The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-08-21

NM %\ No doubt some
u people have won~.
dered what makes
us love Aunt Nancy like we do. Well.
the dear, delightful old soul has got SO
many strong claims to my double
breasted regards till it would take a
book to tell the reasons why. She talks
considerable with her mouth, and say
q whole passle at the same time. She
is so newsy like and fresh. She knows
a tremendous big lot, and she don't
mind tellin it.
.sThe Devils QuaEter s~ection."
For fears somebody else win come
along and tell you all the news in re-
CARDS to the new church which they.
never built down there in the Devils
Quarter Section, maybe i mought as
well tend to the job right now" says.
Aunt Nancy to mother and me the last
time she come up from the old settle
ment to bless us with her brief and
smilin presence.
You have been down there in the
forks of Murder creek, Rufus, into that
skirt of country which everybody calls
the DEVILS Quarter Section. Well.
somewheres right around in there you
will find the church which they never
built.
1T is a scandalous bad messment they
have got over there, Rufus, and that
scrapegracc Web Gardner is atBthe bot
tom OF it. You know Web Gardner-or
at any rates. you know him by Manu.,
and you know where he lives. And you
know there are some people in this
world-as pore and needy as the best of
us-that jest naturally don't have to
work-which that is one of the most
strangest things in creation to me. But
itisso. And Web Gardner is one of them
sort. He don't even do like julie Majors
go around huntin for work. but hopin
and prayin all the time that he won't
find what he is lookin for. / have no
doubts but what Web Gardner s under
a heavy Bible oath that he never will
scarrify the fair bosom of the earth
with a lick of honest work so long as
life shall last.
CONSEQUENTLY when Web rid by our
house before sun up one mornin about
three weeks ago, and told Andrew Jim
that he was bleedged to 60 down in
the DEVILS Quarter Section that day on
some pressin business, I lowed right
then that there must be s0methin dead
up the creek. Only two days before
that / had met up with Webs wife over
Cross Roads and she was tellin
nae how much bad luck had been comm
their way of late and what a hard time
they was hayin to make tonguegand
buckle meet. We had already got the
news that old Parson Weston was rum
min of a big bresh iarbor meetin down,
the Devils Quarter Section, ands
when Web rid by that morninAso pipin-
soon and in sich a tempestrous big,
hurry-and told where he was headed
for, says I to myself, the human race
was horned and brung forth, unto sin.
and sorrow and sufferin, and some
body's time is comm next.
"Well, what did Web Gardner do
down in the DEVILS Quarter Section ?
I don't know where he got the neces-
sary materials, but he turned up at
that big bresh arbor meetin the first
day drunk-pluperfectly, bilin, roarin,
soakin drunk. He had three fights
right there on the grounds, ripped and
cussed till the free and native air was
hot and blue in streaks and patches for
miles around, and all but busted up the
meetin. But old Parson Weston helt
the first base and stood by his guns.
He called Web Gardner by his full name
and preached q short sermont to him
in the first person, single .number-
preached hell fire and birthstone and
everlastin damnation-and called on
Web to flee fFom the wrath to come be-
fore it Gomez
BY the next day Web had slept it
off, or flung it up. and when he put In
his appointments at the brush arbor
meetin for the second time he was
s~ad-eyed! sober. The old parston
preached forth another powerful and
stirrin sermont-they tell me it was a
reglar heart-thumper and soul ronser
And when they sung q song and called
for mourners that day Web Gardner
was the very first mar to come forth in
.sackcloth and ashes, as 1t Were-meat
fifteen for repentance. Right then every
body thought the dead was alive and
the lost was found onest more. There
was shoutin and singin and weepin for
joy.
The Church They Never DuiIt.
But from what has since Come to
pass it seems like Web Gardner made
a mistake and didn't gitaany religion
at all to speak of-or it mought be that
he took SIGH a big dost ali Of d suddent
till it wouldn't stick. Now. Rufus. If
there is anything under the sun and on
the earth which do love it is this plain,
everyday, old-time religion. But /
can't help from havin my doubts about
it when the light breaks in SIGH orful
big floods and sluices. From what the
Scripture says. I reckon they use to
have that observation-disclosures
style of religion. Butmy notion is that
in the present day and generation if a
sinner don't come to law till he gifts
knocked down and dr1p in the Devil