"Judd, you can't." "I got to get in the house." "Poke your head out in the clear, and a Falin will get you." "But Melissa, she's going to have a baby." "Hit you, David?" "No Falin can ever get me, Uncle Judd." "Oh, God, give her the strength to be good, to be never hateful and never fight." "And don't let her carry the burden of fear, watching her loved ones and seeing them die." "Always asking out of her heart," "" Why has it got to be?" "Why has it got to be?"" "When it's twilight on the trail" "And I jog along" "The world is like a dream" "And the ripple of the stream is my song" "When it's twilight on the trail" "And I rest once more" "My ceiling is the sky" "And the grass on which I lie is my floor" "Never ever have a nickel in my jeans" "Never ever have a debt to pay" "Still I understand what real contentment means" "Guess I was born that way" "When it's twilight on the trail" "And my voice is still" "Please plant this heart of mine" "Underneath the Lonesome Pine on the hill" "And I says to him, I says, "Look here, Zeke Denker," "" you're driving your hogs to mighty poor swill. "" "Bet that buttoned him." "Not Zeke." "He's the laughingest man I ever met." "Nothing bites him." "Laughs when it's clever enough to rain." "Laughs when the sun shines." "He looks me right in the eye..." "Dave's better." "Is he?" "Yep." "Perking up a mite." "Arm's a little green but I stuck a chaw of tobaccy on it." "Cold rifle barrel will do it more good." "What he have to say?" "About the Falins I mean." "" Eat your sow belly and get for home. " That's what he said." "Said, " Ain't gonna be no fighting till I can tote a gun. "" "And I come six miles." "Six miles." "I can throw a clump of dogwood that far." "I'm nigh on to 30 miles." "Look." "Look." "Gather around now." "Gather around." "I'm really going to show you something now." "Maybe we's will get a go at the kid." "Whenever Judd Tolliver gets an itch to plug the Falins, he starts playing with the young ones." "I'm gonna be the human hub." "Now, Willie, you go down there and stop me if I get to going too fast." "Lizzie Bee, you better go down and help Willie." "Look out now, here I come." "Don't forget to stop me." "Well, why didn't you stop me?" "Judd's better than that wagon show we saw once." "Melissa, you got a bellyache or something?" "Just thinking, Lina." "Sakes and sassafras!" "Thinking boils the pot over." "It boils over and over and over if you ain't thinking." "Killing." "All the time killing." "They are planning it now." "They done it yesterday, and the week before, and the year before that." "Ever since I was a little child they done it." "Kill a Falin." "Kill a Falin." "That's all they could say." "Plowing, splitting reins." "Filling the corn crib." "Kill a Falin!" "And the echo comes back to us from over the hills." "Kill a Tolliver." "Kill." "Kill." "Why?" "Melissa!" "What you biting your paws about, Auntie?" "Worrying, I guess, June and Buddie ain't back yet." "Where they be?" "Over at the yard doctor, getting a potion for you." "Is that the way you like it?" "Just right." "You should have let me get a town doctor, Dave." "It don't look right." "It's too swole up." "You're awfully good to me, Auntie." "You're a good boy, Dave." "Your boy." "My boy." "Sometimes I wished I was, Auntie." "Then I wished I wasn't 'cause if I was, I couldn't marry June and if I wasn't..." "Relations like we ones got me all thicked up." "Cousins are always thicker than fleas in the mountains, Dave." "I'm a big, big black bear." "I'm a mean black bear." "I'm getting closer." "I'll get you." "I'm coming closer." "You laugh at me, foreigner, and I'll..." "I'll..." "I don't blame you, I'd do the same thing myself." "That was funny." "Why didn't you laugh?" "She's one of the Tollivers." "That's still funny." "She didn't think so." "That's a woman's privilege." "Now, where were we?" "Right in the middle of that fault, over there." "Yeah." "Two years supply of strip-coaI before we have to drift mine it." "We'll steam-shovel the top coal and make it pay for the railroad up here." "You haven't got it yet." "No." "Well, suppose you let me worry about that." "The right and title to that privilege is yours, my friend." "You got that privilege this very minute." "Start using it." "I was just running in that wood, and I heard she was a bear." "And when I looked around to see if she was going to eat me, she was gone." "Maybe she ate herself and disappeared." "Judd Tolliver, how you talk." "Child." "Child." "You mustn't." "Juny's coming back." "Maybe she stopped down by the river." "Looks like she fetched the river with her." "June!" "Well, I brung it, didn't I?" "June, if you ain't the lookingest..." "I've been running across that log ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper." "I can catch a squirrel on it with one hand, but when that dog see that foreigner..." "Foreigner?" "He stopped right smack-dab in the middle of the log and I tripped." "What was the foreigner doing?" "Don't know." "Wasn't looking." "Before you know it, there I go." "Plunk, right down." "What did he look like?" "Just had a squint." "He's about so tall, about that wide." "Was all dressed in brown, even his hat." "And his coat had a belt." "Just a squint?" "Dave Tolliver, if you're thinking what I'm a thinking, I'm going to tell you off." "Go down to the creek and wash your dirty face." "For two carrot seeds, I'd rub it all over you." "You do it, and I'll spank you where it hurts." "You will, will you?" "Did that hurt?" "How could it?" "Oh!" "I've been talking to your pappy." "We's going to get married." "When?" "Hog killing time." "Your pappy has invited all the Tollivers." "The whole kit and boodle of them." "I ain't marrying till green up." "Spring's always the time to do them things." "Then it'll be next green up and the next." "I don't feel nothing." "Like..." "What do you mean?" "I don't know." "Come on." "Come on." "Dinner." "Come on." "Better make it just a dipping, June, or them hungry mouths will eat that table bare." "Ma." "Come here." "Ma." "Do I..." "Do I like Dave?" "Why, honey, I think you do." "Like you like Pappy?" "Well, you remember when Dave went to Pokey Wells, you was a-grieving for him then, weren't you?" "And when he's to home, he don't make no nevermind to you?" " But, Ma..." " Melissa, the folks are waiting for their dinner." "Coming." "Well, that's liking, honey." "This here man wants to talk to you, Judd." "Does, huh?" "My name is Hale, Jack Hale." "I wonder if I could see you alone." "Here's all right." "Well, I..." "You see, I wanted to talk to you about coal." "The coal on your property, I