"Ward Allen missed his first duck." " He missed?" " Oh." "Yes, sir." "Ward Allen missed his first duck." "Aw, come on, Christmas." "Uncle John told me the story himself." "Tell me another story, Christmas." "The one where Ward nearly killed that Russian." "Come on, Little Jack." "I told you that story now a hundred times." "You got to help me out here, Christmas." "Used to be people out here who knew you." "Must still be some of them around." "All right, Little Jack." "You want to hear the story about how Ward Allen beat up them Russians." "No." "I've heard that story a hundred times." "Half a mustache..." "Christmas, they sold the land." "You don't get up out of that chair, it's gonna be sitting in a pile of debris with you still in it." "That's where I'm gonna find you." "You understand?" "Well, Little Jack, Ward Allen fell to sleep in the barber chair, but not before he laid down the law." "He say don't lay a finger... upon that mustache." "Would have killed him, too, 'cept three Russians jump him." "Ambassador told Ward," ""You ever come back to Russia," "I'll march you down to the Tsar myself."" "In shackles." "All right." "You got some perishables you better eat first." "Babs' peas and collard greens." "You don't need be going to all that trouble, Little Jack." "What'd you finally write about?" "Oh, just some stories Christmas used to tell." "You know, Jack, the girls and I have been talking." "We don't see..." "That's a great idea." "Why don't you girls start your own little club?" "Dad, can I have the camera?" "Did I ever tell you the story about how Ward Allen almost killed a man for cutting off his mustache?" "No, sir." "No?" "Ward Allen's mustache, that was his pride and joy." "His father had sent him to Russia for shooting a man in a duel..." "But not before he laid down the law." "He say don't lay a finger upon his mustache." "Would have killed him, too, 'cept three Russians jump him." "Christmas Moultrie knew Ward Allen better than any other person that ever lived, and although one to the manor born and the other born to slavery, they were kindred spirits." "As a child, I hunted with Christmas." "After a long day on the river," "Christmas would sit in his rocker before the fireplace, gazing up at the picture of Ward, and tell us stories." "As we grew up, those stories became the stuff of legend." "And though none of us were related to him, there wasn't a man among us who didn't wish he had a bit of Ward Allen in him." "Damn." "I told you to keep your gloves on." "I can't work my hands in 'em." "Christmas, that sentiment has no sense about it or in it." "Mr. Ward, my hands are too cold to pull them on, and the gloves are too cold to help." "Piss on your hands, then." "Why don't you piss your own?" "My hands are neither cold nor cut, sir, allowing that, I can spare myself the indignity." "Oh, yes, sir." "You spare yourself the dignity all the time." "In-dignity." "In..." "Uh-huh, that, too." "Get in the boat before you talk all the birds right on out of here." "This dog here got more manners upon four legs than most Savannah people walking around upon two." "Generations of us have hunted on the river and fields of our county... something passed between father and son." "If history is our religion, then hunting is one of its sacraments." "Ward Allen once wrote it down," ""The river belonged to us, and we to it."" "And we to it, like a cathedral no hands of man could ever build." "This is as close as a sinner like me will ever come to the face of God." "What became tradition for my generation had once been a way of life, and for the very best hunters, it was a livelihood, supplying the markets of Savannah with fresh fowl." "Of the men that plied that trade," "Ward and Christmas were the very best." "One of these mornings, Christmas, you're gonna shoot your share of these birds." "Well, if I only shot a few of these duck," "I'd be happy just to carry my own, let you handle the rest." "See how I can tell?" "All the ones with that surprised look in their eyes, yeah, they're the ones you shot." "They can't really believe it finally happened." "I don't see no surprised look in the duck eye, Mr. Ward." "Well, see, you don't see, so you're making my point." "I do see that a bunch of them look like they dead from laughing, though, tickled to death at that silly little 7 shot you use." "Christmas, with a name like yours, you have a duty towards avoiding such sarcastic constructions." "They don't become you." "Save them $10 words for the judge." "Ward Allen's river and his way of life might have gone on forever if time and tide and the law had not had other ideas." "And the new laws found in Ward an implacable opponent." "Young blood doth not obey an old decree." "We cannot cross the cause why we were born." "Let us lose our oaths to find ourselves, or we