to shine white. Diamond rubbed his eyes
and wondered what it was all about. But he felt that he could not know