only he said it with capital letters , like tempter , like the fellow was right there in the room with us and he had me in his arms , and these people started doing a tug-of-war with me between theirselves and the devil , and my arms got to hurting so , i got to wishing theyd just let the devil win if it meant pulling me all to pieces , but just when i was thinking this , the preacher , he let up a wail that rooted everyone seats , real startled like , and he pushed through the crowd right at me , and i must admit it mustve been a comical sight , if i had n't been so piss-in-my-pants scared -- everyone standing around wailing and wide eyed in some sort of fever of the holy spirit , and my jaw dropping open like i was catching flies ( like my granma used to say ) .