ng upon the big horse like a man, saw a little
girl sweeping a crossing before a lady and holding out her hand for a
penny. The lady had no penny and the little girl was disappointed.

Diamond could not stand that. He knew the little girl and he knew that
he had a penny in his pocket. He slid off the horse in a sort of tumble
and ran to her, holding out the penny. She did not know him at first,
but when he smiled at her, she did. He stuffed the penny into her hand
and ran back, for he knew his father would not care to wait. After that,
he did not see little Nanny for a long time.

He played often now on the lawn of the house next door--Mr. Coleman's
lawn--as the summer drew near, warm and splendid. One evening, he was
sitting in a little summer-house at the foot of the lawn, before which
was a bed of tulips. They were closed for the night but the wind was
waving them slightly. All at once, out of one of them, there flew a big
buzzing bumblebee.

"There! That's something done!" said a voice--a gentle, merry, childish
voice but _so_ tiny! "I was afraid he would have to stay there all
night."

Diamond looked all about and then he saw the _tiniest_ creature, sliding
down the stem of the tulip.

"Are you the fairy that herds the bees?" he asked kneeling down beside
the tulip bed.

"I am not a fairy," answered the little creature. "You stupid Diamond,
have you never seen me before?"

As she spoke, a moan of wind bent the tulips almost to the ground and
then he recognized North Wind.

"But there!" added the little creature, "I must not stay to chatter. I
have to go and sink a ship to-night."

"Sink a ship!" cried Diamond. "And drown the men and women in it? How
dreadful! Still I cannot believe you are cruel, North Wind!"

"No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to
those who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry
away to the back of the north wind--only I never saw the place."

"But how can you carry them there if you never saw the place? And how is
it that you never saw it?"

"Because it is behind me. You cannot see your own back, you know. But
run along now if you want to go with me to-night. I cannot take you till
you have been to bed and gone to sleep. I'll look about and do something
till you are ready. Do you see that man over there on the river in the
boat who is just floating about? Now watch!"

She flashed like a dragon-fly across the water whose surface r