over the tree-tops till they came to a meadow, where a flock
of sheep was feeding.

"Do you remember what the song you were singing a week ago says
about Bo-Peep--how she lost her sheep, but got twice as many lambs?"
asked North Wind, sitting down on the grass, and placing him in her
lap as before.

"Oh yes, I do, well enough," answered Diamond; "but I never just
quite liked that rhyme."

"Why not, child?"

"Because it seems to say one's as good as another, or two new ones
are better than one that's lost. I've been thinking about it
a great deal, and it seems to me that although any one sixpence
is as good as any other sixpence, not twenty lambs would do instead
of one sheep whose face you knew. Somehow, when once you've
looked into anybody's eyes, right deep down into them, I mean,
nobody will do for that one any more. Nobody, ever so beautiful
or so good, will make up for that one going out of sight.
So you see, North Wind, I can't help being frightened to think
that perhaps I am only dreaming, and you are nowhere at all.
Do tell me that you are my own, real, beautiful North Wind."

Again she rose, and shot herself into the air, as if uneasy
because she could not answer him; and Diamond lay quiet in her arms,
waiting for what she would say. He tried to see up into her face,
for he was dreadfully afraid she was not answering him because she
could not say that she was not a dream; but she had let her hair