"Everybody get a move on!" "We're loading on the run!" "Head for the tree line!" "Fall back!" "We'll make our stand on the ridge." "Cover your backs!" "Come on, let's go!" "Don't stop!" "Here they come!" "Come on!" "Come on, let's go!" "Come on." "I'll cut them damn buttons off, randall." "Makes you a target." "At least I can stay warm at night." "How are you still keeping your britches up?" "Nature provides." "Over here!" "Take cover and reload!" "You're gonna lose that arm." "I'll give the arm." "Just want to live." "Here they come!" "Don't shoot!" "Hold fire." "Hold fire." "Yankee cavalry coming." "Company strength." "Yankee cavalry coming." "Company strength." "This could be it, anse." "Best make your peace." "Yeah, well, I never courted god before, randall." "I doubt he'll hear me now." "On the left!" "On the left!" "Can't hold this." "Get the boys back to the line." "Tell them to leave the pistols with me." "Soldier, on your feet now!" "Move!" "We're moving out!" "Them that's got sidearms, put them in this sack here." "Come on, let's move!" "Go on." "I'm a faster runner than you are." "Hey, anse." "I'll pray for you." "We're moving out!" "Make it stop." "Make the hurt stop." "Oh, oh, hey." "Make it go away." "That's it." "Yeah, that's good." "I'll take some of them biscuits and beans." "Got your sidearms back for you." "Well, I'll be." "How many yanks you kill, devil anse?" "How'd you get away, captain?" "Damn miracle." "Anse." "What do you think you're doing?" "Well, I ain't staying' to watch the boys we just saved die for a lost cause." "Lost?" "You don't believe that." "I do." "Come on, what do you think would happen if every soldier decided for himself when the war was lost?" "Be shorter wars for sure." "Don't make a cause no better, randall, when good men die for it in vain." "From here on out, I fight only from home." "We're your home." "You can't just twist things to suit yourself." "This is desertion." "I don't look at it that way." "I figure I deserted my family when I signed up." "You'd be wise to come with me." "You took an oath, anse." "We swore 'death before dishonor.'" "Nothing changes that." "What if I'm on that firing squad that has to put you down?" "Well, if it comes to that, don't flinch." "This is wrong." "I can't let you do this." "You take care of yourself, randall." "Many thanks for today." "God hates deserters." "You ought to buy your dog a drink, uncle jim." "And a little of this." "And a little of that." "Smell good too, don't you?" "Damn dog." "You get that coat off a dead yankee?" "No, I did not." "You find it in an outhouse somewheres?" "No, I did not." "Where'd you get it then?" "I wore it throughout the rebellion." "My nephew, 'devil' anse Hatfield, proudly serves these here confederate states of america, as does your brother randall." "Yet you dare come in here and wear that goddamned bluebottle jacket, you son of a bitch?" "Near as many around these parts are fighting and dying for the union." "As for me, war is passed, but I ain't got another jacket." "Howsomever, being as how I'm getting a little hot in here," "I will take it off." "Put it on my charge." "You're gonna throw that damn yankee jacket on the floor, and you're gonna piss on it." "I'm going on home." "Don't much care for the perfumed stank in here." "Can't even pay for your drink." "What kind of a damn man are you?" "The kind who, you wanna come after, you'll find ready, Jim Vance." "Unlike your kinfolk here, i'm not afeard of no man on account of he uses his dog for a whore." "Leave it now, uncle jim." "Do you bluebellies know the penalty for thievery?" "Please, sir." "We were just really hungry." "That's all." "Please." "Please, sir." "We were just" "I don't want to hear it." "You just keep walking." "I got a good plan for you boys." "Quit your lollygaggin'." "Git." "Oh, my god!" "Where you taking 'em, uncle jim?" "Anse Hatfield, you're back!" "Hold up, you bastards." "Guarding the home front, I see." "Yep." "You know nothing gets by old jim." "I caught these yankee shit heels a'pilfering corn." "He meant to take your life, nephew." "I never." "We was just hungry." "I saw murder in his eye." "Please, sir." "Don'm t hit lekill me." "On your way, yankee bill." "Go on." "And I'd hurry it up." "And I thought you was letting him go." "So did he." "After you blew out the other one's brainpan, what choice did I have?" "Yep." "Don't want to leave no witnesses." "Died unafraid, how a man should die." "That's a damn shame." "That yankee piss pot should've suffered." "Yeah, well, you hate 'em so much, how come you didn't sign up to fight 'em?" "Fighting on others' terms is how you lose, and losin' is intolerable to me." "Well, I'm back now and still head of this family." "I ain't gonna be no problem." "Good." "Then you'll understand when I tell you to get these bodies off the road, somewhere no one ever finds 'em." "Yeah." "It's gonna be like it was before." "Lookit Mr. Howls over there, all smiling'." "He's glad you're back too..." "With all your fine plans." "Get the bodies off the road." "What were you doing in there anyhow?" "Not even home yet and you get yourself into a drunken fight, you shiftless fool." "I'm hidin' out at the still till this ruckus with Jim Vance blows over." "You'll drink yourself to death up there." "I ain't going up there to die." "I'm going up there to stay alive." "Ain't right." "Come home from the army, breeding' me like I was cattle, then you take off again?" "No, you've got your duties as a husband and father." "Kids, mind your mama while I'm gone." "We will." "Levicy." "Anderson?" "I'm done with the war." "You ain't going back?" "I've given enough." "I'm back for good, darling." "Lord, you lived through it." "How's our little boy?" "He's an angel now that he's asleep." "Ngobbi oh, my god, look at you." "You'll want to know that we got at least 60 bushels of corn in last year, so we ain't starving', and this year promises to be just as good, so you don't have to worry none," "and johnse, you will not recog" "We'll get to all that come morning." "Hey!" "Ain't that martha McCoy?" "'Lias." "Miss