The tent grew even hotter as the Reverend warmed to his denunciation of the demon drink.  I stole a look at Paw, and wondered how he’d cope if the Lord Jesus came into his heart and showed him exactly how evil his nightly jug was.

Two hours later, I was now wondering how the Reverend was able to keep up his unceasing tirade.  He repeated himself a lot, but he had managed to warn us all of the evils of not going to church on Sunday mornings, and of not saying our prayers every night before we went to bed, and earnestly beseeched us to avoid loose women.  I asked Paw what a loose woman was, and he said it was anybody who worked in the cat house out on the old river road.

“But I thought the animal welfare place was mainly for dogs.  And the boys who work there.  Are they loose too?”

Paw stifled a laugh and told me he’d explain later, that it was probably a mortal sin to talk about it here.

Maw heard our whispered conversation, and she dug Paw in his ribs across me, and told him he’d do no such thing.  I was too young, and had plenty of time to learn about the sordid side of life.  Her prohibition didn’t worry me, as I knew Paw would tell me later anyway.  He wasn’t one for shielding us against life’s ills, believing that the sooner we grew up the better.

Right then, there came a scream from behind us, and I jerked around in my wooden seat just in time to see Miss Ellie Sue from the Post Office rise to her feet and scream out “Halleluiah.  The Saviour’s done come into my heart.  I’m saved.  I’m saved.  Halleluiah!  Glory to God!”

I leaned across Maw and announced to Jeb, “There, that’s what happens when the spirit hits you.  You don’t die, see?”  From then on, Jeb took more interest in the proceedings, and Maw thawed enough to pat my arm and tell me I was a good boy.

Eventually the heat and the late hour got to Mindy Lou and Jeb.  She started her well rehearsed screaming while he fell asleep with his head on Maw’s lap.  Paw said it was time for us to go, and getting us all to our feet, he picked up Mindy Lou’s bag.  He began to usher us between the rows of seats towards the exit, when we came face to face with Deputy Don Deakin, who’d come along to help keep the crowds under control, and to watch out for pickpockets in the crush..

“Howdy Don,” Paw greeted him.  Deputy Deakin didn’t return his greeting, and didn’t raise his hat to Maw.  His eyes were glued to the pulpit with a glazed look in them, and I had the feeling he was about to yell out a few Halleluiahs.

“Sir?” I asked.  “Have you seen Jesus?”  I tugged at his jacket and he looked down at me.  He had a faraway look on his face, and I thought maybe he’d been into somebody’s moonshine.

“Oh, hi Jake.  No, kid.  I’m not here to find Jesus.  I’m doing my job, and watching out for the townsfolk.”

His eyes returned to the Reverend Coglan, and suddenly it was like we weren’t there any more.

“Come on,” growled Paw.  “We won’t get no sense out if him tonight.  Let’s get home.”

When we reached the wagon and hitched old Sam to it, Paw put Jeb and I in the back to watch over Mindy Lou, and we headed out onto the main road for home, leaving the fever pitch excitement behind us.

“Gee, that was fun, wasn’t it?” I said to Jeb, only to find him curled up on the wagon bed, already fast asleep.  The baby seemed happier now she was out of the hot, noisy tent and she was lulled by the movement of the wagon, and it wasn’t long before she too was asleep.

I kept quiet and listened to the soft voices of Maw and Paw as we drove through the warm darkness. 

“Maybe we could come back tomorrow,” said Maw.

“I ain’t.  You can, but you go alone.”

“Rudy Barton!  You’re nothing but an old sinner,” she teased.

“No I ain’t.  Parson Shawcross is good enough for me.  Them holy rollers gets a bit wearing after a while.”

“Parson Shawcross is a good preacher, but sometimes you need somebody to come along and stir up your blood a little.”

“Well, I’ve had all the stirring I can take for a while.  I’m ready for bed.   How’s about we put the boys in the barn for the night, and let’s make some use of our stirred blood?” said Paw.

I think they said more, but I must have dozed off, as the next thing I recall is being hit on the ass, and Paw’s voice booming, “Wake up lazybones, time for bed.”  I guess Maw’s blood hadn’t been stirred as much as Paw’s, ‘cos we ended up in our bedroom instead of the barn.

We managed a couple more visits to the tents that week, and discovered that the other preachers were carbon copies of Reverend Coglan.  They preached hell and damnation just as loud and fervently, with few breaks for rest.  The whole school was abuzz with talk of who’d seen Jesus and been saved, and who hadn’t.  The star of the week was Jenny Mae’s cousin from Muddy Hollow, who had got up, right in front of everybody and started speaking in tongues.

“That’s when they speaks gobbledygook, and pretends it’s Hebrew or Latin or something,” I informed Jeb.

“Mr Bodean says they talk like that because they are filled with the spirit of the Lord, and he gives them the power to talk his real language, which is Aramaic,” Jeb declared.

“Aw, that’s silly.  If God spoke Aramaic, then how’s he understand our prayers.  Unless of course, they get gobbledygooked on their way up to Heaven.”

Jeb just ignored me, and for the first time I came to the realisation that Jeb was growing up, and no longer reliant on me for his education in the things in life that they don’t teach properly at school.

Saturday afternoon came around, and with it, a visit from the Deputy.  Paw was in his usual spot on the porch and had been taking pot-shots at blue jays when the Deputy drove up.  Hastily, he dropped the gun out of sight beside his chair, as he’d been forbidden to use it after an accident that almost took a visiting city kid’s head off.  Deputy Deakin sat down on the porch with Paw and refused a swig from Paw’s jug.  My jaw dropped, as this was a first.  He looked serious, and told Paw he hadn’t come for a social visit, but needed to speak to him on a matter of some importance. 

Grabbing Jeb, I ran him around the side of the house and we dived under the house into our usual spot for eavesdropping.  This could be interesting.

“….saw the light and came to Jesus.  Right there that first night.”

Jeb and I looked at each other.  Who saw the light?  Not the Deputy?

“Yes sirree bob, Reverend Coglan washed away all my sins and showed me the error of my ways.  I came to let you know, because we’ve been friends for a good many years, and we’re kin, so to speak.”

“I guess it ain’t none of my business if you’ve been saved or not,” said Paw, puzzled.

“Well, it is.  I can’t hold with moonshine drinking any longer,  I know now that it’s evil, and that I’ve been lacking the moral fibre to clamp down on it.  Why, I’ve even taken a swaller right out of that there jug.  But now I’ve seen the light, and realise it’s time I did my job right.

“As a special favour, I’m letting you know first, but from now on, I aim to stamp out the evil moonshine and to seek out and destroy the stills that produce it.  I won’t go after your still, Rudy, not until you’ve had a chance to destroy it, but from now on, Pollen Bend is going to be clean, decent and completely liquor free.  Teetotal.  No more blind eye, no more releasing stills from the impound barn right after the revenuers have packed up and gone, and no sitting around on porches drinking people’s moonshine.  I’m a changed man.”

“You’ll be a dead man once this darned foolishness gets around,” snarled Paw.  “You’ll be dead or out of a job.  Folks around here won’t stand for it.”

“Well, what can I say?  That’s how things is going to be from now on.  Folks has just got to learn to be law abiding and to obey God’s word.  And God’s word is temperance.  This here town’s now a Temperance town.  Rudy, put that gun down.  Take that gun barrel out of my nose.  Rudy!”