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The nextafter breakfast John Webbon the front porch
"If you haven't got nothin' better to do," he said, "you ht walk doith me to Dolph Wartrace's store, at the cross-roads Thar will be a crowd thar to-day"
"Anything special going on?" Mostyn asked
"If the feller keeps his appointment we'll have a serht years a queer tramp of a chap-- John Leach, he calls hisself--has been co an' preachin' at the store Nobody knohar he is froh the ia, an' North Carolina He won't take a cent o' pay, never passes the hat around, an' has been knowed to stop along the road an' work for poor farmers for a week on a stretch for nothin' but his bed an' board Soot ular ordained minister I love to listen to 'ih an' feel sad at the same time"
"I certainly would like to hear hiate
"Are you a member of any church?" he inquired, when they were in the road
"No, I never jined one," Webb drawled out "I'm the only feller I know of in this country that don't affiliate with some denomination or other"
"That is rather odd," Mostyn ree to stay out of the fold aious people?"
"I don't exactly know" Webb's freckled face held a reflective look "I kept puttin' it off from year to year, thinkin' I would jine, especially as everybody was constantly naggin me about it Seems to me that I was the chief subject at every revival they held It bothered me considerable, I tell you The old folks talked so als would sluff away from me in the public road But I wasn't to blaive 'em all--Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians--a fair show You see, each denomination declared that it had the only real correct plan, an' I'll swear I liked one as well as t'other
When I'd make up my mind to tie to the Methodists, soin his religion, an' in all the stew an' un to be afeard I wasn't worth savin' nohow About that ti, an' I heard 'im talk I listened close, but I couldn't make out whether he stood for sprinklin', pourin', or sousin' clean under So after he finished I went up an' axed 'irinned--I reckon I remember it because it made me feel better He ketched hold o' ood an' kind-like, he said: 'Brother, don't let that bother you I'm floatin' on top le so I kin jine all factions together in brotherly bonds' As he put it, the light o' God was shinin' on every earthly path that had any sort o' upward slope to it"