will lose ourselves to keep our oaths." "Your Honor." "Well remembered, Mr. Allen, and, uh, nicely edited." "Thank you, sir." "But are you saying you were born to hunt, or saying you were born to break the law?" "I do recollect there are a few who say you have a natural talent for both." "I am slow of study, Your Honor, and if there is a law I truly broke," "I have not read it." "I may be a bit too good of a shot, and there may be some who try to construe that against my character, which efforts I generally choose to forbear." "But when this type of personal dispute is deranged in such a way as to bring in front of this august assembly, all I can say is, on my honor, neither my partner nor I have willingly nor willfully broken a true law!" "Or a law made in error." "Error?" "And who is the judge of that?" "Why you, sir, without question." "And, if you'll allow, there are more than a few who say you have a natural talent in that regard." "Lord, help us." "Order." "Order, please." "You..." "You expect me to believe all this?" "Mine honor is my life." "Both grow in one." "Take honor from me and my life is done." "Richard III." "The Second, Act 1." "I stand corrected." "Nevertheless, you are guilty as sin." "But in light of all the factors, probation for six months..." "Not again!" "during which time you'll be pure as the driven snow." "Thank you, Your Honor." "Once again, liberty plucks justice by the nose!" "All right." "They could have let us keep our quota." "Commissioner be eating good tonight." "Oh, there's no logic to it, Christmas." "They expect us to let the duck fly by just to go and get shot in South America." "Mr. Ward, this one right here ain't gonna make it." "Here!" "Rock!" "Heel." "Christmas, um, have the skiff at Broad quarter past 3:00 and... keep the bird for supper." "All right, then." "Evening, Mr. Ward." "Here!" "That wasn't a hug!" "I better go now." "Hey!" "Come on!" "♪ I'm a Yankee Doodle, why?" "♪" "♪ I report back to Uncle Sam ♪" "♪ So I can't shoot birds out the sky ♪" "Oh!" "Rock!" "Come on." "Good boy." "I'm certain you could shoot as many as me if you give up your aversion to gloves." "I get 36." "Order was 39." "We got 39." "Fine." "I count again." "All right, let's say we shot the same number and leave the unlikely metaphysical ramification of such a fact for another day." "Well, all right then." "You just keep carrying me," "I keep carrying your duck." "There you are." "$61.50." "Uh, pardon me, mademoiselle," "I, uh, hope he didn't disturb you." "No." "He's delightful." "Well, just the same, he's not to leave me, by arrangement of the management." "You see, he doesn't really belong in here." "Well, the same could be said for those boots." "Oh, these boots are somewhat less headstrong." "They, uh, stay better to heel." "Lucy, we're ready." "Well, now it's my turn to be called to heel." "DESK CLERK Mr. Allen, your money." "Excuse me." "Are you Mr. Ward Allen?" "Yes, I am." "Have we met?" "Well, let's just say I've met your reputation, far and wide, in fact." "Lies substantially." "Oh, so you aren't the best guide on the river then." "No, I'm no guide at all." "I am a market hunter." "Yes, you're the one." "I happen to have a house guest, a gentleman from Virginia." "He's the son of Sir Stuart Graham, close friend and colleague, and he'd like to hunt our river." "Well, any fool can find it for him." "I'm not looking for just any fool." "I'm looking for the best fool going, and they say that's you." "Is it?" "A day as a guide is a significant loss of production from my end." "Oh, money's no object." "All right, but no one touches my guns... or my dog." "Splendid." "Then we have a deal." "Your gesture is deeply appreciated, and I assure you, Mr. Graham will come well-equipped." "Careful." "That bag was a gift from the Governor of Virginia." "Well, then it should hold up just fine." "I don't know how you do this in, uh, Virginia, but here, we prefer to come unannounced." "I assure you, I've hunted India, Africa." "My steady companion..." "Are you here to hunt, or to impress the dog with your pedigree, Mr. Graham?" "If my sources are correct, and I'm sure they are, you're a bit of a paradox, Mr. Allen." "You were educated abroad, at my alma mater, Oxford, in fact." "Known as Buffalo Bill, yet you are the descendent and sole inheritor of the Allen plantation." "I'm, uh, but a laborer." "I earn that I eat, get that I wear... owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness." "Content... with my harm." "Truly of the manor born, and yet you choose a Negro as your steady companion." "No wonder Mr. Stubbs sent all the way to Virginia to find a suitor for his daughter." "Get out." "I'll do no such thing!" "I promised Miss Stubbs a fresh bird for her table." "It is your job to ensure that I keep that promise." "May I remind you that