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"Just so," said Mr.Raymond, nodding. "But when people want to do right, things about them will try to help them. only they must kill the snake, you know."

"I was sure it had to do with the snake," Diamond said. "That's what I have to do always, kill the snake. Whenever baby cries and won't be happy, and whenever Father and mother talk about their troubles."

Mr.Raymond looked at Diamond closely. "And how do you do that, my boy?" he asked.

"Oh, I help Mother with her work," Diamond said. "And I make songs for baby. They're awfully silly, but they please baby, and that's all they're meant for."

"Could you let me hear one of them now?"

"No, sir, I couldn't. I forget them as soon as I'm done with them. Besides, I couldn't make a line without baby on my knee. We make them together, you know."

Mr.Raymond was studying Diamond's face, looking deeply into his eyes. He was silent for a while. When he spoke he was staring beyond Diamond and speaking as if to himself, or as if answering his own thoughts. "I suspect the child's a genius," he said very quietly, "and that's what makes people think he's silly."

But Diamond heard. "What's a genius?" he asked.

His voice seemed to startle Mr.Raymond. "A genius is someone who understands things without anyone telling him what they mean," Mr.Raymond said. "God makes a few every now and then to teach the rest of us."

Diamond frowned. "But I didn't understand the rhyme," he said.

"You understood it well enough when you could hear it for yourself," Mr.Raymond said, putting his hands on Diamond's shoulders. "But anyway, a genius is not one who understands tricks, but truths."

They had reached Mr.Raymond's house. "Come inside," he said, "and I'll give you your sixpence and your book. It's one I wrote myself."

Later, when Mr.Raymond had walked Diamond home, he put hsi hand on Diamond's head. The two friends stood for a moment, smiling at each other. Then Mr.Raymond said," Diamond, please tell your father to come and see me sometime. I wish to speak with him."

I met Diamond at The Mound, Mr.Raymond's new home in the hills of Kent. Mr.Raymond, you see, had married and had moved to a home in the country. And he had asked Diamond's father to come and be his coachman.

It was a dream come true for Diamond's family. They now lived in a beautiful little cottage near the Raymonds's house. In the summer red and white roses bloomed in the rose bushes thta climbed up the sides of the cottage. There were beech trees and rolling meadows full of wildflowers. Diamond's father had a nice, clean stable for old Diamond and a new carriage.