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“I'll try, sir. But they don't mind me much. They think I'm silly,”
added Diamond, with one of his sweetest smiles.
What Mr. Raymond thought, I dare hardly attempt to put down here. But
one part of it was, that the highest wisdom must ever appear folly to
those who do not possess it.
“I think he would come though--after dark, you know,” Diamond continued.
“He does well at shining boots. People's kind to lame boys, you know,
sir. But after dark, there ain't so much doing.”
Diamond succeeded in bringing Jim to Mr. Raymond, and the consequence
was that he resolved to give the boy a chance. He provided new clothes
for both him and Na
three children, and Na
county of Kent, where they found a cart waiting to carry them and their
luggage to The Mound, which was the name of Mr. Raymond's new residence.
I will not describe the varied feelings of the party as they went, or
when they arrived. All I will say is, that Diamond, who is my only care,
was full of quiet delight--a gladness too deep to talk about.
Joseph returned to town the same night, and the next morning drove Ruby
and Diamond down, with the carriage behind them, and Mr. Raymond and a
lady in the carriage. For Mr. Raymond was an old bachelor no longer: he
was bringing his wife with him to live at The Mound. The moment Na
saw her, she recognised her as the lady who had lent her the ruby-ring.
That ring had been given her by Mr. Raymond.
The weather was very hot, and the woods very shadowy. There were not a
great many wild flowers, for it was getting well towards autumn, and the
most of the wild flowers rise early to be before the leaves, because
if they did not, they would never get a glimpse of the sun for them. So
they have their fun over, and are ready to go to bed again by the time
the trees are dressed. But there was plenty of the loveliest grass and
daisies about the house, and Diamond's chief pleasure seemed to be to
lie amongst them, and breathe the pure air. But all the time, he was
dreaming of the country at the back of the north wind, and trying to
recall the songs the river used to sing. For this was more like being at
the back of the north wind than anything he had known since he left it.
Sometimes he would have his little brother, sometimes his little sister,
and sometimes both of them in the grass with him, and then he felt just
like a cat with her first kittens, he said, only he couldn't purr--all
he could do was to sing.
These were very different times from those when he used to drive the
cab, but you must not suppose that Diamond was idle. He did not do so
much for his mother now, because Na
he helped his father still, both in the stable and the harness-room, and
generally went with him on the box that he might learn to drive a pair,
and be ready to open the carriage-door. Mr. Raymond advised his father
to give him plenty of liberty.
“A boy like that,” he said, “ought not to be pushed.”
Joseph assented heartily, smiling to himself at the idea of pushing
Diamond. After doing everything that fell to his share, the boy had a
wealth of time at his disposal. And a happy, sometimes a merry time it
was. Only for two months or so, he neither saw nor heard anything of
North Wind.
CHAPTER XXXV. I MAKE DIAMOND'S ACQUAINTANCE
MR. RAYMOND'S house was called The Mound, because it stood upon a little
steep knoll, so smooth and symmetrical that it showed itself at once to
be artificial. It had, beyond doubt, been built for Queen Elizabeth as a
hunting tower--a place, namely, from the top of which you could see the
country for miles on all sides, and so be able to follow with your eyes
the flying deer and the pursuing hounds and horsemen. The mound had been
cast up to give a good basement-advantage over the neighbouring heights
and woods. There was a great quarry-hole not far off, brim-full of
water, from which, as the current legend stated, the materials forming
the heart of the mound--a kind of stone unfit for building--had been
dug. The house itself was of brick, and they said the foundations were
first laid in the natural level, and then the stones and earth of the
mound were heaped about and between them, so that its great height
should be well buttressed.
Joseph and his wife lived in a little cottage a short way from the
house. It was a real cottage, with a roof of thick thatch, which, in
June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals it shook
from the loose topmost sprays of the rose-trees climbing the walls. At
first Diamond had a nest under this thatch--a pretty little room with
white muslin curtains, but afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted to
have him for a page in the house, and his father and mother were quite
pleased to have him employed without his leaving them. So he was dressed
in a suit of blue, from which his pale face and fair hair came out like
the loveliest blossom, and took up his abode in the house.
“Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?” asked his mistress.
“I don't know what you mean, ma'am,” said Diamond. “I never was afraid
of anything that I can recollect--not much, at least.”
“There's a little room at the top of the house--all alone,” she
returned; “perhaps you would not mind sleeping there?”
“I can sleep anywhere, and I like best to be high up. Should I be able
to see out?”
“I will show you the place,” she answered; and taking him by the hand,
she led him up and up the oval-winding stair in one of the two towers.
Near the top they entered a tiny little room, with two windows from
which you could see over the whole country. Diamond clapped his hands
with delight.
“You would like this room, then, Diamond?” said his mistress.
“It's the grandest room in the house,” he answered. “I shall be near the
stars, and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That's just what I
like.”
I daresay he thought, also, that it would be a nice place for North
Wind to call at in passing; but he said nothing of that sort. Below him
spread a lake of green leaves, with glimpses of grass here and there at
the bottom of it. As he looked down, he saw a squirrel appear suddenly,
and as suddenly vanish amongst the topmost branches.
“Aha! little squirrel,” he cried, “my nest is built higher than yours.”
“You can be up here with your books as much as you like,” said his
mistress. “I will have a little bell hung at the door, which I can ring
when I want you. Half-way down the stair is the drawing-room.”
So Diamond was installed as page, and his new room got ready for him.
It was very soon after this that I came to know Diamond. I was then a
tutor in a family whose estate adjoined the little property belonging
to The Mound. I had made the acquaintance of Mr. Raymond in London some
time before, and was walking up the drive towards the house to call upon
him one fine warm evening, when I saw Diamond for the first time. He was
sitting at the foot of a great beech-tree, a few yards from the road,
with a book on his knees. He did not see me. I walked up behind
the tree, and peeping over his shoulder, saw that he was reading a
fairy-book.
“What are you reading?” I said, and spoke suddenly, with the hope of