Eve: Let's see. Adam was out naming animals that morning. He was working on the mammals and was doing pretty well until all of a sudden he got stuck at hippopotamus. To tell you the truth, I didn't blame the guy. All along he had been coming up with simple names like "frog," "mouse," "cat." And then, out of the blue, he comes up with a complicated name like "hippopotamus." I mean, even "elephant" was stretching things a bit, and "kangaroo" was a positive extreme. But "hippopotamus"??? I said to him, "Couldn't you just call it a 'fat' or, at most, a 'fattamus?' But no, the guy was hung-up on "hippopotamus," and who was I to...

Seraph: Excuse me, Eve, but could you get directly to the burglary of the TKGE?

Eve: Sure. O.K. I was sitting by the river putting together a Caesar salad for lunch. There were plenty of nuts and berries, but we were a little short on apples. All of a sudden this serpent comes along and says something like, "Evie, Baby, have I got some apples for you!"

Seraph: Please continue.

Eve: Well, the serpent told me to follow him, which I did, and he led me to the two trees at the center of the Garden. "How do you like them apples?" he said.

Seraph: And...?

Eve: I said, "Well, they certainly look like good apples, but I don't think the Highest-up is going to go for it. At least that's what Adam said."

Seraph: Then what?

Eve: The serpent just laughed and said, "Ah, come on. Who's going to know? Anyway, you know what they say, 'Render unto the Lord what is the Lord's, and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.'" The serpent is a great one for cliches.

Seraph: So it seems. What did you do?

Eve: Well, I just stood there for a while. The serpent was going on about "an apple a day" and so forth. Finally I...I took an apple.

Seraph: So you are telling this Committee that you knowingly and willfully took an apple from the TKGE with the full knowledge that the Highest-up had forbade you to do so?

Eve: Well, now wait a minute. I already said that what the Highest-up said didn't make too much sense. And He didn't say anything about taking fruits but only about eating them. And He didn't really say not to do it but only what would happen if we did. And anyway, I assumed that the serpent must have been acting with the knowledge of the Highest-up.

Seraph: What caused you to assume that?

Eve: Well, at the time it was my impression that nothing went on in the Garden without the knowledge of the Highest-up. I know that since then there's been a lot of talk, especially from the serpent, about the "Separation of Powers." But, with all due respect, nobody was talking about the Separation of Powers before the burglary of the TKGE. Well, nobody but Adam.