"Oh!" cried Diamond joyfully. "Were you the shooting star?" "Yes," said North Wind. "And did you hear me call?" "Yes." "As high up as that?" "Yes, I heard you quite well." "Take me home, North Wind. Take me home!" "Have you had enough of your old home already?" "Yes. It is not home here any more." "Why is that, do you think?" asked North Wind. "Is it because its soul is gone? Yes, that must be it, is it not, North Wind?" "Yes, Diamond, that is it. Its soul is gone," said North Wind. She lifted him into her arms to bear him away. How long they floated about he did not know. But presently all was changed. He was in his own room again. And there was North Wind in the doorway of the long narrow room that opened out of his room, and in which the night before he was dancing when he looked up to find his lifted hands clasped in hers and saw her lovely face smiling down upon him. Now she was a different North Wind. She was just as he had seen her sitting on her own door-step in the far, far north. She was as white as snow and her eyes as blue as the heart of an iceberg. "That's how she would look when she thought I might be afraid of her," he said to himself. Then he spoke aloud. "I am not afraid of you, dear North Wind," he cried. "See! I am not a bit afraid of you!" Stretching out both his hands to clasp her he pressed up close against her and laid his head upon her breast. And then he fell asleep. In the morning, they found little Diamond lying on the floor of the big attic room--fast asleep, as they thought, and with such a happy smile on his face. But when they took him up, they found he was not asleep. He had gone to that lovely country at the back of the north wind--to stay. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Page 25, "litle" changed to "little." (made a little place) One instance each of "no-where" and "nowhere" were retained. The frontispiece original says that the text is found on page 334. It is actually located on page 111 and has been edited to reflect this.