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!
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 that 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
that they had frightened them out of the country--whereupon they forgot
their trees, and again almost ceased to believe in the existence of
their small neighbours.
Lona asked me whether I had not observed that many of the children were
grown. I answered I had not, but could readily believe it. She assured
me it was so, but said the certain evidence that their minds too had
grown since their migration upward, had gone far in mitigation of the
alarm the discovery had occasioned her.
In the last of the short twilight, and later when the moon was shining,
they went down to the valley, and gathered fruit enough to serve them
the next day; for the giants never went out in the twilight: that to
them was darkness; and they hated the moon: had they been able, they
would have extinguished her. But soon the Little Ones found that fruit
gathered in the night was not altogether good the next day; so the
question arose whether it would not be better, instead of pretending to
have left the country, to make the bad giants themselves leave it.
They had already, she said, in exploring the forest, made acquaintance
with the animals in it, and with most of them personally. Knowing
therefore how strong as well as wise and docile some of them were, and
how swift as well as manageable many others, they now set themselves
to secure their aid against the giants, and with loving, playful
approaches, had soon made more than friends of most of them, from
the first addressing horse or elephant as Brother or Sister Elephant,
Brother or Sister Horse, until before long they had an individual name
for each. It was some little time longer before they said Brother or
Sister Bear, but that came next, and the other day she had heard one
little fellow cry, “Ah, Sister Serpent!” to a snake that bit him as he
played with it too roughly. Most of them would have nothing to do with a
caterpillar, except watch it through its changes; but when at length it
came from its retirement with wings, all would immediately address it as
Sister Butterfly, congratulating it on its metamorphosis--for which
they used a word that meant something like REPENTANCE--and evidently
regarding it as something sacred.
One moonlit evening, as they were going to gather their fruit, they came
upon a woman seated on the ground with a baby in her lap--the woman
I had met on my way to Bulika. They took her for a giantess that had
stolen one of their babies, for they regarded all babies as their
property. Filled with anger they fell upon her multitudinously, beating
her after a childish, yet sufficiently bewildering fashion. She would
have fled, but a boy threw himself down and held her by the feet.
Recovering her wits, she recognised in her assailants the children whose
hospitality she sought, and at once yielded the baby. Lona appeared, and
carried it away in her bosom.
But while the woman noted that in striking her they were careful not to
hurt the child, the Little Ones noted that, as she surrendered her,
she hugged and kissed her just as they wanted to do, and came to the
conclusion that she must be a giantess of the same kind as the good
giant. The moment Lona had the baby, therefore, they brought the mother
fruit, and began to show her every sort of childish attention.
Now the woman had been in perplexity whither to betake herself, not
daring to go back to the city, because the princess was certain to find
out who had lamed her leopardess: delighted with the friendliness of
the little people, she resolved to remain with them for the present:
she would have no trouble with her infant, and might find some way
of returning to her husband, who was rich in money and gems, and very
seldom unkind to her.
Here I must supplement, partly from conjecture, what Lona told me about
the woman. With the rest of the inhabitants of Bulika, she was aware
of the tradition that the princess lived in terror of the birth of an
infant destined to her destruction. They were all unacquainted, however,
with the frightful means by which she preserved her youth and beauty;
and her deteriorating physical condition requiring a larger use of those
means, they took the apparent increase of her hostility to children for
a sign that she saw her doom approaching. This, although no one dreamed
of any attempt against her, nourished in them hopes of change.
Now arose in the mind of the woman the idea of furthering the fulfilment
of the shadowy prediction, or of using the myth at least for her own
restoration to her husband. For what seemed more probable than that
the fate foretold lay with these very children? They were marvellously
brave, and the Bulikans cowards, in abject terror of animals! If she
could rouse in the Little Ones the ambition of taking the city, then
in the confusion of the attack, she would escape from the little army,
reach her house unrecognised, and there lying hidden, await the result!
Should the children now succeed in expelling the giants, she would
begin at once, while they were yet flushed with victory, to suggest the
loftier aim! By disposition, indeed, they were unfit for warfare; they
hardly ever quarrelled, and never fought; loved every live thing, and
hated either to hurt or to suffer. Still, they were easily influenced,
and could certainly be taught any exercise within their strength!--At
once she set some of the smaller ones throwing stones at a mark; and
soon they were all engrossed with the new game, and growing skilful in
it.
The first practical result was their use of stones in my rescue. While
gathering fruit, they found me asleep, went home, held a council, came
the next day with their elephants and horses, overwhelmed the few
giants watching me, and carried me off. Jubilant over their victory,
the smaller boys were childishly boastful, the bigger boys less
ostentatious, while the girls, although their eyes flashed more, were
not so talkative as usual. The woman of Bulika no doubt felt encouraged.
