was on his feet and shaking himself so that young Diamond's bed
trembled under him.

"He is grand at shaking himself!" said Diamond. "I wish I could shake
myself like that. But then I can wash myself and he can't. What fun it
would be to see old Diamond washing his face with his hoofs and iron
shoes! Wouldn't it be a picture!"

He dressed himself quickly and ran out. Down the stairs he went and
through the little door out upon the lawn of Mr. Coleman's house next
door. He wanted to see how things looked since last night. There was the
little summer-house with the tulip bed before it where he had been
sitting the evening before, crushed to the ground! Over it lay the great
elm tree which the wind had broken across! As he stood looking at it, a
gentleman who was staying at the Coleman house came out upon the lawn.

"Dear me!" said the gentleman. "There has been terrible work here! This
is the North Wind's doing! What a pity! I wish we lived at the back of
it, I am sure!"

"Where is that, sir?" asked Diamond.

"Away in the Hyperborean regions," answered the gentleman. He smiled for
he knew well enough that Diamond would not understand that big word
which means the country away in the far, far north.

"I never heard of that place," returned Diamond.

"No," said the gentleman. "I suppose not. But if this tree had been
there, it would not have been blown down. There is no wind in that
country."

"That must be the place," said Diamond to himself, "where North Wind
said she would take the people whom she sunk with the ship. Next time I
see her, I am going to ask her to take me to see that land, too."

CHAPTER IV

THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND

One morning, Diamond's mother did not think he was feeling very well and
when he told her that he had a little headache, she was sure of it. Now
there was an aunt of his living at Sandwich and his mother decided to
send him there for a change. So giving him two pence for spending money,
she packed him off to Sandwich for a visit.

He soon made great friends with an old woman who kept a toy-shop there,
where he spent his two pence. One hot day when he had been walking about
more than he ought and was tired, he went into the toy-shop to rest. The
old woman had gone out but he thought it would be all right for him to
sit down on a box and rest.

All at once, he heard a gentle whirring somewhere amongst the toys.
Among them was a whistle that had a wind-mill