Page:Hell-Bent fer Heaven (Hughes 1924).pdf/58

44 to do after we’d turned t’other cheek once, for he took it fer granted any durn fool ’ld know! [ shifts uneasily and starts to say something, but glares at him and he subsides.] An’ ’ith that fer a text he whirled in an’ preached the best sermon I ever hyeard on the person o’ Christ! He said the reason so many folks thought Christ ’us a weak an’ womanish sort of a man ’us because they ’us runts theirselves an’ wanted Him to keep ’em in countenance. Then he took the Scripture, passage an’ verse, an’ proved jist the sort o’ man Christ wus! Now I’ll bet every one of you here thinks he used speritual power when he drove the thieves out o’ the temple! [He looks around at them triumphantly.] But, ’ey ganny, he didn’t!

How do you know he didn’t?

B’cause he didn’t have to, that’s how! I never seed a man yit appeal fer speritual power when he could do it hisself!

An’ did he turn the water into wine the same way?

No, that ’us a merricle. But if he’d ha’ been a weak, water-drinkin’ man it stands to reason he wouldn’t ha’