McCoy." "Suppose you heard about my harmon." "He's up at that still over a month, drinking." "Says if'n he stops now, he'll throw a fit and be helpless when Jim Vance come to kill him." "Ma'am, your yankee husband was a traitor to more than just my uncle jim." "There's lots of folks around here can't forgive harmon's betrayal and might" "Might want to kill him, even some of your own kin." "But your uncle Jim Vance is the only one my harmon accused of fornicating with his hound dog." "Well..." "That's a poor choice of words." "I'll admit, hiding' out was prudent." "I can't survive being a widow." "My uncle tends to go his own way." "But next time I see him, i'll do what I can." "Nancy, sit down." "I hear ya!" "Ya ain't getting me, you son of a bitch!" "Pappy?" "Pappy?" "Pappy?" "'Dear randall, 'our fortunes are bitter." "'Your brother harmon was done murdered, 'it is said by Hatfields." "'The rest of us barely scrape by." "'If you are still alive, dear husband, 'i pray that you come home to us soon." "Your loving wife, sally.'" "It's over!" "The war is over!" "General lee surrendered!" "Praise the lord!" " The war is over!" "Thank you, thank you, jesus." "Now, I'll be damned." "Won't be over for some." "War was a goddamn waste." "I don't intend to waste the peace." "Who's there?" "Now turn around." "Randall?" "Sally, it's me." "You've aged some." "Yankees done it." "Treated us worse than animals in that prison." "I didn't want to give up on you, husband, but I think I did." "First we log my ten acres here" "Run from the ridge across and outside that hill." "Then?" "We take the money from that." "We buy 20 more acres." "Then what?" "Buy 40 more." "It's like wiping your ass with a wagon wheel." "Ain't never gonna end now, is it?" "Mr. Hatfield." "I'm a cousin of randall McCoy, an attorney." "My name is Perry Cline." "I studied law at the offices of ethan mckibbin in louisville." "Passed the bar last october." "I apologize for any unpleasantness we're about to have." "Just state your business, mr." "Cline." "Now, I know you believe you own this stand of timber and have the right to cut." "Whereas, in fact, in the eyes of the law, you do not." "Where in thunder did you get that?" "My daddy bought this parcel off of bucky hand in 1859." "I got the deed in a box at home." "I believe you, Mr. Hatfield." "But he sold my cousin rutherford, whose estate I administer, the timber rights beforehand on june 22, 1858." "Signed and witnessed, see?" "Well, bucky was a friend of my family." "He'd have told us if we'd not bought the timber with the land." "You'll force me to sue, mr." "Hatfield." "You'll be liable for damages and the cost of all my timber you have cut to date." "You will lose." "That a threat?" "I reckon it's safer you sue." "Without they hear different from a judge, my relatives might think you just tried to bamboozle me." "Well..." "I've informed you of my rights." "We'll see what the law has to say about it." "I bid you good day." "I'm prepared to do my duty as your wife, but I ask that you spill your seed outside of me." "I could not bear another birth." "Alas and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote the sacred head for such a worm as I at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart" "rolled away it was there by faith" "I received my sight and now I am happy all the day alas and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote" "Well, then, take care." "Now, good see you again." "Nice to see you." "Randall, good to see you." "Now, take care." "Thank you so much." "Randall!" "Randall!" "Oh, now, stop fighting." "Sally." "Sally, you come talk with me." "Come on, johnse." "Come on." "Come on now." "Hard to reconcile you in the lord's house." "Yeah, well, levicy dragged me here to" "It's good to see you, randall." "I feared" " I feared you dead." "Times I felt like I was." "Rest of the company-all lost, all dead, except me." "Our men are home now, sally." "Yours is." "Mine is only half home." "I mean to enter the election day contest, and I would value your opinion." "Go ahead." "Elderberry?" "There's nothing sweeter." "It's terrible bad what happened to you" "Prison and all." "If there's anything I can do to help out." "You propose now to ease your conscience for deserting?" "Or for my brother's murder?" "Your uncle Jim done it." "If'n he was here, i'd say it to his face." "Jim swears he had nothing to do with harmon's death." "And you believe that?" "Well, I have no knowledge to the contrary, randall." "And uncle jim, he" " He swore before god." "And what use do Hatfields have of god?" "Well, you keep that, and you try it." "Let me know if'n it set up and" "Thank you." "I don't understa..." "Mornin'." "There's something I'd like to show you, Mr. Cline." "Court's about to convene." "Yeah, well, I think you'll wait for this." "Ellison, 'lias, show lawyer cline our evidence." "You recall that hamish was witness on your bill of sale in '59 but somehow died, got himself buried in '57." "You recall that?" "I am somehow made a victim of a fraud." "How is not clear to me" "Maybe you oughta should just fetch the sheriff." "Perchance he can help you track down the scoundrel what sold you a bill of goods." "Obviously this changes things, mr." "Hatfield." "Yeah." "I forgo." "I abandon and renounce claim to the timber rights on your land, and I apologize for being hasty and putting forth an invalid claim." "You deserve to be compensated." "You shall be." "I have $22 here." "Keep your money." "I take that kindly, mr." "Hatfield." "Young lawyer starting his career, deceived by a forged document don't look well." "Don't look well at all." "People might even start to think that you had a hand in this forging' and then bungled it." "What do you want, mr." "Hatfield?" "Well, you meant to have all that was mine." "So I must be entitled to have all what's yours." "At least what you inherited from your daddy." "That's 5,000 acres." "Don't hardly much want the land." "Just the timber rights." "I don't believe we have to go in court at all, do we?" "Can't find her, pa." "Consarn it." "Keep