mean." "You know what I mean?" "The fault down about a mile." "Well, you've seen the coal." "You know what I mean." "The fault." "The Alton people, I'm with them and they..." "You was talking about coal." "Oh, yes." "coal." "There'll be a railroad up along the Ticopi and then down across the ridge to your place." "Who said there would?" "I mean, of course, if it's agreeable with the contracting parties, like yourself." "The thing will make you rich." "There's no doubt about that." "And if we can make a deal..." "Who's the others?" "The contract with you is for the coal." "Who is the others?" "Well, there's several other people, but mainly..." "How long have you had that?" "You ain't answered me yet." "When did this arm begin to show that color?" "Three days ago now, I think." "Get me some warm water, quick." "It ain't bad, is it?" "Bad?" "It's gangrenous infection." "The flesh, it's rotting, it's dying." "You ain't no doctor." "You wanna live, don't you?" "Why didn't you get this man to a doctor?" "Did." "There it be." "Snake brew." "You fool." "He'll die if something isn't done." "Am I dying, Judd?" "Sure." "Better start making the pine box, I guess." "That's just what you will be doing if something isn't done." "Now listen to me." "Once an infection like this sets in, it kills." "The only possible cure is to cut it out, and then pray." "Now do you understand?" "No." "No." "They don't understand." "They don't understand nothing but shooting and killing." "That's all they understand." "Melissa." "I been begging you to get a doctor, but no, you got to plan." "You got to scheme, you got to figure out how to kill." "All of you." "Your crops could rot and your cattle starve." "And you wouldn't care as long as you was back of a squirrel rifle, and here was a Falin at the other end of it." "Now it's getting back at you." "He's dying." "You heard him say it." "My Davie's dying." "Melissa." "Here." "I'm sorry, I didn't know..." "Here." "Get me a cloth, a tourniquet." "Something to tighten around his arm and shut off the circulation." "Get me some small knives, the sharpest you've got." "Get that fire going." "Heat the knives till they're white-hot." "Keep that down and help me steady his arm." "This is going to hurt." "We have no anesthetic." "Something to put you to sleep, I mean." "Better stouting up the corn liquor with a little pepper." "Looks like I'm gonna need it." "Ain't got no money, nowhere to spend it" "Ain't got no wife, too independent" "Ain't got no mule to ride around" "It's just because I'm the poorest man in town" "Poor me Poor me" "I wonder when I'm gonna end this misery" "I made up that last line myself." "Yeah?" "That's what it sounded like." "Thinking maybe you might have a job for me, so I moseyed up." "Well, mosey down, and the quicker the better." "What you got your back up for, mister?" "Go on, get on." "They're talking down in town as to how your boss saved Dave Tolliver's life." "That so?" "Yes, the idiot." "Two minutes after he'd met him, he's carving his initials in the fellow's arm." "And does it get him anything?" "It does not." "The whole thing's a washout." "No coal, no railroad." "And as for this Judd Tolliver, he's just an ungrateful chunk of dry rot." "They didn't ask him, did they?" "Ask him what?" "To save Dave's life." "Of course they didn't, you walking phonograph." "But what's that got to do with it?" "We ones is funny people." "Mmm." "Elderberries." "Elderberries?" "Okay, partner, here's where I get off the train." "Ain't I gonna see you no more?" "Well, I don't know." "Not unless your dad changes his mind." "Now, don't you think you'd better run along home?" "First, could I put my arms around you?" "Can you?" "I'll say you can." "Say, you won't forget your lesson, will you?" "Uh-uh." "Book learning is good for people because it makes them build what's inside of them." "Swell." "Some day I'm gonna build a automobile, I'm gonna build a plane..." "Whoa!" "Wait a minute." "Wait a minute." "And all those things you told me about." "Well, if you're gonna do all that, you'd better go home and start studying." "Bye." "Goodbye." "Come on, Tuffy, grab the coal car." "There you go." "Well?" "Pappy wants to see you." "He saw me, I'm sorry to say." "He changed his mind." "You mean he'll sign the agreement?" "Oh, boy." "Oh, boy." "Wait a minute." "This isn't a gag, is it?" "A what?" "Skip it." "I'll take a chance." "This way." "It's shorter." "Love is everywhere" "Its music fills the air" "You gonna talk to me now?" "Not a chance." "Not even if your father signed 40 contracts." "I'm just as stubborn as you are, young lady." "And not word you get out of me until you've apologized." "I didn't do nothing." "You didn't do nothing?" "What do you call nothing?" "You were going to spit in my eyes." "You stomped on my foot." "And when I tried to teach Buddie his ABCs, you laughed at me." "And you call that nothing?" "Oh, my!" "What a nice pretty." "Where'd you get it?" "It's just a..." "Can I have it?" "Why..." "I can?" "Well, ain't that sweet?" "What do you say to apologize?" "Just say, " Mr. Hale, I regret exceedingly my unfortunate error. "" "Them's hard words." "All right." "Say it your own way." "I regret." "You regret what?" "I'm apologizing." "All right." "What do you wanna talk about?" "Don't make no difference." "All right." "Let's talk about you." "I'd like that." "Well, some day very soon now, your father will have money, and you'll be married to Dave." "And what a lucky girl you are." "And all this around here will be..." "Well, maybe over there will be a big house and with a lawn way down to here, and..." "Did you ever see a grasshopper real close?" "Have him spit in my eye?" "Not me." "You see that little yellow spot on its leg?" "Well, if you touch it, you know what will happen?" "No." "I give up." "What?" "Its leg will pop off." "You little savage." "Am I?" "Yes, you are." "And when I see Dave, I'm gonna tell him." "Let's walk." "It's a mite near a mile here." "A mile?" "I thought you said this was a shortcut." "Did I?" "" Its successors and assigns forever," "" all mines, veins, seams and beds of coal" "" and all other minerals whatsoever already found" "" or which may hereafter be found" "" upon or under all that certain tract, piece or parcel of land" "" situate, Iying and being in the... "" "Slow down, man." "Them squirrel tracks and chicken scratches don't mean nothing to me." "You trying to tell me and Judd your coal won't be disruptious to our corn?" "Is that what you're trying to tell us?" "That's right." "And we get quite a toting of money?" "$5,000 in 30 days and a percentage of