I let him see plainly enough, that whatever might be
the explanation of the marvellous experience, I would have given
much for a similar one myself.
On an evening soon after the thunderstorm, in a late
twilight, with a half-moon high in the heavens, I came upon
Diamond in the act of climbing by his little ladder into the
beech-tree.
"What are you always going up there for, Diamond?" I heard
Nanny ask, rather rudely, I thought.
"Sometimes for one thing, sometimes for another, Nanny,"
answered Diamond, looking skywards as he climbed.
"You'll break your neck some day," she said.
"I'm going up to look at the moon to-night," he added,
without heeding her remark.
"You'll see the moon just as well down here," she returned.
"I don't think so."
"You'll be no nearer to her up there."
"Oh, yes! I shall. I must be nearer her, you know. I wish
I could dream as pretty dreams about her as you can, Nanny."
"You silly! you never have done about that dream. I never
dreamed but that one, and it was nonsense enough, I'm sure."
"It wasn't nonsense. It was a beautiful dream -- and a
funny one too, both in one."
"But what's the good of talking about it that way, when you
know it was only a dream? Dreams ain't true.
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