Journeyman (16 page)

“How much?” he demanded, reaching for the hats with both hands.

“Twenty cents,” Tom said. “I reckon that’s all. That’s what I took up, and Clay didn’t get a cent.”

“That’s right,” Clay said meekly. “I couldn’t seem to get anything at all.”

Semon shook the money into his hand and looked at the four nickels. He turned them over meditatively several times, and at last he shoved them roughly into his pants pocket.

“I reckon I’ll have to do a little heavier preaching tonight,” he said. “Looks like it didn’t pay this afternoon. I’ll bear down on them tonight, though. I reckon I was too easy with them just now.”

“That’s because the men wasn’t in there,” Tom said. “Women never have no money, anyway. It’s the men who carry what little there is. And the men will all be in there tonight, and you’ll have a chance to get what you aimed to take in.”

“I reckon that’s so,” Semon said, nodding. “I’ll do my damnedest, anyway. I can’t afford to preach for twenty cents.”

B
Y SEVEN THAT EVENING
no one was left outside of the building. Some families had gone home to eat supper, but most of the people had brought supper with them, and they had eaten it in the grove at sundown. Semon had been invited to eat with the Stones, and Clay and Dene and Lorene had stayed.

There was music for the evening service. Homer Johnson was there with his banjo, and Clay played his harmonica. After once starting a hymn, there was little use for Homer and Clay to continue, because the rising flood of song drowned out their efforts. Semon’s voice, louder than it had been in the afternoon, could be heard above all the others.

Seven or eight songs and hymns were sung before the sermon began. Semon had announced no text; he merely began preaching.

The men sat on the floor because the school desks were not large enough. The women and girls could sit in them comfortably, but the others sat on the bare floor and leaned back against the desks.

“I don’t want a single man or woman, boy or girl, to leave this schoolhouse tonight unsaved,” Semon told them preliminarily. “I came over here to Georgia to save you, and I aim to do what I set out to do in the start. There’s no sense in letting a sinner get away from here tonight—everybody can be saved. It’s not easy to be saved; it’s a lot harder than going to the devil, but it’s easy at that.”

Several heads in the audience nodded. A few people in Rocky Comfort considered themselves already saved, and they wished all their neighbors to be denied the pleasures that they themselves had forsworn.

“The devil is on everybody’s trail. He dogs a man, day in and day out, sniffing the scent, yelping every once in a while to let you know he’s tracking you, and then he slips up on you when you’re not looking and grabs you. That’s the devil’s way of going about his business. You have got to watch out for him. He won’t never quit till you stomp him under your heels and beat the life out of him.

“All you old sinners must be the first ones to come over on God’s side tonight. That will set the example for the young folks. When a boy or girl’s mother and father stand up here and shake my hand, then it won’t be long till the sons and daughters come. Now, I want all you old people, all you old sinners, mothers and fathers, to show the way.

“Sin is a bad thing, folks. It saps the life right out of you. I know, because I used to be sinful myself just like all the rest of you. I know what sin is. I’ve looked it spang in the face. That’s why I’m standing here tonight trying to save my brothers and sisters from it. I’ve seen so many people lose their souls and go to hell, that I can’t just sit and see you folks going there, too. I want to save you. I want to put the devil to shame, so he won’t bother you no more. Now, all you men know good and well why you’re going to hell when you die, if you don’t come over on the Lord’s side before it’s too late. And tomorrow will be too late. You might the before daybreak tomorrow morning. Nobody ever knows when he’s going to do that.

“There’s not much use in me telling you why you’re going to hell, because you know. You women know why, too. All of you will be smoking in hell if you don’t watch out. It don’t take much to keep out of there, though. All you have to do is to come over on the Lord’s side. It’s not too late, but now’s the time. Tomorrow might be too late; some of you are going to the soon; if you die in sin, you’ll smoke in hell till the world comes to an end, and it may never come to an end.

