and father need their pay envelope 1 Let me catch
them
I"
"We won't have to worry about our kids, Lizz.
And anyway that's a bridge that needs no crossing
for a long time. to come."
"Oh Jim look at Mama's little cherubim
I"
Lizz
said, turning her. eyes down on the feeding infant.
"She's getting to know us too, isn't she?" Jim
grinned.
"Know us? Say she's the smartest little thing
I
Smart as a whip. Ah yes, she knows her Mama
who feeds her, and takes care of her, and she knows
her great big Papa, and she knows all her big bro-
thers. and her sister too. Ah, she's the smartest little
thing, and when she grows up to be a great big
bootiful girl, she's going to be a school teacher,"
Lizz said.
"Ah, they're cute little buggers," Jim said.
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jim held the infant while Lizz made the sand-
wiches for his lunch.
"I want to hurry with this, before that herd in
there asleep wakes up and comes out here for break-
fast," Lizz said.
"Yes", Jim said abstractedly, his eyes shifting
from Lizz to the baby that slept in his arms, its
puckered face seeming to him like the face of an
old man.
"I'm glad I got the little sweetheart fed before
they're up," Lizz said spreading oleomargerine lav-
ishly on the unduly thick slices of bread that she
had cut.
"Lizz, just this minute I was looking at the little
bugger's face while it's asleep. It looks like the face
of an old man," Jim said.
"They're cute. But they are a heap of trouble."
"You know, Lizz, it's interesting, the way they
slowly begin to know us, and to understand. You
know, they are like little animals, and then, they
gradually become human, don't they?"
"Say
I"
Lizz said, swinging around, and holding
aloft the saw-bladed bread knife. "Don't you say'
that a child of mine is an animaL"
"Lizz, you didn't catch what I was driving at. I
didn't seem to make myself clear, and you didn't
catch what I was driving at," Jim said with a strug-
gling persuasiveness in his voice, seeking by his tone
to convey to Lizz what his words had failed to do.
"A child comes from God," Lizz said belliger-
ently.
"I know it. I didn't mean that it didn't, Lizz."
"God created that little one, and all of us, and
God created all animals. He gave to my little one a
soul. He didn't give a soul to animals," Lizz said.
"I know it, Lizz. You didn't see what I mean."
"God created us because he needed souls for
Heaven. vVhen God made the angels, Lucifer, the
head arch-angel, was too proud. He wanted to be
PARTISAN
REVIEW
like God. So God banished him and all the fallen
angels who sided with him, and said that they would
live in Hell for all eternity. They became devils, and
the Devil, and all his other devils, they're all fallen
angels. And there was room in Heaven for souls.
And God created Adam and Eve, the first man and
woman ,and every' offspring from Adam and Eve on
down through all the ages, they have souls. There
is a place in Heaven waiting for them, if they obey
the laws of God and the church, because of the room
left in Heaven by Lucifer and all the fallen angels
who were guilty of the sin of pride. Animals don't
have souls though."
"But, Lizz, you'll wake the little one here."
"But don't say my precious little sugar cube is
like an animal. She has a soul, a soul washed white
as the cleanest sheet by the holy waters of Baptism.
She's not mine and yours. We're only her caretakers.
She's God's."
"I didn't mean it that way."
"And Jim she's so smart. Ah, she's a little wise
one, she is," Lizz said.
"She should be. She's an O'Neill. And when she
grows up to be a big girl, she's going to be as pretty
as her mother was as a girl, isn't she, Lizz?"
"Oh Jim, I was never pretty."
"You were too. You were the prettiest little trick.
God, Lizz, I'll never forget you in the days when
we used to go to dances, and do the cake walk."
"I was an innocent babe in the woods."
"Lizz, I'm not ashamed to confess it. You made
a man out of me."
"t
au always were a man. Don't I remember how
you could fight. You weren't afraid of anybody."
"Well, I never was the kind to take sass."
"\Vell, here's your lunch, Jim, " Lizz said, embar-
rassed. "Your sandwiches. That ought to do you,
with an apple and piece of cake. You 'can get your-
self a cup of hot coffee."
"It's too much, Lizz," Jim said.
He studied the sleeping infant in his arms, its
tiny face that looked so sour, almost unnatural.
Just now, it was getting pretty, he thought. He re-
membered his other children when they had been
at this stage of infancy. He recollected how they
had become smart, learned to cry and bawl when
they wanted food, their diapers changed, or to be
held, swung, sung to and petted. He recalled how
they had all fought with almost bitter animal in-
tensity to get their lips around their mother's nipple,
and how they all cooed when their little bellies were
full. God what a funny thing it was to have kids.
He would be hot for Liiz, and his old john would
stand up for her, and he'd go at her. And out of it,
a kid would form and grow inside of Lizz. She
would carry it like some troublesome burden, and
as it grew within her, her face would become soft,
and beautiful in a way that a woman's face never
was beautiful except when she was having a kid. And
