Yet we should notice that these didactic features have been introduced quite unobtrusively into the art of novellistic narrative. The didacticism never forces itself on us, simply because the author is a humorist with a roguish mind. We may recognize the well-structured form of our narrative as belonging to the genre novella, and we may see that its aim is instructive; but the unique beauty of the story and its liberating power is to be found in its comedy. In no other book of the Bible do we find