she was at the window and her arms came in and took him.
She sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but the
speed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went rushing
past. Soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely with mottled
clouds all about the moon on which she threw faint colours like those of
an opal.

The night was warm and in North Wind's arms he did not feel the wind
which down below was making waves in the ripe grain and ripples on the
rivers and lakes. At length, they came down just where a little spring
bubbled out of a hill side.

"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind. "I am
not needed for anything else to-night and we will just have a lovely
little time."

She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
surface of it glided along, level with its flow, as it ran down the
hill. The song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears and grew and
grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond to be singing the
story of its life to him. And so it was. It began with a musical tinkle
which changed to a babble and then to a gentle rushing.

Sometimes its song would almost cease. Then it broke out again, tinkle,
babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom of the hill, they came to a
small river into which the brook flowed with a muffled but merry sound.
Along the surface of the river, darkly clear in the moonlight below
them, they floated. Now, where it widened out into a little lake, they
would hover for a moment over a bed of water-lilies. They watched them
swing about, folded in sleep, as the water on which they leaned swayed
in the presence of North Wind. Now they would watch the fishes asleep
among their roots below.

Sometimes, North Wind held Diamond over a deep hollow curving into the
bank and let him look far into its cool stillness. Sometimes she would
leave the river and sweep across a clover field. The bees were all at
home and the clover was asleep. Then she would return and follow the
river. Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush from
the opposite bank. Now the willows would dip low branches into its still
waters. Now it would lead them through stately trees and grassy banks
into a lovely garden where the roses and lilies were asleep and the
flowers folded up, or only a few awake sending out strong, sweet odours.

Wider and wider grew the stream until they came upon boats lying along