<TITLE>15. Par 52-54</TITLE>L-52 And we come to a little opening where there was a snow drift. The wind had blowed and the snow had drifted up, oh, three or four feet high. And Burt just kindy (as we'd call it) hunkered down. He reached back in his bosom here. It was about eleven o'clock. We always carried a thermos jug of hot chocolate, where if we got hurt, or got real cold, or--or something, we'd drink this hot chocolate. And kind of... The--the candy, the sweetness like in there would kind of warm you up. And maybe a sandwich...
Well, I thought Burt was getting hungry, so we'll just eat a sandwich here. And he just kind of hunkered down and went back in his bosom, but when he brought it out, it was that little whistle. And we were at a little clearing about three to four times the size of this--of this courtroom. And he looked up at me with that lizard-looking eyes of his. And he laughed to himself.
I said, "Burt, you wouldn't do that."
And he gave it a blow. And to my surprise, just across the place, a big mother doe stood up. Now, that's unusual. Oh, she was a pretty animal. Now, the doe is a mother. And she was standing there. I was so close to her, I--I could see her great, big, pretty ears sticking up.
And so he looked up to me again and them lizard eyes. And he blowed it again. Now, that's unusual that time a day for a deer to raise. But she heard the cry of a baby. And he blew it, and she walked right out into the open. Now, they never do that. They never do that, because if they're--if they'd even raise up, they'd stay under cover. But she walked right out into the open.

L-53 And he looked up at me and I thought, "Oh, Burt, you couldn't do that."
I heard him, the click of the bolt when that dirty, old stick throwed in a--a shell and locked it down. And he was a dead shot. And he leveled the rifle. I thought, "Oh, mercy..." She never walked. And she heard that click of the rifle.
And when she looked, them big ears stood up and those big, brown eyes. And she seen the hunter. Why, usually they'd be gone like a flash. But not her, she was a mother. A baby was in trouble. Though it meant death, her baby was in trouble. She couldn't help it. She wasn't putting something on. She didn't have a make-belief. There was something in her. She was borned a mother, and her baby was calling. Death or no death, she looked at the hunter. And I seen them steel arms lays down with that rifle.

L-54 I thought, "Oh, my, Burt, how can you do it? That loyal heart of a mother beating for her baby. And another minute when you squeeze that trigger when them cross hairs lay across her, you'll blow her raw heart plumb through her." That close, I was thirty yards from her. I thought, "There won't even be one piece of heart left in her, that heart that's beating so loyal as a mother. How can you do it, Burt?" I couldn't watch it. I turned my head. I said, "Heavenly Father..." in my (quietly)... "Don't let him do it. Don't... How can he do it when he sees that mother, something in her; she can't help it. She's a mother."
I kept listening and the gun never went off. I waited a few seconds and still the gun never went off. And I turned to look, and the gun barrel was going like this. He looked around to me and throwed the gun on the ground, grabbed me by the pant's leg. And he said, "Preacher, I've had enough of it. Lead me to that Jesus that you're talking about. I want to know Him."


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