Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way.
– Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 3. Miss Watson attempts to instil religion into Huck. But she loses all credibility with him when she explains the benefits of praying and he fails to get what he prayed for.