HILLBILLY FUNERAL

A young novice minister was asked to deliver a grave-side service for a poor old hillbilly who had died in his mountain shack alone and penniless. The funeral was to be held in the far back country, in a brand new cemetery in which the old hillbilly was to be the first burial. When the appointed day came, the young reverend set out in his car, driving through the backwoods in search of the cemetery. After awhile he realized he was lost, but kept driving up one road and down another until he finally spied a field with a back-hoe and a crowd of men sitting around an open grave. Apparently the hearse had already gone.
Climbing out of his car with his Bible in hand, he apologized to the crowd for
being late, and stepped to the head of the open grave to begin the service. He motioned the onlookers to approach, and the men all gathered around as he began to preach.
The young minister was soon caught up in the zeal of oratory, speaking of the
glories of Heaven and the rewards of righteousness. The spirit of his sermon was not lost upon the surrounding crowd, and the men soon began to shout “Halleluia!” and “God be praised!” Bolstered by their enthusiasm, the minister preached as he had never preached before, all the way from Genesis to Revelations. He finished with a lengthy prayer, and after a final rousing “Amen!”, he began to head back to his car, his brow soaked with sweat.
As he opened the car door and began to take off his coat, he heard one of the men
say to the others “I ain’t never seen nothin’ like that before, and I been puttin’ in septic tanks for twenty years!”