ion with your shadow behind you so long as it is towards a
mountain, for the gods will not stay in a valley or a level plain, but
only in high places; and then, if the god wants you to see him, you will
go to his rath as direct as if you knew where it was, for he will be
leading you with an airy thread reaching from his own place to wherever
you are, and if he doesn't want to see you, you will never find out
where he is, not if you were to walk for a year or twenty years."

"How do you know he wants to see you?" said the second man.

"Why wouldn't he want?" said the Philosopher.

"Maybe, Mister Honey," said the woman, "you are a holy sort of a man
that a god would like well."

"Why would I be that?" said the Philosopher. "The gods like a man
whether he's holy or not if he's only decent."

"Ah, well, there's plenty of that sort," said the first man. "What do
you happen to have in your bag, stranger?"

"Nothing," replied the Philosopher, "but a cake and a half that was
baked for my journey."

"Give me a bit of your cake, Mister Honey," said the woman. "I like to
have a taste of everybody's cake."

"I will, and welcome," said the Philosopher.

"You may as well give us all a bit while you are about it," said the
second man. "That woman hasn't got all the hunger of the world."

"Why not," said the Philosopher, and he divided the cake.

"There's a sup of water up yonder," said the first man, "and it will do
to moisten the cake--Whoh, you devil," he roared at the ass, and the ass
stood stock still on the minute.

There was a thin fringe of grass along the road near a wall, and towards
this the ass began to edge very gently.

"Hike, you beast, you," shouted the man, and the ass at once hiked, but
he did it in a way that brought him close to the grass. The first man
took a tin can out of the cart and climbed over the little wall for
water. Before he went he gave the ass three kicks on the nose, but
the ass did not say a word, he only hiked still more which brought him
directly on to the grass, and when the man climbed over the wall the ass
commenced to crop the grass. There was a spider sitting on a hot stone
in the grass. He had a small body and wide legs, and he wasn't doing
anything.

"Does anybody ever kick you in the nose?" said the ass to him.

"Ay does there," said the spider; "you and your like that are always
walking on me, or lying down on me, or running over me with the wheels
of a cart."

"Well, w