you are a paid guide?" "No good hunter takes a shot unless he knows he can't miss." "Get out." "You have not heard the last of this." "You likely stirred up trouble now with Mr. Stubbs." "Don't you have a cousin that cooks for Stubbs?" "Not saying I don't, but she'd never talk about nothin' wasn't her business." "That's right." "You, either." "That's right." "That's why you wouldn't know nothin' about Stubbs' daughter." "The one that turned down Lynah's boy?" "Which your cousin never told you about." "Exactly." "Well, look at that." "Doodly Do found his way home." "Now, sir, account for yourself." "Evening, Mr. Sheriff, Mr. Stubbs." "We had a deal, Allen." "Yes, we did." "To take a gentleman on the river." "However, Mr. Graham proved to be no gentleman at all." "See, I feared he'd bring embarrassment to you and your lovely family, boasting as it were over his intentions towards your daughter." "I..." "I..." "I resolutely refused to take a cent of your money, sir." "Please, if you will..." "Um, if I had exercised my better judgment, you would not have been exposed to this public embarrassment." "Well, appreciate that." "I'd be pleased if you'd take a pair of mallards for your table." "Well, our cook does do wonders with waterfowl." "First thing in the morning, then." "Hyah!" "Hyah!" "Quack quack quack." "Mr. Allen." "What happy accident brings you here?" "Um, I promised your father some fresh duck." "Oh, well." "A promise well kept, I see." "Oh, look, you brought your friend." "He seems glad to see me." "He's smarter than he looks." "Indeed." "Next thing I know, he'll be quoting Shakespeare." "Uh, please tell your father to, uh, remove the shot from the birds or tell your cook, whatever you plans." "Good day, Miss Stubbs." "Oh, Mr. Allen, I wish to inquire, uh..." "Father." "A man of his word." "Hmm." "Indeed." "Um, I was on the verge of asking Mr. Allen for a guide on the river." "You see, Mr. Allen, I've never seen the city from the perspective of the river, and I'm told it's quite beautiful." "And Father here has no inclination towards rowing." "Lucy, I'm sure Mr. Allen's time would be better spent at his enterprise." "Thanks very much, Ward, for the duck." "I'm sure it will be a meal to remember." "Well, the least we can do then is invite Mr. Allen for supper." "Sunday?" "The DeSoto?" "Noon, then." "All right." "Plato likens the mind of man to an aviary of birds, and birds to kinds of knowledge." "I find it a queer thing, knowledge, because no matter how tight the logic, there's always the errant fact, like..." "like... like a solitary bird, separated from the flock in search of adventure." "Are you suggesting birds can reason?" "What is reason next to yearning?" "Yes." "Well, ahem..." "tell me, Allen, with all this foreign education under your belt, how is it you choose to subject yourself to the rigors of an outdoor life?" "Why not embrace the joys of the airless boardroom?" "Well, the rewards are not subject to the whims of nature." "But instead on the whims of man's nature." "I find nature's nature far more predictable and far more, uh, honest." "Fair enough." "Can't argue with that." "Still, you do seem to have a talent for discourse and persuasion." "I could see you being very successful in the courtroom, for instance." "As a boy, I wasted many beautiful days in a dusty law office, by arrangement of my parents." "They were bent on my entering the profession." "Following the footsteps of the Honorable John Eliot Ward, no less?" "You seem to have inherited from him a fine servant in Christmas Moultrie." "My uncle saw in Christmas an accomplished guide, and he hired him for his services." "If anyone did the inheriting, it was Christmas of me." "You turn everything on its head, don't you, Allen?" "Quite the rebel." "And here I thought you'd been exaggerated." "Well, men should be what they seem." "Or those that be not, would not they be none?" "Well, I think it's absolutely delightful... a man of letters who's returned to nature." "And a sprinkle of civil disobedience for good measure." "If you are suggesting" "I'm some sort of contemporary Thoreau, you are mistaken." "I have no agenda." "I simply prefer this life." "Christmas!" "The sheriff stole our order from Ehrlich's store." "Mr. Ward?" "I am guilty of nothing but an honest day's work, while he steals a meal right off a man's table." "Mr. Ward!" "I have a good mind to write the editor of the paper, and don't think I won't." "I beg your pardon." "I think writing to the paper's a fine idea." "Miss Stubbs here hired our services." "To do what?" "Don't worry, Mr. Allen." "I simply wish to collect cuttings for my garden." "A wildflower can be cultivated in a city garden?" "Well, with the right nurturing, most anything can be cultivated." "Well, I better get these birds here over to the DeSoto before the