Project Gutenberg's Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas, by Raphael Aloysius Lafferty

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Title: Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas

Author: Raphael Aloysius Lafferty

Illustrator: Ritter

Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23161]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SODOM AND GOMORRAH, TEXAS ***

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[Illustration]

_The place called Sodom was bad enough. But right down the
road was the other town--and that was even worse!_

Sodom
and
Gomorrah,
Texas

By R. A. LAFFERTY

Illustrated by RITTER

Manuel shouldn't have been employed as a census taker. He wasn't
qualified. He couldn't read a map. He didn't know what a map was. He
only grinned when they told him that North was at the top.

He knew better.

But he did write a nice round hand, like a boy's hand. He knew Spanish,
and enough English. For the sector that was assigned to him he would not
need a map. He knew it better than anyone else, certainly better than
any mapmaker. Besides, he was poor and needed the money.

They instructed him and sent him out. Or they thought that they had
instructed him. They couldn't be sure.

"Count everyone? All right. Fill in everyone? I need more papers."

"We will give you more if you need more. But there aren't so many in
your sector."

"Lots of them. _Lobos_, _tejones_, _zorros_, even people."

"Only the _people_, Manuel! Do not take the animals. How would you write
up the animals? They have no names."

"Oh, yes. All have names. Might as well take them all."

"Only people, Manuel."

"_Mulos?_"

"No."

"_Conejos?_"

"No, Manuel, no. Only the people."

"No trouble. Might as well take them all."

"Only people--God give me strength!--only people, Manuel."

"How about little people?"

"Children, yes. That has been explained to you."

"_Little_ people. Not children, little people."

"If they are people, take them."

"How big they have to be?"

"It doesn't make any difference how big they are. If they are people,
take them."

That is whe