Half-Past Bedtime

Uncle Joe told her this story. Next to her mummy and daddy, Marian loved Uncle Joe better than anybody in the whole world. He lived in a little

as for lost causes. In between wars he had done lots of other things, such as trying to find out what caused diseases, or whether plants that grew in some places could be made

e was red, and one of his eyes was made of glass. Mr Parker used to call himself a lone, lorn orphan, though he

ry, while they were sitting under one of his apple-trees. Some of the apple-petals had begun to drop, leaving the tiny, we

n't real apple

" said Uncle Joe, "on

les than a few. There's eating apples and cooking apples and pineapples and crab-apples; and

cle Joe. "They're one of

to fill

k of it," he said, "they're

" asked Marian, "or

But they're certainly as old as Eve's little gir

t, but because He knew that they could never be happy there any more. Every hour that they stayed they would have become more and more miserable; and if they had come back it would have broken their hearts, so He had to put two angels to guard the gate. You see, He had wanted them to be sort of grown-up babies in the loveli

y've learnt how.' And then He sighed as He saw the empty nursery and all the animals that they used to play with, just as fathers and mothers sigh now when their babies grow up and have to go to school. So Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden, and just outside it there was a big town, full of houses and factories and chimneys, and men and women who worked all day long. Who were those men and women, and where did they come from? Well, it's rather hard to explain. You see, Adam and Eve, through never having grown up, had been in the Garden for thousands and thousands of years. But outside the

d hedges and sowed corn and built towns; and those were the people that Adam and Eve found when they left the Garden and began to look for work. L

gymen?" as

Joe

licemen and

id Mr Parker, "and the man w

and their hearts were full of bitterness against the good Lord God. That was one of the reasons why He thought it would be so nice for them

loveliest baby that had ever been seen since the world began. Poor Adam and Eve were then living in a dark s

cks, but she did her best to keep their home tidy and some fresh flowers on the mantelpiece. Every day, too, she put crumbs on the window-sill, and soon she had made friends with the birds that came and ate them, and sometimes a bird would fly from the

y. But after a while they began to think less often of their old life in the Garden of Eden, and sometimes they would even wonder whether they would go back there if the good Lord God gave them the chanc

though she was always punctual for meals. She had lots of friends, most of them boys, but every now and then she would get tired of them all; and those were the times when she would go exploring and generally end up by hurting herself. Eve was too busy ever to bother much about what Bella did or where she went, and the Gar

hot, and the sun so scorching, and the streets so dusty, and everybody so cross, and if Bella hadn't been inquisitive just like her mother used to be, and if she hadn't sort of happened to be walking up that street, and if the fields

e afternoon, and so heavy was the sunshine that the leaves of the trees were all pressed down by it. None of them stirred. There was no sound. The

he ghost of a sound. It came and died, and came and died, like the waves of a sea hundreds of miles off. She crept nearer and listened again, and now there were two sounds, rising and falling. They came from the sentry-boxes, one on each

gest and most beautiful of them all. And then another thing happened, for as she pressed against the bars the great gate began to move. Very slowly it swung open, and still the angels were fast asleep. Her heart was beating now like two clocks at once-what an apple it would be to eat! A bright-coloured bird hopped across the grass, an

t was just on a level with the tip of her nose. It smelt like honey, and when she touched it it was as cool as marble. Then she touched it again, an

We

ng the apple. It was the good Lo

are you

is eyes shone through her, like ligh

's little gir

. She couldn'

n their swords, and leapt into the Garden. In another moment, Bella thought, they would have killed her. But the good Lord God held up His hand. The two angels stood

ave you,' He said, 'f

for a moment. Then

mother did it.

he rules,' said

ead again. She kn

es must be ob

egan to

s stood like statues, still leaning on their

at Me,'

saw the World without End.

ent on, 'on condition that you

d, 'Thank

not all,' H

ard and touch

heir cheeks in remembrance of what you have done. They shall be known as the brand of Eden-the brand of Eden for litt

els led her outside the gate; and that's why it is that the apple

ed quite small, and the spire of St Peter's Church just like a toy spire. Far behind it, beyond the level cornlands, the sun was d

," he said, "i

is hands and rubb

g along," he said, "wit

d an ap

ittle d

do as m

ood Lord

'tis ordain

d in all

hall hence

in thei

RDY

y Ned