the company's earnings." "What's that percentage?" "It's like pigs, Pappy." "You get one out of six for taking care of them." "Oh!" "Figures sensible." "Mr. Hale, is this the kind of steam shovel you told me about?" "Yes, but you look in the back, Buddie, and you'll find a great big one." " I'll say..." " Dave says it's sensible." "I guess it's sensible." "But there's one thing eating me." "What's that, Mr. Tolliver?" "Is there no other way for you to build your railroad up to our place, except across the Falins?" "But it won't be the Falins." "The company will own the property." "Yeah, but it were the Falins." "They walked on it." "They drove the sheep across it." "The spring water down by the Knuckle, they put their poisonous faces in it." "It's got the Falins' smell on it." "And me ones will make money going on it?" "No." "No." "There ain't gonna be a Tolliver..." "It ain't gonna stop you from shooting the dirty swine, is it?" "The land was here long afore they come." "It's tetched with God." "And he ain't going to taint it just 'cause a lot of snakes is a- crawling in the fallows." "We been poor-hogging long enough." "I got a chance for fancies, and I'm gonna have them." "That ain't no talk to your pappy." "I'm talking to you, too!" "I ought to spank your hide." "You don't need no fotch-on clothes to be happy." "Just a minute, Dave." "I didn't want to start an argument." "Mr. Tolliver, I don't doubt that you have every reason to hate the Falins." "They must have done you a great wrong..." "We don't want no preacher talk from you." "The Tollivers don't like the Falins and they know why." "And we don't want to be learned off by no outsiders." "But, Dave, I'm not trying to..." "You saved my life." "You was leaving without a squeal when we turned you down." "You couldn't have done that without you was meaning right." "Just don't argue, that's all." "Where do we sign?" "Right here." "The company's offering you $5,000." "That's a lot of money, Mr. Falin." "Both sides of our right of way will still be yours." "It won't interfere with your farming." "Mr. Thurber here can vouch for our company." "He's kept its books for years." "Yes." "That's right." "Indeed it is." "We don't want no taiI-ender drippings of a Tolliver." "Wade's right." "You can't make butter out of goose grease." "Shut up!" "What did Judd Tolliver say?" "Well, he said that..." "He said he'd rot before he had anything to do with a Falin." "That sounds like Judd." "Where do I scratch?" "Right here on the bottom line." "Jack, give us a hand." "You know something about carpentry." "What's the matter with it?" "You're doing all right." "Yeah, I'm not running any kindergarten." "I got very little use for children." "In fact I hate the brats." "Look at me." "Look what I'm doing." "If any of my friends saw me..." "Say, did you send that check to Judd Tolliver?" "Yeah, this morning." "Listen." "Would you put a nail in here?" "Or..." "Don't let me keep you." "Going 'coon hunting, Dave?" "Skunk." "Mighty nigh well, ain't it?" "That's why I'm going hunting." "I don't want you to fight, Dave." "Leave the Falins be." "There's turning over to be done." "And I'll be wanting corn husks for my mattresses." "And we got scrapple to make and all kinds of things." "You're the only big boy I've got, Dave." "Families round about got lots." "Maybe they wouldn't miss them none." "Maybe they wouldn't." "You're always snorting preachments, Auntie." "You make me sick." "Two pink-eyed doves sitting in a tree." "One for you and one for me." "Dave." "My eggs." "Ma!" "Pa!" "Dave!" "We just got a letter." "We just got a letter." "Pa." "A letter." "Juny." "We just got a letter." "A man gave to me up the road." "Ma, look!" "You act like we never got one before." "We got one when Dave come to live with us and then we got another one when..." "Who's it for?" "Whoever it's writ to on the front." "Sure enough." "Well, might as well open it." "What for?" "We ain't going to be no better off." "Well, you ain't much help." "Open her up anyway, Judd." "It's from the coal company." "See?" "There's a picture of a mine on it." "$5,000." "It's just a piece of paper." "This here's a check." "I seen one once in Gaptown." "Folks, we're richer than cream cheese." "And I can get the things I want, can't I, Pappy?" "Now, now, now." "Not so jumpy." "There's one thing we got to get more important than that first, and that's a new dress for Melissa." "Oh!" "Judd." "You sure got it coming to you, Mammy." "With pearl buttons it'll have." "Won't it, Pappy?" "Yeah, pearl buttons." "And the next thing we got to get is hat and shoes for Mammy." "It just..." "You're making me cry." "Judd Tolliver, you said you weren't talking to me." "That was when I was poor. $5,000." "Wait a minute." "I got some choosing to do, too." "Part of that's mine." "Sure." "Half." "Half?" "I get way less than half." "My land's just a little hog bag." "Which way says you win or lose?" "North." "South." "You lose, so you get half." "You know the first thing I'm gonna buy?" "Dave Tolliver, get some pepper in you." "What?" "For more than a month now, somebody's been a - keeping a secret in a closet." "And I'm thinking maybe it's a picture of something she's a-needing." "So the first thing I'm gonna do..." "Oh, no." "Now, Dave." "Yes, now." "Dave, don't." "Dave." "Can't hear." "Both ears is bad." "If you go in that closet..." "Next time I'll puff you clean over to Coon Hollow." "If you go in there, I'll never talk to you again." "Why, it's only fun." "There ain't nothing in there you want." "Nothing that'd be important to you." "June." "Never." "I only want to buy..." "Never." "Dave." "You're sure pretty." "Am I?" "Like a budding sapling without even room for a robin to sit." "You're just silly." "I been silly ever since the sap come up out of the trees." "I get silly just looking at you." "When we get married..." "It ain't green up yet." "You're going to have ivory combs in your hair and you're gonna have blood-red wine to drink." "Wine?" "And down by the sty, we'll build a big house..." "With grass growing all the way down?" "The ivory combs, they was my idea." "And the big house?" "Mr. Hale." "He thought of that." "He's drawn me a piece of paper." "It's got a bathtub in it, June." "In the middle of the house it is." "And it's get water that can be turned on with the handle." "And there's a room where you keep babies, and it's..." "Get out of here, Dave." "Honey." "Dave, please." "Sure." "Love is everywhere" "Its music fills the air" "All nature seems to hum "A melody from the sky!"" "Over on the hill, I see a whippoorwill" "I hear its song become "A melody from the sky!"" "And there's a bluebird singing to his lady love above" "A love song taken from the whispering breeze in the trees" "Love is everywhere" "Its music fills the air" "All nature seems to hum" ""A melody from the sky!"" "By Juckies, that's what I call whistling and singing." "I'm awful glad to see you, Tater." "Well, you never was before." "You've changed." "You're different." "You're..." "I'm awful glad to see you." "You said that." "Did I?" "Well, I am glad." "Well, here he is, safe and delivered." "So long." "Bye, Tater." "Goodbye, engineer." "And don't forget what Mr. Hale told you." "Watch the steam in your boiler." "Love is everywhere" "Its music fills the air" "All nature seems to hum "A melody from the sky!"" "Love is everywhere" "David, get away from there." "Dave, you ain't said nothing about my steam shovel." "Your..." "Is that what it is?" "Yeah." "It works, too." "Uncle Jack, he showed me..." "Uncle Jack?" "Uh-huh." "Mr. Hale." "You know." "He said, " When this thing gets up here," "" you got to pull this thing. " See?" "See how it works?" "Hemlocks." "Mr. Hale's sure smart, ain't he?" "Bet he is." "Sis, she says he's the smartestest man she ever seen." "She said what?" "Sure works, don't it?" "I'm wanna be an engineer, too, when I get big." "When did June say that about Mr. Hale?" "She says it all the time, every day at most, when she takes me down there." "She takes you down there every day?" "Uh-huh." "I sit with Corsey, I do." "Corsey?" "He's an engineer." "He's the best, he is." "What does June do when you're with Corsey, Buddie?" "She goes walking with Uncle Jack." "They don't bother me at all." "Now watch me." "Tuffy, go on." "Go get some coal." "Go on, go get some coal." "Oh!" "Buddie." "Huh?" "Nothing." "Mr. Thurber, Mr. Thurber." "Hello, Buddie." "I hope he ain't no bother to you, Mr. Thurber." "Bother!" "Really I'm compelled to laugh." "This charming little fellow." "Ridiculous, Miss Tolliver." "It's only when you've seen the world like I have, that you learn to appreciate the laughter of children." "Their childish pranks and their naive questions." "I remember once on the boat coming over from England." "There was dear little curly-headed fellow, he must have been about..." "June, there's Mr. Corsey." "Corsey." "Howdy, son." "What's holding you up?" "Come on." "How are you this morning?" "All right." "Atta boy!" "Whoops-a-daisy." "Charming child." "Yes." "Mr. Thurber, you better check with Mills about that last carload of ties." "They weren't creosoted." "They can't..." "Again?" "Mmm-hmm." "I'm busy." "Come on, get up." "You can see that, can't you?" "Uh-huh." "Well?" "Mmm-hmm." "You call that an answer?" "Mmm-hmm." "Listen, Miss Uh-uh and Uh-huh." "Outside, up the hill to your family." "You've probably got plenty of work to do." "And don't say uh-huh." "Uh-uh." "Woman, you're a nut." "Good." "I like that." "You like being a nut." "No, being a woman." "until now, you've been thinking I'm a girl." "You're not a woman." "You're not even a girl." "I ain't?" "No, you're just a child no bigger than that." "And from here up?" "I'm not fooling you." "I'm going to tell you something." "What do you do with your spare time?" "This is very interesting." "Now, stop your clowning." "June, you're making a big mistake." "Pretty soon you'll be married to Dave, and what have you done about it?" "What do you want me to do?" "I want you to go to school." "To what?" "school." "Can't you realize what the future holds for you and your family?" "Uh-huh." "All right, what?" "A fight with the Falins." "You're impossible." "I ain't impossible." "I'd like to know what you'd call it." "I can listen." "You can?" "All right, listen to this." "Look at Buddie." "He's a swell little kid and he's smart as a whip." "He'll learn and he'll learn fast." "And the minute he arrives, these mountains can't hold him." "He'll change, June, and you'll he proud of him, but you'll be unhappy too because he'll speak a different language." "You're smart and I can understand you." "Look, June, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings." "I think you're a swell girl." "But if you ever were in the city once, just once, you'd understand what I mean." "Remember what you told me yesterday." "None of you could read that check." "$5,000." "But you just guessed at it because there was a picture of a coal mine on it." "And from now on, Dave and your father will be getting lots of letters." "See what I mean?" "I ain't going to no town." "You don't have to." "You can get some books and read at home." "Hire a teacher." "You've got money, and you'll have more." "And once you get into it, you'll be so blamed happy you'll want to give me a big hug." "Would I?" "Hello." "Hale speaking, Operator." "Hello, Lewis." "What's on your mind?" "You what?" "You want me to come to town?" "Listen, I've got some bulldogs up here by the name of Tolliver and Falin." "And if I leave..." "Yeah, Lewis, but I..." "Oh..." "All right." "Yeah." "I'll leave in the morning." "Right." "Hey, wait a minute." "What about those ties?" "You did, huh?" "Okay, I'll see you soon." "Well, June, it looks like..." "The mountains is good enough for us." "They're good enough for you." "You ain't a- going to town." "But, Judd..." "I'm a-talking." "The idea." "You getting close to marrying time and wanting to go to school." "You gonna make clabber cheese any better if you can read and write?" "Or churn butter or fix a shirt or mend socks?" "That's what a wife is supposed to do." "Don't take no education to show you where a hen lays her eggs." "I ain't gonna listen to any more." "June." "Yeah, and you can use it till the blood comes." "But I won't change my mind." "You and the mountains ain't going to make no dried up cornstalk out of me." "You ain't got the right." "I'm gonna be smart and I'm gonna think." "Yes, I am." "And I'm gonna be a help to Dave when those checks start coming in." "You ain't ever been to the city." "You don't know what it means." "You're going to stay here." "And be a cull, just like Mammy?" "June." "She knows what I'm driving at." "She ain't never get to go no place." "Just stayed here and dried up." "Getting older, faster than she should." "Weren't you, Mammy?" "I was born old." "She could have been young and beautiful." "She is beautiful." "Listen, June child." "I ain't no mean father." "I mean, I ain't a never wanting to be." "You looked at me just like a stranger, just now." "Kind of hurt inside." "Pappy." "Sure be glad to give you a lift, Miss June." "This animal of mine will carry double and get you to Gaptown quicker than a hound dog