“I came down here, sorry with myse’f, and you make 216 me glad, not asking if I’d done meanness or if I’d betrayed my friends. You ’lowed I was jes’ a man, same’s you. I couldn’t tell you how to be good, because I wasn’t no great shakes myse’f, and the worse I was the better you got. Buck an’ Jock gives me this boat for a mission boat; I’m ignorant, an’ a woman gives me––”
He choked up. What the woman had given him was too immeasurable and too wonderful for mere words to express his gratitude.
“I’m just one of those shoutin’, ignorant mountain parsons. I could out-whoop most of them up yonder. But down yeah, Old Mississip’ don’t let a man shout out. When yo’ play dance music, hit’s softer and sweeter than some of those awful mountain hymns in which we condemn lost souls to the fire. Course, the wicked goes to hell, but somehow I cayn’t git up much enthusiasm about that down yeah. What makes my heart rejoice is that there’s so much goodness around that I bet ’most anybody’s got a right smart chanct to get shut of slippin’ down the claybanks into hell.”
“Jest Prebol?” someone asked, seeing Prebol’s face in the window of the little red shanty-boat moored close by, where he, too, could listen.
“Jest Prebol’s been my guide down the riveh,” the Prophet retorted. “I can say that I only wish I could be as good a pilot for poor souls and sinners toward heaven as Jest is a river pilot for a wandering old mountain parson on the Mississippi––”
“Hi-i-i!” a score of voices laughed, and someone shouted, “So row me down the Jordan!”
They all knew the old religious song which fitted so nicely into the conditions on the Mississippi. Somebody called to someone else, and the musicians in the congregation slipped away to return with their violins, 217 banjos, accordions, guitars, and other familiar instruments. Before the preacher knew it, he had more music in the church than he had ever heard in a church before—and they knew what to play and what to sing.
The sermon became a jubilee, and he would talk along awhile till something he said struck a tuneful suggestion, and the singing would begin again; and when at last he brought the service to an end, he was astonished to find that he had preached and they had sung for more than two hours.
Then there was scurrying about, and from all sides the calm airs of the sunny Sabbath were permeated with the odours of roasts and fried things, coffee and sauces. A score wanted Rasba to dine out, but Mrs. Caope claimed first and personal acquaintance, and her claim was acknowledged. The people from far boats and tents returned to their own homes. Two or three boats of the fleet, in a hurry to make some place down stream, dropped out in mid-afternoon, and the little shanty-boat town was already breaking up, having lasted but a day, but one which would long be remembered and talked about. It was more interesting than murder, for murders were common, and the circumstances and place were so remarkable that even a burning steamboat would have had less attention and discussion.
The following morning Mrs. Caope offered Rasba $55 for his old poplar boat, and he accepted it gladly. She said she had a speculation in mind, and before nightfall she had sold it for $75 to two men who were going pearling up the St. Francis, and who thought that a boat a parson had tripped down in would bring them good luck.