"You're taking a ornery, low-down advantage
o' me, you are. Let me out'n this here cistern and
I'll show you who'll stick it out longest on dry
land, dern your religious hides!"

Some of the folks there hadn't had no suppers,
so after all the other sinners but Hank had either
got converted or else sneaked away, some of the
women says why not make a kind of love feast out
of it, and bring some vittles, like they does to
church sociables. Because it seems likely Satan
is going to wrastle all night long, like he done with
the angel Jacob, and they ought to be prepared.
So they done it. They went and they come back
with vittles and they made up hot coffee and they
feasted that preacher and theirselves and Elmira
and me, all right in Hank's hearing.

And Hank was getting hungry himself. And he
was cold in that water. And the fish was nibbling
at him. And he was getting cussed out and weak
and soaked full of despair. And they wasn't no
way fur him to set down and rest. And he was
scared of getting a cramp in his legs, and sinking
down with his head under water and being drownded.
He said afterward he'd of done the last with pleasure
if they was any way of suing that crowd fur murder.
So along about ten o'clock he sings out: