{"product_id":"2940013546561","title":"AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND","description":"CHAPTER I. THE HAY-LOFT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI HAVE been asked to tell you about the back of the north wind. An old\u003cbr\u003eGreek writer mentions a people who lived there, and were so comfortable\u003cbr\u003ethat they could not bear it any longer, and drowned themselves. My\u003cbr\u003estory is not the same as his. I do not think Herodotus had got the right\u003cbr\u003eaccount of the place. I am going to tell you how it fared with a boy who\u003cbr\u003ewent there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lived in a low room over a coach-house; and that was not by any means\u003cbr\u003eat the back of the north wind, as his mother very well knew. For one\u003cbr\u003eside of the room was built only of boards, and the boards were so old\u003cbr\u003ethat you might run a penknife through into the north wind. And then let\u003cbr\u003ethem settle between them which was the sharper! I know that when you\u003cbr\u003epulled it out again the wind would be after it like a cat after a mouse,\u003cbr\u003eand you would know soon enough you were not at the back of the north\u003cbr\u003ewind. Still, this room was not very cold, except when the north wind\u003cbr\u003eblew stronger than usual: the room I have to do with now was always\u003cbr\u003ecold, except in summer, when the sun took the matter into his own hands.\u003cbr\u003eIndeed, I am not sure whether I ought to call it a room at all; for it\u003cbr\u003ewas just a loft where they kept hay and straw and oats for the horses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd when little Diamond--but stop: I must tell you that his father, who\u003cbr\u003ewas a coachman, had named him after a favourite horse, and his mother\u003cbr\u003ehad had no objection:--when little Diamond, then, lay there in bed, he\u003cbr\u003ecould hear the horses under him munching away in the dark, or moving\u003cbr\u003esleepily in their dreams. For Diamond's father had built him a bed in\u003cbr\u003ethe loft with boards all round it, because they had so little room in\u003cbr\u003etheir own end over the coach-house; and Diamond's father put old Diamond\u003cbr\u003ein the stall under the bed, because he was a quiet horse, and did not\u003cbr\u003ego to sleep standing, but lay down like a reasonable creature. But,\u003cbr\u003ealthough he was a surprisingly reasonable creature, yet, when young\u003cbr\u003eDiamond woke in the middle of the night, and felt the bed shaking in the\u003cbr\u003eblasts of the north wind, he could not help wondering whether, if the\u003cbr\u003ewind should blow the house down, and he were to fall through into\u003cbr\u003ethe manger, old Diamond mightn't eat him up before he knew him in his\u003cbr\u003enight-gown. And although old Diamond was very quiet all night long, yet\u003cbr\u003ewhen he woke he got up like an earthquake, and then young Diamond knew\u003cbr\u003ewhat o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which was--to\u003cbr\u003ego to sleep again as fast as he could.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068904947952,"sku":"2940013546561","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013546561_p0.jpg?v=1763593673","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013546561","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}