<TITLE>19. Par 52-54</TITLE>L-52 Somebody said... My neighbor over there had a radio on. Every time he goes to mow the yard, he has to put a radio on with that old rock-and-roll, shimmy-dig, boogie-woogie, every kind of stuff they call it. And I said to him one day; I said, "Why, do you put that on?"
He said, "You know what, Billy?" He said, "I--I can't even mow, 'less I hear the radio."
I said, "It makes me sick at my stomach." And I...
He said, "Well, if you just put one on one time, and listen at it, what a help it is."
I said, "I always have one on."
He said, "You do?"
I said, "Oh, yes. Every time I start to mowing, my radio comes on."
Said, "I never hear it."
I said, "Oh, you just don't listen to it."
He said, "What is your radio?"
I said, "I get out here and get this old mower started, the mocking birds go to singing, the robins go to whistling. That's the best radio I ever heard in all my life." Right. God sings to me through His birds. O God... What love is. I wished I could somehow have words to tell you.

L-53 This old opossum come on in. I said, "Looky there, boys. That opossum's got rabies." I run out there real quick. I said, "I better stop her," coming right to me. And I grabbed this rake, and threw it over her. I noticed her--her leg on the left side here was just about, oh, about that big around, three or four times the size of a opossum's leg. The dogs had either got a hold of her and had chewed her, or either she'd been hit by a car. And there was maggots all over her, where she'd done rotten, gangrene all set in, flies, green flies all over her. And I said, "Oh, what... Here's what it is; it's hurt. She hasn't got rabies. I had it under the rake then, the big yard rake. When he done... And Mr. Wood come up across the field, just then, Mr. Gilmore, the milkman, come in the gate.
I said, "Now, boys (Gene and Leo here)," I said, "come here. I want to show you something. This opossum..." And I happened to look. And a opossum and a kangaroo is the only two animals that has the pockets that they carry their babies in. And so, she happened to let down, and when her nerves hit her, like that, when I put the rake over her, she let down, and on the--when she let--let her pocket loose, there was nine little naked opossums, about like that, little bitty fellows, that she had in this pocket. Well, as soon as she let down, them little fellows was trying to nurse, and her biting at that rake.

L-54 And I said, "Here's what it is. Looky here. She's a mother." And I said, "Now, come here, Leo and Gene." I said, "Come here, I want to show you something. What I was just talking to you," I said, "this opossum, this dumb brute here, is more of a mother than that colored girl is." I said, "She hasn't got thirty minutes to live; you can see she can't. She's dying now." So I said, "She'll spend that thirty minutes fighting for them little naked babies." I said, "That's mother love. That's the love that's in her heart for her babies." I said, "She'll die for them babies." And just then Mrs. Wood, she's a veterinary. So she come by, and Mr. Wood. And I showed it to them, Mr. Gilmore, five or six of us standing around looking. And so, I said...


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