<TITLE>12. Par 38-41</TITLE>L-38 Mr. Wood here, the book salesmen, he had been out in the yard raking there, so he--there was a yard rake laying there, and I took the yard rake and went out and throwed it over the old opossum. And I said, "Well, I suppose..." I said, "Oh, look, her left shoulder was all broke, mashed up; been chewed by the dogs or by a car." And I hope this doesn't make you sick, but maggots was all over it, and green blow flies. I said, "Poor old thing's a dying."
And I happened to notice when I started to raise that up and she was... Usually they play opossum. But when I raised it up, she took out for the house. I threw the rake over her again: the yard rake. And I found out that she... There's only two animals in the world that has pockets: that's kangaroo and opossum. They pack their little ones in it. So when her pocket let down, she had nine little naked baby opossums about that long.

L-39 Well, the day before that, Leo and Gene and I were talking. A piece in the paper where a young, lovely looking colored girl had give birth to a baby, a illegitimate child. She wrapped it in a blanket and put wire around it, and smothered the child to death, took it out on the bridge in a taxi cab, and dropped it off in the river. And the authorities had caught it. We were talking about how cruel that was. And I said, "This mother opossum, is a better mother, being a dumb brute than that woman was." That's right. Got better morals than that woman.
And so we were talking, and Mr. Wood come up and Mrs. Wood, and Mr. Gilmore he come in. We was talking about it. Soon as I let that opossum up, she took off towards the house as hard as she could go. And I said, "Look, she's only got about maybe thirty minutes more to live, but she'll spend that thirty minutes fighting for those little babies to live, and that woman wanted to drown hers." I said, "That's real motherly love."

L-40 So the poor old thing got right up to my step and toppled over, exhausted. So I went there and I punched her. I said, "She's dead." And I seen her, after I punched a little. I said, "No, she's got life in her."
Well, Mrs. Wood... Mr. Wood's wife's sort of a veterinary. She was standing there. She said, "Well, Brother Branham, the only thing to do with her now is--is go kill her and kill them little opossums." Said, "They're too little; and they're round mouthed anyhow, you couldn't put them on a bottle." Said, "You just... Don't let them suffer." And those little opossums was trying to nurse that dead mother.
And I said, "Oh, my, that's too bad." I said, "Kill her?"
Said, "Yes."
"Oh," I said, "I can't kill her." And he said... I said...
"Well, why?"
And I said, "I don't know."
She said, "Well, you're a hunter."
I said, "Yes, but I'm not a killer." I said, "I--I--I can't kill her somehow."
She said, "Well, let my husband Banks go kill her." Said, "Go get one of your guns and kill her."
And I said, "I just can't do it. I don't know why."
Said, "You going to let that poor thing lay there in that hot sun all day long like that and them poor little babies nursing that old milk from her like that and die a death like that?"
I said, "Sister Wood, I--I know you're right, but I--I just can't do it."

L-41 So all day it was pretty heavy and, around the house, the people coming. And that night Mr. Wood come up and said, "Now look, Billy, you got to go out and take a little rest. So he and his wife, me and my wife, we took a little ride. And I... We come pretty near running over a little old dog. And I had him to stop, and I went back, picked it up: mangy, and fleas and lice all over him.
And my wife said, "I guess you're going to keep it."
I said, "Yes, ma'am."
"Oh," she said, "kill that dog, honey." Said, "The thing will... It's dying anyhow."
I said, "I'm going to pray for him."
I said, "He's little; he ought to live. There ain't nothing wrong with him." So he's a great big fine collie now. So, you know, God does that, sure does.


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