looking." "It's one little pig." "Mountain lion probably got her." "That pig fattened up feeds this family for a whole winter." "You understand that, boy?" "Misfortune afflicts us both." "Sorry about you losing your land, cousin." "Still, we cannot let our paths be diverted by the treachery of others." "Trust in the lord and do good, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." "All done, poppy." "You like it?" "Fine job, Roseanna." "Here." "I've been meaning to give you this." "A gold button?" "It's from the war." "For me?" "'Cause you're my favorite." "Perhaps you're right, randall." "But I would not drop my guard." "War changes men." "Peacetime can turn them into scheming snakes." "I predict Hatfield will keep coming at you feigning friendship and generosity." "And when he does, you'll know I'm right." "I hoped I might find you here, randall." "Almost like old times, huh?" "What brings you to town?" "Business." "I just made a deal with jinx clabberat to farm out some of his good bottomland with my boys." "We might just grow us a big cash crop of tobaccy." "Good." "Good." "You come to boast about stealing from my cousin Perry Cline?" "Nobody come here to boast, randall." "I'm just-i'm just trying to be friendly." "I don't know what you heard, but nary a thing was stole from your kin." "Perry Cline gave me his timber rights when I uncovered how he was trying to cheat me." "I should've blown his damn head off is what I shoulda done, but..." "You think I profited unfairly, you- you take this." "You take that in good conscience." "Does it weigh on you at all, captain Hatfield, how you profited while others stayed the course and suffered for it?" "No man questions what I gave the cause, randall." "Especially you." "'nother one." "Talk is, they're gonna build a railroad right through here." "Then we'll send our timber in all directions 'round the whole country." "Not up north, I hope." "War's long over, jim." "There's no north, no south" "Just people who got money and people who ain't." "I mean to do business with them that has." "I always knew we was gonna be rich." "Hey!" "It's your boy, william!" "Tree fell!" "Splinter caught his eye!" "I can't see!" "Eddie, I can't see!" "Why can't I see?" "I know it hurts bad, son." "I admire how you-I admire how you standin' up to it." "Give me some water." "Johnse, why can't I see?" "We're gonna get you to a doctor straightaway." "Anse." "You're not gonna die, but I won't lie to you." "This is a serious wound." "Howdy, neighbors." "Randall." "Miss sally." "How do you do, floyd?" "Blessed day, ain't it?" "Sure is." "How's your harvest this season?" "Fair to middlin'." "Better than the last one." "Not as good as the next." "Your hogs fattened up nice." "Ah, ornery critters." "Had the kids and dogs try to round them up, but these two kept a'squealin' off." "Tell me, floyd, how long have you had that spotted shoat there?" "Well, he bred last year." "I know when it was bred." "That's my marking' on its ears." "Ah, no, randall, you're mistook." "I notch my swines particular so I do not get mistook." "Well, you know young pigs is wanderers." "I expect you gots one or two of mine hangin' in your smokehouse." "I do not." "How many more of my pigs you took?" "How much pork you takin' from my family to stuff your belly?" "Now, hang on, randall." "That's a serious accusal." "You's bein' quarrelsome." "I am, am i?" "Well, how's this for quarrelsome?" "Damn you for a pig thief, floyd Hatfield." "Come on." "Come on, git." "I guess all you Hatfields are the same!" "Did you get enough to eat, Perry?" "Thank you." "An elegant sufficiency, aunt sally." "Elegant sufficiency." "Roseanna, help me clear the table." "Alifair, the little one." "This matter of floyd Hatfield and the theft of your livestock..." "He lied and denied it to my face." "We sue." "It's useful to think of the law as a muscle." "Like a muscle, it can be strengthened with proper use." "Used too little, it becomes feeble and too weak to protect you." "That's fine talk, Perry." "You got the gift." "Floyd Hatfield is on the other side of the river." "Where a Hatfield sits as judge." "Mm, I can arrange a jury trial." "We'll sit six McCoys and six Hatfields." "It won't get you justice for your poor murdered brother." "We win this case, it's a kind of justice nonetheless." "It strikes me as foolish." "How's that, ma'am?" "Goin' to court over a pig." "Makes us look like some village idiot." "Sally..." "I suppose, in the end, god punishes all transgression." "But, as you well know, oftentimes the good lord expects us to be the instrument of his will." "What say you, jim?" "I say we sue." "How's the eye doing?" "It's gone milky, capped over." "Uh-huh." "Let me see." " No, jim." "Come on, let me see." " Jim." "Let me see it." "Turn around." "What am I doin' here?" "You're supporting your family." "Over a pig?" "Anse." "Put it away." "I'm gonna call you captain." "Cap for captain." "Like your daddy." "Shows you're an important feller." "Good name, cap, hmm?" "Yeah, I like it." "Hi, uncle Wall!" "Hi, uncle wall!" "Court is in session." "Thanks to those of you on the jury for coming here today and agreeing to serve." "I know most of y'all got crops." "Stock needs tending'." "So I ain't gonna keep you from your task any longer than necessary." "Judge Hatfield, members of the jury, it is useful to think of the law as a muscle." "Like a muscle, it can be strengthened with proper use." "Mr. Cline." "The briefer you make your remarks, the better your case is gonna be received." "Serves you, windbag." "Sit down!" "Do you mean to call witnesses?" "Mr. Randall McCoy and his wife, sally, both saw the McCoy markin' on the ear of the hog in question." "Oh, now, I don't think we need to call 'em to the stand just to say so." "So to put it plain, the McCoys say it is their pig and their notch, and floyd says that ain't so." "Is that clear?" "Sure." "Is the pig in court today?" "No, it ain't." "Why not?" "Well, um..." "It's done been et." "All right, floyd." "You got any witness saw it before you butchered the swine to say it is your notch?" "I didn't