Lilith
Lilith
Lilith
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I had found that to ask precisely the same question twice, made them knit their brows.<br />
"I do not know," she answered.<br />
"You can count them, surely!"<br />
"We never do that. We shouldn't like to be counted."<br />
"Why?"<br />
"It wouldn't be smooth. We would rather not know."<br />
"Where do the babies come from first?"<br />
"From the wood−−always. There is no other place they can come from."<br />
She knew where they came from last, and thought nothing else was to be known about their advent.<br />
"How often do you find one?"<br />
"Such a happy thing takes all the glad we've got, and we forget the last time. You too are glad to have<br />
him−−are you not, good giant?"<br />
"Yes, indeed, I am!" I answered. "But how do you feed him?"<br />
"I will show you," she rejoined, and went away−−to return directly with two or three ripe little plums. She put<br />
one to the baby's lips.<br />
"He would open his mouth if he were awake," she said, and took him in her arms.<br />
She squeezed a drop to the surface, and again held the fruit to the baby's lips. Without waking he began at<br />
once to suck it, and she went on slowly squeezing until nothing but skin and stone were left.<br />
"There!" she cried, in a tone of gentle triumph. "A big−apple world it would be with nothing for the babies!<br />
We wouldn't stop in it−− would we, darling? We would leave it to the bad giants!"<br />
"But what if you let the stone into the baby's mouth when you were feeding him?" I said.<br />
"No mother would do that," she replied. "I shouldn't be fit to have a baby!"<br />
I thought what a lovely woman she would grow. But what became of them when they grew up? Where did<br />
they go? That brought me again to the question−−where did they come from first?<br />
"Will you tell me where you lived before?" I said.<br />
"Here," she replied.<br />
"Have you NEVER lived anywhere else?" I ventured.<br />
<strong>Lilith</strong><br />
"Never. We all came from the wood. Some think we dropped out of the trees."<br />
<strong>Lilith</strong> 39