wanted to eat. He broke off little
bits of the berg now and then and sucked them, and he thought them very
nice.

At length, one time he came out of his cave, he spied far off on the
horizon, a shining peak that rose into the sky like the top of some
tremendous iceberg; and his vessel was bearing him straight towards
it. As it went on the peak rose and rose higher and higher above the
horizon; and other peaks rose after it, with sharp edges and jagged
ridges connecting them. Diamond thought this must be the place he was
going to; and he was right; for the mountains rose and rose, till he saw
the line of the coast at their feet and at length the iceberg drove into
a little bay, all around which were lofty precipices with snow on their
tops, and streaks of ice down their sides. The berg floated slowly up to
a projecting rock. Diamond stepped on shore, and without looking behind
him began to follow a natural path which led windingly towards the top
of the precipice.

When he reached it, he found himself on a broad table of ice,
along which he could walk without much difficulty. Before him, at a
considerable distance, rose a lofty ridge of ice, which shot up into
fantastic pinnacles and towers and battlements. The air was very cold,
and seemed somehow dead, for there was not the slightest breath of wind.

In the centre of the ridge before him appeared a gap like the opening
of a valley. But as he walked towards it, gazing, and wondering whether
that could be the way he had to take, he saw that what had appeared a
gap was the form of a woman seated against the ice front of the ridge,
leaning forwards with her hands in her lap, and her hair hanging down to
the ground.

"It is North Wind on her doorstep," said Diamond joyfully, and hurried
on.

He soon came up to the place, and there the form sat, like one of
the great figures at the door of an Egyptian temple, motionless, with
drooping arms and head. Then Diamond grew frightened, because she did
not move nor speak. He was sure it was North Wind, but he thought she
must be dead at last. Her face was white as the snow, her eyes were
blue as the air in the ice-cave, and her hair hung down straight, like
icicles. She had on a greenish robe, like the colour in the hollows of a
glacier seen from far off.

He stood up before her, and gazed fearfully into her face for a few
minutes before he ventured to speak. At length, with a great effort and
a trembling voice, he faltered