Sheriff lock them up, too." "Yeah." "Good afternoon, Miss Stubbs." "Christmas." "I've seen artists' renderings, but I had no idea." "It's like floating on a sea of stars." "And that perfume." "It's like stars made of sugar." "Starry archipelagoes... raving skies." "Yes." "Raving skies." "My father built a solarium for my garden." "When I was a little girl, I couldn't be outside, and the solarium seemed impossibly large to fill, but I filled it till bursting." "And when there was no more room for planting," "I laid down in the middle of the floor, buried beneath the flowers and imagined I was flying." "A flying carpet." "You know Vasnetsov's painting?" "Yeah." "My father knew the Russian Ambassador." "He described it in such vivid detail," "I felt like I'd seen it with my own two eyes." "Well, now, you must have known the Russian Ambassador." "Father says you were in Russia?" "Oh, the first time I disappeared beneath the flowers, my parents couldn't find me." "Well, Father nearly had a heart attack, but..." "He'd spent my whole life trying to protect me from all kinds of imagined horrors, and there I had vanished into thin air." "It was my refuge." "If I were a bird, you wouldn't catch me." "You see, I recognize a decoy when I see one." "So, what kind of bird would I be?" "Uh, I beg your pardon?" "If I were a bird and you were hunting me, what would I be?" "Well?" "A mallard." "Particularly beautiful bird in flight." "That's all?" "Just a bunch of pretty feathers?" "Oh, no." "I enjoy a bird that uses its, uh, native cunning to outwit the hunter." "A mallard has canny." "I see." "Mmm." "There's some meaning in it, I think." "I don't know if I can put my finger on it, but... sometimes I feel as if I'm up there, pulling toward some... distant purpose." "Teach me to shoot." "What?" "Not a bird, a..." "a target." "That old barge over there, is it loaded?" "Of course, it is." "Careful, now..." "Uh..." "Here!" "Grab this, here!" "Grab it." "Grab the gun." "Hold on." "Good." "Good." "You can't swim." "Don't worry, it'll be our secret." "It's not a secret." "It's just not a publicized fact." "Oh, well, hmm..." "Truth hath a quiet breast." "You're a rare man, Ward Allen." "And while I do find your word play entertaining to a point," "I'm not a patient woman." "Can you remember that?" "I will." "Can you remember not to touch my guns?" "Yes, I can." "Okay, then." "Yes." "I've made my decision, Father." "You've ruined so many prospects, Lucy." "Hmm." "Nothing but boys, following in their father's footsteps." "I'd know my life before I had even lived it." "The man's a boor." "Ward Allen walked away from a fine inheritance." "God knows why." "He wanted to be free." "Free?" "His Negro's free." "Father!" "Lucy, don't say anymore." "Let's talk this over while we're away this summer." "I won't be accompanying you to the Vineyard, Mother." "I am neither yours to dispense nor to withhold." "Mrs. Ward Allen!" "Your beauty startles the night!" "I shall make a quick loop around the Earth and return!" "Prepare!" "Don't you dare!" "Eat no onions nor garlic..." "Stop that man!" "for we are to utter sweet breath." "I will, soon as he stops shooting'." "Make way!" "They should be there waiting for us." "Much obliged for the sleep, Officer." "My pleasure, Ward." "Hope the little lady's ready to receive you." "You know, a woman ain't an argument to win, don't you?" "One of these decoys here ain't gonna bring Miss Lucy in." "Ah, but for thy sweet understanding, Christmas, a woman." "You're a perfect beast!" "Lucy." "Lucy?" "Lucy, let me in!" "You can sleep with the dog!" "That's where you belong!" "It's Rock you should have betrothed!" "Please, my dear, at least let me in behind the privacy of closed doors." "Privacy?" "Mm-hmm." "Do you think there's a soul in Savannah that doesn't know you left my side in the middle of the night to wallow in a vat of whiskey?" "Now, Lucy..." "You're right." "I..." "I temper myself to keep my temper, and if I need to water myself down at times, well, admit it." "A smaller man could never hold your interest." "As I am, I adore you." "How well you show it." "What would you have me do, hmm?" "What would you have me do?" "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... to throw perfume on the violet... to add another hue into the rainbow." "Wasteful and ridiculous... excess." "♪ It's cold" "♪ It's cold" "♪ Now I lost my lover" "♪ It's cold" "♪ It's cold" "♪ And where shall I find her?" "♪" "Pardon the tardiness, Mr. Moultrie." "Late's still better than never, Mr. Ward." "♪ Bring me a gator" "♪ Girl, when you get off the island ♪" "♪ A ringtail 'ator" "♪ Oh, when you get off the island ♪" "Clear." "♪ A Darien gator" "♪ Girl, when you get off the island ♪" "♪ Ohh, when you get off the island ♪" "All right, that's it." "That's the last of them." "That's 