know I needed one." "If you give me a couple hours," "I might could come up with somebody." "I seen it." "The hog in question, that is." "And I seen floyd actually cut that shoat's ear." "Oh, do I need to say I seen it on the bible?" "I'd advise you not to." "That pig had black spots on its hams, as I recollect." "And floyd's hand slipped when he notched it." "Pretty near cut his thumb off." "Anyways, why would floyd show him that swine if he stole it?" "It don't make no sense." "That's enough, bill." "I trust y'all give bill staton's testimony the respect it deserves." "Your honor, I ain't quite done, you see" "You sit down!" "Me Mbers of the jury, who thinks the hog belonged to floyd Hatfield?" "All right, who believes the hog was randall McCoy's?" "Here." " Yes, sir." "Selkirk McCoy, you didn't vote one way or t'other." "Well, he votes uncle randall." "He has to be the one to say so, parris." "Well, I'm trying to do the right thing here." "You see, I am of the McCoy family, but" "Well, the truth is, deep down" "I do believe that pig was one of floyd Hatfield's razorbacks." "Judgment's goin' down in a second." "Do not disrespect the name McCoy." "Bill staton swears on his oath that he seen floyd cut that notch." "You are a lying spawn of hell that voted his Hatfield wife's apron strings!" "Oh, randall, this" "Leave her on out of this." "Gonna give yourself apoplexy." "All this to-do over a pig." "This is about honor, about lying' and stealin' and murdering'." "That is not pertinent to the case." "It's about sin, devil anse!" "What's christian right and damnation wrong!" "McCoy!" "This case is dismissed!" "Everybody get the hell out of here!" "By god, I will gut-shoot the next agitator who further disrespects my courtroom," "McCoy or Hatfield." "I reckon this is what I shoulda expected from a Hatfield court." "One more word out of you, McCoy, i'll hold you in contempt." "Best watch your high-and-mighty ass, preacher McCoy." "Here's scripture for you:" "'blood toucheth blood.'" "You don't want to make that move, Cotton." "See, your daddy won't tell you that 'cause he's trying to beat you." "Thanks, uncle Wall." "Yeah, thanks, uncle wall." "Anyway, what I'm saying is, you standin' up there in the end didn't help things, anse." "Yeah, well, I had it under control." "The hell you did." "These picayune squabbles got a way of turning deadly." "Maybe so, but I cannot have randall McCoy continue to embarrass us." "A little embarrassment's better'n what grows out of injustice, don't you think?" "You see the look on ol' randall McCoy's face when I swore that pig had black spots on his hams?" "More you drink, louder you get." "Them McCoys come after me, i'll cut 'em down like Perry Cline's trees." "Hell, I'll even nut 'em." "You wanna say that again?" "I'd just love to take away that arkansas toothpick of your, shove it straight up your stinkin' asshole." "I said any McCoys come after me for what I said in court, i'll take 'em down, and I'll nut 'em." "Well, I suspect you might be stupid enough to try." "You-you callin' me out, hmm?" "This ain't the place." "But you got a mighty big mouth, bill staton." "Okay, nothin' to do but just sit here" "Any McCoy come after me and do me harm, i'll take you down!" "Come on!" "Eh!" "What, are you scared?" "That was fun, skunky, huh?" "You had fun with that?" "You happy with that?" "You know, you're brave." "I ain't gonna drink with you." "I ain't gonna drink with you." "Howdy, anse." "I guess I told 'em, huh." "You see a mean dog sleeping, do you go pester him?" "No, sir." " No, sir." "He awake, you go kick him?" "No, you don't." "You leave him alone, maybe he goes back to sleep." "You get my point?" "Yeah, but those shit-butt McCoys" "We understand each other?" "Yes, sir." "I don't drink, and I don't smoke but I give your girl a poke" "I give your girl a poke" "I said that I don't smoke" "I give your girl a poke, I give your girl a poke afternoon, bill." "You want to nut us?" "I got ya both, huh?" "Here we are, bill." "You still want to take us down, cut off our balls?" "Go ahead." "Should we nut him?" "Come on, come on." "Shit." "Come on." "It's devil anse." "Alone?" "Well, ain't he enough?" "Sons a bitches!" "Don't you slay us." "Cap..." "Yeah, pa." "Pick up them guns." "Let's get these wastrels back across the river." "It's a nice day for a hangin', ain't it, ol' randall?" "Mean Jim Vance." "Well, you're not all that much." "I mean, up close-like." "Who the hell are you?" "Oh, I'm tolbert McCoy, son of randall." "See, I always wanted to meet the man that murdered my uncle and tell him his days are comin'." "Not from the likes of you, you wet-eared prick-chafing little shit." "Get out of my sight before I snap you like a chicken neck!" "Tolbert." "We're here on other business." "Move!" "What are my two nephews doing in there being locked up next to this godforsaken corpse?" "You live with what you done, you might think twice before doin' it again if you should so get the chance." "Judge, I respectfully request that bail be set at a reasonable amount." "Denied." "These boys stand accused of a capital crime." "And I will not have this business dragged out to fester." "You want to tell me why" "I shouldn't hang 'em both for murder?" "Bein' a Hatfield, you're hardly impartial." "I'm the attorney of record here, and I'll answer the questions." "Bill staton threatened to kill any McCoys that crossed his path." "Now, we got witnesses to that." "Parris and sam did cross his path, and staton did try to kill them, then was killed himself by parris and sam in self-defense, which these law-abiding young men deeply regret." "Amen." "We surely do." "We's real sorry we had to do it, defending ourselves like that, but bill staton give us no choice." "In any event, judge, you got no authority to try a capital case." "Noted." "Anse, you got anything to say 'fore I pronounce sentence?" "Bill staton was a tolerable worker, always gave money to and got wood in for his mother till she died last winter." "He did drink a bit." "Parris and sam both knew that bill's threats-they both knew" "That they was