Cold Sassy Tree

by Olive Ann Burns

But thet don’t matter now, and I’m tired a-preachers. They talk tithin’ all the time’”—sharp, stingy single notes—“‘and say thangs like if a man sins, God’s go’n punish him by takin’ his wife or his son or his bizness.’” Discords in the bass, and fire in Miss Love’s eyes, just like Grandpa’s. “‘I’m tired of’m tryin’ to scare folks to Heaven with all thet hellfire and damnation. I want to hear bout the lovin’, forgivin’ God thet Jesus preached. But all you git at Christian churches is Old Testa-ment vengeance: watch out and be good or the Lord will smite you down.’”