Green Pastures Page #4

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It'll be ready in about five minutes.

I'll go call Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

They is our sons.

They lives right across the way.

But they always have

Sunday dinner with us.

- You mens make yourselves comfortable.

- Thank you. Thank you very kindly.

You got a fine wife, brother Noah.

- She's a pretty good woman.

- Yes, sir, and a mighty nice little home.

- Have a 10-cent cigar?

- Thank you.

Sit right down. Sit right down there.

Noah, just what seems to be

the main trouble with mankind?

Well, the main trouble

is the whole district is wide open.

That makes for loose living.

The menfolk

spend all their time fighting...

loafing, gambling, and making bad liquor.

- And what about the women?

- The women is worse than the men.

If they ain't making love powder,

they're out beg...

borrowing, stealing money

for the policy ticket.

Doggone. I come in to church

Sunday before last...

about a hour

before the meeting was to start...

and there was a lady

stealing the altar cloth.

She was gonna hock it.

They ain't got no moral sense.

Terrible!

Yes, sir, and this used to be a nice,

decent community...

but now it seems like

every time I preach the word...

the place goes a little more to the dogs.

The good Lawd only knows

what's gonna happen to them.

That is the truth.

- What's the matter?

- Got a little twitch.

My buck leg, I guess...

'cause every now and then

it gets a little twitch in the knee.

Might be a sign of rain.

That's just what it is.

Noah, what's the most rain

you've ever had around these parts?

Well, the water come down steady

for about six days last April.

The river got so swollen

it bust down the levee up above Freeport.

Raised Cain all the way down the delta.

What would you to say

was it to rain for 40 days and 40 nights?

I'd say that was a complete rain.

Noah, you don't know who I is, do you?

The face is easy,

but I don't recall the name.

I should have known you, Lawd.

I should have seen the glory.

That's all right, Noah.

You didn't know who I was.

I's just old preacher Noah, Lawd,

and I is your servant.

I ain't very much, but I is all I got.

Now you sit down, Noah...

and don't let me

hear you shaming yourself...

'cause you is a good man.

As far as I can see...

you and your family is the only

respectable people in the world.

They just all poor sinners, Lawd.

Yeah, I know,

and I'm a god of wrath and vengeance.

That's why I'm going to

destroy this world.

Anything you say, Lawd.

Noah, I want you to build me a boat...

and I want you to call it the Ark

and I want it to look like this.

I want you to take two

of every kind of animal...

and bird there is in the country.

I want you to take seeds and sprouts

and put them on that Ark...

'cause there is going to be all that rain.

There's going to be a deluge, Noah,

and there's gonna be a flood.

The levees is going to bust...

and everything that's fastened down

is going to come loose...

but they ain't going to float long,

'cause I'm going to make a storm...

that'll sink everything

from a hencoop to a barn.

There ain't a ship on the sea

that'll be able to fight that tempest.

They all got to go.

Everything! Everything in this

pretty world I've made...

except one thing, Noah.

You and your family, and the things I said

is going to ride that storm in the Ark.

And here's the way it's to be.

Yes, sir. This seems to be complete.

Now, about the animals,

you say you want everything?

Two of everything.

That would include giraffes

and hippopotamuses?

- Two of everything there is.

- There was a circus in town.

I guess, I can find them.

Course I can get all the rabbits

and possums and wild turkeys easier.

Just send the boys out,

but I was just wondering.

- About what?

- About snakes.

You think you might like snakes, too?

- Of course I want snakes.

- I can get snakes, lots of them.

Course, some of them

is a little dangerous.

- Maybe I better take a keg of liquor, too.

- You can have a keg of liquor.

Yes, sir, there sure is lots of different

kind of snakes, come to think of it.

There's "cottonmouths"

water moccasins, rattlers.

Why there must be 100 different kind

of snakes down in the swamps.

Maybe I better take two kegs of liquor.

- I think the one keg is enough.

- No, I better take two kegs.

Besides, I can put

one on each side of the boat...

and balance the ship with them,

as well as having them for medicinal uses.

You can put one keg

in the middle of the ship.

- It's just as easy to take two kegs, Lawd.

- I think the one keg is enough.

Yes, I know, Lawd,

but you see 40 days and 40 nights...

One keg, Noah.

Yes, Lawd, one keg.

- Shem!

- Yes, sir, Daddy.

- Ham!

- Yes, sir, Daddy.

- Japheth!

- Yes, sir, Daddy.

I been checking the livestock again.

There's just one thing missing in the "A's."

What'd you find out about these here?

The circus people said

they didn't have any.

Guess we'll have to order them

from De Lawd, too.

"Buffalos, bedbugs, butterflies."

Guess that winds up the "B's."

- The bees!

- That's right, two bees.

- Pretty near suppertime, Daddy.

- Yeah, but we got to keep going.

You got to keep it

working all night, Noah, maybe, huh?

If the spirit moves me.

Don't you know

the people are saying you're crazy?

What do you think you're doing, anyway?

I's building a ark.

"Foxes, fireflies, fleas."

There's Mrs. Noah

and her daughter-in-laws.

You know the whole family's crazy.

Noah, do you know

your old lady's telling everybody...

it's going to rain 40 days and 40 nights?

A lot I care what you think.

There it is, baby. Was I lying?

- Well, I'll be split in two.

- What do you think of it, Flatfoot?

I must say, it looks like a house

with a whooping cellar.

This here vessel's a boat.

When I was a little boy, they used to

build the boats down near the river...

where the water was.

This time it's been arranged

to have the water come up to the boat.

There's the old fool and his monument,

just like I said.

Now it's going to start.

Watch this.

- Hello, honey.

- Hello, sugar.

Is that my old friend Flatfoot with you?

- Why, so it is. He's got a gun!

- No, I ain't.

I guess he ain't.

No, I ain't got no gun

for my old friend Flatfoot.

- Hi, Cain, how the boy?

- But I got a little knife for him!

I knew that was coming.

You sure take care of me, honey.

That's 'cause I think you is worth it.

That's all right, folks.

I just had to do a little cleaning up.

Be quiet!

You better pray, you poor children.

You mean, you better pray.

You better pray for rain.

That's just what I ain't doing, sinners.

Listen!

Shem! Japheth!

Doggone, I believe

it is going to rain a little.

- Just a little shower.

- I guess I'll go home. I got a new hat on.

Me, too. I want to keep looking nice

for my sweet papa.

Ham! Is you ready with them animals?

Yes, sir, Pappy. They all here.

Tell them to line up! God's given his sign!

All right, Pappy.

Everybody, stay in line there!

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