ng her hand. "I see! I see! How
could I be able to love you as I do if you weren't there at all, you
know? Besides, I couldn't be able to dream anything half so beautiful
all out of my own head; or if I did, I couldn't love a fancy of my own
like that, could I?"

"I think not. You might have loved me in a dream, dreamily, and
forgotten me when you woke, I daresay, but not loved me like a real
being as you love me. Even then, I don't think you could dream anything
that hadn't something real like it somewhere. But you've seen me in many
shapes, Diamond: you remember I was a wolf once--don't you?"

"Oh yes--a good wolf that frightened a naughty drunken nurse."

"Well, suppose I were to turn ugly, would you rather I weren't a dream
then?"

"Yes; for I should know that you were beautiful inside all the same. You
would love me, and I should love you all the same. I shouldn't like you
to look ugly, you know. But I shouldn't believe it a bit."

"Not if you saw it?"

"No, not if I saw it ever so plain."

"There's my Diamond! I will tell you all I know about it then. I don't
think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape myself various
ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People call me
by dreadful names, and think they know all about me. But they don't.
Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil Chance, sometimes
Ruin; and they have another name for me which they think the most
dreadful of all."

"What is that?" asked Diamond, smiling up in her face.

"I won't tell you that name. Do you remember having to go through me to
get into the country at my back?"

"Oh yes, I do. How cold you were, North Wind! and so white, all but your
lovely eyes! My heart grew like a lump of ice, and then I forgot for a
while."

"You were very near knowing what they call me then. Would you be afraid
of me if you had to go through me again?"

"No. Why should I? Indeed I should be glad enough, if it was only to get
another peep of the country at your back."

"You've never seen it yet."

"Haven't I, North Wind? Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought I had. What did I
see then?"

"Only a picture of it. The real country at my real back is ever so much
more beautiful than that. You shall see it one day--perhaps before very
long."

"Do they sing songs there?"

"Don't you remember the dream you had about the little boys that dug for
the stars?"

"Yes, that I do. I thought you must have had something to do with t