d came
down the street, and I saw that Miss Coleman must not face it. But to
think we should have fallen upon you, of all the cabmen in London! I
didn't know you had got a cab."

"Well, you see, ma'am, I had a chance of buying the old horse, and I
couldn't resist him. There he is, looking at you, ma'am. Nobody knows
the sense in that head of his."

The two ladies went near to pat the horse, and then they noticed Diamond
on the box.

"Why, you've got both Diamonds with you," said Miss Coleman. "How do you
do, Diamond?"

Diamond lifted his cap, and answered politely.

"He'll be fit to drive himself before long," said his father, proudly.
"The old horse is a-teaching of him."

"Well, he must come and see us, now you've found us out. Where do you
live?"

Diamond's father gave the ladies a ticket with his name and address
printed on it; and then Mrs. Coleman took out her purse, saying:

"And what's your fare, Joseph?"

"No, thank you, ma'am," said Joseph. "It was your own old horse as took
you; and me you paid long ago."

He jumped on his box before she could say another word, and with a
parting salute drove off, leaving them on the pavement, with the maid
holding the door for them.

It was a long time now since Diamond had seen North Wind, or even
thought much about her. And as his father drove along, he was thinking
not about her, but about the crossing-sweeper, and was wondering what
made him feel as if he knew her quite well, when he could not remember
anything of her. But a picture arose in his mind of a little girl
running before the wind and dragging her broom after her; and from that,
by degrees, he recalled the whole adventure of the night when he got
down from North Wind's back in a London street. But he could not quite
satisfy himself whether the whole affair was not a dream which he had
dreamed when he was a very little boy. Only he had been to the back of
the north wind since--there could be no doubt of that; for when he woke
every morning, he always knew that he had been there again. And as he
thought and thought, he recalled another thing that had happened that
morning, which, although it seemed a mere accident, might have something
to do with what had happened since. His father had intended going on the
stand at King's Cross that morning, and had turned into Gray's Inn Lane
to drive there, when they found the way blocked up, and upon inquiry
were informed that a stack of chimneys had been blown