Reverend! Just now you were talking of the doctrine of
gentleness, and now you speak of knocking some one down. How can you be
so changeable."
"I'm not changeable, ma'm. The doctrine of gentleness don't apply to a
snake, and if that man didn't treat you right he is a snake. And I'm a
preacher; I go out among them that needs prayer and I pray; in the night
when it seems that everybody else in the world is asleep, I have gone
out and knelt down in the dirt and prayed that the pain and the
bitterness might be taken from the troubled hearts of my neighbors. I've
gone to see many a young feller and begged him to give up fightin'--I've
done all that, but if you was to tell me where I could find that
man--man that was a brute to you, I'd hunt him and with my fist I would
mash the teeth out of his mouth. Where does he live?"
"We must not think of him, Mr. Reverend. And besides, when I speak of
him, how do you know that I tell the truth?"
"Ma'm, if a man should inspire you with a lie, it would be proof enough
that he is a brute.
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