At the Back of the North Wind

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At the Back of the North Wind

The Project Gutenberg eBook, At the Back of the North Wind, by Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald, Illustrated by Maria L. Kirk
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Title: At the Back of the North Wind
Author: Elizabeth Lewis and George MacDonald

Release Date: June 17, 2006 [eBook #18614]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
Eleventh Impression
* * * * *
THE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS
Each beautifully illustrated in color and tastefully bound
BY WASHINGTON IRVING THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW RIP VAN WINKLE
SELECTED TALES OF WASHINGTON IRVING'S ALHAMBRA
BY JOHN RUSKIN THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
SELECTED HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
BY MISS MULOCK THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE
BY EMMA GELLIBRAND J. COLE
BY JOHANNA SPYRI MONI THE GOAT BOY
BY OUIDA MOUFFLOU AND OTHER STORIES THE NüRNBERG STOVE A DOG OF FLANDERS
SELECTED WONDERLAND STORIES ALL TIME TALES
BY JONATHAN SWIFT GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (LILLIPUT LAND)
BY GEORGE MACDONALD THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN THE PRINCESS AND CURDIE AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
* * * * *
[Illustration: NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE LONG BARE ROOM Page 111]

George Macdonald Stories For Little Folks
AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
Simplified by
ELIZABETH LEWIS
Author of "The Princess and the Goblin Simplified"
With Six Full Page Illustrations in Color by Maria L. Kirk

[Illustration]

Philadelphia and London J. B. Lippincott Company Copyright, 1914 By J. B. Lippincott Company Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND 9
II. DIAMOND'S FIRST TRIP WITH THE NORTH WIND 20
III. NORTH WIND SINKS A SHIP 31
IV. THE LAND AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND 41
V. DIAMOND'S FATHER LOSES HIS EMPLOYMENT 52
VI. DIAMOND LEARNS TO DRIVE A HORSE 62
VII. DIAMOND DRIVES THE CAB 73
VIII. DIAMOND VISITS NANNY 84
IX. THINGS GO HARD WITH DIAMOND'S FAMILY 93
X. DIAMOND IN HIS NEW HOME 102
XI. ANOTHER VISIT FROM NORTH WIND 109
XII. NORTH WIND CARRIES DIAMOND AWAY 119

ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
NORTH WIND, WHO WAS DANCING WITH HIM, ROUND AND ROUND THE LONG BARE ROOM Frontispiece
AGAINST THIS HE LAID HIS EAR, AND THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE QUITE DISTINCTLY 12
IT WAS THE BACK DOOR OF A GARDEN 29
HE WAS SURE IT WAS NORTH WIND, BUT HE THOUGHT SHE MUST BE DEAD AT LAST 47
WITHIN A MONTH HE WAS ABLE TO SPELL OUT MOST OF THE VERSES FOR HIMSELF 73
HE FASTENED THE CHEEK-STRAP VERY CAREFULLY 78

AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND
CHAPTER I
DIAMOND MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF NORTH WIND
There was once a little boy named Diamond and he slept in a low room over a coach house. In fact, his room was just a loft where they kept hay and straw and oats for the horses. Little Diamond's father was a coachman and he had named his boy after a favorite horse.
Diamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all around it, because there was so little room in their own end of the coach house. So when little Diamond lay there in bed, he could hear the horses under him munching away in the dark or moving sleepily in their dreams. His father put old Diamond, the horse after whom he was named, in the stall under the bed because he was quiet and did not go to sleep standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature.
Little Diamond sometimes woke in the middle of the night and felt his bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind. Then he could not help wondering if the wind should blow the house down and he should fall down into the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew him in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long, yet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little Diamond knew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which was--to go to sleep again as fast as he could!
Often there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay at his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there was none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet bought more. Soon they