Mitch Miller | Page 9

husband
havin' left her after her pa failed; and she began to clerk in one of the
stores, and is yet.
CHAPTER III
After I met Mitch and after we saw the fight and the wedding, we went
out to Montgomery's woods a few times in the afternoon when school
was over. But we couldn't do much, because first we read "Tom
Sawyer" along settin' on stumps and logs. We had to get the idea into
our heads better; at least I did, because now we was about to carry out
what Tom had done and wrote about--or what Mark Twain had wrote
about for him. So we'd no sooner dig a few spadefuls than it would be
gettin' dark, and we'd have to go home.
[Illustration: Sitting on Logs]
One evening it began to rain and then thunder and lightnin', and we
stood in a kind of shed for a bit, when all of a sudden I felt creepy and
tingly, and saw a flash, followed by awful thunder; and of course I
knew I had got a shock. Perry Strickland had been killed the summer

before just this a way; and it seemed like once in a while God just
launched out like you'd swat a fly, and took somebody; and of course
you couldn't tell who He was goin' to come after next. Things like this,
besides lots of other things, my grandpa's prayers and other things, had
made me think a lot of religion, so as to be ready if I was to be took by
lightnin' or drownin' or anything suddent. And some of the boys said
that if you was drowned and didn't have nothin' on, you'd be kept out of
heaven, and sent to a place of punishment. So it began to look like they
was a lot of things to think about and be careful of.
[Illustration: Almost Struck]
I hadn't told Mitch because I didn't know just how he'd take it, even if
he was a preacher's son; but I'd been goin' at nights sometimes down at
a revival or protracted meeting at the church, not Mr. Miller's, but
another church, a Baptist, I believe, or maybe Campbellite. And I had
listened to the revivalist and heard the singin' and the experience
speeches. And heard the revivalist say that you had to be immersed,
that baptized meant to be put clear under, and that sprinklin' wouldn't
do.
So I got Mitch to go the next night after the wedding, to see what he
thought, but also to pay him back a little for takin' me to the fight and
to the wedding. We went in together and sat down pretty fur back, and
the meeting began. A man got up pretty fat and good natured, with a
voice that just went into you like when you push one key of the organ
down and keep pumpin'. And he said a long prayer and asked for light
and help, and for light to shine in the hearts of the people present, so as
to show 'em their sin; and to save people from death, and from sudden
death, and if they died, then that they might be ready and be saved. And
he asked for power to preach the gospel and for humbleness and
understanding to receive the gospel after it was preached. And so on for
a good while. And a good many said, "Amen." And then they sang
"Angel Voices Ever Singing." Then the revivalist asked for songs and
somebody called out, "Away in a Manger, No Crib for a Bed"; and they
sang that. He asked for another one--and somebody called out, "There
Were Ninety and Nine that Safely Lay." And somebody else wanted "I

was a Wandering Sheep." And so it went till you could kind of feel
things workin' up like when the lightning made me tingle. Then this
revivalist preached a bit and talked about salvation and baptism, and
about believin' and being baptized in order to be saved. Then they had
another song, "Work, for the Night is Coming"; and then the revivalist
called for experience speeches. And old John Doud, the photographer,
got up first, right away. He was bald and one of his eyes was out; he
was fat and his mouth watered. And he began to tell what religion had
done for him; how before he got religion nobody could live with him,
he was so selfish and cross; how he was mean to his wife, and how he
drank sometimes. And now he was all different; he was happy all the
day and agreeable to everybody and had been good to his wife before
she died, and generous to everybody and didn't care whether he had a
dollar in his pocket or a