At the Back of the North Wind: Large Print

By: MacDonald, George

I HAVE been asked to tell you about the back of the north wind. An old Greek writermentions a people who lived there, and were so comfortable that they could not bear it anylonger, and drowned themselves. My story is not the same as his. I do not think Herodotushad got the right account of the place. I am going to tell you how it fared with a boy whowent there.He lived in a low room over a coach-house; and that was not by any means at the back ofthe north wind, as his mother very well knew. For one side of the room was built only ofboards, and the boards were so old that you might run a penknife through into the northwind. And then let them settle between them which was the sharper I know that when youpulled it out again the wind would be after it like a cat after a mouse, and you would knowsoon enough you were not at the back of the north wind. Still, this room was not very cold, except when the north wind blew stronger than usual: the room I have to do with now wasalways cold, except in summer, when the sun took the matter into his own hands. Indeed, Iam not sure whether I ought to call it a room at all; for it was just a loft where they kept hayand straw and oats for the horses.And when little Diamond-but stop: I must tell you that his father, who was a coachman, had named him after a favourite horse, and his mother had had no objection: -when littleDiamond, then, lay there in bed, he could hear the horses under him munching away in thedark, or moving sleepily in their dreams. For Diamond's father had built him a bed in theloft with boards all round it, because they had so little room in their own end over thecoach-house; and Diamond's father put old Diamond in the stall under the bed, because hewas a quiet horse, and did not go to sleep standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature.But, although he was a surprisingly reasonable creature, yet, when young Diamond woke inthe middle of the night, and felt the bed shaking in the blasts of the north wind, he could nothelp wondering whether, if the wind should blow the house down, and he were to fallthrough into the manger, old Diamond mightn't eat him up before he knew him in his nightgown. And although old Diamond was very quiet all night long, yet when he woke he got uplike an earthquake, and then young Diamond knew what o'clock it was, or at least what wasto be done next, which was-to go to sleep again as fast as he cou

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08PJJLS8P
• ISBN13: 9798574776735
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 11.0"