own birth, and
yet Gud had realized that such could not be, as he and his father were
one and the same being. The situation had confused Gud's reason, but now
with his reason gone it was all very clear.

There were also many other things which Gud had been unable to accept
with his reason, but which now, with no appeal to reason, he gladly
embraced, and so reveled joyously in his growing faith. The
transfiguration of souls particularly entranced him, and he spent many
happy hours, as he walked along amid the gloomy shadows of the wildness
of the wilderness, in picking out favorite animals to have been and to
be. He rather favored having been a quacking ornithorhynchus and going
to be a ring-straked giraffe; and yet the claims of the groundhog, which
sleeps half its life away, also appealed to Gud, because he had a long
time to live. Having considered these and many others, Gud decided to
have been all the unattractive animals in the past and to be all the
nice ones in the future. After all, he had plenty of past and future and
there was no occasion for abbreviating the list.

With his reason gone Gud also accepted polytheism as being quite
compatible with monotheism. He no longer found it objectionable to be
the only god and yet have a lot of assistant gods, for he saw that this
would relieve him of a great deal of labor.

And thus it came about that through the loss of his reason many
irrational things which he had previously disputed and disbelieved were
now lucid and believable. So gratified was Gud as he realized the
magnitude of his growing faith that he gave a great shout of joy.

The shout echoed through the wildness of the wilderness, and the echo
came back to Gud; and Gud thought it was a lion's roar.

The mad Underdog also heard Gud's shout and the echo of Gud's shout, and
he thought the shout was the blast of a war trumpet, and that the echo
was the noise of the celebration of peace.

But Gud did not know what Fidu thought, for Gud was mad. If Gud could
only have looked sanely into Fidu's insane eyes, a deal of trouble might
have been avoided. But he could not; and Gud thought the echo of his
shout was the roar of a mighty, wicked lion, and he thought Fidu thought
so, too. And maybe he did.

Then the lion's roar roared again. But Gud was not afraid, for he had
no reason to be afraid. Filled with unreasonable faith and valor, Gud
seized his staff and charged into the jungle after the lion's roar. And