The Third Fable

The Lord put Adam and Eve in the garden to dress it and keep it, and said: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil..." Here his voice trailed off; he seemed to forget his own point, and left.

Adam and Eve spent the summer having a wonderful time, eating persimmons, pomegranates, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, oranges, tangerines, apricots, figs, burgundy grapes, watermelons, canteloupes, honeydews, plums, dates, cocoanuts, cumquats, kiwis, peaches. Everything was delicious. Innocence and happiness enveloped the whole garden like a Ziploc sandwich bag.

The Lord returned and took Adam up on a high mountain from which, as in Milton's poem, the history of the world could be seen in advance: Cain killing Abel, the Flood drowning almost everybody, the Israelites going into captivity in Egypt. "This is all predestined and, believe it or not, has a happy ending," said the Lord. "But it can't happen till you eat the forbidden fruit. Why haven't you?"

"You never forbade it,"said Adam.

"Ahem. True. Well,"said the Lord, "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."The Lord left, and Adam made his way down the mountain and back to the garden where he found Eve talking to a snake.