<TITLE>16. Par 133-145</TITLE>L-133 He said, "Sure." He turned around from his desk. Mrs. Brumbach looked at him, looked over at Hope, and looked at me.
And I said, "Would you come out on the porch?"
And he said, "Yes, I'll come out." So he walked out on the porch.
I said, "Sure is a pretty night, isn't it?"
And he said, "Yes, it is."
I said, "Sure been warm."
"Certainly has," he looked at me.

L-134 I said, "I've been working so hard," I said, "you know, even my hands is getting callouses."
He said, "You can have her, Bill." Oh, my! "You can have her."

L-135   I thought, "Oh, that's better." I said, "You really mean it, Charlie?" He said... I said, "Charlie, look, I know that she's your daughter, and you got money."

L-136 And he reached over and got me by the hand. He said, "Bill, listen, money ain't all things that's in human life." He said...

L-137 I said, "Charlie, I--I only make twenty cents an hour, but I love her and she loves me. And I promise you, Charlie, that I'll work till these... the callouses wear off of my hands, to make her a living. I'll be just as true to her as I could be."

L-138 He said, "I believe that, Bill." He said, "Listen, Bill, I want to tell you." Said, "You know, happiness, don't altogether take money to be happy." Said, "Just be good to her. And I know you will."
I said, "Thank you, Charlie. I sure will do that."

L-139 Then it was her time to tell Mama. Don't know how she got by, but we got married.

L-140   So, when we got married, we didn't have nothing, nothing go housekeeping. I think we had two or three dollars. So we rented a house, it cost us four dollars a month. It was a little, old two-room place. And someone give us an old folding bed. I wonder if anybody ever seen an old folding bed? And they gave us that. And I went down to Sears and Roebucks and got a little table with four chairs, and it--it wasn't painted, you know, and we got that on time. And so then I went over to Mr. Weber, a junk dealer, and bought a cooking stove. I paid seventy-five cents for it, and a dollar and something for grates to go in it. We set up housekeeping. I remember taking and painting a shamrock on the chairs, when I painted them. And, oh, we were happy, though. We had one another, so that was all necessary. And God, by His mercy and His goodness, we was the happiest little couple could be on the earth.

L-141 I found this, that happiness does not consist of how much of the world's goods you own, but how contented you are with the portion that's alloted to you.

L-142   And, after a while, God came down and blessed our little home, we had a little boy. His name was Billy Paul, is in the service right now here. And a little later from then, about eleven months, He blessed us again with a little girl called Sharon Rose, taken from the word of "The Rose of Sharon."

L-143 And I remember one day I had saved up my money and I was going to take a little vacation, going up to a place, the Paw Paw Lake, to fish. And on my road back...

L-144   And during this time... I'm leaving out my conversion. I was converted. And was ordained by Doctor Roy Davis, in the Missionary Baptist church, and had become a minister and have the tabernacle that I now preach in in Jeffersonville. And I was pastoring the little church. And I...

L-145 No money, I pastored the church seventeen years and never got one penny. I didn't believe in tak-... There wasn't even an offering plate in it. And what tithings I had from work, and so forth, had a little box on the back of the building, said, little sign on it, "Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these My little ones, you have did it unto Me." And then that's how the church was paid for. We had ten-years loan to pay it, and was paid off less than two years. And I never took an offering of no kind.


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