st of wind
seized them and blew them down hill as fast as they could run. Nor could
Diamond stop before he went bang against one of the doors in the wall.
To his dismay it burst open. When they came to themselves they peeped
in. It was the back door of a garden.

"Ah, ah!" cried Diamond, after staring for a few moments, "I thought
so! North Wind takes nobody in! Here I am in master's garden! I tell you
what, little girl, you just bore a hole in old Sal's wall, and put your
mouth to it, and say, 'Please, North Wind, mayn't I go out with you?'
and then you'll see what'll come."

"I daresay I shall. But I'm out in the wind too often already to want
more of it."

"I said with the North Wind, not in it."

"It's all one."

"It's not all one."

"It is all one."

"But I know best."

"And I know better. I'll box your ears," said the girl.

Diamond got very angry. But he remembered that even if she did box his
ears, he musn't box hers again, for she was a girl, and all that boys
must do, if girls are rude, is to go away and leave them. So he went in
at the door.

"Good-bye, mister" said the girl.

This brought Diamond to his senses.

"I'm sorry I was cross," he said. "Come in, and my mother will give you
some breakfast."

"No, thank you. I must be off to my crossing. It's morning now."

"I'm very sorry for you," said Diamond.

"Well, it is a life to be tired of--what with old Sal, and so many holes
in my shoes."

"I wonder you're so good. I should kill myself."

"Oh, no, you wouldn't! When I think of it, I always want to see what's
coming next, and so I always wait till next is over. Well! I suppose
there's somebody happy somewheres. But it ain't in them carriages. Oh
my! how they do look sometimes--fit to bite your head off! Good-bye!"

She ran up the hill and disappeared behind it. Then Diamond shut the
door as he best could, and ran through the kitchen-garden to the stable.
And wasn't he glad to get into his own blessed bed again!

CHAPTER V. THE SUMMER-HOUSE

DIAMOND said nothing to his mother about his adventures. He had half a
notion that North Wind was a friend of his mother, and that, if she did
not know all about it, at least she did not mind his going anywhere with
the lady of the wind. At the same time he doubted whether he might not
appear to be telling stories if he told all, especially as he could
hardly believe it himself when he thought about it in the middle of the
day, althoug