10 for Ehrlich's, 20 for the DeSoto." "That's almost a quarter." "What the hell was that?" "It's Old Man Lynah!" "Ain't I tell you not to get on his property?" "Oh, sh..." "Ho!" "He knows it's us, Mr. Ward!" "Well, if he knows it's us, why is he shooting'?" "He's mad about you hitchin' up with Miss Lucy, that's why." "I did that man a favor." "Lucy'd eat his boy for lunch." "All the same, he all worked up, and you the best one to blame!" "This is ridiculous." "Let's get out of here." "Mr. Lynah, uh... truce!" "Truce." "We'll just- We'll be on our way." "Rock!" "Here!" "Yeah." "We'll..." "We'll be on out of here." "Here!" "Go on up!" "Here." "Here." "Come!" "Sit." "Come here." "Here!" "Christmas, you haven't said a word since Lynah's." "No, sir." "Why?" "I got nothin' to say, sir." "Since when?" "All I'm saying is, it would have been different it was just me." "You still mad about that?" "All I'm for saying is." "Listen up now." "Lynah was aiming to hit me, and every man around here has a right to defend his own property." "All right, then." "Afternoon, Mr. Ward." "Hey." "It is an absolute preposterous statement the outcome would have been different had I not been there." "Lynah was aimed to shoot me, all right?" "He missed and we got away!" "No, sir, you got away!" "I just be along there with you like the dog here!" "Well, if I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have chased Rock down the river and killed him!" "No, sir, he would have let your dog live!" "All I'm sa..." "Your world ain't mine, you understand?" "Can I be of any assistance, Mr. Allen?" "Gimme a whiskey." "Why do you hunt, sir?" "It's a gentleman's sport." "Makes you feel sporty, does it, huh, to shoot a bird or two?" "Do you know these birds?" "Can you tell a canvasback from a widgeon from the way it turns in the air, from how it feeds?" "Do you know the journeys they take, their determination, power of will wrapped up in that small little breast you fill so carelessly with shot?" "Do you?" "Listen to you, the original noble savage." "You know nothin', and you think about nothin'." "200 taken my way is an honest act." "It is a transaction as old as our two species." "See, I know what I do." "Two single birds taken your way, now, that's what I call a slaughter." "A gun room has guns in it!" "And a home has a husband in it." "Mr. John says you was worrisome." "What else did my uncle say, Mr. Moultrie?" "Call me Christmas that's all." "Christmas." "Well, Mr. John say they won't take the summer duck." "Oh, hell will freeze over before they take mine." "I'll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if I have to." "Young blood doth not obey an old decree." "We cannot cross the cause why we were born." "Well, Mr. Judge, the alligator got no limit, and the raccoon ain't got no limit, so why should Christmas have a limit?" "Well, this is serious, Christmas." "Repeated probationary sentences cannot be supported." "Sir, Warden Rossignol clearly states that he identified me at the distance of 200 yards at sunset." "Your Honor, this is a matter of undisputed fact." "Excuse me, Your Honor, but the undisputed facts are these." "200 yards, sunset, saw grass this time of year this high." "Person firing at ducks, who must have stood at least this deep in the mire, meaning that at 200 yards," "Warden Rossignol might deduce what species of God's creation fired the gun, but would not have been able to sex the shooter, much less identify him... or her." "Or anyone for that matter who owns a shotgun in the county." "By the way, Your Honor, you still own that Greener?" "Yes, I do." "Yeah, it's beautifully made, isn't it?" "Oh, yes." "If the English made kings the way they made guns, we'd still be a colony." "Your Honor!" "Of course, of course." "Uh, of course." "Uh, Christmas, uh, you knew it was against the law to shoot summer duck." "Yes, sir." "Well, Christmas, why then did you not dispose of the ducks?" "Sir?" "What I mean is, Christmas, when you saw the warden coming, why didn't you throw away the summer duck?" "Mr. Judge, you must never et a summer duck." "Case dismissed." "Well, go on, open it." "You've nothing left to prove with guns and bluster, Ward." "Try a different weapon." "They're building a new factory." "Imperial." "Imperial, my ass." "They cleared all but that patch over there." "The boss man's new hunting ground." "What kind of fool thinks a duck, with all the low country from here to the Everglades, is gonna fly in that concrete patch?" "It's no good here." "Hey." "Wh... where's Rock?" "Rock!" "Last I seen him, he was over by that tree there." "Mr. Ward..." "Rock always done us his best." "Now he done his last." "Shakespeare could not have said it better, Christmas." ""How a Duck Hunter Avoids Being a Sinner."" "Oh, did I tell you I found some of Ward's newspaper