Chapter XVII

As Gud was passing up through hell he saw two souls which were not being properly punished, but were strolling about as trusties of the place. Gud approached them and asked: "Why are you two not being properly punished?"

The first soul made answer and said to Gud: "We need none of these grosser punishments such as increased temperature and breathing SO_{2}, which the ancients, who imagined hell, were able, in the limits of their scientific knowledge, to imagine. The reason that we need no such crude material punishments is because our spiritual suffering is quite enough."

And Gud saw that the soul spake the truth, for the face of both of these trusty souls were lined with seamy sorrow. As Gud looked upon their sufferings he wondered why it was they suffered so, and he asked: "In what did you two sin one by one that you should be punished two by two?"

And the second suffering soul replied, "I sinned because I believed too vehemently that there was no god, and my companion here, because he believed over confidently that there was a god."

"But is it not strange," asked Gud, "that you two, who held such opposite doctrines, should now suffer similar punishment? How do you explain that?"

The first soul now took up the conversation with his mouth and made answer in this wise: "We suffer now with equal suffering, I because, believing that there was no god, found, when I died, that there was one, and he sent me to hell. But my companion here, who believed that there was a god, found when he died that there was none; and so he came to hell also, as there was no place else for him to go."

For a moment Gud looked upon these suffering souls with puzzlement and wonder, and then suddenly he began to laugh.

"Why do you laugh at our sufferings?" demanded the souls angrily.

"I am laughing at you two," said Gud, "because when you died you both came to hell--whereas if neither of you had believed in immortality you would not have needed to have gone anywhere."

As Gud was passing through a dismal swamp, he came to a certain cypress tree and sat down on a knee thereof. And presently she came also and sat down upon the other knee of the cypress tree, and they talked about the meeting of parallel lines.

But they could not agree so Gud proposed that they cut their initials on the bark of the cypress tree.

They did so, after which they parted. And Gud went on his way and so did she.

But when Gud had vanished into the depths of the dismal swamp, she turned and went back to the cypress tree and looked at the initials that they had carved thereon. Taking the knife that Gud had left sticking in the tree, she carved a word below the initials. Having finished the carving, she looked up into the branches above her and behold the foliage of the tree had withered. Then she repented for what she had done, and in great haste, took the knife and carved yet another word. Whereupon the tree put out fresh buds and grew again--for such is the power of words for good or evil.

And she smiled contentedly, for hers was the last word.