out--

"North Wind!"

"Well, child?" said the form, without lifting its head.

"Are you ill, dear North Wind?"

"No. I am waiting."

"What for?"

"Till I'm wanted."

"You don't care for me any more," said Diamond, almost crying now.

"Yes I do. Only I can't show it. All my love is down at the bottom of my
heart. But I feel it bubbling there."

"What do you want me to do next, dear North Wind?" said Diamond, wishing
to show his love by being obedient.

"What do you want to do yourself?"

"I want to go into the country at your back."

"Then you must go through me."

"I don't know what you mean."

"I mean just what I say. You must walk on as if I were an open door, and
go right through me."

"But that will hurt you."

"Not in the least. It will hurt you, though."

"I don't mind that, if you tell me to do it."

"Do it," said North Wind.

Diamond walked towards her instantly. When he reached her knees, he put
out his hand to lay it on her, but nothing was there save an intense
cold. He walked on. Then all grew white about him; and the cold stung
him like fire. He walked on still, groping through the whiteness. It
thickened about him. At last, it got into his heart, and he lost all
sense. I would say that he fainted--only whereas in common faints all
grows black about you, he felt swallowed up in whiteness. It was when he
reached North Wind's heart that he fainted and fell. But as he fell, he
rolled over the threshold, and it was thus that Diamond got to the back
of the north wind.

CHAPTER X. AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND

I HAVE now come to the most difficult part of my story. And why? Because
I do not know enough about it. And why should I not know as much about
this part as about any other part? For of course I could know nothing
about the story except Diamond had told it; and why should not Diamond
tell about the country at the back of the north wind, as well as about
his adventures in getting there? Because, when he came back, he had
forgotten a great deal, and what he did remember was very hard to tell.
Things there are so different from things here! The people there do not
speak the same language for one thing. Indeed, Diamond insisted that
there they do not speak at all. I do not think he was right, but it may
well have appeared so to Diamond. The fact is, we have different reports
of the place from the most trustworthy people. Therefore we are bound
to believe that it appears som