articles?" "Listen to this." "Called "How the Duck Hunter Avoids Being a Sinner."" ""With all sorts of unreasonable" ""and absurd restrictions on duck shooting' now," ""fella can't go out in the short open season" ""without transgressing some of the fool don'ts." ""So the safest way to avoid being a sinner" ""when a fella goes duck shooting', is not to shoot anything at all"." "Yeah, Ward was prolific." "Holding back the tide with that fountain pen Lucy gave him." "Yeah." "Trying to, anyway." "Everybody's emptying out their attics for Lila's historical society." "Homer built her, got to be 200 crates." "Won't take a nickel for them." "Homer's daddy the same." "Settled Ward's account for a couple of old guns." "You know, my daddy was on the search party found Ward's body." "Said he found him in..." "wearing his pajamas." "Some say it wasn't an accident." "What is?" "Yeah." "Well, whatever it is Ward was searching for... it eluded him." "Might as well add that to your collection." "Christmas, I..." "I found you a place to live." "It's comfortable." "It's not home, but I made sure of it." "You're gonna be comfortable." "All right." "What'd I tell you about the fire, Christmas?" "Don't get lazy while I'm gone and let it burn out." "♪ Jack t' the rack back, stick it ball a hack ♪" "♪ Low ball high ball, scallion jack ♪" "♪ Jack t' the rack back, stick it ball a hack ♪" "♪ Low ball high ball, scallion jack ♪" "♪ Jack t' the rack back, stick it ball a hack ♪" "♪ Low ball high ball, scallion jack ♪" "♪ Jack t' the rack back, stick it ball a hack ♪" "♪ Low ball high ball, scallion jack ♪" "♪ Jack t' the rack back, stick it ball a hack ♪" "♪ Low ball high ball, scallion jack ♪" "♪ Jack t' the rack back, stick it ball a hack ♪" "♪ Low ball high ball, scallion... ♪" "But I feel like a hunter with two coveys flushed at once!" "So, I ask you, which way do I shoot?" "Well, not at your fellow hunter, for God's sake." "What'd you say?" "What'd you say?" "Then at the city bird that created this abominable law?" "Why, his is but empty bravado, amateur posturing." "A creature with duck's feet, snake's heart and an ass's disposition." "No!" "It is our country cousin who, by failing to be conscientious in the use of his gun, has made our city cousin write this dreaded law." "Aye, aye, aye!" "Doodly do." "Hello, Miss Lucy." "Whatever it is you think you're hidin' from..." "I'm doin' no such thing." "You know exactly where to find me." "I don't mean from me." "What, then?" "I see you, Ward Allen." "I see what you're capable of, and I see how far you've missed the mark." "Sweetheart, you questioning my marksmanship?" "I question your choices, especially the ones that will send you to an early grave." "Woman, you'd have me your lap dog, sittin' at your heels, fetching' at your command." "Well, I tell you what, little lady, even a retriever must have its own instincts, act on its own accord, if it's to be worth its salt." "Oh, apropos you would liken yourself to a dog." "Woof!" "I am my own master." "Leave me be, woman." "Never." "You will if I say so." "So you'll shoot me?" "See me now?" "By the plaintiff's own admission, on the day in question, and by her own eyewitness account, she has established it was I that shot out cleanly the eyes of this portrait from a distance of no less than..." "15 paces, our parlor being the largest room in the house." "There are many tests of a man's relative sobriety." "And I offer to you that such a piece of marksmanship belongs among those tests." "It can only be deduced then that the esteemed lady is incorrect in one statement or the other." "Either I was drunk..." "Whoo!" "Or I made these shots." "But most certainly..." "Most certainly, the two statements stand as mutually incompatible assertions." "This is ridiculous!" "Mr. Allen, your reputation as a marksman is well established." "And clearly, I would not have to bend the law or my judgment very far to dismiss the charge and send you on your way." "Fancy logic does not change the truth!" "Sit down, please, Mrs. Allen." "Get off of me!" "However, I find it in the interest of public safety to call you guilty..." "What?" "!" "and put you in jail for 10 days." "Hear, hear!" "Order." "Order." "This is an atrocity." "Approach." "Approach now." "10 days may not be enough to cool her off." "If I were you, I would spend those 10 days using my way with words to conjure up one big Kingdom Come prayer for your salvation." "I, Ward Allen, was wrong." "I, Ward Allen, may have been wrong." "Before you check to see if the fires of hell have turned to ice, let me emphasize that I would do or have done nothing different in my life." "But it seems that perhaps our world met a fork in the road, and the world took one path, and I took the other." "Perhaps this is an inevitable result, and each of us are doomed to find