Lilith

choice and arrangement, never asking what I was fashioning, but evidently waiting expectant the result of my
work. In a week or two it was finished−−a long loose mantle, to fasten at the throat and waist, with openings
for the arms.
I rose and put it on her. She rose, took it off, and laid it at my feet−−I imagine from a sense of propriety. I put
it again on her shoulders, and showed her where to put her arms through. She smiled, looked at the feathers a
little and stroked them−−again took it off and laid it down, this time by her side. When she left me, she
carried it with her, and I saw no more of it for some days. At length she came to me one morning wearing it,
and carrying another garment which she had fashioned similarly, but of the dried leaves of a tough evergreen.
It had the strength almost of leather, and the appearance of scale−armour. I put it on at once, and we always
thereafter wore those garments when on horseback.
For, on the outskirts of the forest, had appeared one day a troop of full−grown horses, with which, as they
were nowise alarmed at creatures of a shape so different from their own, I had soon made friends, and two of
the finest I had trained for Lona and myself. Already accustomed to ride a small one, her delight was great
when first she looked down from the back of an animal of the giant kind; and the horse showed himself proud
of the burden he bore. We exercised them every day until they had such confidence in us as to obey instantly
and fear nothing; after which we always rode them at parade and on the march.
The undertaking did indeed at times appear to me a foolhardy one, but the confidence of the woman of
Bulika, real or simulated, always overcame my hesitancy. The princess's magic, she insisted, would prove
powerless against the children; and as to any force she might muster, our animal−allies alone would assure
our superiority: she was herself, she said, ready, with a good stick, to encounter any two men of Bulika. She
confessed to not a little fear of the leopardess, but I was myself ready for her. I shrank, however, from
carrying ALL the children with us.
"Would it not be better," I said, "that you remained in the forest with your baby and the smallest of the Little
Ones?"
She answered that she greatly relied on the impression the sight of them would make on the women,
especially the mothers.
"When they see the darlings," she said, "their hearts will be taken by storm; and I must be there encouraging
them to make a stand! If there be a remnant of hardihood in the place, it will be found among the women!"
"YOU must not encumber yourself," I said to Lona, "with any of the children; you will be wanted
everywhere!"
For there were two babies besides the woman's, and even on horseback she had almost always one in her
arms.
Lilith
"I do not remember ever being without a child to take care of," she answered; "but when we reach the city, it
shall be as you wish!"
Her confidence in one who had failed so unworthily, shamed me. But neither had I initiated the movement,
nor had I any ground for opposing it; I had no choice, but must give it the best help I could! For myself, I was
ready to live or die with Lona. Her humility as well as her trust humbled me, and I gave myself heartily to her
purposes.
Our way lying across a grassy plain, there was no need to take food for the horses, or the two cows which
would accompany us for the infants; but the elephants had to be provided for. True, the grass was as good for
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