"Hear that?" "Might say I was raised on that song." "Hearing it takes me back..." "Back to the old times when I was young, back to Walesburg." "According to the words of the song, we're promised a city of gold in the hereafter." "I used to think that was a long time to have to wait." "But I know now that there is a city of gold right here on earth for every one of us..." "The city of our youth." "Walesburg's only one name for it;" "That's all." "Walesburg not as it is now, but as it used to be." "I just have to shut my eyes, and I'm there." "Nothing's changed." "Even I haven't changed." "I'm always a boy in Walesburg." "And there at my side, just as he'll always be, is the parson... parson gray." "And passing before me are all the people who were a part of my growing up..." "People like Mrs. belcher, who took in boarders, and her niece faith Samuels, the district schoolteacher." "Sweet, pretty miss Samuels." "Did you hear that, John?" "Granny gailbraith, who could remember seeing George Washington." "Thad carroll, who had served as drummer boy at the first bull run." "Lon backett, who kept the general store and had a finger in every pie." "Even chloroform wiggins." "His ma had never heard of chloroform until he was born, and she thought it was a mighty pretty name." "And all the others," "Walesburg people." "Gone now, most of them, and yet as close to me still as people in a favorite story..." "A story that had its beginning before I was born on the day the parson arrived in our town." "Of course, this wasn't much of a town then in those first hard years that followed the war between the states, but it suited the parson right from the minute he stepped off the train and started to look around." "He must have attracted plenty of attention as he walked down main street for the first time in his brand-new black pulpit coat and faded gray cavalry breeches and his big old Bible in his hand." "But he just kept on walking till he got to Jerry Higgins' saloon." "He didn't have to call for quiet." "It just followed him through that room like a hound dog." "Boys, I'm your new preacher, and I aim to give my first sermon right here and now." "Thanks." "Now, seeing that this is as new to me as it is to you..." "I reckon we'd best begin at the beginning." ""In the beginning was the word," ""and the word was with god." "And the word was god."" "From that day on," "Walesburg and the parson kind of grew up together." "He preached around in back rooms, and he prayed in parlors, and he led the singing in barns." "And by the time work started on the parson's church, his victory was won." "Just about everybody in Walesburg took a hand in that church building." "And if ever a house of god or man was put together with loving hands, this one was." "Yes, the parson's church is one of the nicest parts of the parson's story." "And now I was in the story, too." "Had been ever since I could remember." "My parents had died when I was small, so I'd come to live in the parson's house, sharing the parson's heart with the parson's wife, who was my aunt Harriet." "What's this?" "Dinner not ready yet?" "Garfield, we better get a new cook." "Enjoy the service this morning, Harriet?" "Humph." "Well, now I'm glad to hear that." "Everyone else was saying what a good service it was, too." "John kenyon, you know, you don't have to do everything the parson does." "Yes'm." "You know, to tell you the truth," "I thought it was a pretty good service myself." "Don't you laugh at me, Mr. gray." "Why, Harriet, honey, what gives you the idea I'm laughing at you?" "Here I am standing around with a big smile on my face just 'cause I feel good, and you..." "Yes, well, all I have to say is, you ought to feel ashamed of yourself." "I was brought up to believe that a man who broke his solemn promise to a lady was a pretty poor sort of a man." "Oh, Harriet, I guess you found me out." "I am a pretty poor sort of man." "I was intending to mention it sooner." "Something always came up." "This morning was just the last straw." "You know you promised me time and time and again that as long as I played the organ for the services," "I could choose the hymns." "So I have." "Yes, and promise is all you do." "Never mind what I want to sing;" "what anybody else in Walesburg wants to sing." "Oh, no, week in, week out," "IT'S THAT OLD STARS IN MY CROWN." "I LIKE STARS IN MY CROWN." "Oh, I know you do, Mr. gray." "I assure you, it's common knowledge." "Never hear the last of it in this world." "And I suppose if you have your way, it'll be the same in the next." "John, you put those shoes and stockings right back on." "They make my feet hot." "I don't care." "You're not going to run around barefoot on the sabbath." "It isn't respectful." "Shoo." "Aw, Garfield." "Language?" "Now, John, do exactly as your aunt Harriet says." "Any woman who can bake a chocolate cake as good as this deserves all the consideration she can get." "Now, Harriet, honey, about this hymn business." "It's for you to say what you want done and for me to do it." "Don't be shy about expressing your desires." "Just speak right up, and I won't open my mouth..." "Except to do the preaching." "If the day ever comes when you don't open your mouth..." "That's my last word, Harriet..." "Except to do the preaching." "After the parson and my aunt Harriet, the most important people in my world were uncle famous prill and his old dog belle." "Uncle famous knew everything about hunting and fishing, and I don't guess there was a boy or man in Walesburg who hadn't had him for a teacher." "John:" "Hello, John." "Hello, chloroform." "Hello, uncle famous." "Chloroform." "Where are y'all going?" "Fishing." "That's where I thought you was going." "Well, good-bye, John." "Bye, chloroform." "Bye, uncle famous." "Chloroform." "Boy, possess yourself." "Leave Mr. frog be." "He ain't gonna help you catch no fish." "Oh, they ain't biting today." "Maybe they