"That's no jingle! That's music!"
He jumped to his feet and ran across the pasture, crept hurriedly
through a thicket to a window brushed by leaves of the underwood. He was
absorbed and eager.
"Man there with a voice like a bass viol!" he muttered.
"I wished I didn't wake an' sleep,
I wished I did lay down an' weep,
By Jordan, Jordan.
If I could come to that Dead Sea,
I'd wade up stream to Galilee,
By Jordan."
Each verse boomed up a noble crescendo and fell away in plaintive minor
chords. The preacher in the pulpit, in white vest, dotted cravat, and
fashionably cut coat, cried:
"Mou'n an' pray! Mou'n an' pray!"
"I wished I weep when Jesus weep,
I wished he wash me wid he sheep
In Jordan, Jordan.
I'd drown in Jordan wave and shout--
'Lord Jesus take my white soul out
Of Jordan.'"
"You wa'min, brer'n, you wa'min! Lo'd God! Jordan! Mou'n an' pray!"
"I wished the burden on my soul
Would roll away. Roll, Jordan, roll!
Roll, Jordan, Jordan!
Lord Jesus disher sheep astray,
Ain' You gwine show me yonder way
To Jordan?"
"De tex'," began the preacher, "is 'bout er man what he Lord len' him a
talent--da's a big bit of money, oom!--an' he wrap it in a napkin caze
he skeered of it an' hide it, an' go 'way crackin' he knuckle-bones.
'Hiyi!' An' he Lord say, 'You shif'less brack rascal! Ain' you got sense
to buy er cow what he feed in de pasture, an' bimeby deh's er calf, an'
de cow's good as befo', an' da's de calf, wuf eighteen dollars,
Confed'ate money?' Das' what Mars Ca'leton give Miss Meely fo' de white
yeahlin' what ain' any special so't of er calf. He Lord say, 'Give me
dat talent! You go hoe co'n in de co'nfield. I spec you skeered to tu'n
roun' when you get de end of de row. You ain' got business ent'prise,'
he say. 'You go fin' er slipper-sloppy mud turkle what know how keep he
shirt on he back an' he fingehs an' toes inside he shirt, an' lay down
in de slipper-sloppy mud wid him. Da's de habit an' perfession,' he say,
'ez sholy 'bout right fo' you.' Disher's de sayin' of scripcheh, caze
Miss Meely read it ter me las' night, an' ef it ain' de exac' wo'ds,
da's de efficaciousness. Da's de efficaciousness. Wha's de residuum?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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