“I don’t think Dad believes in things like that very much.” “My Gosh! And you ain’t scared?” “Scared of what?” “Why, hell-fire and brimstone. Of losin’ your soul.” “No, I never thought about it.” “Say, kid, you dunno how queer that hits me. I just been makin’ up my mind to go to hell, and not give a damn. Do you cuss?” “Not very often.” “Well, I cussed God.” “How do you do that?” “Why, I said, ‘Damn God!’ I said it half a dozen times, see, and I thought sure the lightnin’ would come down and strike me. I said: I don’t believe, and I ain’t a-goin’ to believe, and I don’t give a damn.” “Well, but if you don’t believe, why should you be scared?” Bunny’s mind was always logical like that. “Well, I guess I didn’t know whether I believed or not. I don’t know now. It didn’t seem like I could set my poor frail mind up against the Rock of Ages. I didn’t know there was anybody had ever been that wicked before. Pap says I’m the wickedest boy was ever born.” “Pap is your father?” “Yes.” “What does he believe?” “The Old Time Religion. It’s called the Four Square Gospel. It’s the Apostolic Church, and they jump.” “_Jump!_” “The Holy Spirit comes down to you, see, and makes you jump. Sometimes it makes you roll, and sometimes you talk in tongues.” “What is that?” “Why, you make noises, fast, like you was talkin’ in some foreign language; and maybe it is—Pap says it’s the language of the archangels, but I don’t know. I can’t understand it, and I hate it.” “And your father does that?” “Any time, day or night, he’s liable to. It’s his way of foilin’ the tempter. If you say anything at meal-times, like there ain’t enough to eat in the house, or you mention how the interest on the mortgage will be due, and he hadn’t ought to give all the money for the missions, then Pap will roll up his eyes, and begin to pray out loud and let go, as he calls it; and then the Holy Spirit seizes him and he begins to jump and shake all over, and he slides down out of his chair and rolls on the floor, and begins to talk in tongues, like it says in the Bible. And then Mom starts to cry, ’cause it scares her, she knows she’s got things to do for the kids, but she dassn’t resist the Spirit, and Pap shouts, Let go, let go—real loud, in the Voice of Sinai, as he says, and then Mom’s shoulders begin to jerk, and her mouth pops down, and she begins to roll in the chair, and shout for the Pentecostal Baptism. And that turns the kids loose, they all begin to jump and to babble; and gee, it scares you, somethin’ starts to grab you, and make you jerk whether you want to or not. I rushed out of the house, and I shook my fist tip at the sky and I yelled: ‘Damn God! Damn God!’ And then I waited for the sky to fall in, and it didn’t, and I said, I don’t believe it, and I ain’t a-goin’ to make myself believe it, not if I get sent to hell for it.” “Is that the reason you ran away?”