ee
anything so far. `Can you see anything so small and so far off?' I said.
`Bless you, child!' said the little man; `I could pick up a needle out
of the grass if I had only a long enough arm. There's one lying by the
door of the summer-house now.' I looked at his eyes. They were very
small, but so bright that I think he saw by the light that went out of
them. Then he took me up, and up again by a little stair in a corner of
the room, and through another trapdoor, and there was one great round
window above us, and I saw the blue sky and the clouds, and such lots of
stars, all so big and shining as hard as ever they could!"

"The little girl-angels had been polishing them," said Diamond.

"What nonsense you do talk!" said Nanny.

"But my nonsense is just as good as yours, Nanny. When you have done,
I'll tell you my dream. The stars are in it--not the moon, though. She
was away somewhere. Perhaps she was gone to fetch you then. I don't
think that, though, for my dream was longer ago than yours. She might
have been to fetch some one else, though; for we can't fancy it's only
us that get such fine things done for them. But do tell me what came
next."

Perhaps one of my child-readers may remember whether the moon came down
to fetch him or her the same night that Diamond had his dream. I cannot
tell, of course. I know she did not come to fetch me, though I did think
I could make her follow me when I was a boy--not a very tiny one either.

"The little man took me all round the house, and made me look out of
every window. Oh, it was beautiful! There we were, all up in the air, in
such a nice, clean little house! `Your work will be to keep the windows
bright,' said the little man. `You won't find it very difficult,
for there ain't much dust up here. Only, the frost settles on them
sometimes, and the drops of rain leave marks on them.' `I can easily
clean them inside,' I said; `but how am I to get the frost and rain off
the outside of them?' `Oh!' he said, `it's quite easy. There are ladders
all about. You've only got to go out at the door, and climb about. There
are a great many windows you haven't seen yet, and some of them look
into places you don't know anything about. I used to clean them myself,
but I'm getting rather old, you see. Ain't I now?' `I can't tell,' I
answered. `You see I never saw you when you were younger.' `Never saw
the man in the moon?' said he. `Not very near,' I answered, `not to tell
how young or ho