ecause he killed it, it has come to life again, and
instead of lying in the trench, is running about cheerfully with other
dogs.

All laughed merrily at Judas' tale, and he smiled pleasantly himself,
winking his one lively, mocking eye--and by that very smile confessed
that he had lied somewhat; that he had not really killed the dog. But
he meant to find it and kill it, because he did not wish to be deceived.
And at these words of Judas they laughed all the more.

But sometimes in his tales he transgressed the bounds of probability,
and ascribed to people such proclivities as even the beasts do not
possess, accusing them of such crimes as are not, and never have been.
And since he named in this connection the most honoured people, some
were indignant at the calumny, while others jokingly asked:

"How about your own father and mother, Judas--were they not good
people?"

Judas winked his eye, and smiled with a gesture of his hands. And the
fixed, wide-open eye shook in unison with the shaking of his head, and
looked out in silence.

"But who was my father? Perhaps it was the man who used to beat me with
a rod, or may be--a devil, a goat or a cock.... How can Judas tell? How
can Judas tell with whom his mother shared her couch. Judas had many
fathers: to which of them do you refer?"

But at this they were all indignant, for they had a profound reverence
for parents; and Matthew, who was very learned in the scriptures, said
severely in the words of Solomon:

"'Whoso slandereth his father and his mother, his lamp shall be
extinguished in deep darkness.'"

But John the son of Zebedee haughtily jerked out: "And what of us? What
evil have you to say of us, Judas Iscariot?"

But he waved his hands in simulated terror, whined, and bowed like a
beggar, who has in vain asked an alms of a passer-by: "Ah! they are
tempting poor Judas! They are laughing at him, they wish to take in the
poor, trusting Judas!" And while one side of his face was crinkled up in
buffooning grimaces, the other side wagged sternly and severely, and the
never-closing eye looked out in a broad stare.

More and louder than any laughed Simon Peter at the jokes of Judas
Iscariot. But once it happened that he suddenly frowned, and became
silent and sad, and hastily dragging Judas aside by the sleeve, he bent
down, and asked in a hoarse whisper--

"But Jesus? What do you think of Jesus? Speak seriously, I entreat you."

Judas cast on him a malign gla