wind and tried to remember
the songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at the
back of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it. But
though he did lie happily in the grass and dream of her, of North Wind
herself, he neither saw nor heard anything for some months.

Mr. Raymond's house was called "The Mound" because it stood upon a steep
little knoll that had been made on purpose. It was built for Queen
Elizabeth as a hunting tower--a place, that is, from the top of which
you could see the country for miles on all sides. From a window the
Queen was able to follow with her eyes the flying deer, and the hunters
in the chase. The mound had been cast up so as to give the house an
outlook over the neighboring heights and woods.

Diamond's father and mother lived in a little cottage a short distance
from the house. It was a real cottage with a roof of thick thatch which,
in June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals of
the rose tree climbing up the walls. But Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted
Diamond to be a page in their own house. So he was dressed in the little
blue suit of a page and lived at "The Mound" itself.

"Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
"There is a little room at the top of the house--all alone. Perhaps you
would not mind sleeping there."

"I can sleep anywhere," said Diamond. "And I like best to be high up.
Should I be able to see out?"

"I will show you the place," she answered, and taking him by the hand,
she led him up and up the oval winding stair into one of the two towers
that were on the house. Near the top, they entered a tiny room with two
windows from which you could see all over the country. Diamond clapped
his hands with delight!

"You would like this room, then, Diamond?" asked his mistress.

"It is the grandest room in the house!" he answered. "I shall be near
the stars and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That is just what
I like!"

I daresay he thought also that it would be a nice place for North Wind
to call at, in passing. Below him spread a lake of green leaves with
glimpses of grass here and there at the bottom. As he looked down, he
saw a squirrel appear suddenly and as suddenly vanish among the top-most
branches.

"Aha! Mr. Squirrel!" he cried. "My nest is built higher than yours!"

"I will have a bell hung at your door which I can ring when I want you,"
said his mistress. And so Diamond b