He had been in that room
once or twice that he could remember at Christmas times; for the
Colemans were kind people, though they did not care much about
children.
All at once the light went nearly out: he could only see a
glimmer of the shape of the window. Then, indeed, he felt that
he was left alone. It was so dreadful to be out in the night
after everybody was gone to bed! That was more than he could
bear. He burst out crying in good earnest, beginning with a wail
like that of the wind when it is waking up.
Perhaps you think this was very foolish; for could he not
go home to his own bed again when he liked? Yes; but it looked
dreadful to him to creep up that stair again and lie down in his
bed again, and know that North Wind's window was open beside
him, and she gone, and he might never see her again. He would be
just as lonely there as here. Nay, it would be much worse if he
had to think that the window was nothing but a hole in the wall.
At the very moment when he burst out crying, the old nurse
who had grown to be one of the family, for she had not gone away
when Miss Coleman did not want any more nursing, came to the
back door, which was of glass, to close the shutters. She
thought she heard a cry, and, peering out with a hand on each
side of her eyes like Diamond's blinkers, she saw something
white on the lawn.
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