Fair to Look Upon | Page 2

a woman ever lived who ever obeyed any one--God,
angels, or men," I cried.
"You are a traitor. You slander your sex," he exclaimed, aghast.
"I deny the charge," I replied, springing to my feet, with all the spirit of
the above-mentioned age and sex. "By that assertion I only add glory to
their fame." He looked at me for a little while, too surprised to speak,
and then said, in sarcastic tones:
"Consider our wedding postponed until you have had a little time to
study your Bible. Good night."
"'Study your Bible!' That is what everybody says when they want to
prove any theory, creed, ism, or anything. I shall study my Bible
diligently. Good night," I replied, thinking it was not such very bad
advice after all; and then I hummed a gay little tune for his benefit until
I heard the hall door close.
And I have studied my Bible with the following result.

[Illustration: (Our first parents.)]

THE STORY OF EVE.

THE STORY OF EVE.
Away back when Adam was a young man--now I know that Adam is
rather an ancient subject, but you need not elevate your eyebrows in
scorn, for you will be ancient yourself sometime--he found himself in
Eden one day; he did not know why, but we do, don't we?
He was there because Eve was to come, and it was a foregone
conclusion even in that early age that when she did appear she would
want some one to hold her bouquet, open the door for her, button her
gloves, tell her she was pretty and sweet and "I never saw a woman like
you before," you know.
Her arrival was the greatest event the world has ever known, and the
grandest preparations were made for it.
A blue sky arched gloriously over the earth, and sun, moon and stars
flashed and circled into space, silvery rivers ran cool and slow through
scented valleys, the trees threw cooling shadows on the fresh, damp
grass, the birds sang in the rosy dawn, the flowers blushed in odorous
silence and yet it was all incomplete, and Adam wandered restlessly
around like a man who has lost his collar button.
But suddenly a great hush of expectancy fell upon the world. Not a bird
fluttered its feathers, the flowers bowed their heads, the winds and the
waters listening ceased their flowing and their blowing, the radiant
moonshine mingled its light with the pale pink dawn and a million stars
paled their eternal fires, as Eve, the first woman, stood in Eden.
And the world was young and beautiful. The first flush and bloom was
on the mountains and the valleys, the birds were thrilled by the
sweetness of their own songs, the waves broke into little murmurs of
delight at their own liquid beauty, the stars of heaven and the unfading
blue were above Adam's head--and yet he wasn't satisfied. Long he
stood idly in the brightening dawn wondering why the days were so
long and why there were so many of them, when suddenly out from the
swinging vines and the swaying foliage Eve came forth.

And though there was a vacant look on her lovely face (for her baby
soul had not yet awakened) Adam saw that her lips were red and her
arm white and rounded and he whistled a soft, low whistle with a sort
of "O-won't-you-stop-a-moment?" cadence in the music, and Eve
looked up; and I think at that moment he plucked a flower and offered
it to her; and of course she did not understand it all, but Nature, not
intelligence, asserted her power, and she reached out her hand and took
the rose--and then for the first time in the world a woman blushed and
smiled; and I suspect it was at that very moment that "the morning stars
first sang together."
Woman has never been obedient. She has always had the germ of the
ruler and autocrat in her soul. It was born when Eve first looked with
longing eyes at the apple swinging in the sunlight.
While Adam was idly, lazily sunning himself in the garden was Eve
contented to smell the fragrance of the violets and bask in the starlight
of a new world? Oh no! She was quietly wandering around searching
for the Serpent, and when she found him she smiled upon him and he
thought the world grew brighter; then she laughed and his subjugation
was complete; and then the naughty creature, without waiting for an
introduction, led him to the famous apple tree, and standing on her
tip-toes, reached up her hands and said with a soul-subduing little pout:
"See, I want that apple, but I can't reach it. Won't you please find a club
and knock it off for me?"