empty as the bottles they was comin' from." "They wanted to revenge his mouthing' off, plain and simple." "Then they lay in wait to get it." "That's premeditated homicide, for which according' to the law and your almighty god, they had oughta hang." "You're talkin' like a fool." "This lowlife drunkard lying' dead here threatened murder on my family!" "God damn it!" "Y'all just get over here and sit down and shut up." "All of us know parris and sam killed bill staton." "Only the circumstances remain in question." "It's a damn shame no one told 'em shooting' a drunk on the road was wrong and not worth hanging' for or even the price of the goddamn lead." "And it's also a damn shame that no one stopped his hired hand's liquored-up threats and curses from inflaming two fools to commit murder, which was damn easy to foresee." "I find you both guilty of this heinous crime, for which you are to be taken to some convenient spot without delay and thereby hanged by the neck until you are dead." "A sentence which I hereby suspend since no one can say whether it was self-defense or not." "Go on, boys." "Get the hell out of here." "Thank you, sir." "Right there!" "Calvin, not guilty!" "I knew your daddy would get us out of there." "As god as my witness," "I will not allow my court to be the cause of a war between our two families." "Bill staton ain't worth it and his ma, who he did do right by, is dead and gone." "God rest her soul." "Write it in the book:" "'miscreants discharged by judge Wall Hatfield.'" "Thank you, judge." "You've been a fair and wise man today." "Indeed." "God is just and shall return to us the years that the locusts hath eaten." "Well, you're just a huckleberry above a persimmon, ain't ya?" "If you two don't mend what's wrong between you, hellfire's gonna certainly rise up and consume both our families." "Thank you, Mr. Cline, sir." "That's right." " That's mighty fine work." "We got him, pa!" "It is a good day for it." "Get up in the wagon here, boys." " Whoo!" "What the hell you laughing at?" "Look who it is, huh?" "Believe it!" "You better believe it!" "Boom." "Whoa, easy now, son." "Don't want it going off just yet." "Yeah, mush-head." "Don't blow us all up, you half-wit bastard moron." "Come here." "Come here!" "Find it funny?" "Come here." "Apologize." "Yeah, I'm sorry you's a bastard, cotton." "Tell him!" "All right." "All right." "I'm sorry." "That ain't good enough." "I apologize for what I called you and won't never call you no names again." "Didn't have to do that, pa." "Everybody calls me mush-head." "Well, you ain't like everybody else, cotton." "God gave you such a big heart, he couldn't very well give you a whole abundance of brains, now, too, could he?" "I guess not." "I am a bastard, though." "You listen to me, boy." "Hmm?" "A bastard's got no family that loves him." "Is that you?" "Is that you?" "No, it's not." "You're my son." "Why do you think your first name's ellison?" "Now, let's see it fly." "Get everybody back now." "Okeydokey!" "Everybody stand back now!" "Nuh-uh." "I said no." "I gotta make a livin' here, god dang it." "You want free whiskey, you go talk to tolbert McCoy over there." "I might do that." "Don't look now." "Johnse Hatfield is staring at us." "I sure hope crows swoop down and pluck his eyes out." "What a thing to say, nancy." "His uncle Jim Vance killed my pap." "You don't know that for sure." "Everybody says so." "Don't make it for sure." "He sure is handsome." "Son o' devil anse." "I ain't never seen no devil look like that." "Hey, cap." " Yeah?" "Robert e., you all take over." "My favorite nephew." "Now that's just wasteful." "Hello, Roseanna McCoy." "I'm johnse Hatfield." "I know who you are." "Does that mean you won't talk to me?" "Me bein' a Hatfield and all." "I don't mean you no harm." "Well, now, that's the way I feel." "You know, I don't see why there's been so much trouble." "I bet you didn't know I was named for a McCoy." "Yes, ma'am." "Hey, you want to go see the second most beautiful sight in west virginia?" "So then am I supposed to ask what's the first most beautiful sight?" "Well, if you wanna go." "Then you're just gonna say, 'oh, you are.'" "Just like you told eloise jenkins and about a dozen other girls." "I've heard all about you." "Well, if all the gossip about me was true, hell, I'd have horns and a spiny tail." "Those are some mighty interesting boots you're wearing." "You like 'em?" " No, I didn't say that." "So..." "What is the second most beautiful sight in west virginia?" "Well, now, i'll take you there." "Do you solemnly swear?" " Yeah." "Thank you, Mr. Hatfield." "This really is a boon to busy housewives." "You'll wonder how you got by without one of these." "You'll never fear a scalding explosion with our patent release valve and the variometric pressure gauge." "Oh, randall, isn't it just fine?" "Thanks for the demonstration." "Steam digester." "Time-saving application..." "It's a silly trinket." "I've been puttin' food on the table all these years without I had me some pressurized double boiler." "Hatfield can offer his wife any new contraption she wants." "One day I'm gonna buy you some miracle, like that edison feller's electric fire." "Poppy, I don't need anything like that." "Yes, ma'am." "Someday, sally, i'm gonna buy you a double boiler that runs on electrical-tricity." "How much you want for the fiddle?" "It's mine." "I want a greenback and a half for it." "I'll give you four bits." "It were my grandpappy's." "75 cents." "I'll owe you a quarter and you fill my cup." "Oh, yeah, this here's my drip still." "Ain't she a beauty?" "I could produce maybe" "I don't know" " A half gallon a day of fine western virginia corn liquor." "I mean, this is the horse's head still, a cash can, you know." "I built this rig myself." "I mean, I borrowed the money to buy the parts from my pa." "I figure, make a good livin', support my family proper." "I may even build me a cabin not far from here for my wife to have babies in." "You got yourself a wife?" "Come on." "You're teasing me, I know." "Well, one thing I know for a fact:" "you got girlfriends