can smell a pole cat." "That's very nice of you, Mr. Keever but I'm a-waiting, a friend, you know." "Oh!" "The smell of winter's stouter than horse radish." "Hope it don't kick up a rain." "Goodbye." "Bye." "Where you going?" "That a way." "Just a stroll?" "Oh, no." "Going to town." "Smell of winter's stouter than horse radish." "Thought you told me you'd never been to town." "Might, might not." "Hope it don't kick up a rain." "I give up." "Come on, get in." "No." "I wouldn't." "It might be putting you out." "It's only a short hop and a tussle to town." "Get in." "Say, if it's any of my business, why are you going to town?" "Education." "Do you have to keep your foot on the brake all the time?" "When did you get that idea?" "I see you keep jiggling it back and..." "You know what I mean." "When?" "Talking to people." "Who?" "Oh, about." "It was what I told you, wasn't it?" "Did you?" "Yes, you was one of them." "I was all of them." "Now see here, I meant what I said." "I sincerely meant it." "But you're up to something phony." "People don't just get an idea and then go." "Did you ever stand under a falling tree or see a pole cat back up?" "That's not funny." "What did your father say about it, and Dave?" "They was mostly agreeing, especially Dave." "He said when those checks start traipsing in..." "I said that." "All right, I'll walk." "Same thing eating you?" "Huh?" "Sure makes me feel bad." "That's what I wanna talk to you about." "Nice of you." "Horse gets out of the barn and now you want to lock the door." "Well, he ain't got her yet." "Who ain't got what..." "Wait a minute." "Ain't you and I talking about the same thing?" "You bet we're talking about the same thing." "I was feeling when he saved my life but I just didn't know what it was then." "Fever I says." "Or maybe the lead's splashing something in my eyes." "But I ought to have known." "It was him being nice to Buddie." "It was him..." "Wait a minute, son." "You're making a gourd trap, but it's too big to catch meadow larks and too small to catch ideas." "What are you talking about?" "Let's get June right here." "We ones is going to settle this matter for good." "You want her here?" "Fine." "You tell her she could go to town, now you tell me you want her here." "Ain't you a little tetched?" "I tell her she can go where?" "Into town to get educated." "Got to read books, she said you said." "Don't want no cull for a wife, she said you said." "She said..." "She ain't gone." "You didn't let her go, did you?" "Of course, been gone maybe two hours now." "Took her down to the ridge to meet the mailman." "She said..." "It was him that done it." "Him that said he was our friend." "That's why he gave us the money." "That's why he gave us the money." "You understand?" "He took her away." "He's been wanting to take her, but he was a-feared." "All right." "He thinks now maybe the money will keep us from telling him that we ones up here don't take nobody's woman." "Money ain't a- stopping us from that." "Money ain't a- stopping us from..." "Where are you going?" "I'm going hunting." "You're sure that was Dave Tolliver?" "He was a-headed for the camp and across our property, too." "If he's down there, he's on our property." "Might just as well go down and look into it." "That's my job." "I've been sort of shamed since I only get him in the arm." "You're right." "Rub out the mistake, Son." "So help me, he isn't here." "On my word of honor, he isn't here." "Do you understand me?" "Yeah." "He went downtown." "Down to Gaptown, I mean." "She didn't go with him?" "No, I told you!" "He was alone, and..." "You sure they didn't meet some place?" "With these, I saw him." "He got into his wagon, on this side..." "You ain't answering my question." "I can't answer that 'cause I don't know." "I watched him there on the road." "There was nobody with him then, because..." "Mr. Thurber, I'm a-quitting." "No, you're not." "In times like this, you gotta be a man." "A man must never been a coward." "I got to get to Gaptown to tell the people down there what's up." "But it's over." "There's nothing to tell!" "There ain't, eh?" "You don't know." "Look at here, Dave Tolliver's gone to Gaptown to get Mr. Hale." "He bust Wade Falin on the beak." "And when a Tolliver busts a Falin on the beak, that means war." "And I gotta tell a- people in Gaptown, so they can scuttle for safety." "Good heavens!" "Jenkins." "Jenkins." "Biggest fight." "Outside camp." "Wade Falin came down..." "Dave Tolliver..." "And shoved him over the cliff..." "I knew that thing was going to break out again." "Just a matter of time and that's all we needed." "And I was standing right there." "I heard enough." "And he..." "Dave Tolliver licked Wade Falin." "And now he's coming to get Mr. Hale." "Whoa!" "Is there anything else you need?" "No." "Well, if you think of anything, just call the camp and I'll have one of the men bring it down." "I'm sorry, but..." "Well?" "The room, you know, where Miss Tolliver was going to stay..." "Well, that room, I'm afraid..." "Afraid of what?" "Well, it ain't a fitting place." "It kind of leaks, you know." "Hold it." "There's trouble, ain't there?" "Trouble?" "I can smell it." "What's wrong?" "I don't want no fighting." "Fighting?" "Dave." "Say, what is this?" "He's coming to get me." "Who told you?" "You've seen him?" "All town knows it." "And I don't want no trouble around here." "You gotta go." "I've got to what?" "I know..." "I've seen him the time he shot down Jim Falin." "You gotta get out of town." "What have I done to him that he should want to harm me?" "Did I ever do anything to him?" "No, you didn't." "But I wish I hadn't come down." "Will you go?" "Please go." "You lied, didn't you?" "Everything you said coming down out of the mountains?" "I knew you were lying then, and something inside of me told me I should have sent you home." "Well, let him come." "I never saw such a ferocious look in a man's eyes in my life." "I tell you, it's gonna be the biggest fight of the year." "Dave..." "Dave come out of the tent, like a shot." "He lit right on top of Wade." "And rammed down on him with a right and left!" "Right!" "Wade got away from Dave." "Dave got him right on the edge of the cliff, he had him down, he was beating his head down and he says," "" I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you!" "" You'll take my girl, will you?"" "He reached him up and he says..." "Nice day, ain't it?" "Give me a beer." "I gotta see somebody." "Yeah, Dave Tolliver." "And how'd you like to tell him we was here." "In the backroom." "There's Dave Tolliver coming in now." "And he ain't going out." "You