Part 3 (1/2)

”What's the matter?” asked the robin.

”We're unhappy.” After they had said it, they had difficulty to choke back their sobs.

”But why are you unhappy? Whoever heard of being unhappy in Heaven!”

”Because--because----.” They glanced at one another forlornly, hoping that someone else would be the first to answer. ”Because of the forbidden fruit. It's made G.o.d cross.”

”Pshaw!” The robin swelled out his little breast with importance. ”You'd better visit earth and see our baby. If the Woman hadn't eaten the forbidden fruit, there wouldn't be any baby.”

The word ”baby” was entirely new to them. They sat up beneath their scented trees and began to ask questions. But the robin didn't want to be delayed; he spread his wings and fluttered on.

At last he came to the smoothest of smooth lawns, in the midst of which grew a mulberry-tree, beneath whose shadow G.o.d was seated with the Virgin Mary. Despite the flakes of sunlight falling and the gold-blue peace by which They were surrounded. Their att.i.tudes were no less despondent than the angels'. G.o.d sat with His elbows digging into His knees. His face was buried in His delicate hands. His eyes, peering through His fingers, were strained and red with always staring broodingly straight before Him. Of the Virgin Mary, crouching at His feet, the robin could only see the glint of her flaxen hair and the paleness of her narrow shoulders. Her head was bowed in the lap of her Maker as if she had been beseeching Him always.

The robin was overwhelmed with terror. All his chirpiness was gone.

”Dear G.o.d,” he quavered, ”I beg Thy forgiveness. I have come when I was not bidden.”

He paused, hoping that G.o.d would encourage him. When G.o.d took no notice, he felt himself to be the most insignificant and impertinent of living creatures. He spoke again, lest the silence should kill him on the spot.

”I have brought glad tidings--at least, we on earth think they are glad. The Woman, whom Thou didst cast out for eating the fruit that was forbidden, has been very sick. She has been sick since April till just before day-break this morning, when she miraculously recovered. At her side she found lying a little thing--such a little thing--so like to Thyself, oh, G.o.d. It has bandy legs and arms no thicker than Thy smallest finger. It has a baldy head, about the size of an apple, with threads of gold spread over it like floss. It has a pink, wee face and a rose-bud of a mouth. It's eyes are like patches of Thine own blue Heaven. And it's soft and cuddly. The Women calls it her 'Belovedest.'

And it smells sweet like the flowers we used to breathe in Eden. We didn't know what it was. Even the Man didn't know. He summoned the animals to come and find a name for it. While they were sitting on their hind-legs, behold, it awoke and told us that its rightful name was baby.

And now, oh, G.o.d, we birds and animals want to have babies. We're all trying to find out how it happened. And I want to find out most especially, because----”

”A baby, thou sayest! What is a baby? I, thy Creator, know nothing of it. The last thing I fas.h.i.+oned was the Woman, who has brought this deep shame upon Us.”

G.o.d had spoken through His hands very softly, yet His voice was like a great wind blowing. It took the robin some seconds to recover from the shock. By the time he was ready to answer, the angels were rustling through all the glades of Heaven and the Virgin was gazing at him with wistful intensity.

”What is a baby!” he said audaciously repeating G.o.d's words. ”It is a little Man and a little G.o.d. Surely, Thou knowest?”

”I know nothing,” G.o.d thundered, letting fall His hands from before His face. ”Be gone.”

When the hurricane of sound had ended, the robin found himself hovering in the gateway between the jasper walls, where the sheer drop which lies between earth and Heaven commences. He turned to look back before he took the leap and saw that behind him the angels were following.

Following most closely was the Virgin.

”Tell me again,” she pleaded. ”It's little and soft. It's cuddly and it smells like the flowers that bloom in Eden.”

Perched on her shoulder, with his beak against her ear, he twittered to her his tale once more. While he was telling her, the angels crowded round, smoothing his feathers with shy caresses. But he didn't dare to stay too long, for distantly from beneath the mulberry tree, he still felt the brooding eyes of G.o.d. Launching himself from the Virgin's shoulder, he sank between the burning stars and through the bitter coldness of clouds snow-laden, till late in the wintry afternoon he reached the cave on the limestone ridge, whence a murmur of secret singing was emerging.

X

On the threshold he paused to listen. Yes, it was the Woman. It was the first time she had been happy enough to sing since she had been cast out of Eden. But her song was entirely different from anything that she had sung before. It was more little and tender. It was a lullaby of mother-nonsense, which she hummed when she couldn't find the proper rhymes and made up as she went along.

As the robin fluttered through the gloom to her shoulder, she pressed her finger to her lips to warn him. The baby eyes were the merest slits of blueness. The little thumb was in the mouth and the baby lips were sucking hard. The tiny knees were digging into the Woman's body and the baldy head was cus.h.i.+oned on her bosom. The dog snoozed across her feet.

The Man crouched against her, shrouded in the mantle of her hair, overcome with weariness. She was mothering them all, rocking herself slowly and singing gently her silly little song. The crooning of it over and over seemed to hush them with a sense of security.

”You are my ownty, Dear little donty, Sweetest and wonty, Pudding and pie; Good little laddie, Just like your daddie.

Fallen from Heaven, Come from the sky.”