At the Back of the North Wind

After Diamond recites the poem, his parents compliment his work. Diamond asks his mother what angels do when they are happy and prattles on for a while. Then he goes to bed and has a dream that he is in the old Coleman garden. The longer he walks, the larger and wilder the garden gets. The stars up above call down to Diamond, leading him to a stairwell hidden behind a bush. It leads down into the earth, and he follows it, eventually finding a wide grassy place. There, little boys with wings on their shoulders run to greet him, hugging him and playing with him.

After they are done playing, the leader of the boys tells them it is time to dig for stars, and each of the boys gathers tools. They dig holes and pull out small, glowing rocks that are incredibly vibrant; they then call Diamond forward to look down the star holes. Through them, Diamond can see people and places that he knows. One of the angel boys discovers a rock that is a color Diamond cannot describe and then leaps into the star-hole. Diamond tries to look through the hole after him, but the hole and boy have both vanished. The boys re-bury the star, and Diamond asks about girls. The leader of the angel boys speculates that the girl angels come after the boys have fallen asleep and clean the stars they have found, allowing them to continue to glow. The boys grow tired; Diamond tries to stay awake to see the girl angels but is unable and falls asleep. When he wakes, the angel boys are happy and sing. a

The next day, the other men from the stables help Diamond get Old Diamond ready for work. He is hired to transport a large box and a woman to the wharf, where men accost him and try to rob him of his earnings. An older man whom Diamond takes for a gentleman chases the men off, and Diamond offers to take the man somewhere for free in exchange for his kindness. Diamond believes he recognizes the man, but it isn’t until the man says he wants to go to the Coleman residence that he realizes his passenger is Mr. Evans, Miss Coleman’s old suitor. The narrator then explains that Mr. Evans refused to marry Miss Coleman because he is embarrassed about his poverty. He wound up working for Mr. Coleman, which was why he was on the ship that the North Wind sank to teach Mr. Coleman a lesson. Mr. Evans reached an abandoned island, where he survived and realized he should have married Miss Coleman in the first place.

Diamond decides to take Mr. Evans to the Coleman house despite the rumors he has heard about him. When he arrives, the wind picks up, forcing him to stop Old Diamond and fix the bridle. Diamond runs into the house and tells the maid to fetch Miss Coleman before running back out to fix the harness. Mr. Evans goes inside and reunites with Miss Coleman. The wind quiets, and Diamond can repair the breeching; he then goes inside, and Miss Coleman pays him significantly. Miss Coleman is thrilled with the reunion and kisses Diamond in gratitude. When Diamond goes home, he tells his parents what happened. Diamond drives the cab for two more weeks until his father begins to recover, and it is only then that Diamond has time to think about what to do with Nanny. 

Diamond helps his father as he recovers but is also able to see Mr. Raymond. The two see Nanny in the hospital, but Diamond does not recognize her because she appears soft, gentle, and sweet. Privately, Diamond believes that she went to the country at the back of the north wind, and that has caused her transformation. Diamond sits beside her, and the children beg Mr. Raymond for a story. Mr. Raymond obliges.

The story Mr. Raymond tells is a variation on “Sleeping Beauty.” At her christening celebration, an infant princess named Daylight is cursed by an old witch so that she can only be awake at night and so her appearance will change with the waxing and waning of the moon. A fairy amends the curse to last only until a prince kisses her without knowing who she is. Daylight grows up beloved amongst the castle staff but often escapes into the woods, where she has a private hut built for her and her attendants to live in. As she grows older, she becomes increasingly beautiful with the light of the full moon, and increasingly haggard and ill in the darkness of the new moon.

In a neighboring kingdom, a prince has to flee his home when an insurrection occurs and many people are killed. He finds solace in the woods, where a fairy disguised as an old woman feeds him and takes care of him. In the light of the full moon, he sees the princess several times and begins to love her. One night they speak, and Daylight explains that she doesn’t know what the sun looks like, getting so distressed that she flees. The old witch performs tricks so that the prince can’t see her for several weeks, by which point—because of the changes of the moon—she is unrecognizable. The prince hears from the attendants that the princess has gone missing and searches for her in the woods. He finds an old woman wrapped in a cloak and picks her up to carry her to help. When the woman cries, he kisses her to comfort her. By the time he arrives back at the cottage, the old woman has transformed into the princess again, and the curse is broken. 

After he has finished with his story, Mr. Raymond takes Diamond home, and the two of them discuss Nanny’s plight. Mr. Raymond points out that if she learns how to speak gently and take care of children, then she could become a family nurse. Diamond claims his mother can teach those things, but Mr. Raymond points out the cost of feeding and caring for Nanny, and that their horse is very old and cannot take on any more work to pay the expenses. Mr. Raymond asks Diamond to tell his father to come for a visit as soon as possible.

Diamond returns home, but after tea, Diamond and his father go back to Mr. Raymond, who makes them an offer. Mr. Raymond will allow Diamond’s father to use his horse while he is out of town as long as the horse does not work more than six hours a day and the money earned supports Nanny, who will come live with the family. Diamond’s father talks it over with his wife because he is concerned that running the cab for a few extra hours will not cover the cost of caring for the horse and girl. His wife, however, points out how much it will benefit Nanny, and the family agrees to Mr. Raymond’s terms. 

Diamond visits Nanny in the hospital as often as he can, although he is also helping drive the cab and take care of the baby. Nanny shares a dream that she had after a beautiful woman visited the hospital and let her borrow a ruby ring. In the dream, Nanny is once again in her rags, being pushed around by the wind. She follows the direction it blows to seek warmer places and finds a house and beautiful garden at the top of a hill. Diamond interjects to insist that the North Wind drew Nanny to the garden, and the two briefly argue because Nanny insists that it was the moonlight that made her feel better. Clouds drift over the moon, blocking the light, and a dog bursts out of the house and chases Nanny into the summer-house in the corner of the garden.

Nanny hides until the dog leaves and there is a knock at the door; she opens it to reveal the moon in the yard. A man comes out of the moon and leads Nanny inside, revealing a house with a beautiful woman. The man lifts the moon back into the sky with a rope and pulley and then gives Nanny a tour of all the windows so she can look through them. He guides her through many hallways in the house until they reach a small box that makes a humming noise. The old man tells Nanny it is filled with bees and then feeds her bread and honey. Afterwards, he has her clean all the windows in the house with dusters. When Nanny gets to the room with the bee box, she cannot help herself and peeks inside. The bees all come flying out glowing very brightly, which upsets the beautiful mistress of the house. The mistress tells the old man to take Nanny away, for she “[is] not to be trusted […] you will not do for us” (174). Then Nanny woke from her dream. Diamond praises the dream before leaving; he thinks that the North Wind had something to do with the dream.