into the manger, whether old Diamond might not eat him up before he knew
him in his night gown. And though old Diamond was quiet all night long,
yet when he woke up he got up like an earthquake. Then little Diamond
knew what o'clock it was, or at least what was to be done next, which
was--to go to sleep again as fast as he could!

Often there was hay at little Diamond's feet as he lay in bed, and hay
at his head, piled up in great heaps to the very roof. Sometimes there
was none at all. That was when they had used it all and had not yet
bought more. Soon they bought more, and then it was only through a
little lane with two or three turnings in it that he could reach his bed
at all.

Sometimes when his mother undressed him in her room and told him to trot
away to bed by himself, he would creep into the heart of the hay first.
There he would lie, thinking how cold it was outside in the wind and how
warm it would be inside his bed; and how he would go to his bed when he
pleased; only he wouldn't just yet; he would get a little colder first.
As he grew colder lying in the hay, his bed seemed to him to grow
warmer. Then at last, he would scramble out of the hay, shoot like an
arrow into his bed, cover himself up, snuggle down, and think what a
happy boy he was!

He had not the least idea that the wind got in at a chink in the wall
and blew about him all night. But the back of his bed was of boards only
an inch thick, and on the other side of them was the north wind. Now
these boards were soft and crumbly, and it happened that a soft part in
them had worn away.

One night after he lay down, little Diamond found that a knot had come