Lilith

More documents

Recommendations

Info

"It is no use," she answered sadly. "We have done all we can, and it is too late! We were afraid he was growing, for he would not believe anything told him; but when he refused to share his berries, and said he had gathered them for himself, then we knew it! He is a glutton, and there is no hope of him.−−It makes me sick to see him eat!" "Could not some of the boys watch him, and not let him touch the poisonous things?" "He may have them if he will: it is all one−−to eat the apples, and to be a boy that would eat them if he could. No; he must go to the giants! He belongs to them. You can see how much bigger he is than when first you came! He is bigger since yesterday." "He is as like that hideous green lump in his hand as boy could look!" "It suits what he is making himself." "His head and it might change places!" "Perhaps they do!" "Does he want to be a giant?" "He hates the giants, but he is making himself one all the same: he likes their apples! Oh baby, baby, he was just such a darling as you when we found him!" "He will be very miserable when he finds himself a giant!" "Oh, no; he will like it well enough! That is the worst of it." "Will he hate the Little Ones?" "He will be like the rest; he will not remember us−−most likely will not believe there are Little Ones. He will not care; he will eat his apples." "Do tell me how it will come about. I understand your world so little! I come from a world where everything is different." "I do not know about WORLD. What is it? What more but a word in your beautiful big mouth?−−That makes it something!" "Never mind about the word; tell me what next will happen to Blunty." "He will wake one morning and find himself a giant−−not like you, good giant, but like any other bad giant. You will hardly know him, but I will tell you which. He will think he has been a giant always, and will not know you, or any of us. The giants have lost themselves, Peony says, and that is why they never smile. I wonder whether they are not glad because they are bad, or bad because they are not glad. But they can't be glad when they have no babies! I wonder what BAD means, good giant!" "I wish I knew no more about it than you!" I returned. "But I try to be good, and mean to keep on trying." "So do I−−and that is how I know you are good." Lilith Lilith 42
A long pause followed. "Then you do not know where the babies come from into the wood?" I said, making one attempt more. "There is nothing to know there," she answered. "They are in the wood; they grow there." "Then how is it you never find one before it is quite grown?" I asked. She knitted her brows and was silent a moment: "They're not there till they're finished," she said. "It is a pity the little sillies can't speak till they've forgotten everything they had to tell!" I remarked. "Little Tolma, the last before this baby, looked as if she had something to tell, when I found her under a beech−tree, sucking her thumb, but she hadn't. She only looked up at me−−oh, so sweetly! SHE will never go bad and grow big! When they begin to grow big they care for nothing but bigness; and when they cannot grow any bigger, they try to grow fatter. The bad giants are very proud of being fat." "So they are in my world," I said; "only they do not say FAT there, they say RICH." "In one of their houses," continued Lona, "sits the biggest and fattest of them−−so proud that nobody can see him; and the giants go to his house at certain times, and call out to him, and tell him how fat he is, and beg him to make them strong to eat more and grow fat like him." The rumour at length reached my ears that Blunty had vanished. I saw a few grave faces among the bigger ones, but he did not seem to be much missed. The next morning Lona came to me and whispered, "Look! look there−−by that quince−tree: that is the giant that was Blunty!−−Would you have known him?" "Never," I answered. "−−But now you tell me, I could fancy it might be Blunty staring through a fog! He DOES look stupid!" Lilith "He is for ever eating those apples now!" she said. "That is what comes of Little Ones that WON'T be little!" "They call it growing−up in my world!" I said to myself. "If only she would teach me to grow the other way, and become a Little One!−−Shall I ever be able to laugh like them?" I had had the chance, and had flung it from me! Blunty and I were alike! He did not know his loss, and I had to be taught mine! CHAPTER XIV. A CRISIS For a time I had no desire save to spend my life with the Little Ones. But soon other thoughts and feelings began to influence me. First awoke the vague sense that I ought to be doing something; that I was not meant for the fattening of boors! Then it came to me that I was in a marvellous world, of which it was assuredly my business to discover the ways and laws; and that, if I would do anything in return for the children's goodness, I must learn more about them than they could tell me, and to that end must be free. Surely, I thought, no suppression of their growth can be essential to their loveliness and truth and purity! Not in any world could Lilith 43
