Well, it was all dern foolishness, and it was hard to believe it could
all happen, and they ain't so many places in this here country it COULD
happen. But fur all of it being foolishness, when he come down the road
toward us so dignified and sollum and slow I ketched myself fur a minute
feeling like we really had been elected to something and was going to
take office soon. And Sam, as the bishop come closeter and closeter, got
to jerking and twitching with the excitement that he had been keeping
in--and yet all the time Sam knowed it was dope and works and not faith
that had made him spotted that-a-way.

He stops, the bishop does, about ten yards from us and looks us over.

"Ah yo' de gennleman known ter dis hyah sinful genehation by de style
an' de entitlemint o' Docto' Hahtley Kirby?" he asts the doctor very
ceremonious and grand.

The doctor give him a look that wasn't very encouraging, but he nodded
to him.

"Will yo' dismiss yo' sehvant in ordeh dat we kin hol' convehse an'
communion in de midst er privacy?"

The doctor, he nods to Sam, and Sam moseys along toward the church.

"Now, then," says the doctor, sudden and sharp, "take off your hat and
tell me what you want."

The bishop's hand goes up to his head with a jerk before he thought.
Then it stops there, while him and the doctor looks at each other. The
bishop's mouth opens like he was wondering, but he slowly pulls his
hat off and stands there bare-headed in the road. But he wasn't really
humble, that bishop.

"Now," says the doctor, "tell me in as straight talk as you've got what
all this damned foolishness among you niggers means."

A queer kind of look passed over the bishop's face. He hadn't expected
to be met jest that way, mebby. Whether he himself had really believed
in the coming of that there new Messiah he had been perdicting, I never
could settle in my mind. Mebby he had been getting ready to pass HIMSELF
off fur one before we come along and the niggers all got the fool idea
Doctor Kirby was it. Before the bishop spoke agin you could see his
craziness and his cunningness both working in his face. But when he did
speak he didn't quit being ceremonious nor dignified.

"De wohd has gone fo'th among de faiful an' de puah in heaht," he says,
"dat er man has come accredited wi' signs an' wi' mahvels an' de poweh
o' de sperrit fo' to lay his han' on de sons o' Ham an' ter make 'em des
de same in colluh as de yuther sons of ea'th."

"Then t