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68 At the Back of the North Wind
" I don't want to see a ship sunk."
" But suppose I had to take you?"
"Why, then, of course I must go."
" There's a good Diamond.—I think I had better be growing a bit. Only you must go to bed first. I can't take you till you're in bed. That's the law about the children. So I had better go and do something else first."
"Very well, North Wind," said Diamond. "What are you going to do first, if you please?"
" I think I may tell you. Jump up on the top of the wall, there."
"I can't."
"Ah! and I can't help you—you haven't been to bed yet, you see. Come out to the road with me, just in front of the coach-house, and I will show you."
North Wind grew very small indeed, so small that she could not have blown the dust off a dusty miller, as the Scotch children call a yellow auricula. Diamond could not even see the blades of grass move as she flitted along by his foot. They left the lawn, went out by the wicket in the coach-house gates, and then crossed the road to the low wall that separated it from the river.
"You can get up on this wall, Diamond," said North Wind.
"Yes; but my mother has forbidden me."
" Then don't," said North Wind.
" But I can see over," said Diamond.
"Ah! to be sure. I can't."
So saying, North Wind gave a little bound, and |
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