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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
45
Except
for
a
touch
of
frostbite
on
his
toes
and
fingers,
Barrent
was
all
right.
He
nodded,
and
followed
the
priest
and
the
worshipers
into
the
main
part
of
the
Coven.
After
what
he
had
been
through,
the
Black
Mass
was
necessarily
an
anticlimax.
In
his
warmly
heated
pew,
Barrent
drowsed
through
Uncle
Ingemar's
sermon
on
the
necessary
performance
of
everyday
evil.
The
worship
of
Evil,
Uncle
Ingemar
said,
should
not
be
reserved
solely
for
Monday
nights.
On
the
contrary!
The
knowledge
and
performance
of
evil
should
suffuse
one's
daily
life.
It
was
not
given
to
everyone
to
be
a
great
sinner;
but
no
one
should
be
discouraged
by
that.
Little
acts
of
badness
performed
over
a
lifetime
accumulated
into
a
sinful
whole
most
pleasing
to
The
Black
One.
No
one
should
forget
that
some
of
the
greatest
sinners,
even
the
demoniac
saints
themselves,
often
had
humble
beginnings.
Did
not
Thrastus
start
as
a
humble
shopkeeper,
cheating
his
customers
of
a
portion
of
rice?
Who
would
have
expected
that
simple
man
to
develop
into
the
Red
Slayer
of
Thorndyke
Lane?
And
who
could
have
imagined
that
Dr.
Louen,
son
of
a
dockhand,
would
one
day
become
the
world's
foremost
authority
on
the
practical
applications
of
torture?
Perseverance
and
piety
had
allowed
those
men
to
rise
above
their
natural
handicaps
to
a
pre-eminent
position
at
the
right
hand
of
The
Black
One.
And
it
proved,
Uncle
Ingemar
said,
that
Evil
was
the
business
of
the
poor
as
well
as
the
rich.
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