<TITLE>09. Par 65-72</TITLE>L-65   And I was crying, and all at once I heard something making a noise like a whirlwind, something like this (now, I hope it isn't too loud), going "Whoooossssh, whoooossssh," just a noise like that. Well, it was awful quiet, and I looked around. And you know what, a little whirlwind, I believe you call them a little cyclones? In the fall of the year they pick up through the corn field, you know, the leaves and so forth, in the autumn there, the leaves had just begin turning. And I was under a great white poplar tree, stood about halfway between the barn and the--the house. And I heard that noise. And I looked around, it was just as quiet as it is in this room. Not a leaf blowing nowhere, or nothing. And I thought, "Where's that noise coming from?" Well, I thought, "Must be away from here." Just a lad. And it got louder and louder.

L-66   I picked up my little buckets and squalled a couple more times and started up the lane, I was resting. And I got just few feet from that, out from under the branches of this big tree, and, oh, my, it made a whirl sounding. And I turned to look, and about halfway up that tree was another whirlwind, caught in that tree just going around and around, moving those leaves. Well, I thought nothing strange about that because it just in that time of year, and the autumn, why, those whirlwinds come. Little... We call them "whirlwinds." And they--and they pick up dust. You've seen them on the desert like that. Same thing. So I watched, but it didn't leave off. Usually it's just a puff for a moment, then it goes, but it had already been in there two minutes or more.

L-67   Well, I started up the lane again. And I turned to look at this again. And when It did, a human Voice just as audible as mine is, said, "Don't you never drink, smoke, or defile your body in any way. There'll be a work for you to do when you get older." Why, it liked to scared me to death! You could imagine how a little fellow felt. I dropped those buckets, and home I went just as hard as I could go, screaming the top of my voice.

L-68   And there was copperheads in that country, snakes, and they're very poison. Mother thought, coming alongside of the garden I had perhaps got my foot on a copperhead and she ran to meet me. And I jumped up in her arms, screaming, hugging her and kissing her. And she said, "What's the matter, did you get snakebit?" Looked me all over.
I said, "No, Mama! There's a man in that tree down there."

L-69 And she said, "Oh, Billy, Billy! Come on?" And she said, "Did you stop and go to sleep?"

L-70 I said, "No, ma'am! There's a man in that tree, and He told me not to drink and not to smoke."

L-71   Drink whiskies and--and things." And I was packing water to a moonshine still, right then. And He said, "Don't you never drink or defile your body in any way." That's immoral, you know, and my child... young manhood with women. And to my best, I have never one time been guilty of such. The Lord helped me of those things, and as I go along you'll find out. So then, "Don't drink or don't smoke, or do not defile your body, for there will be a work for you to do when you get older."

L-72 Well, I told that to Mama, and--and she just laughed at me. And I was just hysterically. She called the doctor, and the doctor said, "Well, he's just nervous, that's all." So she put me to bed. And I never, from that day to this, ever passed by that tree again. I was scared. I'd go down the other side of the garden, because I thought there was a man up in that tree and He was talking to me, great deep Voice that spoke.


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