Lilith

Now I might at once have made my escape; but at length I had friends, and could not think of leaving them.
They were so charming, so full of winsome ways, that I must see more of them! I must know them better!
"To−morrow," I said to myself with delight, "I shall see them again!" But from the moment there was silence
in the huts until I fell asleep, I heard them whispering all about me, and knew that I was lovingly watched by
a multitude. After that, I think they hardly ever left me quite alone.
I did not come to know the giants at all, and I believe there was scarcely anything in them to know. They
never became in the least friendly, but they were much too stupid to invent cruelties. Often I avoided a bad
kick by catching the foot and giving its owner a fall, upon which he never, on that occasion, renewed his
attempt.
But the little people were constantly doing and saying things that pleased, often things that surprised me.
Every day I grew more loath to leave them. While I was at work, they would keep coming and going,
amusing and delighting me, and taking all the misery, and much of the weariness out of my monotonous toil.
Very soon I loved them more than I can tell. They did not know much, but they were very wise, and seemed
capable of learning anything. I had no bed save the bare ground, but almost as often as I woke, it was in a
nest of children−− one or other of them in my arms, though which I seldom could tell until the light came, for
they ordered the succession among themselves. When one crept into my bosom, unconsciously I clasped him
there, and the rest lay close around me, the smaller nearer. It is hardly necessary to say that I did not suffer
much from the nightly cold! The first thing they did in the morning, and the last before sunset, was to bring
the good giant plenty to eat.
One morning I was surprised on waking to find myself alone. As I came to my senses, however, I heard
subdued sounds of approach, and presently the girl already mentioned, the tallest and gravest of the
community, and regarded by all as their mother, appeared from the wood, followed by the multitude in
jubilation manifest−−but silent lest they should rouse the sleeping giant at whose door I lay. She carried a
boy−baby in her arms: hitherto a girl−baby, apparently about a year old, had been the youngest. Three of the
bigger girls were her nurses, but they shared their treasure with all the rest. Among the Little Ones, dolls were
unknown; the bigger had the smaller, and the smaller the still less, to tend and play with.
Lona came to me and laid the infant in my arms. The baby opened his eyes and looked at me, closed them
again, and fell asleep.
"He loves you already!" said the girl.
"Where did you find him?" I asked.
"In the wood, of course," she answered, her eyes beaming with delight, "−−where we always find them. Isn't
he a beauty? We've been out all night looking for him. Sometimes it is not easy to find!"
"How do you know when there is one to find?" I asked.
"I cannot tell," she replied. "Every one makes haste to tell the other, but we never find out who told first.
Sometimes I think one must have said it asleep, and another heard it half−awake. When there is a baby in the
wood, no one can stop to ask questions; and when we have found it, then it is too late."
"Do more boy or girl babies come to the wood?"
"They don't come to the wood; we go to the wood and find them."
"Are there more boys or girls of you now?"
Lilith
Lilith 38