Lilith

opposite side, in the plentiful grass, many small animals were feeding. Apparently they slept in the forest, and
in the morning sought the plain, swimming the river to reach it. I knelt and would have drunk, but the water
was hot, and had a strange metallic taste.
I leapt to my feet: here was the warmth I sought−−the first necessity of life! I sped back to my helpless
charge.
Without well considering my solitude, no one will understand what seemed to lie for me in the redemption of
this woman from death. "Prove what she may," I thought with myself, "I shall at least be lonely no more!" I
had found myself such poor company that now first I seemed to know what hope was. This blessed water
would expel the cold death, and drown my desolation!
I bore her to the stream. Tall as she was, I found her marvellously light, her bones were so delicate, and so
little covered them. I grew yet more hopeful when I found her so far from stiff that I could carry her on one
arm, like a sleeping child, leaning against my shoulder. I went softly, dreading even the wind of my motion,
and glad there was no other.
The water was too hot to lay her at once in it: the shock might scare from her the yet fluttering life! I laid her
on the bank, and dipping one of my garments, began to bathe the pitiful form. So wasted was it that, save
from the plentifulness and blackness of the hair, it was impossible even to conjecture whether she was young
or old. Her eyelids were just not shut, which made her look dead the more: there was a crack in the clouds of
her night, at which no sun shone through!
The longer I went on bathing the poor bones, the less grew my hope that they would ever again be clothed
with strength, that ever those eyelids would lift, and a soul look out; still I kept bathing continuously,
allowing no part time to grow cold while I bathed another; and gradually the body became so much warmer,
that at last I ventured to submerge it: I got into the stream and drew it in, holding the face above the water,
and letting the swift, steady current flow all about the rest. I noted, but was able to conclude nothing from the
fact, that, for all the heat, the shut hand never relaxed its hold.
After about ten minutes, I lifted it out and laid it again on the bank, dried it, and covered it as well as I could,
then ran to the forest for leaves.
The grass and soil were dry and warm; and when I returned I thought it had scarcely lost any of the heat the
water had given it. I spread the leaves upon it, and ran for more−−then for a third and a fourth freight.
I could now leave it and go to explore, in the hope of discovering some shelter. I ran up the stream toward
some rocky hills I saw in that direction, which were not far off.
Lilith
When I reached them, I found the river issuing full grown from a rock at the bottom of one of them. To my
fancy it seemed to have run down a stair inside, an eager cataract, at every landing wild to get out, but only at
the foot finding a door of escape.
It did not fill the opening whence it rushed, and I crept through into a little cave, where I learned that, instead
of hurrying tumultuously down a stair, it rose quietly from the ground at the back like the base of a large
column, and ran along one side, nearly filling a deep, rather narrow channel. I considered the place, and saw
that, if I could find a few fallen boughs long enough to lie across the channel, and large enough to bear a little
weight without bending much, I might, with smaller branches and plenty of leaves, make upon them a
comfortable couch, which the stream under would keep constantly warm. Then I ran back to see how my
charge fared.
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