I first heard about the melodrama of Cain and Abel when Mom read the story from Hurbut's popularization of The Bible, with its lurid seppia drawings. I was so disturbed by the account that I looked up "the original" in The King James Version of The Bible. But there it was, essentially as Hurlbut told it:
"Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, and you must answer it.'" Genesis 4: 2-7

Bothered, I asked, "Momma, why did the Lord have 'no regard' for Cain's offering?"

"Because Cain was a wicked person!"

"Why do you say Cain was wicked?"

"Because he killed his brother. I read you that! Cain became angry with the Lord because of the rejection of Cain's offering. And Cain became jealous of his brother Abel because the Lord accepted Abel's offering. So Cain killed his brother Abel -- the first murder on Earth! -- out of anger and jealousy."

"But that happened because God rejected Cain's offering." "Are you defending Cain's wicked deed?"

"But The Bible didn't say that Cain had done any wicked deed before offering 'the fruit of the ground'. Or was that a wicked deed? Why was it wicked to offer the Lord fruit and vegetables. Aren't these good? Doesn't God give them to us to eat?"

"Oh, God doesn't want silly offerings like fruit and vegetables. The Lord wants a proper offering -- like a sacrificial lamb.

"You mean God likes killing little lambs on the altar? Does God still want that?"

"No! Stop that! That's all changed. But that's how the Lord liked them to make offerings -- in the old time. And --."

"Momma, you know what it sounds like to me. Sounds like those western movies where the farmers get mad at the sheep-herders and the cattle men for messing up their fences. And --."

"Stop comparing The Holy Bible to those wicked movies. They're confusing you so you can't understand the Bible any more. That just proves what I said that all movies being wicked!"