| |
| DEATH, though already in the world, as yet | |
| Had only tried his timorous tooth to whet | |
| On grass and leaves. But he began to grow | |
| Greedoier, greater, and resolv’d to know | |
| The taste of stronger food than such light fare. | 5 |
| To feed on human flesh he did not dare, | |
| Till many a meaner meal had slowly given | |
| The young destroyer strength to vanquish even | |
| His restless rival in destruction, Man. | |
| Meanwhile, on lesser victims he began | 10 |
| To test his power; and in a cold spring night | |
| Two weanling lambs first perish’d from his bite. | |
| The bleatings of their dam at break of day | |
| Drew to the spot where her dead lambkins lay | |
| The other beasts. Thy, understanding not, | 15 |
| In wistful silence round that fatal spot | |
| Stood eyeing the dead lambs with looks forlorn. | |
| |
| Adam, who was upon the march that morn, | |
| Missing his bodyguard, turn’d back to see | |
| What they were doing; and there also he | 20 |
| Saw the two frozen lambkins lying dead, | |
| But understood not. At the last he said, | |
| “Since the lambs cannot move, methinks ’t were best | |
| That I should carry them.” | |
| |
| So on his breast | 25 |
| He laid their little bodies, and again | |
| Set forward, follow’d o’er the frosty plain | |
| By his bewilder’d flocks. And in dismay | |
| They held their peace. That was a silent day. | |
| At night he laid the dead lambs on the grass. | 30 |
| That night still colder than the other was, | |
| And when the morning broke there were two more | |
| Dead lambs to carry. Adam took the four, | |
| And in his arms he bore them, no great way, | |
| Till eventide. That was a sorrowful day. | 35 |
| |
| But, ere the next, two other lambkins died, | |
| Frost-bitten in the dark. Then Adam tried | |
| To carry them, all six. But the poor sheep | |
| Said, “Nay, we thank thee, Adam. Let them sleep! | |
| Thou canst not carry them. ’T is all in vain. | 40 |
| We fear our lambkins will not wake again. | |
| And, if they wake, they could not walk—for see, | |
| Their little legs are stiffen’d. Let them be!” | |
| So Adam left the lambs. And all the herd | |
| Follow’d him sorrowing, and not a word | 45 |
| Was spoken. Never until then had they | |
| Their own forsaken. That was the worst day. | |
| |
| Eve said to Adam, as they went along, | |
| “Adam, last night the cold was bitter strong. | |
| Warm fleeces to keep out the freezing wind | 50 |
| Have those six lambkins thou hast left behind; | |
| Bu they will never need them any more. | |
| Go, fetch them here ! and I will make, before | |
| This day be done, stout garments for us both, | |
| Lest we, too, wake no more.” Said Adam, loth | 55 |
| To do her bidding, “Why dost thou suppose | |
| Our lambs will never more have need of those | |
| Warm fleeces? They are sleeping.” But Eve said, | |
| “They are not sleeping, Adam. They are dead.” | |
| “Dead? What is that?” “I know not. But I know | 60 |
| That they no more can feel the north wind blow, | |
| Nor the sun burn. They cannot hear the bleat | |
| Of their own mothers, cannot suffer heat | |
| Or cold, or thirst or hunger, weariness | |
| Or want, again.” “How dost thou know all this?” | 65 |
| Ask’d Adam. And Eve whisper’d in his ear, | |
| “The Serpent told me.” “Is the Serpent here? | |
| If here he be, why hat he,” Adam cried, | |
| “No good gift brought me?” Adam’s wife replied, | |
| “The best of gifts, if rightly understood, | 70 |
| He brings thee, and that gift is counsel good. | |
| The Serpent is a prudent beast; and right! | |
| For we were miserably cold last night, | |
| And may to-night be colder; and hard by | |
| Those dead lambs in their woolly fleeces lie, | 75 |
| Yet need them not as we do. They are dead. | |
| Go fetch them hither!” | |
| |
| Adam shook his head, | |
| But went. | |
| Next morning, o the beasts’ surprise, | 80 |
| Adam and Eve appear’d before their eyes | |
| In woollen fleeces warmly garmented | |
| And all the beasts to one another said, | |
| “How wonderful is Man, who can make wool | |
| As good as sheep’s wool, and more beautiful!” | 85 |
| |
| Only the Fox, who sniff’d and grinn’d, had guess’d | |
| Man’s unacknowledged theft: and to the rest | |
| He sneer’d, “How wonderful is Woman’s whim! | |
| See, Adam’s wife hath made a sheep of him!” | |
| |