“All you fornicators and cheaters, all you liars and murderers—all you sinners have got to get sin out of your souls-before it’s too late. It won’t do no good just to stop sinning now; no, that won’t do at all. You’ve got to repent first—you’ve got to come up here and give me your hand in the presence of the Lord before you can be saved. You men who don’t listen to me will wake up after you’re dead and smell yourselves smoking in hell— and it’ll be too late then. Yes, sir! It will be too late, then! Now’s the time. It’s the only time there’ll be for some of you. You might be dead tomorrow, and it’ll be too late then to do anything about it. Now’s the time!”

Semon stopped for a moment of rest. While he wiped the perspiration from his face, he looked at the faces below him to determine what progress he had made. He noted with pleasure that some of the people were already squirming in their seats on the desks and on the floor.

“Let me tell you a little true story, folks. Away off in a big city there was a young girl. She was as pretty as the day is long. Oh, she was a pretty thing! I’ve never seen anyone like her since. But that’s not it. What I’m telling you is that this pretty girl off in that big city thought she didn’t have to heed the call of the Lord. She thought she didn’t have to worry about being saved. So she went out one night with a man who came to see her. They rode off in his fine automobile with silver trimming on the doors. They hadn’t gone far before the man asked her to take a little drink. She did. She drank the vile stuff. Then they rode some more. She thought she could get by without being saved. So she went riding away in the night. Then they stopped and took another drink of the vile stuff. You know how it is—you keep on and on and can’t stop. Then she let the man put his arms around her pure young body. She didn’t care about being saved. Oh, no! She thought she didn’t have to! So she let him fondle her some. You know how it is—you keep on and on. So he fondled her some. They took another drink of that vile stuff. Then they got out of the car and walked out in the woods—this pure young girl who wouldn’t listen to the call of the Lord. Yes, she did! Out there in the dark nobody could see them. But God saw them. Yes, sir, God saw them. Don’t ever think you can hide from Him. But He wasn’t the only one who saw them. It was the devil. Yes, sir, the devil! The devil came running. He was away off somewhere else when he saw them, but he came running. That’s the way he does. And he got there just in time. He got there just in time to tell the man to put his arms around this pure young girl out there in the dark woods. The man stretched her out on the pine needles, and the devil was right there behind him. The devil said: ‘Go ahead.’ That’s what the devil told him. Then he leaned over and told this young girl the same thing. He told her to go ahead, too. And so she said: ‘All right.’ Yes, sir, that’s what she said. She said: ‘All right.’ So the man got down on the pine needles beside her. Yes, sir. He got right down in the dark—”

“Amen!” somebody said.

Semon stopped abruptly and scrutinized the faces that were all looking at him. He was glad to have a chance to catch his breath, and he liked to hear people utter “Amen” when he was preaching. It was a sign that he had got the people interested.

He wiped his face and continued.

“And so there they were, out there in those dark woods, with the devil standing over them telling them to go ahead. He wanted them to be just as bad as ever they could be. That’s his job. It’s to make people want to be bad. So he stood right there over them urging them to be bad. And the pure young girl thought she didn’t have to listen to the Lord. She thought she could go ahead without Him. Oh, she was so pure! But she thought she could do as she pleased and not listen to God. So she let the man get down beside her. It was in the summertime, and it wasn’t cold a bit. Then the devil whispered something else in her ear. Yes, he did! He told her to keep right on where she was headed. So she did. She let the man spoil her right there in the woods. She tried to be spoiled. She had heard the devil, and he had told her to do that nasty thing. She thought she could be saved and not have to bother about keeping her pure young body pure. But she couldn’t. After she got up from there, with the mark of the man on her, she was damned. The devil had her. Yes, sir! The devil had her just where he wanted her. She was a little drunk off of that vile stuff, and she had the mark of the man on her. I wish you could have been there to see her walk out of those woods. She wasn’t—”

“Amen!”

“She wasn’t the same pure young girl who went in there. No, sir! She didn’t look the same. She was laughing. She was having a good time. She felt good. She had the mark of the man on her! She had her arms around the man’s waist, and she jumped up and down, she felt so good. She came skipping out of there and got back into the automobile, and the mark of the man was on her. The devil had got in his work for the night, all right, all right. Yes, sir! The mark of the man was on that young girl. He had her just where he—”

“Amen!” somebody shouted again.