by the bushel." "I ain't serious about none of 'em." "Look at that mush-head." "You're s'posed to drown the runt of the litter." "Like this..." "Here." "Come on." "Easy to laugh in a bunch, ain't it?" "Come on." "Where's your sister?" "Oh, I don't know where she went." "Well, go find her." "We're leavin'." "Let her stay, randall." "The boys will bring her home." "Tolbert!" "You're to bring Roseanna home without fail, ya hear me?" "Yes, sir." "Ha!" "How many times you been kissed?" "Not counting' grandmas and such?" "Not counting'." "A couple times, maybe." "I bet you ain't never really truly been kissed right." "Not to boast, but..." "I believe I have a strong reputation as a good kisser." "There." "Now you can't say you've never been kissed." "Good lord, it's gettin' dark." "We ought to get goin'." "Roseanna!" "Roseanna!" "Roseanna!" "Roseanna, we are leaving!" "She ain't here." "Must have rode back with the mcclintocks or Mr. Cline." "Well, she could have told us." "Pa's gonna take our damn heads off." "Roseanna!" "Roseanna, last chance!" "Roseanna!" "Last chance, Roseanna!" "Oh, please let them be here." "Please." "Oh, no." "Oh, no!" "Upon my honor, they's all gone, even your kinsfolk." "Oh, god." "My poppy is gonna kill me." "How am I gonna get home?" "Well, I'll take you with me." "My name is McCoy." "Your father would hardly welcome one of us." "You put everything you heard about devil anse Hatfield out of your pretty head." "He ain't nothing like that." "One thing I said to do without fail was bring your sister home!" "We figured she got a ride home." "How was we to know?" "We tried!" "We called out!" "She didn't answer!" "I said without fail!" "Go find her." "And don't come back till you do." "Only a goddamn idiot would bring randall McCoy's daughter back here, and after midnight." "Well, she couldn't very well walk back home in the dark by herself." "You don't want her here, that's fine, but..." "Don't strike me as overgenerous." "Shit, I'll hitch a wagon, ride her back home." "You ain't riding' her nowheres." "The way you make this predicament worse is for randall McCoy to see you with his daughter afore sunrise." "He'll shoot your damn head off, and I wouldn't blame him." "What do you want me to do?" "I want you to stay away off o' her, that's what." "Levicy, have the girls make down a pallet on the floor for our guest." "Come morning', you take her to the edge of the tug and then leave her off." "Yes, sir." "And then get rid of them fancy-nancy boots." "You're supposed to be a workin' man." "Good-lookin' girl." "Yeah, well, it don't make it worth the goddamn trouble." "The look on McCoy's face when he finds out, that'll be worth seeing." "You just keep practicin'." "Maybe a different tune." "Shh." "Go back to sleep." "Hi." "Shh." "Oh, and on our honeymoon, we're gonna take a real train ride all the way across the country till we can't go no more." "I read where they got this great blue ocean up in oregon." "I mean, this thing's so big and wide, you can't even see the other side." "You cryin'?" "What on earth for?" "Just wonderin' where I fit in on this long list of conquests." "My beautiful, sweet darlin'." "You think I'm toying' with you?" "I don't know what to think." "This is my first time." "I was savin' myself for a husband, just like god told me to." "I ain't foolin' here, Roseanna." "I intend to marry you." "If I hadn't promised my pa, hell, I'd ride on across that river right now, and on bended knee, i'd ask your daddy myself." "Come here." "I'd go up against the whole world to make you my wife." "And I can't change my past or our kin, but I tell you true," "I ain't never felt like this before about nobody else but you." "There she is." "That's johnse Hatfield a'kissin' on her." "That son of a bitch!" "Now get over there." "You tell him." "Okay." "Bye." " Bye." "I don't wanna cross that bridge." "I'll be here when you get back." "Y'ain't gettin' away, johnse!" "Oh, my god!" "Johnse!" "Johnse, it's my brothers!" "Go!" "Go on!" "I love you, Roseanna!" "Ha!" "Wait!" "Wait!" "Stop!" "Stop!" "Don't hurt him!" "He didn't do nothing!" "Buddy, buddy, you gotta stop 'em!" "We gotta get you to poppy." "I didn't do nothing!" "Get him!" "You're a dead man!" "God damn it, tolbert!" "What you so hot about, anyway?" "You're the one that left Roseanna with no way home." "All I did was give her shelter, feed her dinner, and keep her safe from harm!" "You try to have your way with her?" "No, sir!" "She spent the night with my sisters." "You saw her-safe and sound." "You think she'd be kissin' on me if I had violated her in any way?" "I did hear Roseanna say..." "Shut up, calvin." "Now, I say we kill him now and t geon back across the river before anyone knows." "Hell, your sister'll know." "She loves me." "That's a load of bull manure!" "No, it ain't." "And I love her too, god damn it." "Since I got to prove it to you." "Well, how bad you shot, johnse?" "Ha..." "Well..." "I'll live." "Think the bullet tore straight through me." "Tolbert, let's go." "Come on." "You tell your pa" "I want to ask Roseanna's hand in marriage!" "Hey, pa!" "We found her!" "We found her!" "I got Roseanna!" "You spent the night under a Hatfield roof?" "With johnse's sisters, sir." "Mr. Hatfield kindly gave permission." "Johnse, he, uh" " He wants to marry me." "Beg your damn pardon?" "He loves me, poppy." "He wants to ask you proper, you know." "He wants to make sure it's right." "He touch you, Roseanna?" "No." "You go on." "Do whatever you want." "You like the Hatfields so much, why don't you go stay with them forever?" "You're not my daughter anymore." "You'll have to have rutherford take a look at this." "No, it's fine." "Ow!" "Keep your hand out of the way." "He's gonna do the same thing you're doing." "Daddy, her father don't object." "Well, looks like somebody did." "Yeah, her boneheaded brothers-ow!" "Would you hold still?" "I want to hear again that randall McCoy agreed to you marrying his daughter." "No, not exactly." "He said he don't care." "He don't care." "'Don't care' ain't permission." "Well, he said it in front of