step to another as it
climbed towards him: he never thought it was odd--and no more it was,
there. It would have been odd here. It made a merry tune as it came, and
its voice was like the laughter he had heard from the sky. This appeared
promising; and he went on, down and down the stair, and up and up the
stream, till at last he came where it hurried out from under a stone,
and the stair stopped altogether. And as the stream bubbled up, the
stone shook and swayed with its force; and Diamond thought he would try
to lift it. Lightly it rose to his hand, forced up by the stream from
below; and, by what would have seemed an unaccountable perversion of
things had he been awake, threatened to come tumbling upon his head.
But he avoided it, and when it fell, got upon it. He now saw that the
opening through which the water came pouring in was over his head, and
with the help of the stone he scrambled out by it, and found himself
on the side of a grassy hill which rounded away from him in every
direction, and down which came the brook which vanished in the hole.
But scarcely had he noticed so much as this before a merry shouting and
laughter burst upon him, and a number of naked little boys came running,
every one eager to get to him first. At the shoulders of each fluttered
two little wings, which were of no use for flying, as they were mere
buds; only being made for it they could not help fluttering as if they
were flying. Just as the foremost of the troop reached him, one or two
of them fell, and the rest with shouts of laughter came tumbling over
them till they heaped up a mound of struggling merriment. One after
another they extricated themselves, and each as he got free threw his
arms round Diamond and kissed him. Diamond's heart was ready to melt
within him from clear delight. When they had all embraced him,--

"Now let us have some fun," cried one, and with a shout they all
scampered hither and thither, and played the wildest gambols on the
grassy slopes. They kept constantly coming back to Diamond, however, as
the centre of their enjoyment, rejoicing over him as if they had found a
lost playmate.

There was a wind on the hillside which blew like the very embodiment
of living gladness. It blew into Diamond's heart, and made him so happy
that he was forced to sit down and cry.

"Now let's go and dig for stars," said one who seemed to be the captain
of the troop.

They all scurried away, but soon returned, one after a