Daily Story
Mud and Ministers
Once, in Springfield, I was going off on a short journey, and reached the depot a little ahead of time. Leaning against the fence just outside the depot was a little darkey boy, whom I knew, named, Dick, busily digging with his toe in a mud-puddle. As I came up, I said, “Dick, what are you about?”
‘Making a church.’ Said he.
“A church?” said I, “what do you mean?”
‘Why, yes,’ said Dick, pointing with his toe, ‘don’t you see? There is the shape of it; there’s the steps and front-door — here the pews, where the folks set — and there’s the pulpit.’
“Yes, I see,” said I, “but why don’t you make a minister?”
‘Laws’, answered Dick, with a grin, ‘I hain’t got mud enough!’
Francis Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, p. 277.