Christmas Outside of Eden | Page 9

those in
front to hurry; those in front were too winded to retort. Their ascent
was made more difficult by their generosity, for all save one of them
carried presents. The one who came empty-handed was the stork. He
led the procession looking stately and pompous, as though he were

taking the credit for having occasioned the disturbance. The Man learnt
later that that was precisely what he was doing--taking all the credit. He
had been telling the animals that it was he who had left the strange little
creature at the Woman's side the night before. Because of this he
pretended that it wasn't necessary for him to bring a present. There
were many who believed him. There still are.
When they had all climbed safely to the top they gathered in a
semi-circle about the Woman, having piled their gifts before her. In
silence they waited; then she parted her hair and showed them the
wonder that nestled in her arms.
The Man, standing at her side, addressed them. "Oh, brothers, I am
wise, for I have walked with God; yet have I never seen anything like it.
There was nothing like it in Eden. I have sent for you that I may ask
you what to call it."
No one answered. He questioned each in turn, but none of them could
advise him.
"We have to find a name for it," he said crossly; "so let's sit down and
think hard."
So they sat down in the snow, scratching their heads, and thought hard.
From time to time the Man enquired whether any of them had had an
inspiration. They never had, which was discouraging when you
consider what a lot of them were thinking. In this way at least an hour
must have passed.
Things were getting both cold and embarrassing, when the little
creature, who was being thought about so hard, showed signs of
waking and began to stir in the Woman's arms. I ought to have told you
that ever since the Man's home-coming it had been sleeping. First it
kicked out with its bandy legs. Then it fisted its pudgy hands and
yawned. Then it puckered its wee red face in a manner most alarming
and, to the amazement of them all.... The Woman was so amazed that
she nearly let it drop. And yet what it did was perfectly natural; it
opened its eyes, like two blue patches of heaven, and blinked at them.
Last of all it emitted a thin, wailing sound that made everybody
abominably unhappy. The crocodile became so emotional that his tears
froze in two long icicles. After a pause the sound was repeated. All the
animals rose on their hind-legs and covered their ears with their paws.
The Woman stared at them apologetically. She was distressed and

puzzled. "Please don't cover your ears," she begged. "And don't think
that I'm hurting it. There's something that it's trying to tell us. It's said
the same thing before. It began saying it the moment I first found it. It's
gone on saying it, on and on.... There, there my little one, my
belovedest."
As if to corroborate her assertion that it had gone on and on, it
commenced to cry afresh. Out of politeness to the Woman, though the
sound hurt them, the tenderhearted animals uncovered their ears and
listened intently. This is what they heard, repeated over and over,
"Baa-aa-by! Baa-aa-by! Baa-aa-by!"
They were all shaking with sobbing when the elephant, in his coarsest
manner, lifted, up his trunk and snorted through it contemptuously.
"Stop snorting," the Man ordered impatiently. "There's no reason why
you should snort."
"Isn't there?" The elephant shuffled to his feet to depart. Before he went,
just to show his independence, again he snorted. Across his shoulder he
remarked. "And you think yourself so wise! You want to know what to
call it. Every time it speaks it tells you." It cried once more. "There you
are!" The elephant trumpeted triumphantly as he seated himself at the
top of the slide, having pulled his tail from under him preparatory to
tobogganning down the path. "Don't you hear what it says? 'Baa-aa-by!
Baa-aa-by!' It couldn't be put more plainly. It's asking you to call it
baby."
As the elephant pushed off and vanished in a whirl of flying snow, the
Woman turned to the Man with a smile of gladness. "The clumsy
fellow's right. Weren't we the stupids? Fancy not understanding our
own baby!"

IX
As you may imagine, all the beasts and birds went back to the jungle
very discontented. They didn't see why they shouldn't have babies.
They were wild to have babies. They talked of nothing else. No sooner
had they got down the hill from visiting the cave than they turned
round