window. The girl was in the middle of a dream that disintegrated under the sudden
clatter. Lou stepped to the window and looked out, seeing nothing at first. Then she
spotted her caller and opened the window.
"What do you think you're doing, Diamond Skinner?" "Come get you," said the boy,
standing there next to his faithful hound. "For what?" In answer he pointed at the moon.
It glowed more brightly than Lou had ever seen before. So fine was her view, she could
see dark smudges on its surface.
"I can see the moon all by myself, thank you very much," she said.
Diamond smiled. "Naw, not just that. Fetch your brother. Come on, now, it be fun where
we going. You see."
Lou looked unsure. "How far is it?" "Not fer. Ain't scared of the dark, are ya?" "Wait
right there," she said and shut the window.
In five minutes' time Lou and Oz were fully dressed and had crept out of the farmhouse
and joined Diamond and Jeb.
Lou yawned. 'This better be good, Diamond, or you should be scared for waking us up."
They set out at a good pace to the south. Diamond kept up an animated chatter the whole
way, yet absolutely refused to divulge where they were going. Lou finally quit trying and
looked at the boy's bare feet as he stepped easily over some sharp-edged rocks. She and
Oz were wearing their shoes.
"Diamond, don't your feet ever get sore or cold?" she asked as they paused on a small
knoll to catch their breath.
"Snow comes, then mebbe y'all see something on my feet, but only if it drifts to more'n
ten foot or so. Come on now."
They set off again, and twenty minutes later, Lou and Oz could hear the quickened rush
of water. A minute later Diamond put up his hand and they all stopped. "Got to go real
slow here," he said. They followed him closely as they moved over rocks that were
becoming more slippery with each step; and the sound of the rushing water seemed to be
coming at them from all quarters, as though they were about to be confronted by a tidal
wave. Lou gripped Oz's hand for it was all a little unnerving to her, and thus she assumed
her brother must be suffering stark terror. They cleared a stand of towering birch and
weeping willow heavy with water, and Lou and Oz looked up in awe.
The waterfall was almost one hundred feet high. It poured out from a crop of worn
limestone and plummeted straight down into a pool of foamy water, which then snaked
off into the darkness. And then Lou suddenly realized what Diamond had meant about
the moon. It glowed so brightly, and the waterfall and pool were placed so perfectly, that
the trio were surrounded by a sea of illumination. The reflected light was so strong, in
fact, that night seemed to have been turned into day.
They moved back farther, to a place where they could still see everything but the noise of
the falls wasn't as intense and they could speak without having to shout over the thunder
of the water.
"Feeder line for the McCloud River is all," said Diamond. "Right higher'n most though."
"It looks like it's snowing upwards," said Lou, as she sat, amazed, upon a moss-covered
rock. And with the frothing water kicking high and then seized by the powerful light, it
did look like snow was somehow returning to the sky. At one corner of the pool the water
was especially brilliant. They gathered at this place.
Diamond said very solemnly, "Right there's where God done touched the earth."
Lou leaned forward and examined the spot closely. She turned to Diamond and said,
"Phosphorus."
"What?" he said.
"I think it's phosphorus rock. I've studied it in school."
"Say that word agin," said Diamond.
And she did, and Diamond said it over and over until it slipped quite easily out of his
mouth. He proclaimed it a grand and pleasing word to say, yet still defined it as a thing
God had touched, and Lou did not have the heart to say otherwise.
Oz leaned forward and dipped his hand into the pool, then pulled it back immediately and
shivered.
"Always that way," said Diamond, "even on the hottest durn day." He looked around, a
smile on his Ups. "But it sure purty."
"Thanks for bringing us," said Lou.
'Tote all my friends here," he said amiably and then looked to the sky. "Hey, y'all knowed
your stars good?"
"Some of them," Lou said. "The Big Dipper, and Pegasus."
"Ain't never heard'a none of them." Diamond pointed to the northern sky. 'Turn your head
a little and right there's what I call the bear what missing one leg. And over to there's the
stone chimbly. And right there"—he stabbed his finger more to the south—"now right