We talked the greater part of the night, chiefly about the growth of the
children, and what it might indicate. With Lona’s power of recognising
truth I had long been familiar; now I began to be astonished at her
practical wisdom. Probably, had I been more of a child myself, I should
have wondered less.
It was yet far from morning when I became aware of a slight fluttering
and scrambling. I rose on my elbow, and looking about me, saw many
Little Ones descend from their nests. They disappeared, and in a few
moments all was again still.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“They think,” answered Lona, “that, stupid as they are, the giants
will search the wood, and they are gone to gather stones with which to
receive them. Stones are not plentiful in the forest, and they have to
scatter far to find enow. They will carry them to their nests, and from
the trees attack the giants as they come within reach. Knowing their
habits, they do not expect them before the morning. If they do come, it
will be the opening of a war of expulsion: one or the other people must
go. The result, however, is hardly doubtful. We do not mean to
kill them; indeed, their skulls are so thick that I do not think we
could!--not that killing would do them much harm; they are so little
alive! If one were killed, his giantess would not remember him beyond
three days!”
“Do the children then throw so well that the thing MIGHT happen?” I
asked.
“Wait till you see them!” she answered, with a touch of pride. “--But I
have not yet told you,” she went on, “of a strange thing that happened
the night before last!--We had come home from gathering our fruit, and
were asleep in our nests, when we were roused by the horrid noises
of beasts fighting. The moon was bright, and in a moment our trees
glittered with staring little eyes, watching two huge leopardesses, one
perfectly white, the other covered with black spots, which worried and
tore each other with I do not know how many teeth and claws. To judge by
her back, the spotted creature must have been climbing a tree when the
other sprang upon her. When first I saw them, they were just under my
own tree, rolling over and over each other. I got down on the lowest
branch, and saw them perfectly. The children enjoyed the spectacle,
siding some with this one, some with that, for we had never seen such
beasts before, and thought they were only at play. But by degrees their
roaring and growling almost ceased, and I saw that they were in deadly
earnest, and heartily wished neither might be left able to climb a
tree. But when the children saw the blood pouring from their flanks and
throats, what do you think they did? They scurried down to comfort them,
and gathering in a great crowd about the terrible creatures, began to
pat and stroke them. Then I got down as well, for they were much too
absorbed to heed my calling to them; but before I could reach them, the
white one stopped fighting, and sprang among them with such a hideous
yell that they flew up into the trees like birds. Before I got back into
mine, the wicked beasts were at it again tooth and claw. Then Whitey
had the best of it; Spotty ran away as fast as she could run, and Whitey
came and lay down at the foot of my tree. But in a minute or two she was
up again, and walking about as if she thought Spotty might be lurking
somewhere. I waked often, and every time I looked out, I saw her. In the
morning she went away.”
“I know both the beasts,” I said. “Spotty is a bad beast. She hates the
children, and would kill every one of them. But Whitey loves them. She
ran at them only to frighten them away, lest Spotty should get hold of
any of them. No one needs be afraid of Whitey!”
By this time the Little Ones were coming back, and with much noise, for
they had no care to keep quiet now that they were at open war with the
giants, and laden with good stones. They mounted to their nests again,
though with difficulty because of their burdens, and in a minute were
fast asleep. Lona retired to her tree. I lay where I was, and slept
the better that I thought most likely the white leopardess was still
somewhere in the wood.
I woke soon after the sun, and lay pondering. Two hours passed, and then
in truth the giants began to appear, in straggling companies of three
and four, until I counted over a hundred of them. The children were
still asleep, and to call them would draw the attention of the giants: I
would keep quiet so long as they did not discover me. But by and by one
came blundering upon me, stumbled, fell, and rose again. I thought he
would pass heedless, but he began to search about. I sprang to my feet,
and struck him in the middle of his huge body. The roar he gave roused
the children, and a storm as of hail instantly came on, of which not a
stone struck me, and not one missed the giant. He fell and lay. Others
drew near, and the storm extended, each purblind creature becoming,
as he entered the range of a garrisoned tree, a target for converging
stones. In a short time almost every giant was prostrate, and a jubilant
pæan of bird-song rose from the tops of fifty trees.
Many elephants came hurrying up, and the children descending the trees
like monkeys, in a moment every elephant had three or four of them on
his back, and thus loaded, began to walk over the giants, who lay and
roared. Losing patience at length with their noise, the elephants gave
them a few blows of their trunks, and left them.
Until night the bad giants remained where they had fallen, silent and
motionless. The next morning they had disappeared every one, and the
children saw no more of them. They removed to the other end of the
orchard valley, and never after ventured into the forest.