ourselves on a path alone in the end, especially those of us who found the world as it was to be a close to perfect place... those who accepted that the affairs of men" "are like those of a river, where time and tide are the ultimate shapers of a life, where procreation, migration, and even death are spokes of the same wheel that turns in heaven's vault just the way it should." "But there are others who are determined to reshape that wheel and turn back the tide, and they appear ready to do it." "Maybe they are right, representing as they do, an impulse in the breast of man that drives our species toward restless industry." "Maybe we are here to remake everything, reshape everything, create our own new idea of perfection and leave God's idea to the dim shades of history." "And maybe I, having fought against that new idea, rejected that idea, found that idea abhorrent, maybe I was wrong." "But I do not think so." "Because I believe if we have grown as a species, it has been because of the test of wildness, and if we succeed in remaking wildness into mildness, then we will begin to diminish." "But all I have accomplished is a broken knuckle or two and hurting myself and my own more than those who are the target of my calumny." "So perhaps I'd do better to take my pokes on these pages and take direction from the Bard..." ""Let there be gall enough in thy ink."" "It's worth a try." "Did you read my article?" "Yes." "Good." "Is that all?" "I won't be disgraced again." "It's not befitting a mother." "Doctor Bryson is sure." "What?" "Don't speak right now, Ward." "I want you to think very, very carefully about how you feel, because I can't bear for you to tell me anything less than God's own truth." "♪ Oh, bring me a gator" "♪ Girl, when you come off the island ♪" "♪ Whoa, just a ringtail 'ator ♪" "♪ Girl, when you come off the island ♪" "♪ Just a Darien gator" "♪ Girl, when you come off the island ♪" "♪ Oh, girl, when you come off the island ♪" "♪ Oh, girl, when you come off the island ♪" "That's the quota." "12 for Ehrlich's store, 20 for the DeSoto." "Next thing you know, they'll make us buy the duck we shot back from the grocery store, twice what they paid us in the first place." "Christmas... would you look at that!" "Lucy's barge." "Lucy hit it." "I'll be damned." "One of the more improbable stories this old boat's got to tell." "You reckon she's seaworthy?" "Well, it'll float, that's what you mean." "Christmas, white oak." "Virginia." "Uncle John took me to Richmond when I was a boy." "Told me the aggression was coming." "I ever tell you about my tree house?" "Uncle John built it." "Came up to Allen Station when Sherman got near." "I was scared half to death." "He said we'd live in it, the Yankees burn the big house down." "You must have seen the war." "No, sir." "Too young to remember." "Yeah." "What's a man to do he can't work an honest day?" "Well, two hours at least before we get these duck off our hands." "I have a surprise." "Ward, don't sneak up on me like that, unless you want this baby to come early." "For the boy." "What if it's a girl?" "Anyway, I just wanted to show you." "Let me see your duck hunting face, Ward." "No." "Let him see your duck hunting face." "Now, Sheriff, I didn't take one more than the law allows." "Ward, it's Mrs. Allen." "You got yourself a little boy!" "I'm sorry, Ward." "I..." "She's resting." "I'll just sit with her." "That won't do right now, Ward." "Where..." "Where's the boy?" "Ward, you need to look past a crude understanding of the word "asylum"" "and see that it's a refuge." "There has to be another way." "She needs to be watched constantly, force-fed if need be, and bathed." "Can you do that?" "He can't even keep her in out of the rain." "Perhaps she'll come back to herself." "It..." "It's just a signature." "I have a pen." "There's something I need to show you." "My family was a grand family." "I figured out how to make my own way." "You said it yourself." "It was a lot of bluster." "But this is..." "This is real." "The river and you." "I should have brought you here before." "You're cold." "You're past the quota." "Ward!" "That was a standing order." "Game and Fish were here." "They told us if we bought anything more from you, they would take our license." "You think Judge Harden wants to find yard scratch on his plate come Sunday?" "Hmm?" "Have some backbone, Mathias!" "You are a crazy man!" "You are a crazy man!" "You want to see crazy?" "Aah!" "You want to see crazy?" "Ward..." "Let's get out of here." "This ain't the place for us no more." "♪ If you see my mother" "♪ Oh, yes" "♪ Won't you tell her from me ♪" "♪ Oh, yes" "♪ I'm a-riding my horse" "Get up!" "♪ In the battlefield" "♪ I want to see my Jesus in the morning ♪" "Has the family been here since the fire?" "Do you know these waters around here?" "This make