ed Diamond.

"I'm sure I don't know what," she said.

"I wonder if it's the same boy--yes, it must be the same--Little Boy
Blue, you know. Let me see--how does that rhyme go?

Little Boy Blue, come blow me your horn--

Yes, of course it is--for this one went `blowing his horn and beating
his drum.' He had a drum too.

Little Boy Blue, come blow me your horn;
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn,

He had to keep them out, you know. But he wasn't minding his work. It
goes--

Where's the little boy that looks after the sheep?
He's under the haystack, fast asleep.

There, you see, mother! And then, let me see--

Who'll go and wake him? No, not I;
For if I do, he'll be sure to cry.

So I suppose nobody did wake him. He was a rather cross little boy,
I daresay, when woke up. And when he did wake of himself, and saw the
mischief the cow had done to the corn, instead of running home to his
mother, he ran away into the wood and lost himself. Don't you think
that's very likely, mother?"

"I shouldn't wonder," she answered.

"So you see he was naughty; for even when he lost himself he did not
want to go home. Any of the creatures would have shown him the way if he
had asked it--all but the snake. He followed the snake, you know, and he
took him farther away. I suppose it was a young one of the same serpent
that tempted Adam and Eve. Father was telling us about it last Sunday,
you remember."

"Bless the child!" said his mother to herself; and then added aloud,
finding that Diamond did not go on, "Well, what next?"

"I don't know, mother. I'm sure there's a great deal more, but what it
is I can't say. I only know that he killed the snake. I suppose that's
what he had a drumstick for. He couldn't do it with his horn."

"But surely you're not such a silly as to take it all for true,
Diamond?"

"I think it must be. It looks true. That killing of the snake looks
true. It's what I've got to do so often."

His mother looked uneasy. Diamond smiled full in her face, and added--

"When baby cries and won't be happy, and when father and you talk about
your troubles, I mean."

This did little to reassure his mother; and lest my reader should have
his qualms about it too, I venture to remind him once more that Diamond
had been to the back of the north wind.

Finding she made no reply, Diamond went on--

"In a week or so, I shall be a