A coloured man from one of the southern states desired to enter the ministry. He went to a minister to be examined and the following conversation took place:

“Can you read, Sam?”

“Nossah, ah can’t read, sah’

“Can you write?”

“Well, no sah, ah can’t write, but the ole ‘ooman is a good writer”. do you know your Bible, Sam?”

“O, yassah, ah’s purty smaht in de Bible, Sah.”

“Tell me, what part of the Bible do you prefer?”

“Well, ah prefers the New Testament, sah,”

“And what do you like in the New Testament, Sam?”

“De Book of Mark, sah,”

“And what do you like especially about Mark?”

“Ah likes the parables de best sah.”

“And which of the parables is your choice?”

“Well sah, de parable of de Good Samaritan is ma special favourite sah, ah likes that one de best,”

“Well, Sam, will you tell me the story of the Good Samaritan?”

“Yassah, I sho will sah.”

“Once upon a. time a man was goin’ from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among de thorns. De thorns grew up and choked him, an’ he went on and didn’t hab no money.

An’ he went to the Queen of Sheba, and she gave him one thousand talents and a hundred changes of raiment. An’ den he got in a chariot an’ drove furiously. An’ when he was driving under a big juniper tree, his har done got caught in de limb of de tree, and he hung dar, an’ hung dar many days an’ de ravens brought him food to eat an’ water to drink, and afterward he was an hungred, an’ he ate five loaves and two small fishes. An’ one night while he was ahangin’ dar, asleep, his wife Delilah came along an’ cut off his har an’ he dropped an’ fell on stony ground. But he got up an’ went on, an’ it began to rain an’ it rained forty days and forty nights an’ he hid hisself in a cave, an’ lived on locusts an’ wild honey. Den he went on till he met a servant who said, ‘Come take super at mah house an’ he began to make excuses an’ said, ‘No, I won’t, I married a wile and I cain’t go’. An’ de servant went out in the highway and in de hedges an’ compel him to come in. An’ after supper he went on an’ came to Jericho an’ when he gat dar he looked ans Queen Jesebel sittin’ a way up in a high window an’ she laffed at him, an’ he said, ‘throw her down, an’ he said, ‘throw her down.’ An’ they throwed her down, an’ he said, “Throw her down some mo’, and so they thro’ her down sebenty times seben. An’ of the fragments they ‘picked up twelve baskets full and den dey say, ‘Now in de razzerection who alls wife she gwine be?”‘