ar of the shelter of the stable, sharp as a knife
came the wind against his little chest and his bare legs. Still he
would look in the kitchen-garden, and went on. But when he got round the
weeping-ash that stood in the corner, the wind blew much stronger, and
it grew stronger and stronger till he could hardly fight against it. And
it was so cold! All the flashy spikes of the stars seemed to have got
somehow into the wind. Then he thought of what the lady had said about
people being cold because they were not with the North Wind. How it was
that he should have guessed what she meant at that very moment I cannot
tell, but I have observed that the most wonderful thing in the world is
how people come to understand anything. He turned his back to the wind,
and trotted again towards the yard; whereupon, strange to say, it blew
so much more gently against his calves than it had blown against his
shins that he began to feel almost warm by contrast.

You must not think it was cowardly of Diamond to turn his back to
the wind: he did so only because he thought Lady North Wind had said
something like telling him to do so. If she had said to him that he must
hold his face to it, Diamond would have held his face to it. But the
most foolish thing is to fight for no good, and to please nobody.

Well, it was just as if the wind was pushing Diamond along. If he turned
round, it grew very sharp on his legs especially, and so he thought the
wind might really be Lady North Wind, though he could not see her, and
he had better let her blow him wherever she pleased. So she blew and
blew, and he went and went, until he found himself standing at a door
in a wall, which door led from the yard into a little belt of shrubbery,
flanking Mr. Coleman's house. Mr. Coleman was his father's master,
and the owner of Diamond. He opened the door, and went through the
shrubbery, and out into the middle of the lawn, still hoping to find
North Wind. The soft grass was very pleasant to his bare feet, and felt
warm after the stones of the yard; but the lady was nowhere to be seen.
Then he began to think that after all he must have done wrong, and she
was offended with him for not following close after her, but staying to
talk to the horse, which certainly was neither wise nor polite.

There he stood in the middle of the lawn, the wind blowing his
night-gown till it flapped like a loose sail. The stars were very shiny
over his head; but they did not give light