He found the white man busy writing.
"What you-all doin'?" he asked.
"I'm preparing notes for my sermon for next Sunday."
The colored gentleman shook his head.
"I certainly would nebber do dat, sir," he said. "De debbil am a-lookin' right over your shoulder and knows everything you gwine to say and he am prepared for you. Now, I don't make no notes and when I gets up to talk, neder me nor de debbil hisself don't know what I'm goin' to say."
Bishop Partridge is a collector of anecdotes about ministers, and in an anecdotal mood he said the other day:
"I once asked a minister how he had got through a certain service. He answered grimly:
"'Well, bishop, the service was soothing, moving and satisfactory.'
"'Yes,' I said a little puzzled.