Mr. Raymond's house was called "The Mound" because it stood upon a steep little knoll that had been made on purpose. It was built for Queen Elizabeth as a hunting tower—a place, that is, from the top of which you could see the country for miles on all sides. From a window the Queen was able to follow with her eyes the flying deer, and the hunters in the chase. The mound had been cast up so as to give the house an outlook over the neighboring heights and woods.
Diamond's father and mother lived in a little cottage a short distance from the house. It was a real cottage with a roof of thick thatch which, in June and July, the wind sprinkled with the red and white petals of the rose tree climbing up the walls. But Mr. and Mrs. Raymond wanted Diamond to be a page in their own house. So he was dressed in the little blue suit of a page and lived at "The Mound" itself.
"Would you be afraid to sleep alone, Diamond?" asked his mistress. "There is a little room at the top of the house—all alone. Perhaps you would not mind sleeping there."
"I can sleep anywhere," said Diamond. "And I like best to be high up. Should I be able to see out?"
"I will show you the place," she answered, and taking him by the hand, she led him up and up the oval winding stair into one of the two towers that were on the house. Near the top, they entered a tiny room with two windows from which you could see all over the country. Diamond clapped his hands with delight!
"You would like this room, then, Diamond?" asked his mistress.
"It is the grandest room in the house!" he answered. "I shall be near the stars and yet not far from the tops of the trees. That is just what I like!"
I daresay he thought also that it would be a nice place for North Wind to call at, in passing. Below him spread a lake of green leaves with glimpses of grass here and there at the bottom. As he looked down, he saw a squirrel appear suddenly and as suddenly vanish among the top-most branches.
"Aha! Mr. Squirrel!" he cried. "My nest is built higher than yours!"
"I will have a bell hung at your door which I can ring when I want you," said his mistress. And so Diamond became a little page in the house.