Well.... Pastor Jones noticed a disturbance in the back of the church house between Sunday School and preaching and thought he better walk back and see what was going on.. Aunt Sally Johnson was pointing and lecturing Uncle Silas Crabtree about something, while uncle Silas just stood there trying to get in a word edge ways.

Several other members were gathered around watching and some of them were grinning and a few were laughing out loud. Both uncle Silas and Uncle Bill Johnson were long-time members at Needmore Baptist Church.

Well, it turned out that Uncle Silas had got banged up some when his old sow had run over him, or better said, had run under him. Silas had a black eye and a knot on his head.

A few of the younger men had been teasing him, saying Aunt Sadie had hit him again with a stick of stove wood. Silas had tried to explain, but things were starting to get out of hand.

He had raised up the gap as high as it would go and was trying to drive a hog back into the hog lot under the gap when the hog had turned and ran back between his legs, lifting him up and carrying Silas with it.

Well, it was just at that same moment that Sadie came out of the kitchen with a slop bucket of kitchen scraps to put in the hog trough. When the hog saw her coming it suddenly decided it wanted to go into the hog lot after all, and turned sharply around and headed toward the raised gap with Silas still riding on its back. When the hog ran under the gap it knocked Silas cat-winding leaving him lying in the mud with a big knot on his head..

Sadie had decided to step into the conversation and get it all sorted out. "I did not hit him on the head with a stick of wood," she insisted. He was riding on Sally's back when he got the lick on his head.. This immediately touched off a round of laughter in the back of the church and even got the preacher bothered up.

The explanation was all pretty simple. Silas had bought a new sow from Uncle Bill, and had followed the age-old custom of naming it after the previous owners wife.. Thus he had named his new hog.....Sally… and it was Sally who had run under the gap with him.. It looked for a moment as if this would end the discussion, until Silas decided to add one other thing.

"If that old fat heifer don’t straighten up I intend to grind her into sausage and rend her fat belly into lard."

Well, Aunt Sally had settled down a lot until she heard that.. "How dare you name that old sow after me," she exploded."I will have you know I ain't fat I am just big boned."

Silas ducked and hurried toward his pew while she continued to give him a piece of her mind. It was almost time to dismiss church before preacher Jones could ever get things quieted down enough to preach and he decided the best thing to do was just have a closing prayer and go home.. …grin…

The devil always stands ready to get a church fuss stirred up, even over a misunderstanding.