Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/216

 everybody had to learn how to birth children a new way. It was enough to upset the whole world.

White people try to be too smart. If they keep on messing in God's business and trying to change things from the way He meant them to be, the first thing they knew. He would get cross and make Judgment Day wipe the whole world clean of them. It would be too late then for them to cry and holler and be sorry. They ought to be careful with their laws and projects. The old way to birth children has its drawbacks, but it is plenty good enough. They had better leave it alone.

"How you b'lieve chillen'll get into de world dis new way, Budda?" she asked presently.

Ben didn't know. He didn't care. All the children in the world could die and go to Hell so far as he was concerned. These damned children of Andrew were the cause of all his troubles, the cause of his getting turned out of the church yesterday. They teased him, tormented him, made their dogs nip at his heels, the dirty, low-down, pot-bellied Budda Ben spluttered with such fury Mary laid her hand on his arm. "Hush, Budda. Don' cuss now. Auntie'll hear you, and it hurts her awful bad when you have sin. Look at em. Poor old soul, hoppin along. I don'