At the Back of the North Wind — George MacDonald
At the Back of The North Wind, by George Mac Donald You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : At the Back of the North Wind Author : George MacDonald Release date : July 11, 2008 [eBook #225] Most recently updated: August 7, 2019 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/225 Credits : Produced by Martin Ward, and David Widger *** START OF , etc. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE HAY-LOFT CHAPTER II. THE LAWN CHAPTER III. OLD DIAMOND CHAPTER IV. NORTH WIND CHAPTER V. THE SUMMER-HOUSE CHAPTER VI. OUT IN THE STORM CHAPTER VII. THE CATHEDRAL CHAPTER VIII. THE EAST WINDOW CHAPTER IX. HOW DIAMOND GOT TO THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND CHAPTER X. AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND CHAPTER XI. HOW DIAMOND GOT HOME AGAIN CHAPTER XII. WHO MET DIAMOND AT SANDWICH CHAPTER XIII. THE SEASIDE CHAPTER XIV. OLD DIAMOND CHAPTER XV. THE MEWS CHAPTER XVI. DIAMOND MAKES A BEGINNING CHAPTER XVII. DIAMOND GOES ON CHAPTER XVIII. THE DRUNKEN CABMAN CHAPTER XIX. DIAMOND'S FRIENDS CHAPTER XX. DIAMOND LEARNS TO READ CHAPTER XXI. SAL'S NANNY CHAPTER XXII. MR. RAYMOND'S RIDDLE CHAPTER XXIII. THE EARLY BIRD CHAPTER XXIV. ANOTHER EARLY BIRD CHAPTER XXV. DIAMOND'S DREAM CHAPTER XXVI. DIAMOND TAKES A FARE THE WRONG WAY RIGHT CHAPTER XXVII. THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CHAPTER XXVIII. LITTLE DAYLIGHT CHAPTER XXIX. RUBY CHAPTER XXX. NANNY'S DREAM CHAPTER XXXI. THE NORTH WIND DOTH BLOW CHAPTER XXXII. DIAMOND AND RUBY CHAPTER XXXIII. THE PROSPECT BRIGHTENS CHAPTER XXXIV. IN THE COUNTRY CHAPTER XXXV. I MAKE DIAMOND'S ACQUAINTANCE CHAPTER XXXVI. DIAMOND QUESTIONS NORTH WIND CHAPTER XXXVII. ONCE MORE CHAPTER XXXVIII. AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND CHAPTER I. THE HAY-LOFT I HAVE been asked to tell you about the back of the north wind. An old Greek writer mentions a people who lived there, and were so comfortable that they could not bear it any longer, and drowned themselves. My story is not the same as his. I do not think Herodotus had got the right account of the place. I am going to tell you how it fared with a boy who went there. He lived in a low room over a coach-house; and that was not by any means at the back of the north wind, as his mother very well knew. For one side of the room was built only of boards, and the boards were so old that you might run a penknife through into the north wind. And then let them settle between them which was the sharper! I know that when you pulled it out again the wind would be after it like a cat after a mouse, and you would know soon enough you were not at the back of the north wind. Still, this room was not very cold, except when the north wind blew stronger than usual: the room I have to do with now was always cold, except in summer, when the sun took the matter into his own hands. Indeed, I am not sure whether I ought to call it a room at all; for it was just a loft where they kept hay and straw and oats for the horses. And when little Diamond—but stop: I must tell you that his father, who was a coachman, had named him after a favourite horse, and his mother had had no objection:—when little Diamond, then, lay there in bed, he could hear the horses under him munching away in the dark, or moving sleepily in their dreams. For Diamond's father had built him a bed in the loft with boards all round it, because they had so little room in their own end over the coach-house; and Diamond's father put old Diamond in the stall under the bed, because he was a quiet horse, and did not go to sleep standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature. But, although he was a surprisingly reasonable creature, yet, when young Diamond woke in the middle of the night, and felt the bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind, he could not help wondering whether, if the wind should blow the house down, and he were to fall through into the manger, old Diamond mightn't eat him up before he knew him in his night-gown. And although old Diamond was very quiet all night long, yet when he woke he got up like an earthquake, and then young Diamond knew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which was—to go to sleep again as fast as he could. There was hay at his feet and hay at his head, piled up in great trusses to the very roof. Indeed it was sometimes only through a little lane with several turnings, which looked as if it had been sawn out for him, that he could reach his bed at all. For the stock of hay was, of course, always in a state either of slow ebb or of sudden flow. Sometimes the whole space of the loft, with the little panes in the roof for the stars to look in, would lie open before his open eyes as he lay in bed; sometimes a yellow wall of sweet-smelling fibres closed up his view at the distance of half a yard. Sometimes, when his mother had undressed him in her room, and told him to trot to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay, and lie there thinking how cold it was outside in the wind, and how warm it was inside there in his bed, and how he could go to it when he pleased, only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first. And ever as he grew colder, his bed would grow warmer, till at last he would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an arrow into his bed, cover himself up, and snuggle down, thinking what a happy boy he was. He had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall, and blew about him all night. For the back of his bed was only of boards an inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now, as I have already said, these boards were soft and crumbly. To be sure, they were tarred on the outside, yet in many places they were more like tinder than timber. Hence it happened that the soft part having worn away from about it, little Diamond found one night,