<TITLE>17. Par 57-60</TITLE>L-57 And you know, Mama, my old southern Mama, always give me good advice, and she give me an expression one time. She said, "Give a cow enough rope, and she'll hang herself." You see? So I thought that was a good one for him: just let him go ahead and bark awhile, and we'll see what tree he's up. You see? So then, I let him go ahead and talk, and found something. And something come to my mind.
And there was an apple tree there they was setting under. And along fall of the year the apples, (it was about the la--about the last week in August), the--the apples was dropping off, and the yellow jackets was eating them. You know what yellow jackets is? All right. Well, what part of Kentucky you from? See? And so then I said to him, I said, "Do you mind if I have one of them apples?"
He said, "Help yourself. The yellow jackets are eating them."

L-58 I reached over and got it, and rubbed it on these old bloody pants, you know, and bit off; I said, "My, it's a good apple."
Said, "Yeah, it's a dandy."
I said, "Looks like she bears pretty heavy. "Yes, sir." Said, "I get so many bushels every year."
Said, "How old is the tree?" changing the subject on him, you know.
And he said, "Oh," he said, "You see where that old chimney stands up yonder?" Said, "I was born up there." Said, "Mammy and pappy lived there," and said, "and fire burned it down. We built this new home down here." And said, "Then I was raised up here." And said, "When pappy and mammy died, I--I just stayed with the home." And said, "And when we moved down here, I put that tree in there forty, fifty years ago, or something." And said, "It's been there ever since."
I said, "That's good." I said, "My, that's wonderful."
He said, "Yes, sir."

L-59 He said, "Back to being a preacher." Said, "I want to ask you something."
I said, "Yes, sir. What is it?"
He said, "You guys, if you could produce anything, why, it would be different." He said, "Now, I heard a preacher one time, or heard of him."
Said, "Old Sister (somebody) up here on the hill," said, "she was dying with cancer." And said, "There was a preacher come over here to Acton, Kentucky (right, it was about thirty miles from there. And Woods looked over at me, and I shook my head.)," he said, "over at the Methodist campground." He said, "This preacher was from out in Indiana." And he said, "And he come over there, and said they said there was about twenty-five hundred people gathered out there that night." And that's away back in the hills, you know. They come on horseback and everything to get there.

L-60 And said, "He was there for three nights." And said, "On the second night," said, "this old lady's sister lives up at a place called Campbellsville. And while this preacher was preaching, he looked back in the audience, way back where this woman was and called her name, and said, 'Tonight, before you left home, you looked into a dresser drawer on the left hand side. You picked up a little handkerchief with a blue figure in the corner of it. You've got it in your pocketbook, and you've got a sister by the name of So-and-so, that's dying with cancer of the stomach. Go take that handkerchief, and lay it on the woman, and she'll be made well.'
"Well," said, "about midnight that night we thought they had the Salvation Army up there on top of the hill." He said, "I never heard such a roar in my life, and they were screaming," And if any of you know, that was Brother Ben, and them, up there putting that handkerchief on the woman. And said, "We thought maybe the old lady died. And the next morning," said, "we went up there to see when they make arrangements for the funeral," and said, "She was sitting there at the table, her and her husband, eating fried apple pies and drinking coffee."


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