unning on their edges
all about her feet. "No, I did not eat a baby," she said, "as you would
know if you had not let go of me. I merely scared an ugly nurse who was
calling a child bad names. I flew at her throat and she tumbled over
with a crash. I had to put on a bad shape before she could see me. I put
on a wolf's shape for that is what she is growing to be inside."

They were now climbing the slope of a grassy ascent. At the top, North
Wind stood and turned her face toward London. The stars were still
shining clear and cold overhead. There was not a cloud to be seen.

"Now," said North Wind, "do not let go of me again. I might have lost
you the last time, only I was not in a hurry then. Now I am in a hurry."

As she spoke, she was growing larger and larger. Her head went up and up
toward the stars. As she grew, her hair, longer and longer, lifted
itself from her head and went out in black waves. She put her hands
behind her head and began weaving and knotting her hair together. Then
she took up Diamond in her hands and threw him over her shoulder saying,
"I have made a place for you in my hair. Get in, Diamond."

Diamond soon found the woven nest and crept into it. The next moment he
was rising in the air. North Wind grew towering up to the place of the
clouds. Her hair went streaming out from her till it spread like a mist
over the stars. She flung herself abroad in space. Diamond made a little
place through the woven meshes of her hair and peeped through that, for
he did not dare look over the top of his nest.

The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and
water and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but
the roofs of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and
rocks. Chimneys fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great
roaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea.
Diamond, of course, at the back of North Wind, was in a calm but he
could hear it. Around and around and around, swept North Wind, her dark
hair rolling and flowing, sweeping the people all into their homes and
the bad smells out of the streets.

Suddenly, Diamond saw a little girl coming along a street. She was
dreadfully blown by the wind, and a broom she was trailing behind her
was very troublesome. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her! It
kept worrying her and tearing at her rags. She was so lonely there!

"Oh, please, North Wind," cried Diamond, "w