Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

THAT DAY IN EDEN
(Passage from Satan's Diary)
ONG ago I was in the bushes near the Tree of
Knowledge when the Man and the Woman
came there and had a conversation. I was present,
now, when they came again after all these years.
They were as before-mere boy and girl-trim,
rounded, slender, flexible, snow images lightly
flushed with the pink of the skies, innocently unconscious of their nakedness, lovely to look upon,
beautiful beyond words.
I listened again. Again as in that former time
they puzzled over those words, Good, Evil, Death,
and tried to reason out their meaning; but, of course,
they were not able to do it. Adam said:
"Come, maybe we can find Satan. He might
know these things."
Then I came forth, still gazing upon Eve and
admiring, and said to her:
"You have not seen me before, sweet creature,
but I have seen you. I have seen all the animals,
but in beauty none of them equals you. Your hair,
your eyes, your face, your flesh tints, your form, the
tapering grace of your white limbs-all are beautiful,
adorable, perfect."
It gave her pleasure, and she looked herself over,
putting out a foot and a hand and admiring them;
then she naively said:
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