<TITLE>18. Par 184-193</TITLE>L-184   I've told this little thing before, but I believe it bears telling right now before I call the prayer line. I like to hunt. I--I... It's just a second nature to me. I--l love it. My conversion never took that from me, because I like to get into the wilderness. I used to hunt up North here, and used to hunt here in the Adirondack, years ago. And I'd get out there and get on top the mountains, watching the sun rise and set, and cry, and stay out there for weeks, and hear God speaking through nature. That's where He...

L-185 My first Bible was nature. To see how a little seed could fall in the ground, and freeze that deep, and the seed burst open, the pulp run out, and every sign is gone that you can see, but next spring it lives again. See? God made a way for it. "He made a way for the seed to live again," I said, "there is some way for me to live again." That's right. So that was my first Bible.

L-186   I used to hunt with a little Yankee up here, that was a fine hunter, but he was very cruel in heart. And he was a--he was a good man, I guess. He, a nice fellow to hunt with and you never had to bother about hunting him up, he knowed where he was at. And we hunted, but he was so really cruel in his heart. And I said to him, many times, I said, "Why you so cruel?"

L-187 And the--the fellow, not making fun of him, or anything, but he had kind of an eyes looked like a lizard. And he--and he would look at me, say, "Oh, go on, preacher! Get next to yourself, Billy! You'll never make a hunter and preacher, too." He said, "You know, you're too chicken-hearted." And he used to kill fawns just to make me feel bad.

L-188   The little fellows, I hate to kill them. So he said... It's alright if the law says kill a fawn, that's all right, but just not kill them for fun. Abraham killed a calf, and God eat it. And that's right, see, so it isn't the size of the animal. But nothing but just to kill it, to be mean, that's murder, to me. I think that little fellow should live. If you have need of it, well, if the law says you can take it, well, all right. You know, I was seven years a conservation officer, so then there was a... That's while I served the Baptist church.

L-189 So then when this fellow, he was so cruel about it, one year I went up there, and he had made him a--a little whistle.

L-190   Now I'm not throwing that to the Baptist people, see. No, see, I didn't mean that that way. I was... I wasn't out on the field. Now, I wanted to work. I've always worked till just when I had to go on this evangelistic work, and yet I've never took an offering in my life, see. That's right. See? But I--I've never asked a person for a penny. I--I want my life to come down to a time where I have to say something pretty soon, like Samuel stood, he said, "Have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass? Have I ever took money from you, your living?" See, that's right. They said, "No, you haven't." But they wanted their king anyhow, so--so that's probably the way it'll turn out, so it usually does.

L-191   But this fellow, I liked him, and one fall I went up there. And he had invented a little whistle that he could blow, just like the little fawn, that's the little baby deer crying for its mama. So now he said, "Hey, I want to show you something, Billy." And he had this little whistle that he would blow.
I said, "You, you wouldn't do that."

L-192 And he said, "Oh, there you are. You'll never get over it, will you?"
And I said, "No, sir. Not to be like that."

L-193 So we--we went hunting, and it was late in the season. I had to come up... And you all, hunters in here, know them little white-tail deer there. Houdini is no escape artist at all, to them, so when they get scared. And so they had been shot at. And there was little drifts of snow was on the ground, little... what we call little skifs, down in the South, about four or five inches, good enough to track. And we went about a half a day, and I thought that...


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