can get him right from here." "We don't have to sneak our shots at the Tolliver." "Stay here, Wade." "Hell." "You sing about Stack O' Lee and keep right on singing." "When the rain was falling fast" "One dark and stormy night" "Stack O' Lee and Billy Lyons Had an awful fight" "Bad, bad, bad old Stack O' Lee" "You ain't going to do nothing, Dave." "It's all my fault." "Talk will keep." "Now, let's get this thing straight." "You're down here looking for trouble." "I haven't done anything, but I can see you won't believe that." "All right." "This is worth walking for." "How are you doing, Buck?" "Drop them gun." "We're going about our own business." "Of course, you are." "Put them down." "Certainly." "Anything to oblige." "Funny you ain't trying to stop the fight." "Fist fight won't do no harm." "Gun toting don't go." "No hard feeling." "No." "No." "You're doing a good job, Mr. Hale." "Maybe we can help you." "So that's the way it is, huh?" "Any way you wanna look at it." "You shouldn't mess in old troubles." "Dogs did howl" "Dogs did bark" "When Stack O' Lee the murderer went creeping through the dark" "Bad, bad, bad old Stack O' Lee" "Get out of here and take her with you!" "I can run from no Falin." "I guess, here in the mountains a woman doesn't mean very much." "You came here to get her, didn't you?" "Bam, bam, bam, bam" "Went Stack's 44" "Next time I saw Billy Lyons" "He's stretched out on the floor" "Bad, bad, bad old Stack O' Lee" "Stop your drinking whiskey" "With your..." "Look what happened to poor old Stack O' Lee" "Okay, I'm licked." "So what?" "You got lots to learn, Mr. Hale, lots." "I scratched a bargain with you on a piece of paper, and I kept it." "But now, you're sticking your nose in my personal affairs, so from now on bargains don't count." "And you won't be long finding that out." "Jack!" "Jack!" "Dave Tolliver!" "He's coming to get you!" "There's going to be a big fight." "Is there?" "What are you doing here?" "I'm here 'cause I ain't going back." "I thought I told Dave to take you..." "The sheriff said, "I'm taking you" "" to the outskirts of town, Dave Tolliver." "" I'm leaving the rest to your own judgment. "" "Now see here, I'm not going to allow you..." "I ain't listening." "You told me to get an education, I'm getting an education." "I'm staying here." "If I can't stay here, I'll stay where I can stay." "You can't stop me, nobody's gonna stop me!" "I'll show the whole kit and boodle of you how much I can get learned." "I'll be smarter than you!" "That's what I'll be!" "Now listen, you little stick of dynamite." "You're getting out of here now." "You're going back up in the mountains." "I've heard enough of you and I've seen enough of you." "For the present, at least." "Now, come on, get out." "You..." "All right, I'll go if you want me to go." "Sure." "I don't want people not to want me." "Wait a minute." "How did you do that?" "Oh, that." "You did it when you pushed me down." "I'm sorry." "It might have been a rusty nail or something." "We'd better fix it up." "Come over here." "So that's it, is it?" "And I thought you were just interested in the coal business." "She's hurt her hand." "You've killed your future, around here, anyway." "You're not satisfied with one enemy, you make two." "You realize what you've done?" "Now the Falins hate you, the Tollivers will never forgive you." "The Tollivers, why?" "That's why." "That girl's gonna go back to the mountains, now." "She didn't come here to start any trouble, it just happened." "She's got a mind of her own, and if she wants to stay here she can." "In this town?" "Impossible." "I'll take her to Brighton." "Or Plenny or Sand Creek." "It doesn't matter where you take her around here, you're about to meet Tollivers." "All right, I'll take her to Louisville to my sister." "What do you think of that?" "Nothing." "Except that I'm flabbergasted." "Nonplussed." "And if you don't mind me saying so," "I think you're just a little bit nuts." "Thank you." "Both of you." "Mr. Hale!" "Oh, Mr. Hale!" "You forgot the hat." "Thanks, Leo." "Well, here you are." "Do I..." "Are you sure your sister will recognize me?" "I don't see how she can miss." "Do I look all right?" "My dear young lady, reticent as I am by nature, it behooves me at this moment to tell you that you're wearing the finest the city affords." "All aboard!" "Well, you better get on." "Ain't..." "Ain't you gonna kiss me goodbye?" "Well, that's over with." "Is it?" "Yeah." "What do you mean, " Is it"?" "No, I mean, I'm glad it's over with." "Are you?" "She's nuts." "Is she?" "Sure she is." "Any fool can see that." "Well, perhaps, that's why I'm a little stupid." "Yeah, maybe that's..." "Say, what is this "isn't " and " is she"?" "My dear fellow, if you'll allow me, let us take " isn't " and " is she. "" "" Is" is that we both know, I hope, is a verb." "" It" is a neuter gender, and she is the feminine." "Thus, we have the neuter and the feminine, but no masculine." "" What?" "No masculine," you say, then I say..." "" I'm nuts," that's what you say." "Yeah, that's right, you're nuts!" "She's in love with you, Jack." "In love?" "Who?" "June." "Are you crazy?" "No, no, that's already been settled." "You're the one who's crazy." "Why, she's been goo-gooing, gee-geeing all over you ever since we started the camp." "Don't talk nonsense." "In love." "Why, she only came down to camp to bring Buddie." "In love with me." "You're an idiot." "I hope so." "I sincerely hope so." "The camp, Thurber." "It's on fire!" "A bunch of fellows came over the hill carrying torches." "The fellow leading him was a-shooting." "The Falins." "Well..." "Never mind, we'll talk about that later." "I'll get the stock out of the corral." "You get the instruments and maps out of there." "So that's how you want it, is it?" "All right, you skulking coyotes, I'll play your game." "They're not gonna let me..." "I'll put this road through if I have to use your dirty rotten bodies for ties." "I'll do it if I have to hire every man in Gaptown to finish the job." "If you could have seen it" "I know you would have split your sides a - laughing." "I was sitting there mending, and I hear the dripping and the sizzling, and I says to myself, I says, " I bet a rooster" "" it's the soft soap a- boiling over. "" "And sure enough..." "Better try some of these dandelion greens, son." "Zeke Denker fetched them over this morning." "I ain't hungry." "But, David, you gotta eat something after all the plowing you've done." "Pappy." "A is the first letter in the alphabet." "Because it means "And" " Apple" and " Ax. "" "What's this one, Pappy?" "You mean