"Please, dear North Wind," he said, "I am so happy that I'm afraid
it's a dream. How am I to know that it's not a dream?"

"What does it matter?" returned North Wind.

"I should, cry" said Diamond.

"But why should you cry? The dream, if it is a dream, is a pleasant one--
is it not?"

"That's just why I want it to be true."

"Have you forgotten what you said to Nanny about her dream?"

"It's not for the dream itself--I mean, it's not for the pleasure
of it," answered Diamond, "for I have that, whether it be a dream
or not; it's for you, North Wind; I can't bear to find it a dream,
because then I should lose you. You would be nobody then, and I
could not bear that. You ain't a dream, are you, dear North Wind?
Do say No, else I shall cry, and come awake, and you'll be gone for ever.
I daren't dream about you once again if you ain't anybody."

"I'm either not a dream, or there's something better that's not
a dream, Diamond," said North Wind, in a rather sorrowful tone,
he thought.

"But it's not something better--it's you I want, North Wind,"
he persisted, already beginning to cry a little.

She made no answer, but rose with him in her arms and sailed away