In the evening a crowd came to the public square to hear Dr. Tucker.
They asked him many questions. Some who had money, or who could read,
bought Bibles so they could learn more for themselves of the things he
told them. He gave Bibles to those who had no money.
Dr. Tucker's business was to give the Bible to the people of Brazil.
For years that was what he had been doing. In the beautiful city of Rio
de Janeiro he had a great store to which people came by the hundreds to
buy Bibles and from which Bibles were sent by mail and by colporteurs
in all directions.
These colporteurs, or Bible men, went through the cities of Brazil
and far into the country. Sometimes they walked, sometimes they rode
on mules, and sometimes they traveled in ox-carts. Dr. Tucker himself
often rode with them, as he did on this trip when they stopped at
Paracatu. This journey through towns and open country lasted for six
weeks.
There were few houses along the rough and hilly roads. Now and then
long-legged ostriches ran across the path before the mules. Gaily
colored parrots perched on branches of the trees; monkeys chattered in
the vines beside the small streams; and here and there a fox or a tatou
ran past. Sometimes the prairie with its waving grass stretched before
them like an ocean. At night they pitched their tent beside small
streams where the grass grew fresh and green.
One Sunday morning as they rested in front of their tent, an ox-cart
stopped before them, and a man jumped out and asked for a cup of
coffee. As he drank the coffee, Dr. Tucker read to him from the Bible.
"Go on, go on," the man called to his driver. "I'll follow later. Never
in all my life have I heard such strange things as this book tells."
The next morning the colporteurs were up at three o'clock. The moon
lighted their way as they rode. They stopped at a house for breakfast,
and Dr. Tucker took out a Bible and read from it to their host.
[Illustration: HUGH C. TUCKER
Not only did he put the Bible into the pulpits and bookcases of Brazil,
but its spirit of love and service found expression in the hearts of
the people, in parks, schools, and playgrounds.]
"No, no, don't stop!" said the man, when Dr. Tucker started to help
load the mules. "Read more. Let the others load the animals while I
call my neighbors, that you may read to them, too, and tell them what
these things mean, for they are new and strange to us."
Every day they met people who asked, "Where are you going, and what is
this new book you carry with you?"
"How can these things be?" said one man. "Is it true that so long as
two thousand years ago such wonderful things happened and today I hear
of them for the first time and even yet my friends have not heard? You
are slow about giving the Bible to my people!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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