the pain behind and was getting well. Diamond looked all
around but he could see no Nanny. He turned to Mr. Raymond with a
question in his eyes.

"Well?" said Mr. Raymond.

"Nanny's not here," said Diamond.

"Oh, yes, she is."

"I don't see her!"

"I do, though. There she is."

He pointed to a bed right in front of where Diamond was standing.

"That's not Nanny!" cried Diamond.

"Yes, it _is_ Nanny. I have seen her a great many times since you have,
and that is she."

So Diamond looked again and looked hard. "If that is Nanny," said
Diamond to himself, "then she must have been at the back of the north
wind. That is why she looks so different." He said nothing aloud, only
stared. And as he stared, something of the face of the old Nanny began
to come out in the face of the new Nanny. The old Nanny had been
somewhat rough in her speech, her face rather hard, and she had not
kept herself clean--how could she! Now, in her fresh white bed, she
looked sweet and gentle and refined.

"Surely North Wind has had something to do with it," thought Diamond. In
her weeks of sickness, had North Wind carried Nanny to the country at
her back--as she once had carried him--and changed her from a rough girl
to a gentle maiden? As he gazed, the best of the old face, the good and
true part of the old Nanny, dawned upon him like the moon coming out of
a cloud. He saw that it was Nanny, indeed--but very worn and grown
almost beautiful.

He went up to her and she smiled. He had heard her laugh, but he had
never seen her smile before. "Nanny, do you know me?" asked Diamond. She
only smiled again. She was not likely to forget him. To be sure, she did
not know that it was he who had got her there. But he was the only boy
except cripple Jim who had ever been kind to her.

Mr. Raymond walked about talking to the other children, while Diamond
visited with Nanny. Then after a time, he stood in the middle of the
room and told them a nice fairy story. He often did that and the
children watched for his visits. After he finished the story, he had to
go. Diamond took leave of Nanny and promised to go and see her again
soon and went away with Mr. Raymond.

Now Mr. Raymond had been turning over in his mind what he could do for
Diamond and for Nanny. He knew Diamond's father somewhat. But he wanted
to find out better what sort of a man he was and whether he was worth
doing anything for. He decided to see if he would do anything for any
body e