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adain, king! Dood night! I seepy!"
And I heard no more of him till he woke me in the morning.
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This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
at Calvin College. Last updated on May 27, 1999.
Contacting the CCEL.
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Lilith -- LONA'S NARRATIVE -- chapter xxxiii
chapter xxxiii
LONA'S NARRATIVE
I LAY down by a tree, and one and one or in little groups, the children left me and climbed to their nests.
They were always so tired at night and so rested in the morning, that they were equally glad to go to
sleep and to get up again. I, although tired also, lay awake: Lona had not bid me good night, and I was
sure she would come.
I had been struck, the moment I saw her again, with her resemblance to the princess, and could not doubt
her the daughter of whom Adam had told me; but in Lona the dazzling beauty of Lilith was softened by
childlikeness, and deepened by the sense of motherhood. "She is occupied probably," I said to myself,
"with the child of the woman I met fleeing!" who, she had already told me, was not half mother enough.
She came at length, sat down beside me, and after a few moments of silent delight, expressed mainly by
stroking my face and hands, began to tell me everything that had befallen since I went. The moon
appeared as we talked, and now and then, through the leaves, lighted for a quivering moment her
beautiful face--full of thought, and a care whose love redeemed and glorified it. How such a child should
have been born of such a mother--such a woman of such a princess, was hard to understand; but then,
happily, she had two parents--say rather, three! She drew my heart by what in me was likest herself, and I
loved her as one who, grow to what perfection she might, could only become the more a child. I knew
now that I loved her when I left her, and that the hope of seeing her again had been my main comfort.
Every word she spoke seemed to go straight to my heart, and, like the truth itself, make it purer.
She told me that after I left the orchard valley, the giants began to believe a little more in the actual
existence of their neighbours, and became in consequence more hostile to them. Sometimes the Little
Ones would see them trampling furiously, perceiving or imagining some indication of their presence,
while they indeed stood beside, and laughed at their foolish rage. By and by, however, their animosity
assumed a more practical shape: they began to destroy the trees on whose fruit the Little Ones lived. This
drove the mother of them all to meditate counteraction. Setting the sharpest of them to listen at night, she
learned that the giants thought I was hidden somewhere near, intending, as soon as I recovered my
strength, to come in the dark and kill them sleeping. Thereupon she concluded that the only way to stop
the destruction was to give them ground for believing that they had abandoned the place. The Little Ones
must remove into the forest--beyond the range of the giants, but within reach of their own trees, which
they must visit by night! The main objection to the plan was, that the forest had little or no undergrowth
to shelter--or conceal them if necessary.
But she reflected that where birds, there the Little Ones could find habitation. They had eager sympathies
with all modes of life, and could learn of the wildest creatures: why should they not take refuge from the
cold and their enemies in the tree-tops? why not, having lain in the low brushwood, seek now the lofty
foliage? why not build nests where it would not serve to scoop hollows? All that the birds could do, the
Little Ones could learn--except, indeed, to fly!
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Lilith -- LONA'S NARRATIVE -- chapter xxxiii
She spoke to them on the subject, and they heard with approval. They could already climb the trees, and
they had often watched the birds building their nests! The trees of the forest, although large, did not look
bad! They went up much nearer the sky than those of the giants, and spread out their arms--some even
stretched them down--as if inviting them to come and live with them! Perhaps, in the top of the tallest,
they might find the bird that laid the baby-eggs, and sat upon them till they were ripe, then tumbled them
down to let the little ones out! Yes; they would build sleep-houses in the trees, where no giant would see
them, for never by any chance did one throw back his dull head to look up! Then the bad giants would be
sure they had left the country, and the Little Ones would gather their own apples and pears and figs and
mesples and peaches when they were asleep!
Thus reasoned the Lovers, and eagerly adopted Lona's suggestion--with the result that they were soon as
much at home in the tree-tops as the birds themselves, and that the giants came ere long to the conclusion [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]