At the Back of the North Wind

Spring brings poor weather with it. The family continues to struggle financially. One morning, Diamond awakes and realizes that the North Wind is calling to him, but he cannot see her. He follows her guidance and arrives at the stables, where a boost of wind helps him reach the key to unlock the door. He enters and sees Old Diamond and Ruby and realizes that he can understand their speech. He listens to them argue.

Old Diamond scolds Ruby for being fat: Ruby does not work enough and causes Diamond’s father all sorts of trouble. Old Diamond also claims that Ruby was never injured but simply lazy. He speaks so harshly that Ruby admits that he meant to get injured so that he could grow fat. This repels Old Diamond, who sees it as dishonest and unbecoming. When Old Diamond threatens to hurt Ruby, Ruby claims he is an angel horse responsible for carrying angels around heaven. Old Diamond dismisses this idea and pretends to fall asleep until he eventually does. Diamond exits the stables, believing Ruby and wondering if he is dreaming. 

The next morning, Diamond’s mother and father share their concerns about Diamond, as his mother reveals she watched him sleepwalk the night before. Diamond tells the new baby, whom he has named Dulcimer despite her not yet being christened, that Ruby is an angel and there is a reason for him being fat. Diamond cares for the baby and sings her a song before discussing love and ownership with his mother. When his father arrives home for his lunch, Mr. Raymond knocks on the door. It has been nine months since he left in the first place, and Diamond tells him that Ruby blamed himself for his lameness and that it was not the fault of Diamond’s father. Ruby is brought out for Mr. Raymond, and the men briefly argue about his weight. Then Mr. Raymond reveals that he has bought a cottage and would like Ruby and Old Diamond to be his carriage horses, with Diamond’s father as his driver.

Diamond’s father immediately apologizes for his poor mood and behavior. Mr. Raymond pays him for Old Diamond and encourages the driver to take Ruby out cabbing for the next week. Diamond’s father realizes his son’s wisdom for having vouched for Mr. Raymond. Diamond announces that this is a good opportunity for Old Diamond to learn manners from Ruby, as Ruby is an angel. This upsets his father, who worries that he has lost his mind. 

The family packs to move to the country. Nanny, however, has strong attachments to a young man named Jim and seems resistant to moving. Diamond visits Mr. Raymond and tries to convince him to hire Jim as his shoeshine so that all three children may move to the country together. After meeting Jim, Mr. Raymond agrees, and the children and Diamond’s mother go ahead by train. The next day, Diamond’s father brings the horses, Mr. Raymond, and Mr. Raymond’s new wife—the woman who lent Nanny the ruby ring. The family settles in, and Diamond helps his father with the cab, but whenever he is idle and in the grass he thinks about the country at the back of the North Wind. 

Diamond eventually goes to work as a page for the Raymonds and moves into a room in their house. The narrator explains that he himself worked as a tutor for a family living near the Raymond home and met Diamond when he visited. Diamond shows the narrator that he is reading a story so he can tell Mr. Raymond what he likes about it. The narrator then meets Jim and Nanny and goes to the Raymonds, learning private information about Diamond.

The narrator returns to Diamond, who explains he freed a strange creature from the well at Nanny and Jim’s request. Diamond then shows the narrator his hiding spot in a tree and mentions the North Wind. Over time, the narrator gains Diamond’s confidence, and Diamond tells him his story up to this point. The narrator observes Diamond and listens to his odd songs.

The narrator becomes friends with Diamond and finds that the one topic he is unwilling to discuss is the North Wind. One night, the narrator overhears Diamond and Nanny arguing as Diamond climbs up into a tree to look at the moon. Nanny is frustrated that Diamond seems to believe that dreams are reality, while she insists that they are only dreams. Diamond heads to his room for bed and opens his north window, letting the wind blow into his room. He reflects on the fact that the North Wind has not visited him since they moved to the country.

He falls asleep but wakes when he hears knocking at his door. No one is there, and he investigates his room to find a rattling closet that he has never been able to enter before. He now opens the door with ease and finds a hidden room. This room delights him so much that he dances, and as the wind continues to blow, it makes him float. When he opens his eyes, he finds that he is actually holding the North Wind’s hands and that she is dancing with him. She carries him out into the trees, and they sit looking over the countryside. Eventually, Diamond asks if he is dreaming and begins to cry as he explains that he wants his experiences to be real because the joy he finds in them is so powerful.

The North Wind carries him to a pasture filled with rabbits and speculates that if this were only a dream, Diamond would not feel the love for her that he does. She then explains that her shape must change for each person she meets, but her heart remains the same. She shares some of the other names she is known by with him, except for the one she believes is the worst, and she reminds him of the way she looked when she stood outside the country at her back. The North Wind explains that the country Diamond visited was only a picture; some day he will visit the real country at her back, which is more beautiful. She also confesses that she was the one who sent the moon dream to Nanny, the Daylight story to Mr. Raymond, and the angel boy dream to Diamond. She carries him home and promises to take him out longer the next night, when they will take a journey under the light of the moon.

The next night, Diamond falls asleep by his window and wakes to the arrival of the North Wind, who carries him out and over the countryside. They fly over a small river, listening to its song and observing the fish below. They continue to fly, and the river widens, boats moored at its banks and beautiful houses built beside it. They pass by a house where a woman is in pain and cannot sleep. The North Wind carries Diamond to her, and he sings a song, which the North Wind tells him she heard with her heart. The North Wind takes him to his old home, and he explores, running around the lawn and searching the stables. However, it is empty and has changed significantly over the last several years, making him cry. He realizes that it is the people, not the things, that make a place beloved. Diamond returns to the North Wind, who tells him that it is time for him to go home. 

The narrator does not see Diamond for a week, and when they see each other, Diamond shares his dream. The narrator reassures him that even if it is a dream, it is so beautiful that it must have been sent to Diamond somehow. Some time passes, and the narrator next sees Diamond looking pale. Diamond tells about seeing the North Wind, but she was sitting frozen like she had the country at her back. Diamond has felt cold since the dream, which concerns the narrator. Four days later, the narrator goes to the Raymond house to find Mrs. Raymond crying. She tells the narrator that they found Diamond lying on the floor in the attic. The narrator ascends to the attic room, where he finds Diamond’s body lying in bed. The narrator knows that while others may think him dead, Diamond has just returned to the back of the north wind.