ones. Some of those slept, stirring and sighing from time to time. Others lay silently awake, their open eyes taking in impressions of the visitors and the other things around them. Two fussed and were comforted by Mab, who darted in to beguile them with her bright form. Messenger of El, bereft of his wings for the time being, walked around the bed, counting the little souls and bending closer to inspect them.
As this went on, Adam came to notice that the visitor was paying special attention to where the legs came together.
“Six male and six female,” said Messenger of El finally.
“Yes,” Adam said. “I know of no particular reason why their numbers should be equal, save that Spring so preordained matters. Perhaps she had it in mind that the males and females would form pairs as Eve and I have done.”
Messenger of El listened carefully and nodded agreement. “And what purpose do you suppose is served by the forming of such pairs?”
Adam shrugged. “Companionship. Striving together as one to do what is beyond the reach of a lone soul.”
“The pairing of male and female is not needed for such purposes,” Messenger of El pointed out.
“What do you think then?” Adam asked, for it seemed that the angel already had some answer to the riddle he had posed.
One of the little ones awoke and cried out. Mab flitted to it.
So as not to further disturb the sleeping ones, Adam and Messenger of El opened the cabin’s door, stepped outside into the cold air, closed it behind them, and continued to talk beneath the starlight. “For many years to come,” said the angel, “those little ones shall require your protection and your instruction. It is a task demanding the energies of two souls, and then some! Spring foresaw as much when she so programmed your forms to spawn males and females in equal numbers.”
“You are saying that six such pairs might eventually be formed from the twelve just spawned,” said Adam.
“Yes, and each of those pairs might in time bring forth more little ones just as you and Eve have done. And indeed Eve still has it in her to spawn new little ones as well, once she has recovered from the labors of this day.”
None of these possibilities had previously entered the mind of Adam, who in his astonishment and exhaustion and joy had not had leisure to work it all through. He now felt some embarrassment at having been so slow to grasp the nature of Spring’s plan.
His mind went for some reason to the forests where he ranged every day with the woodcutters. For as far as a soul might travel in a week, the mountains were clad in trees, far too numerous to count. And yet according to what they had learned in the Garden, they and all other things that lived had begun as single seeds that had multiplied and spread with the passage of many years. If the six pairs only just spawned by Eve were to spawn more in due course, the number of souls would soon mount to rival the population of Eltown. Only Mab could calculate the numbers, but the vastness of the forest gave Adam a way of thinking about where it could lead: a Land populated with souls too many to count, all formed after the general shape of Adam and Eve. And they would raise and instruct those souls to deal with one another justly, so that none would wax stronger and more perfect at the expense of another.
“Forgive me,” said Adam, “for not having seen it until now. Yes, I do believe I understand the nature of Spring’s program now.”
“Very well,” said Messenger of El. “Raised as you were in the Garden by El to wield your powers of intellect, you were bound to sort it out sooner or later, to perceive the error of Spring and to understand the nature of the problem.”
“Error? Problem?” Adam repeated.
“Yes,” said Messenger of El. “Quite plainly, the Land has not the capacity to support the number of souls that would in time be spawned by the carrying forward of Spring’s misbegotten program. The hills for miles around Eltown have already been logged bare by souls who spawn in the usual manner—and more such come down from Elkirk every day. Do not think that El in his Palace is oblivious to this. Similar stories could be told of other towns and cities all over the Land. To add the descendants of Adam