it worth your while?" "I need a river guide." "There's nothing Mr. Allen wants?" "No, sir, Mr. Walton." "Just sell the house, give Mrs. Lucy the best." "Mr. Walton?" "Maybe there's one thing." "It's just like you say." "Mrs. Lucy gonna be comfortable." "Mr. Walton gonna to see to it." "Judge Harden say to tell you they upholding the law." "City can't go against Federal." "That's in the paper." "Judge Harden lend you his old boat." "Said keep it... long as you promise to bring him a Sunday bird every once in a while." "Mr. Homer say to post your mail to the hardware store." "Well..." "I'll pick up your mail at Homer's." "Evenin', Mr. Ward." "Jack, I just gotta confirm, you got Christmas off the land." "Listen, Roy, I've been thinking about this." "Christmas is 95 years old." "Probably gonna see 105." "He was born on Mulberry on Christmas day." "He is the last surviving member of that plantation." "He's not family." "Well, not blood, but freed slaves have rights." "John Eliot Ward wrote that deed himself." "That ain't the point, Jack." "Besides, Christmas can't even take care of himself." "He'd probably starve to death if you weren't feeding him." "Thought you were gonna save that for a special occasion?" "Well, there's..." "There's nothing as special as the present, Roy." "Let me ask you something." "You ever stop and listen to the words of the old Negro songs?" "Can't understand a word they say." "Let me sing one for you." "♪ I'm gonna sit in the humble chair ♪" "♪ I'm gonna rock from side to side ♪" "♪ I'm gonna rock from side to side ♪" "♪ Until I die" "♪ Until I die" "♪ Until I die" "♪ I'm gonna sit in the humble chair ♪" "♪ Till I die" "You're a good man, Jack... but mark my word, what you said is exactly what you're going to find one day." "You can't hold back time." "Holding back the tide with that fountain pen Lucy gave him." "You've nothing left to prove with guns and bluster, Ward." "Try a different weapon." "I've written dozens of articles on shooting and twice more than that lambasting the damn fool game laws." "I probably know more quotes from English letters than any man, save an Oxford don." "I can tell you the name, color, use, and disposition of a dozen type of feathers, and at least that many species of waterfowl." "I have a collection of Confederate money" "I saved myself, beginning before the war ended... and a lifetime of practical experience having virtually no value in the world today." "50 years on the river I love, and the damn thing has washed me up on the bank of a city I no longer recognize, inhabited by people I don't remember inviting here." "All those arguments won, and now it seems I've misplaced my winnings." "So be it." "This is where I pulled my skiff." "Christmas, you too lazy to poke at a fire once in awhile?" "I brought you a piece of Babs' pecan pie." "Johnny made her make a pie for school." "I said only on condition Christmas gets a slice." "Oh, hey, Christmas," "I read Ward's last article in the paper." "Christmas?" "Well, Little Jack," "Ward Allen fell to sleep in the barber chair, but not before he laid down the law." "He say don't lay a finger upon his mustache." ""And the Ambassador told Ward Allen," ""'You ever come back to Russia," "I will deliver you to the Tsar myself in shackles.'"" ""Christmas Moultrie knew Ward Allen" ""better than any other person that lived," ""and although one to the manor born" ""and the other born to slavery," ""they were kindred spirits." ""As a child, I hunted with Christmas." ""After a long day on the river," ""Christmas would sit in his rocker before the fireplace," ""gazing up at the picture of Ward, and with delicate slowness..."" ""talk of his white friend."" "Now, Christmas told a story, he told it exactly the same every time, not a word out of place." "But there was one story he would never tell me." "I must have asked a hundred times, how did Ward Allen die?" "I figured he'd go to his grave without me knowin'." "But I didn't see that he's been tellin' me my whole life." "And now, well..." "I think he was just holdin' on till I figured it out." "Well, did you?" "Yes, son." "I think I did." "I should have brought you here before." "Hey, look here." "Look what I got." "Look right here." "He looks like Buffalo Bill." "Yeah, he does." "Yeah, Ward was the best shot on the Savannah River." "Did I tell you about the time he shot the eyes out of Lucy's portrait?" "Clean out, just popped them out." "Oh, hey, look." "Look, right back in there." "See it?" "Is that a crane?" "Dad, how do you think Ward Allen died?" "Son, the important thing about a man's death is how it reflects his life... if it was on his own terms and... if there was some meaning in it." "There's some meaning in it, I think." "I feel as if I'm up there, pulling toward them." "Pulling toward some..." "Distant purpose."