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 step outside with him. When the door had closed after them, he said: "Are you crazy, man? Don't you know that if the bishop learns all about the matter you told him of, we shall both become unhappy for the rest of our lives?"

"Just let me talk," answered the deacon, smiling. "He sha'n't learn anything. Leave it to me." So they returned to the dining-room.

"Well," said the bishop, "what did you then do with the hide?"

"The hide? Oh yes," replied the deacon. "Yes, we fought over it; and finally I fell, because the tail happened to slip out of my hands—and I got an awful bump, you know—and then I awoke!"

"O—oh, was it only a dream?" observed the bishop.

"Of course; yes, of course it was," replied the cunning deacon. "It could be nothing else—nothing else, your Eminence."