witnesses." "Well, was that before or after you got shot, hmm?" "I will not defy McCoy or any man when it comes to his daughter." "Daddy, please, if you" "If you give permission, he'll surely come around." "God damn it, boy!" "They tried to kill you!" "Now you want to marry into that?" "You know what?" "This ain't right." "Me and her want to be man and wife" "Now, we're both of age." "Don't be a fool." "You only just met her." "Mama..." "Roseanna's been throwed out." "She got no place to go." "You're afflicted, son." "All right." "She can stay here until her family comes for her or you two come to your senses." "Thank you." "Thank you, mama." "But she will keep her own name." "Come on." "Oh, watch out for that snake." "I'm just kiddin' ya." "I never knew this existed." "Been coming' here my whole life." "It's so beautiful out here." "Yup." "What are you doin'?" "Oh, my-you are crazy, johnse." "Come get in the water with me." "Out here?" "In the eyes of god?" "God didn't forbid our union." "Our fathers did." "God knows we're married in our hearts." "Come on." "See you later, all right?" "What's the matter?" "Hatfield kin." "Plain ain't right." "Over a year now Roseanna's livin' under the Hatfield roof, dropping' her skirt and turnin' out to be just a steady piece of cake." "Must make old man Hatfield happier'n a banty rooster in a henhouse, having our family so disgraced." "Yup." "Help ya?" "Frank phillips." "Work outta the pinkerton office, louisville, kentucky." "Lookin' for bob levinger." "Ain't seen bob in a spell." "A fella could get himself into a lot of trouble lying' to a pinkerton man with a US Deputy prosecutor warrant." "It makes it a federal offense." "So we're talkin' prison, a big fine." "A feller could lose his saloon, everything he's slaved for." "Time he's outta jail, he's dead broke." "His wife's run off with some dandy carpetbagger." "I seen it happen." "Playin' cards, bald one." "Bob levinger." "You got no paper on where you're livin'." "Squatter, paying' no taxes." "You've been warned twice by mail, once by federal officer." "I'm here to take you in." "This here's a warrant." "Ain't legal." "That land is Hatfield." "Levingers is cousins to Hatfield." "My great uncle devil anse, he got papers on file at the land state office." "Bullshit." "It's federal property." "You people think you're on the land, you own it." "I'm sayin' that ain't right." "You can tell your story in court." "I don't feel like goin' nowheres." "My little brother ed's standing behind you, and he got a regular navy pistol." "You still think i'm goin' somewheres?" "Got one." "Can't find the other." "Go much deeper, I might kill you." "'course, if you want, i'll give it another try." "You going after that pinker?" "Got to." "Bastard killed our kin." "I ain't talkin' to you, uncle jim." "You know damn well the levingers likely had it comin'." "Ed and bob always was jackasses." "Yeah, but they're our jackasses." "Someone thinks they can take a shot at our kin, pretty soon someone else thinks they can lay an ambush and shoot at one of us." "Hey, do you remember when we was kids, pa told me to go shoot that fox nosing around the henhouse." "Yeah." "You didn't want to kill it." "You poked fun at me for it." "Helped me trap it so's we could take it across the river and let it go." "Never come around again." "And pa, he was none the wiser." "Well..." "All I'm sayin' is, smart as you are, maybe you can figure out another way." "I hear you, ellison, but you should know the reason that fox didn't ever come around again." "After you went home, I killed it." "Anderson is a good man." "This trouble 'tween our families, well..." "Well, it makes it hard for all of us." "And I got to tell ya, deep down inside," "I ain't got no belief in you and johnse being' together." "Well..." "We can have a union in the sight of god." "You know, and children that weren't born on the wrong side of the bed." "No." "No." "You need to go back to your own, where you belong." "Hey." "I can see you ain't a bad person, and this whole thing, it ain't right." "You askin' me to leave?" "And don't you come back." "This bullheaded feud between your pa and my anderson, it's a kind of slow poison." "I inherited 500 acres, which I would pass along to you on the occasion of your marriage." "But my land will never be in Hatfield hands," "I can promise you that." "Don't worry yourself now, mama." "Johnse and me ain't never gonna get married." "Renounce your Hatfield defiler, and your poppy might let you come home." "You used to be his favorite." "In time, you'll meet a suitable boy." "Mama" "And you-you" "It's too late." "I ain't had my flow in two months." "I don't know what to do." "You come home with a Hatfield bastard in your belly?" "Hey, mama." "Where's Roseanna?" "Gone to her family." "Well, when she comin' back?" "I don't know that she will." "Might be best for all concerned if she don't." "Got 700 acres of corn, 12% of the tug fork sawmill, and nearly 10,000 in financial instruments." "Only I lack a helpmate, a loving wife to share my good fortune." "I'm sure that any number of women would be happy to entertain your suit." "Any number I don't care for." "If you're worried about the physical relations," "I could forego" "I can't marry you, Perry." "I'm having a baby" "Johnse Hatfield's child." "That's unfortunate." "But if we're to marry quickly, no one would catch on to the sad truth the child ain't mine." "Otherwise, your condition will be all the gossip, you know, the Hatfields laughing' about it." "I'm in love with johnse Hatfield." "Aunt betty?" "Oh!" "Sakes alive, you scared me." "What are you doin' here, sugar?" "Mama said you'd take me in." "Ain't nobody else want me." "Lookin' for a gentleman, name of frank phillips." "What's your business with him?" "That there must be bad frank phillips with that limp." "I go by the name of phillips, not the other part." "So if I was you, i'd mind my tongue." "Well, ain't you ornery for a cripple?" "I'd give you a lesson in manners, but the house required I check my sidearms 'fore I went upstairs with jenny lou." "Well, that's