this one?" "Offhand I'd say it's alike an ox yoke." "Didn't Mr. Hale tell you?" "He told me but I forgot." "It ain't like no Tolliver to forget." "Now, if I would have been told..." "You know what that is?" "Yeah." "Civilization!" "David, you oughtn't to have done that!" "I'm through pretending." "Like you've been doing all of last month." "Saying things you didn't mean." "I'm getting sick of the whole thing." "Now, son, look, you gotta keep your shirt on." "If it's June you're worrying about, she'll be back pretty short." "No, she ain't." "She ain't never coming back." "Not the June I know." "Ain't nothing gonna be the way it was." "Look at Buddie, even he's different." "So are you." "Me?" "Yes, you are." "Them new fangled machines down in Ticopi that's doing it." "Every day you traipse down there with Buddie and you come back being different." "Half the time you're feeling glad." "Like last week, they tore up one of our fields." "Them machines don't care who's been plowing there for 50 years." "The Tollivers don't mean nothing to them." "I ain't nobody with a high temper." "But you're talking unreasonable." "We're getting rich, ain't we?" "Look at them five checks over there in that bowl." "Half of them is yours." "And how did we get them?" "Just doing nothing." "And if that's what you call civilization, then I'm for it." "Judd!" "He needs a-talking to." "It ain't right for no young man to brood about nothing." "This you call nothing, huh?" "Listen, there's got to be a change, you see?" "Not for me, there ain't." "There ain't no more chance of me changing than there is of that old Lonesome Pine changed into a hickory." "I belong to the earth." "The plowed up soil." "I was raised and I'm gonna die in it." "You got what you like?" "You can have it." "Me, I'm going back." "Back where my pappy raised me." "David, you can't do that." "You're our boy." "I mean, you're like our boy." "I ain't a-wanting you to go." "Two pink-eyed doves sitting in a tree, one for you, one for me." "For June." "For when it's twilight on the trail" "And I jog along" "The world is like a dream" "And the ripple of the stream" "Is my song" "For when it's twilight on the trail" "Hello?" "Well, well, well, Miss Tolliver." "What, again?" "Obviously." "Do I tell her you're out to tea?" "No, I'll talk to her." "You'd better go out and check with Marks about those uprights." "Naturally." "Hello, June." "Are you mad at somebody or something?" "Well, you talk like it." "Oh, yeah." "Busy?" "You don't know what busy means." "I ain't..." "I mean, I haven't had a minute to myself." "This morning I learnt all about the Revolution." "It was just like a feud." "In 1775..." "Wait a minute, June." "Come in." "Mr. Hale, we've got that slue banked." "That's fine, Taylor." "Wait a minute, get the steam shovel out on the bridge so we can start to fill in the morning." "Yes, sir." "Yeah, June?" "Yeah." "But that wasn't Patrick Henry, that was Lord Cornwallis." "Cornwallis." "All right." "Cornwallis." "What difference does it make?" "How are you?" "How's Pappy and Mammy and Buddie?" "They are?" "Yeah." "Say, June, you know you've got the prettiest eyes." "Yeah." "And the cutest nose." "Say, have you got a dimple?" "You get a fix, Son?" "She's all sort onto the bridge and ready to go." "We'll pop her off in the morning." "Kind of like to have Mr. Hale see it." "Hey, Pappy." "Now we're here for Mr. Corsey?" "Yeah, but you stay right here till your pappy gets through talking to Mr. Hale." "Thanks, Pappy." "Can I come in, Mr. Hale?" "Sure, come on in." "I got serious things to talk to you about, Mr. Hale." "Sit down." "And now, it's Dave that's going away." "It's gotten me worried." "About Melissa, I mean." "She don't sing no more, Mr. Hale." "Sun up always seen her singing, you know?" "I'm sorry about Melissa, but there's nothing I can do." "I got troubles of my own." "You gotta come, Mr. Hale." "Melissa, she'll listen to you." "Somehow, I don't talk the right language to her." "No wonder you can't speak a language which Melissa understands." "I've never heard her favor your feud to the Falins." "Have you done anything to stop it?" "No, you haven't." "You came down here to blame me for June's going away and for Dave's leaving." "You'd like to thrust the responsibility for Melissa's suffering on my shoulders." "Well, you don't do it." "I've got enough of you and your whole stupid outfit." "I'm sorry, Judd, I..." "I didn't really mean what I said." "Sure glad." "I liked you the first day you walked into my house." "Wait a minute." "Hello?" "Yes, Hale speaking." "Louisville?" "Just a minute." "You wanna speak to June?" "Can I?" "Come here." "Hold that up to your ear." "Now, talk right in here." "What for?" "Well, you wanna speak to June, don't you?" "But you said she was in Louisville." "Well, that's where she is." "Hello, Pappy." "June." "Where are you hiding?" "I'm not hiding, Pappy." "I'm in Louisville." "She says she's in Louisville." "Well, that's what I told you." "Is this thing hollow all the way through?" "Yeah, all the way through." "Well..." "Hello, little brush rabbit." "You didn't, huh?" "You know what your ma said this morning?" "Operator?" "Buddie!" "Buddie is in there." "Buddie." "Pappy." "Jack." "Pappy!" "Buddie!" "Buddie!" "Buddie!" "Buddie." "Buddie." "Get me Dr. Owen, quick." "Get me some hot water." "Buddie." "Son." "It's your pappy, Son." "Oh, God, don't let him die." "Don't take him away from my poor Melissa." "Buddie." "Buddie." "You may be the civil law around here, but get this, interference with the public carriers, the railroad, I mean, that's a federal offense." "It might have been an accident." "But it wasn't!" "It was cold wanton murder!" "They killed little Buddie!" "They murdered him!" "A baby!" "And I'm gonna put them where they rot." "Not for a murder, your heels are too smart for that." "And there's not a man in this town with courage enough to convict him." "But you're gonna make out a warrant on my charges!" "You're gonna do what I say." "And you're gonna do everything I say." "Mr. Hale, I've lived in this country for more than 50 years." "I was born here, and I know these people." "I can bring the Falins to court." "Maybe hang them." "But that don't stop feuds." "It makes them." "There'd be killings like we've never seen before." "Mountain people don't seem to like law, Mr. Hale." "Down here, peace has got to come from within." "It all seems kind of brutal and primitive while it's a-boiling, but, well, I was born here and I know." "I'm talking honest, Mr. Hale." "You know, I..." "I cried when they told me Buddie was killed." "Why, I used