[Socratis]

the reverend had stopped his sermon altogether. there was no sound in the tent. all watched the man. he adjusted the hat and then pushed his way forward as far as the crateboard pulpit where the reverend stood and there he turned to address the reverend's congregation. his face was serene and strangely childlike. his hands were small. he held htem out.

ladies and gentlemen i feel it my duty to inform you that the man holding this revival is an imposter. he holds no papers of divinity from any institution recognized or improvised. he is altogether devoid of the least qualification to the office he has usurped and has only committed to memory a few passages from the good book for the purpose of lending to his fraudulent sermons some faint flavor of the piety he despises. in truth, the gentleman standing here before you posing as a minister of the lord is not only totally illiterate but is also wanted by the law in the states of tennessee, kentucky, mississippi, and arkansas.

oh god, cried the reverend. lies, lies! he began reading feverishly from his opened bible.

on a variety of charges the most recent of which involved a girl of eleven--i said eleven--who had come to him in trust and whom he had surprised in the act of violating while actually clothed in the livery of his god.

a moan swept through the crowd. a lady sank to her knees.

this is him, cried the reverend, sobbing. this is him. the devil. here he stands.

let's hang the turd, called an ugly thug from the gallery to the rear.

not three weeks before this he was run out of fort smith arkansas for having congress with a goat. yes lady, that is what i said. goat.

---

judge, how did you come to have the goods on that no-account?

goods? said the judge.

when was you in fort smith?

fort smith?

where did you know him to know all that stuff on him?

you mean the reverend green?

yessir. i reckon you was in fort smith fore ye come out here.

i was never in fort smith in my life. doubt he was.

they looked from one to the other.

well where was it you run up on him?

i never laid eyes on the man before today. never even heard of him.

he raised his glass and drank.

there was a strange silence in the room. the men looked like mud effigies. finally someone began to laugh. then another. soon they were all laughing together. someone bought the judge a drink.