give him to me, and I'll lay him down."

But as Diamond took him, he woke up and began to laugh. For he was
indeed one of the merriest children. And no wonder, for he was as plump
as a plum-pudding, and had never had an ache or a pain that lasted more
than five minutes at a time. Diamond sat down with him and began to sing
to him.

baby baby babbing your father's gone a-cabbing to catch a shilling for
its pence to make the baby babbing dance for old Diamond's a duck they
say he can swim but the duck of diamonds is baby that's him and of all
the swallows the merriest fellows that bake their cake with the water
they shake out of the river flowing for ever and make dust into clay on
the shiniest day to build their nest father's the best and mother's the
whitest and her eyes are the brightest of all the dams that watch their
lambs cropping the grass where the waters pass singing for ever and of
all the lambs with the shakingest tails and the jumpingest feet baby's
the funniest baby's the bonniest and he never wails and he's always
sweet and Diamond's his nurse and Diamond's his nurse and Diamond's his
nurse

When Diamond's rhymes grew scarce, he always began dancing the baby.
Some people wondered that such a child could rhyme as he did, but his
rhymes were not very good, for he was only trying to remember what he
had heard the river sing at the back of the north wind.

CHAPTER XVII. DIAMOND GOES ON

DIAMOND became a great favourite with all the men about the mews. Some
may think it was not the best place in the world for him to be brought
up in; but it must have been, for there he was. At first, he heard a
good many rough and bad words; but he did not like them, and so they did
him little harm. He did not know in the least what they meant, but there
was something in the very sound of them, and in the tone of voice in
which they were said, which Diamond felt to be ugly. So they did not
even stick to him, not to say get inside him. He never took any notice
of them, and his face shone pure and good in the middle of them, like
a primrose in a hailstorm. At first, because his face was so quiet
and sweet, with a smile always either awake or asleep in his eyes, and
because he never heeded their ugly words and rough jokes, they said he
wasn't all there, meaning that he was half an idiot, whereas he was a
great deal more there than they had the sense to see. And before long
the bad words found themselves ashamed to c