Page 1 and 2: Lilith George MacDonald
Page 3 and 4: Lilith George MacDonald • CHAPTER
Page 5 and 6: Lilith The library, although duly c
Page 7 and 8: CHAPTER II. THE MIRROR Nothing more
Page 9 and 10: "I saw you come through it!−−sa
Page 11 and 12: Lilith was the mirror, on whose top
Page 13 and 14: "I do not want to go," I said. "Tha
Page 15 and 16: "Ten minutes ago you did not see it
Page 17 and 18: CHAPTER V. THE OLD CHURCH I followe
Page 19 and 20: "Here we are at last!" said the rav
Page 21 and 22: "I never saw one do it!" "You saw m
Page 23 and 24: helmet" gleaming like a moonstone.
Page 25 and 26: "That also you will know when you w
Page 27 and 28: "Where was that?" "In this very roo
Page 29 and 30: "That is the door I spoke of," he s
Page 31 and 32: "I would have lain down at once had
Page 33 and 34: Lilith larger, and at length gave m
Page 35 and 36: The moon went below, and the world
Page 37 and 38: molten music sang me into a dreamle
Page 39 and 40: I lay on the floor that night hardl
Page 41 and 42: I had found that to ask precisely t
Page 43: had never seen any before they saw
Page 47 and 48: "I will," I replied−−and sat do
Page 49 and 50: "There is no hurt in the air," she
Page 51 and 52: their princess and her power, and d
Page 53 and 54: I learned afterward that there were
Page 55 and 56: Lilith to grow dark. At my feet lay
Page 57 and 58: I was lying on my withered leaves i
Page 59 and 60: "Have you hurt yourself, my lord?"
Page 61 and 62: "Granted!−−but in which or what
Page 63 and 64: they are pretty steadily growing mo
Page 65 and 66: To do for her all I could, I spread
Page 67 and 68: She was lying as I had left her. Th
Page 69 and 70: other from her shoulders. With the
Page 71 and 72: "Doubtless you pitied me!" "Never h
Page 73 and 74: Despair restored my volition; the s
Page 75 and 76: night. I ran the faster, though I c
Page 77 and 78: Lilith CHAPTER XXII. BULIKA I had l
Page 79 and 80: "Thank you!" she murmured. "Have yo
Page 81 and 82: As I lay sleepless, I began to hear
Page 83 and 84: "Take me to the princess," I said.
Page 85 and 86: The princess stood waiting me, in a
Page 87 and 88: CHAPTER XXVI. A BATTLE ROYAL I thre
Page 89 and 90: I turned and followed the spotted l
Page 91 and 92: in a stormy water, I was flung abou
Page 93 and 94: "Indeed you almost taught the noble
Page 95 and 96:
"A song that had no sound into his
Page 97 and 98:
Then at last I understood that Mr.
Page 99 and 100:
"But," I returned, hard to persuade
Page 101 and 102:
do. The librarian walked on in sile
Page 103 and 104:
"Mr. Vane," croaked the raven, "thi
Page 105 and 106:
All day I worked hard. When the dar
Page 107 and 108:
Lilith I lay down by a tree, and on
Page 109 and 110:
Now arose in the mind of the woman
Page 111 and 112:
Little Ones, from a crowd of childr
Page 113 and 114:
them as for those other animals, bu
Page 115 and 116:
Lilith myself learned to obey! Untr
Page 117 and 118:
For she must think! Now what she ca
Page 119 and 120:
CHAPTER XXXVII. THE SHADOW A murmur
Page 121 and 122:
In the morning we set out, and made
Page 123 and 124:
"He will kill me!" she moaned. "At
Page 125 and 126:
"Will the cat−woman−−I mean t
Page 127 and 128:
terrible, something they were not t
Page 129 and 130:
"Such a compulsion would be without
Page 131 and 132:
embrace of a friend whom her soul h
Page 133 and 134:
een timelessly, spacelessly, absolu
Page 135 and 136:
"It is the biggest room in all this
Page 137 and 138:
Almost under our feet, shot up the
Page 139 and 140:
"This food will help thee to die,"
Page 141 and 142:
"You will soon begin to find comfor
Page 143 and 144:
She gave the candle to her husband,
Page 145 and 146:
With measured tread along the path,
Page 147 and 148:
And as I sat, there grew in me such
Page 149 and 150:
and I thought I had heard the song
Page 151 and 152:
me, as to him that made me, all in
Page 153 and 154:
"Then remember, and recall. Trials
Page 155 and 156:
He embraced Lona his child, put an
Page 157 and 158:
"The black bat is flown!" said Mara
Page 159 and 160:
tumid bulges, glaring orbs of sepia
Page 161 and 162:
I had seen the lightning, but heard
Page 163:
"But whence first into thy dark sel
show all

Lilith

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?