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How Diamond Got There 109
" I think I see a little boat, away there, down below."
"A little boat, indeed! Well! She's a yacht of two hundred tons; and the captain of it is a friend of mine; for he is a man of good sense, and can sail his craft well. I've helped him many a time when he little thought it. I've heard him grumbling at me, when I was doing the very best I could for him. Why, I've carried him eighty miles a day, again and again, right north."
"He must have dodged for that," said Diamond, who had been watching the vessels, and had seen that they went other ways than the wind blew.
"Of course he must. But don't you see, it was the best I could do? I couldn't be South Wind. And besides it gave him a share in the business. It is not good at all—mind that, Diamond—to do everything for those you love, and not give them a share in the doing. It's not kind. It's making too much of yourself, m) child. If I had been South Wind, he would only have smoked his pipe all day, and made himself stupid."
" But how could he be a man of sense and grumble at you when you were doing your best for him?"
"Oh! you must make allowances," said North Wind, "or you will never do justice to anybody.—You do understand, then, that a captain may sail north-----"
"In spite of a north wind—yes," supplemented Diamond.
" Now, I do think you must be stupid, my dear," said North Wind. "Suppose the north wind did not blow, where would he be then?" |
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