to ride miles out of my way to fetch him some stick candy." "But I like Jim Falin, too." "That was before you come here." "He's older than Buddie but just a kid." "Eyes always a-laughing." "He was Buck's favorite son." "Dave Tolliver shot him." "Had reasons, I guess." "Or I could have cramped him in jail." "Yes, I could." "But did you ever get up close to Melissa and look into her eyes?" "Well, you do that sometime." "Then you tell me what kind of a law you can think of that will correct it." "Tell me..." "June!" "He couldn't just die, could he?" "He had to be killed." "Killed by the Falin." "They did that." "He was my only brother." "And they killed him." "He ran down the hill with me before I went away." "He stood up there at the Lonesome Pine." "I never got to see him again." "I'm never going to see him again." "What are you doing here?" "Why aren't you up there with Dave and Daddy?" "You loved Buddie, didn't you?" "You said you loved him." "He was gonna be an engineer." "Like you and Corsey." "When I tucked him in at night, he said," "" A is for apple, and I'll bet you I'll be as big as Mr. Hale. "" "What are you doing here?" "June." "You're down here with the law!" "The law's gonna help you!" "The laws gonna show you how it don't hurt." "When somebody you love..." "When somebody you love..." "Oh, June, darling, don't cry." "You mustn't cry." "Listen to me, dear." "I love you, and..." "You love me?" "You said you loved Buddie." "Why aren't you with Buddie?" "Why aren't you where they need you?" "You're here with the law." "You don't love me!" "Well, I do with all of my heart." "You never said you love me before and I was hungry to hear it." "You said you love Buddie." "But you ain't doing nothing about it!" "You ain't fighting!" "You ain't killing!" "That's what's coming to them!" "The Falins!" "This is what you wanted me to be, ain't it?" "Pretty, nice words, hollow words!" "I don't want it!" "I don't want you!" "I don't want anything!" "I don't want anything but the Falins!" "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name." "Thy Kingdom come." "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." "Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." "For thine is the power and the glory forever and ever." "Amen." "When it's twilight on the trail" "And I rest once more" "My ceiling is the sky" "And the grass" "On which I lie" "Is my floor" "When it's twilight on the trail" "And my voice is still" "Please plant this heart of mine" "Underneath the Lonesome Pine" "On the hill" "Oh, God, our Heavenly Father, we bow before thee in meekest humbleness leaving in thy divine wisdom and accepting with equal humbleness the complexities of this life." "We are returning to the earth that which thou has produced." "A part of thy soul, of life eternal." "There's just about eight of them, Judd." "Dominickers!" "Looks like things is just born to the Tollivers." "Don't it, Melissa?" "Sure seems." "What are we going to do?" "What are we standing here for?" "June, honey." "I'm not just gonna stand around any longer." "Be sensible." "Before green-up time, Dave." "That's what you want, isn't it?" "You mean it?" "It's gotta be somebody who acts like a Tolliver." "Is that what it's going to be?" "Dave, I don't want you to go." "I ain't hating the Falins." "I ain't hating nobody." "I ain't grieving for Buddie." "June's my sorrow now." "I don't want to go on hating." "Don't go, David." "Dave..." "Wait a minute." "Dave, you're not going to let him..." "Dave, listen." "You can't do this thing." "You've got green-up time to think about." "You'll be getting married, then." "Now you're going out and run the risk of being killed." "Hasn't there been enough unhappiness in this house?" "You ain't a Tolliver." "You're an outsider." "Yes." "Well, none of you could have loved little Buddie any better than I did." "And he was killed because I taught him to love the things I did." "It was my fault." "And this matter of getting even is gonna be my business." "It's gonna be my business until I've cleaned out every Falin that had anything to do with it." "Jack!" "Jack!" "Dave." "I didn't want him to go." "I wouldn't have let you go, either." "I would have stopped you." "I only said those things 'cause I was hurt inside." "I could've stopped you." "But he's different." "He's not like a brother." "He'll never come back." "He'll never wanna come back." "Dave." "Stop him." "Tell him what I can't." "Please, Dave." "You ain't going to no Falins." "No?" "Well, you try and stop me." "You're looking for trouble, Mr. Hale, the mountains is full of it." "We're all brave men." "Falins are brave men." "You killed the children." "I didn't know." "It's done now." "Sometime, I'll wanna go downtown." "People, they'll look at me." "Maybe when I ain't around, they'll call me Herod." "Herod Falin." "They might call me that." "He was a fellow that done that once." "He killed babies." "The kid was a Tolliver, wasn't he?" "You're kind of forgetting about Jim, ain't you?" "I ain't forgetting nothing." "Jim told me, in my arms, he was hiding behind the bushes trying to pick off Dave Tolliver, and Dave couldn't see who he was shooting at." "Buddie Tolliver couldn't say that." "I don't like him and I ain't gonna like him." "I get my hands on that Dave Tolliver..." "Who's that?" "Dave Tolliver." "What are you here for?" "I wanna talk to you." "And I ain't carry no gun." "Come on in." "If I tell you..." "If I tell you we're licked, will you stop fighting?" "Who's licked?" "Who do you mean?" "Me." "You ain't licked." "You couldn't be licked." "Why did you come here?" "Why?" "Yeah." "Why shouldn't I come to you?" "I ought to have dragged myself through all the brambles, all the way from here up to your house, and say, " I'm sorry. "" "But I just ain't got the sand." "You ain't my father." "You're a sniveling pup!" "I've been like that." "Maybe that's what's the trouble." "You wanna shake hands?" "Now, tell me, why did you do it?" "It was Aunt Melissa's birthday..." "For a minute I thought you meant it." "I did." "I did!" "Dave, what happened?" "I fell on my gun." "Buck Falin was passing." "He was good enough to fetch me home." "Dave." "If you don't mind, can I..." "Can I stay till..." "Sure." "It's of no use, Jack." "You can't cut this enough." "Dave." "Dave?" "It'll soon be green-up." "And you'll have the biggest wedding in the whole country." "Won't he, June?" "In the spring, David." "One for you, one for me." "Biggest wedding in..." "When it's twilight on the trail" "And my voice is still" "Please plant this heart of mine" "Underneath that Lonesome Pine" "On the hill"