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She led him to the garden wall, which was taller than both of them. The girl gave a light leap and stood on the top of the wall, looking down at Diamond.

"Stp, stop!" he cried. "I can't jump like that."

"You didn't try," she said.

"Give me your hand, and I'll try."

She reached down and Diamond took her hand. Then he leaped and suddenly found himself standing next to the girl.

He gasped in delight. "This is nice!" he said. The girl was taller now and her hair was longer. "Come," she said, and, holding Diamond's hand, leaped again. This time they landed lightly in the road. Now she seemed taller still.

"I have some unpleasant work to do tonight," she said. "I must do it before I go out to sea. Come!" She began running.

It seemed to Diamond that he wasn't running at all, just gliding along. Yet they were going as fast as the wind. North Wind was growing taller all the time. They turned this way and that, going down narrow streets and alleys, through gardens and backyards, around stone walls, up wide cobblestone streets. Soon they came to a house with the front door open. They went in and down a long hallway until they came to the foot of a stairway and stopped.

Instead of North Wind, there stood beside him a huge wolf with gleaming fangs! Its fierce eyes were blazing and staring upstairs. With a deep snarl, it leaped up the stairs.

"She tumbled over with such a crash!"

Then it seemed that the whole house shook. Windows rattled and there came a great crash from upstairs. Diamond's face was white. North Wind can't be eating one of the children! his little heart pounding, he crept up the stairs.

Suddenly North Wind herself met him, took his hand, and rushed down the stairs and out of the house.

Diamond's heart was still pounding. "I hope you haven't eaten a baby!" he gasped.

North Wind laughed. Her laughter was musicial and merry. "No, I didn't eat a baby," she said. "You wouldn't have to ask such a foolish question if you hadn't let go of my hand. You would haven seen how I dealt with a nurse who was calling a child bad names and telling her she was wicked. The nurse had been drinking. I saw an ugly gin bottle in the cupboard."

"And you frightened her?" asked Diamond. "Yes, indeed!" said North Wind, laughing again. "I flew at her throat, and she tumbled over with such a crash that the other servants all ran into the room. She'll be turned out from the house tomorrow, I believe."

"She never saw me. The woman would not have seen me either if she had not been wicked." Diamond looked puzzled.

""Good people see good things, and bad people see bad things," said North Wind. "I had to make myself look like a bad thing before she could see me. If I had put on any shape other than a wolf's, she wouldn't have seen me. You see, inside her her own shape is growing to be just that, a wolf."

"I don't know what you mean," said Diamond, "but it's all right. I believe you."