that when the wind swept through them every tree was a
thousand AEolian harps.

Brahma, when he put them there, said: "Let them have a period of
courtship, for it is my desire and will that true love should forever
precede marriage." When I read that, it was so much more beautiful and
lofty than the other, that I said to myself, "If either one of these
stories ever turns out to be true, I hope it will be this one."

Then they had their courtship, with the nightingale singing, and the
stars shining, and the flowers blooming, and they fell in love. Imagine
that courtship! No prospective fathers or mothers-in-law; no prying and
gossiping neighbors; nobody to say, "Young man, how do you expect to
support her?" Nothing of that kind. They were married by the Supreme
Brahma, and he said to them: "Remain here; you must never leave this
island." Well, after a little while the man--and his name was Adami, and
the woman's name was Heva--said to Heva: "I believe I'll look about a
little." He went to the northern extremity of the island where there was
a little narrow neck of land connecting it with the mainland, and the
devil, who is always playing pranks with us, produced a mirage, and when
he looked over to the mainland, such hills and vales, such dells and
dales, such mountains crowned with snow, such cataracts clad in bows of
glory did he see there, that he went back and told Heva: "The country
over there is a thousand times better than this; let us migrate." She,
like every other woman that ever lived, said: "Let well enough alone;
we have all we want; let us stay here." But he said "No, let us go;"
so she followed him, and when they came to this narrow neck of land,
he took her on his back like a gentleman, and carried her over. But the
moment they got over they heard a crash, and looking back, discovered
that this narrow neck of land had fallen into the sea. The mirage had
disappeared, and there were naught but rocks and sand; and then the
Supreme Brahma cursed them both to the lowest hell.

Then it was that the man spoke,--and I have liked him ever since for
it--"Curse me, but curse not her, it was not her fault, it was mine."

That's the kind of man to start a world with.

The Supreme Brahma said: "I will save her, but not thee." And then she
spoke out of her fullness of love, out of a heart in which there was
love enough to make all her daughters rich in holy affection, and said:
"If thou wilt not spare him, spare nei