"
"Well," said Tom, "seems to me that if he wants to know anythin' on
that subject he could go to some of the preachers, that ought to know a
good deal more about it than dad does."
"Can't tell so much about that sort o' thing," said Billy. "There's
lots of men in this town that don't know much about some things that
knows a good deal about some others. You know when that dog we stole
last summer got sick, there was nobody in town could do anythin' for
him except that old lame nigger down in the holler."
"Well, you're a sweet one, ain't you?" said Tom. "What's dogs got to do
with religion, I'd like to know? You ought to be ashamed o' yourself,
even if you ain't never been to church."
"Well," said Billy, "what I was meanin' is, some folks seem to know a
good deal about things without bein' learned, that other folks will
give their whole time to, an' don't know very much about. Every place
that I go to, somebody says somethin' to me about dad an' religion.
Say, Tom, do you know dad's mighty different to what he used to be
before he got took up?"
"Of course I do. He's always wantin' folks to work, an' always findin'
fault with everythin' we do that ain't right. He didn't use to pay no
attention to nothin'; we could do anythin' we wanted to; and here I am,
a good deal bigger, an' just about as good as a man, an' he pays more
attention to me than he ever did, an' fusses at me as if I was little
bit of a kid.
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