“Then you eliminate the serpent?” queried Darwin.
“Not a bit of it,” Johnson answered. “The serpent was the tail. Look at most snakes to-day. What are they but unattached tails?”
“They do look it,” said Darwin, thoughtfully.
“Why, it’s clear as day,” said Johnson. “As punishment Adam and Eve lost their tails, and the tail itself was compelled to work for a living and do its own walking.”
“I never thought of that,” said Darwin. “It seems reasonable.”
“It is reasonable,” said Johnson.
“And the snakes of the present day?” queried Thackeray.
“I believe to be the missing tails of men,” said Johnson. “Somewhere in the world is a tail for every man and woman and child. Where one’s tail is no one can ever say, but that it exists simultaneously with its owner I believe. The abhorrence man has for snakes is directly attributable to his abhorrence for all things which have deprived him of something that is good. If Adam’s tail had not tempted him to swing on the forbidden tree, we should all of us have been able through life to relax from business cares after the manner of the monkey, who is happy from morning until night.”
“Well, I can’t see that it does us any good to sit here and discuss this matter,” said Doctor Livingstone. “We can’t reach any conclusion. The only way to settle the matter, it seems to me, is to go directly to Adam, who is a member of this club, and ask him how it was.”
“That’s a great idea,” said Thackeray, scornfully. “You’d look well going up to a man and saying, ‘Excuse me, sir, but—ah—were you ever a monkey?’”