"That day the baby was born I thought to myself, 'Well, here's
somethin' that'll make Amos forgit about his callin' and election for
once, anyhow;' and I wrapped the little feller up in his blanket and
held him to the light, so his father could see him; and Amos looked at
him like he was skeered, for a minute, and then he says, 'O Lord! I
hope it ain't a reprobate.'
"Now jest think of a man lookin' down into a little new-born baby's
face and talkin' about reprobates!
"Marthy heard what he said, and says she, 'Amos, are you goin' to have
him babtized in infancy?'
"'Why, yes,' says Amos, 'of course I am.'
"And Marthy says, 'Well, hadn't you better wait until you find out
whether he's a reprobate or not? If he's a reprobate, babtizin' ain't
goin' to do him any good, and if he's elected he don't need to be
babtized.'
"And I says, 'For goodness' sake, Marthy, you and Amos let the
doctrines alone, or you'll throw yourself into a fever.' And I pushed
a rockin'-chair up by the bed and I says, 'Here, Amos, you set here by
your wife, and both of you thank the Lord for givin' you such a fine
child;' and I laid the baby in Amos' arms, and went out in the gyarden
to look around and git some fresh air. I gethered a bunch o'
honeysuckles to put on Marthy's table, and when I got back, Marthy and
the baby was both asleep, and Amos looked as if he was beginnin' to
have some little hopes of the child's salvation.
"Marthy named him John; and Sam Amos said he reckoned it was for John
the Babtist. But it wasn't; it was for Marthy's twin brother that died
when he was jest three months old. Twins run in the Crawford family.
Amos had him babtized in infancy jest like he said he would, and such
a hollerin' and squallin' never was heard in Goshen church. The next
day Sally Ann says to me, says she, 'That child must 'a' been a
Babtist, Jane; for he didn't appear to favor infant babtism.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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