too bad." "Given your attitude, I might like seeing how good you could use 'em." "Well, ask your dead back-shootin' relatives, old man." "Mr. Phillips, I come here to talk to you, not have a shootout in a damn whorehouse." "After I killed you, I'd have to explain it to my wife, and I wouldn't much look forward to havin' to do that, so..." "So I'll buy you a drink instead." "You buy me a bourbon whiskey straight, Mr. Hatfield." "But you have to leave your dog outside." "He can stay." "So why did you make the special trip to parley with me?" "I come here to give you $100 on condition" "On condition you move on out of these parts." "I killed your kin." "Why the payoff?" "Well, it wasn't my first idea, I promise you." "Longer you stay around here, people" "People expect me to do something about you." "Now, I understand you were doin' your job, and levingers was always damn fool idiots at best, but don't-don't make me raise my hand against you, mr." "Phillips." "I would kill you." "So take my money and ride on out." "I'll take your money." "Just don't think I'm runnin'." "You took down the levingers." "Didn't expect you to lizard out." "This whole damn thing sticks in my craw, especially with my bad leg." "It was your land claim and your kin cost me my job." "A skunk's profession." "Get yourself into something useful." "You can't go there, johnse." "You're all drunk and crazy." "I'm gonna stare old man McCoy in the eye." "I'm gonna tell him" "I'm gonna tell him straight out." "You're gonna get yourself killed." "Let go of my arm." "He wants to ride into kentucky and see old randall McCoy." "Well, I'm Nancy McCoy, Roseanna's cousin." "And I-I gotta go." "Look, if you go there, they're gonna think you mean 'em harm." "Well, I'll shout out, 'i don't mean you no harm!" "I just-I just wanna talk things out.'" "Well, if you go with me, you'll be safe." "Well, my horse" "We'll come on back and get it." "You are-you're Roseanna's cousin nancy." "Go on." "That's what I said." "Oh!" "Yeah..." "I know who you are, 'cause you look like her, kind of." "Yah!" "Roseanna's cousin nancy." "You-you kind of look like Roseanna in the daylight too." "More at night, though." "I went and visited my aunt betty blankenship's yesterday." "I suppose you know your once-intended is stayin' there." "No." "Guess the old man's still riled at how me and her shamed his family." "Well, especially now that Roseanna's with child and all." "What?" "I'm gonna be a daddy?" "Because she carries his child," "Roseanna believes herself in love with johnse Hatfield." "Does our pap know about this?" "Strong as he is, I fear it may break your father's heart." "Shame we can't remedy the situation before he finds out." "If it weren't for johnse," "Roseanna might come to her senses and accept an offer of honorable marriage." "Let's go." " Come on." "Hey..." "What are you doing?" "Boys." "Boys!" "Where are you going?" "Well..." "Just the boys I wanna see." "You can ride with me to your aunt betty's house." "I'm going there to rescue my bride, make an honest woman of her." "Just you shut the hell up!" "You ain't lying' your way out of it this time." "I ain't lying." "Just found out Roseanna's carrying my baby." "So I'm going to get her, seeing as how our daddies are being such horses' asses." "You're dead, Hatfield." "You're gonna be dead!" "Get off of me, tolbert!" "Why you want to hurt your future brother-in-law?" "I'm gonna kill you, 'cause you soiled my sister's honor!" "I told you, i'm gonna marry her!" "Calvin?" "Randall?" "What's-what are you doing?" "Alifair, get the kids back." "Git." "Git!" "What are you doin'?" "Are you drunk?" "You weren't gonna tell me, were ya?" "I had to hear it from Perry Cline." "Well, stop." "That's Roseanna's hope chest." "Stop!" "I know what it is!" "Suppose you's wonderin' why I don't kill you straightaway." "'Cause you know it ain't right." "Horseshit!" "I'm gonna blow your brains out exactly at sunrise, like they do in the army." "See, I want you to know it's comin'." "And I want you to think about it for all those hours!" "Feel the kind of torment you and all the Hatfields have brought down on us." "I respect your sister, tolbert." "You know that." "Especially now that she's carrying my baby." "Let me go find a preacher and make it legal." "Well, it's too late for that!" "I'm gonna shoot you dead come dawn, and I'm gonna tell you what time it is every hour we get closer!" "Instead of a last meal, can I-can I get a last request?" "Hell, no!" "What do you want?" "I want to see Roseanna one last time." "I want to say good-bye to her in a proper way." "And then I will stand up tall when you shoot me." "I swear to god I will." "And when I get to heaven," "I won't damn your souls and ask god to send you frying' to hell for what you done to me." "You're the one going to hell, and you ain't gonna be askin' god for squat." "Roseanna does love him." "She'll hate us forever if we don't allow it." "No, I said!" "He gets a bowl of stew." "Nothing else." "That stew didn't set right with me." "Do y'all mind if I go home?" "No, sure, bud." "Come on." "You shouldn't be here when we do the killin' anyways." "Yeah, you're too young." "I ain't too young." "I just don't feel so good, all right?" "Bye, bud." "Hell, I'll see you on the other side." "I got to talk to my sister." "Oh, my god, bud." "What are you doing out in this?" "Mr. Hatfield!" "Mr. Hatfield!" "Mr. Hatfield!" "My brothers have got johnse!" "They're plannin' on killin' him at dawn!" "Where is he?" "If I tell you, you got to swear you ain't gonna hurt my brothers!" "If my son is safe, no harm will come to your brothers." "Now, where is he?" "They got him at my uncle harmon's old place." "Go, go, go, go, go." "Please, Mr. Hatfield, hurry!" "Go on." "I'll get your boots." "Please!" "Now, johnse, we wouldn't normally kill you, 'cept there's an honorable man willing to marry our sister soon as you're dead." "Who's that?" "Lawyer Perry Cline has agreed to make Roseanna his wife." "Having a man killed to marry their woman and take their baby, that ain't honorable." "One hour to go, Hatfield."