At the Back of the North Wind | Page 8

like a dream, and he began
to doubt whether he had not really been abroad in the wind last night.
He came to the conclusion that, if he had really been brought home to
his mother by Mrs. Crump, she would say something to him about it,
and that would settle the matter. Then he got up and dressed himself,
but, finding that his father and mother were not yet stirring, he went

down the ladder to the stable. There he found that even old Diamond
was not awake yet, for he, as well as young Diamond, always got up
the moment he woke, and now he was lying as flat as a horse could lie
upon his nice trim bed of straw.
"I'll give old Diamond a surprise," thought the, boy; and creeping up
very softly, before the horse knew, he was astride of his back. Then it
was young Diamond's turn to have more of a surprise than he had
expected; for as with an earthquake, with a rumbling and a rocking
hither and thither, a sprawling of legs and heaving as of many backs,
young Diamond found himself hoisted up in the air, with both hands
twisted in the horse's mane. The next instant old Diamond lashed out
with both his hind legs, and giving one cry of terror young Diamond
found himself lying on his neck, with his arms as far round it as they
would go. But then the horse stood as still as a stone, except that he
lifted his head gently up to let the boy slip down to his back. For when
he heard young Diamond's cry he knew that there was nothing to kick
about; for young Diamond was a good boy, and old Diamond was a
good horse, and the one was all right on the back of the other.
As soon as Diamond had got himself comfortable on the saddle place,
the horse began pulling at the hay, and the boy began thinking. He had
never mounted Diamond himself before, and he had never got off him
without being lifted down. So he sat, while the horse ate, wondering
how he was to reach the ground.
But while he meditated, his mother woke, and her first thought was to
see her boy. She had visited him twice during the night, and found him
sleeping quietly. Now his bed was empty, and she was frightened.
"Diamond! Diamond! Where are you, Diamond?" she called out.
Diamond turned his head where he sat like a knight on his steed in
enchanted stall, and cried aloud,--
"Here, mother!"
"Where, Diamond?" she returned.

"Here, mother, on Diamond's back."
She came running to the ladder, and peeping down, saw him aloft on
the great horse.
"Come down, Diamond," she said.
"I can't," answered Diamond.
"How did you get up?" asked his mother.
"Quite easily," answered he; "but when I got up, Diamond would get up
too, and so here I am."
His mother thought he had been walking in his sleep again, and hurried
down the ladder. She did not much like going up to the horse, for she
had not been used to horses; but she would have gone into a lion's den,
not to say a horse's stall, to help her boy. So she went and lifted him off
Diamond's back, and felt braver all her life after. She carried him in her
arms up to her room; but, afraid of frightening him at his own
sleep-walking, as she supposed it, said nothing about last night. Before
the next day was over, Diamond had almost concluded the whole
adventure a dream.
For a week his mother watched him very carefully--going into the loft
several times a night--as often, in fact, as she woke. Every time she
found him fast asleep.
All that week it was hard weather. The grass showed white in the
morning with the hoar-frost which clung like tiny comfits to every
blade. And as Diamond's shoes were not good, and his mother had not
quite saved up enough money to get him the new pair she so much
wanted for him, she would not let him run out. He played all his games
over and over indoors, especially that of driving two chairs harnessed
to the baby's cradle; and if they did not go very fast, they went as fast
as could be expected of the best chairs in the world, although one of
them had only three legs, and the other only half a back.

At length his mother brought home his new shoes, and no sooner did
she find they fitted him than she told him he might run out in the yard
and amuse himself for an hour.
The sun was going down when he flew from the door like