Lilith
Lilith
Lilith
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Lilith</strong><br />
I lay down by a tree, and one and one or in little groups, the children left me and climbed to their nests. They<br />
were always so tired at night and so rested in the morning, that they were equally glad to go to sleep and to<br />
get up again. I, although tired also, lay awake: Lona had not bid me good night, and I was sure she would<br />
come.<br />
I had been struck, the moment I saw her again, with her resemblance to the princess, and could not doubt her<br />
the daughter of whom Adam had told me; but in Lona the dazzling beauty of <strong>Lilith</strong> was softened by<br />
childlikeness, and deepened by the sense of motherhood. "She is occupied probably," I said to myself, "with<br />
the child of the woman I met fleeing!" who, she had already told me, was not half mother enough.<br />
She came at length, sat down beside me, and after a few moments of silent delight, expressed mainly by<br />
stroking my face and hands, began to tell me everything that had befallen since I went. The moon appeared as<br />
we talked, and now and then, through the leaves, lighted for a quivering moment her beautiful face−−full of<br />
thought, and a care whose love redeemed and glorified it. How such a child should have been born of such a<br />
mother−−such a woman of such a princess, was hard to understand; but then, happily, she had two<br />
parents−−say rather, three! She drew my heart by what in me was likest herself, and I loved her as one who,<br />
grow to what perfection she might, could only become the more a child. I knew now that I loved her when I<br />
left her, and that the hope of seeing her again had been my main comfort. Every word she spoke seemed to go<br />
straight to my heart, and, like the truth itself, make it purer.<br />
She told me that after I left the orchard valley, the giants began to believe a little more in the actual existence<br />
of their neighbours, and became in consequence more hostile to them. Sometimes the Little Ones would see<br />
them trampling furiously, perceiving or imagining some indication of their presence, while they indeed stood<br />
beside, and laughed at their foolish rage. By and by, however, their animosity assumed a more practical<br />
shape: they began to destroy the trees on whose fruit the Little Ones lived. This drove the mother of them all<br />
to meditate counteraction. Setting the sharpest of them to listen at night, she learned that the giants thought I<br />
was hidden somewhere near, intending, as soon as I recovered my strength, to come in the dark and kill them<br />
sleeping. Thereupon she concluded that the only way to stop the destruction was to give them ground for<br />
believing that they had abandoned the place. The Little Ones must remove into the forest−−beyond the range<br />
of the giants, but within reach of their own trees, which they must visit by night! The main objection to the<br />
plan was, that the forest had little or no undergrowth to shelter−−or conceal them if necessary.<br />
But she reflected that where birds, there the Little Ones could find habitation. They had eager sympathies<br />
with all modes of life, and could learn of the wildest creatures: why should they not take refuge from the cold<br />
and their enemies in the tree−tops? why not, having lain in the low brushwood, seek now the lofty foliage?<br />
why not build nests where it would not serve to scoop hollows? All that the birds could do, the Little Ones<br />
could learn−−except, indeed, to fly!<br />
She spoke to them on the subject, and they heard with approval. They could already climb the trees, and they<br />
had often watched the birds building their nests! The trees of the forest, although large, did not look bad!<br />
They went up much nearer the sky than those of the giants, and spread out their arms−−some even stretched<br />
them down−−as if inviting them to come and live with them! Perhaps, in the top of the tallest, they might find<br />
that bird that laid the baby−eggs, and sat upon them till they were ripe, then tumbled them down to let the<br />
little ones out! Yes; they would build sleep−houses in the trees, where no giant would see them, for never by<br />
any chance did one throw back his dull head to look up! Then the bad giants would be sure they had left the<br />
country, and the Little Ones would gather their own apples and pears and figs and mesples and peaches when<br />
they were asleep!<br />
Thus reasoned the Lovers, and eagerly adopted Lona's suggestion−−with the result that they were soon as<br />
much at home in the tree−tops as the birds themselves, and that the giants came ere long to the conclusion<br />
that they had frightened them out of the country−−whereupon they forgot their trees, and again almost ceased<br />
<strong>Lilith</strong> 105