Semon stopped and took off his coat. It was getting hot in the schoolhouse. The air was thick, and there was no motion in it. It hung in the room, pressing down on skulls and chests, and got hotter and hotter.

“Now, who’s going to be the first to come up here and give himself to the Lord?”

People in the room turned and craned their necks in all directions. Everyone looked to see who would be the first to go up and grasp Semon’s hand.

“I’m waiting to clasp the hand of those who want to be saved. That’s what I’m here for. I came here to save men and women. If you want to be saved, come up here and shake me by the hand. If you have got the devil in you, if he’s telling you to stay in your seat, if he’s whispering in your ear to tell you to keep on cheating people out of money—if he’s trying to do that, then get up and wrestle with him. Throw him down and kick the stuffing out of him. You men out there—you men who are slipping out every once in a while to visit a darky girl behind the barn—you men get together and fight the devil. And you women and girls—you women and girls who slip out to meet men at night—you fornicating women who have got the mark of the man on you—get together and scratch the eyes out of the devil. He’ll run! He always runs when you scrap him. He can’t stand up and fight back. He ain’t man enough. So go ahead and fight the devil, folks—all you sinning men and women. I don’t want to miss you folks in heaven when I get there. I’d hate to go there and not see all you people there, I’d hate that. Yes, sir! I’d sure enough hate that.”

No one moved. Semon waited a while, wiping his face.

“We’ll have a little singing while you’re coming up to the front,” he said. “Horey, you and Homer strike up a tune.”

As soon as the singing started, some of the men stood up and stretched their arms and backs. Soon everyone had joined in the hymn.

“Now, come on!” Semon shouted above the voices of the singers. “Don’t be scared. The Lord will help you. Come on up here and take your stand with me and God. Come on up here and put the devil to shame. You women and girls sitting out there with the mark of the man on you—you folks come on up here and be saved!”

Semon stepped down from the platform and walked to the nearest desk. He leaned over and whispered something in a woman’s ear. She looked embarrassed.

“Y
ES, YOU WANT
to be saved,” Semon told her aloud. “God wants you to be saved. He needs fine-looking women like you in heaven. Don’t sit there and help the devil out by going to hell when you die. Let’s help God line up the prettiest women in Georgia. Don’t let the devil have you down there in the other place.”

The woman hung back for a while, but when Semon took her arm and pulled her forward, she gladly allowed herself to be led to the bench in front of the platform.

Semon went next to a man.

“You aint going to let a woman put you to shame, are you, coz? A man ought to be braver than a woman. Now, come on up and cast yourself on the side of the Lord.”

“I can’t accommodate you, preacher,” the man said. “I just sure enough can’t.”

“You just think you can’t. But you can. And you want to. You don’t think it’s important, but just you wait till judgment day! And then it will be too late. When the devil comes to carry you off with him, you’ll yell and kick and wish you had listened to me.”

“I ain’t never done much meanness, preacher,” the man protested.

“Oh, yes, you have, coz! You’ve been as mean as an old snake! You forget it now, but you’ll be reminded of it on judgment day.”

“It won’t cost me nothing to go up there, will it?”

“Just a handshake,” Semon said, leading him to the bench and pushing him down close to the woman.

He went for another woman to place beside the man.

The hymn was being sung for the third time. Clay and Homer were playing with all their might.

Somebody screamed in the middle of the room. Semon stopped talking to the woman and ran to see about it. The revival was progressing faster than he had realized. He knew then that he would be able to dispense with the mourners’ bench and plunge headlong into exhortation of sinners.

It was Lucy Nixon who had screamed. She was the first to have the spirit move her.

“God be praised!” Semon said, rubbing his hands together.

Lucy continued to shake violently, her body quivering all over. Semon took her by the arm and led her down the aisle to the platform.

“She’s coming through!” he shouted to the people.

Lucy’s hair had fallen down, and her face was distorted. Each time she screamed, she jumped higher into the air.

“God be praised!” he shouted. “She’s coming through!”