escaped and went into the business of talking too much and saying what I
pleased and asking all the questions I wanted to; and while I am
grateful to you for your releasing me, all you did was your duty, and I
don't feel there is any privilege of back talk coming to you; and yet
you look like you were pretty wise, and there are one or two things that
I don't know yet. For instance, has a ghost a soul or is he a soul?
Well, I see you don't know, but maybe you can tell me whether sins are
washed away by death-bed repentance, though I really don't care, for it
is not important. But I would like to know if faith will remove
mountains. I don't believe it will for when I was a small lad I went to
live with my grandmother. There was an ugly mountain back of her house
and grandmother decided to remove it by faith and she prayed all one
evening that the mountain be moved that night. The next morning she woke
up and looked out the kitchen window and said: 'I knew that old mountain
would still be there.' Which reminds me of a fellow I knew who was a
faith healer by profession, and mighty successful, too, and went all up
and down the land healing by faith and getting paid handsomely for it.
But his wife at home was an invalid: I asked her why her husband did not
heal her and she said, 'I lack faith in him.'

"Do you know why they call sleep innocent, considering the kind of
dreams people have? Or why blood is thicker than water? Or what there is
about a sphinx that makes people think it knows the answer to riddles?
Or why a greased egg won't hatch? Or whether a man in hot water is more
uncomfortable than a round peg in a square hole?"

"No," replied Gud, "I do not know any of these things and I am sorry I
unbound you."

"I knew you would be," cried Free Speech, "I could tell by your old gray
gown and those antiquated whiskers that you were a conservative and a
hide-bound Puritan, but I tell you right now that you can't stop me
talking by tying me up, and that it won't do you any good if you do. And
that Underdog of yours is no better than you are. The Underdog must be
educated by me, though he is usually so stupid that he chases after the
copycat instead of listening to me talk, and so I don't really care as
much what becomes of him as I pretend I do--and did you ever hear the
story about--"

But Gud clapped his hand over the mouth of Free Speech and called:
"Quick, Fidu, fetch me the chain."

As Fidu and Gud marched on their