ain't, and maybe they is, but I just seen a big old catfish come sneaking this way." "I know just what he's thinking." "He's thinking," ""uh, that old man, he's too smart for me," ""but that boy, he's so taken up with Mr. frog," "I'm gonna grab his dough ball and just scat away."" "Now, how'd you know he was thinking that?" "I been on close terms with catfish ever since I was big enough to scratch myself with my left hand." "If I don't know what they's thinking, who does?" "Where'd he go to?" "He didn't say." "Oh, there he is now!" "Get out the way." "Oh, that's a big one." "Stand back, now, stand back." "Well, bang my time." "I done spake in pride, and the lord had his ear out and heard me." "Go on home." "Your mammy wants you." "Whoa, whoa." "Famous, I'd like to talk to you." "Howdy, Mr. backett." "Hot." "Yes, sir." "Famous, got some good news for you." "You know that mica vein I've been working on my 60 acres over the hill from your place?" "And making a mighty good thing out of it, too." "Well, that vein has run smack-dab into your property line." "Found out about it first thing this morning." "Now, what do you say to that?" "Well, sir, I don't know." "I don't see it's anything to do with me." "Why, it's your property, ain't it?" "It ain't my property." "If I don't get title to that land," "I'll have to close down the mine." "So, here I am with a little proposition." "60 cents an acre, cash in hand, or you can take it out in credit at the store." "Done?" "Sell my land?" "That's the ticket." "Mmm." "Well, sir, thanks all the same, but I been making out on that place a sight of years now." "Yes, but that isn't what I asked you." "Yes, sir." "What I mean is that..." "Well, I..." "I reckon I'm just too old to make a change." "Not enough money for you, huh?" "Sir?" "Now, no hard feelings." "Mind you, I like a sharp trader," "I always did." "Only wished I was one myself." "I'll give you 80 cents an acre, provided you take out half in credit at the store." "Well, sir... 80 cents an acre, that's 80 times 20." "That's $16, famous, more money than you ever seen." "Mr. backett, let me ask you something." "I got this here suit of overalls, ain't I?" "Yeah." "I got a long-tailed coat for Sundays." "Uh-huh." "A house, got a bed, and I gets my vittles" "3 times every god's day, don't I?" "Yeah." "Mr. backett, what does I want with $16?" "Now, you look here." "The boys I've got working for me ain't gonna blame me when the mica mining has to stop and their good wages along with it." "It ain't me they'll be throwing down on when their women and children has to do without." "No, sir," "I wouldn't want such as that on my conscience." "Think it over, famous." "Yes, sir." "Giddap." "Watch your pole, boy!" "Get ahold of it!" "Get ahold before he takes it away!" "Hook him out of there!" "Pull 'im!" "Pull 'im!" "That's right." "Look at that!" "That's a cat." "Catch his mouth and watch his fins." "If he pinch you, he'll poison you." "Your hand will swell up like a puff adder bit you." "Get away from there, belle!" "That's a nice one." "Well, well, many happy returns to the day, son." "Howdy, famous." "Howdy, parson." "Just met lon backett driving off looking mad enough to bite himself." "Is that true what I been hearing about that mica vein of his going over to your side of the fence?" "I reckon it's true, right enough." "People are telling it like it's a big joke." "Myself, I don't think it's so funny." "I don't want to make no trouble for nobody, parson, but that's my place." "I ain't never had no other." "What's going to happen to me if I has to sell my land?" "Uncle famous doesn't have to sell, does he, parson?" "You're a free man, famous." "That's right, uncle famous, 'cause the law says." "Just saying a good thing don't make it so." "Lon backett puts me in mind of an old foxhound I used to have name of governor dobbs." "Old gov had a voice like a $12 bugle, and he loved to use it." "Seemed like he just wasn't happy enough to live unless he could tell everybody what to do." "Got to where every time I turned him loose in the pack, he'd start giving tongue whether he picked up the scent or not, just to prove he was top dog." "Ha ha ha!" "Some folks are like hounds in that respect, I reckon." "Good story." "Don't rush me." "Trouble was, when it come to trailing, ol' gov never did know a buck rabbit from a Bumblebee." "You know what that fool dog did?" "He led the whole pack plumb into a flock of skunks." "Ah, I guess lon backett will have to kick up an almighty big stink before he learns his lesson." "You ready to go, John?" "I thought we'd stop by the isbell place on the way home." "Come again soon." "We'll sure do that." "Hey!" "Josh!" "I guess the parson and I had been out to the isbell place a hundred times." "The parson used to say the isbell farm was everything a farm should be." "Hey, jed." "Jed!" "Jed!" "My!" "What's more, he acted like he thought jed isbell himself was everything a man should be..." "Anyway, almost everything." "Well, now!" "Climb down!" "Get a drink of the best well water in the county!" "How's that game leg of yours?" "Oh, just tol'able, j.D., just tol'able." "A lot of folks thought jed isbell was a strange friend for a preacher to have, but then, the parson and jed had fought side by side from fort donelson to missionary Ridge." "The war had welded bonds that nothing, it seemed, could break." "How you been there, j.D.?" "Fine, fine." "Guess you ain't heard the news." "Hey, jed!" "Jed, you've got enough tow-headed sons to start a Swedish Sunday school." "Howdy, parson." "What was your news?" "Oh, nothing special, I just bought 40 acres of bottom land from the widow Matthias, that's all." "More land?" "Yes, the boys here sort of talked me into it." "I guess they felt that I wasn't keeping 'em busy enough." "Ohh!" "Ha ha ha!" "It was a good buy, prime soil." "I figure we'll get a bale an acre off of that land." "You'll do it, all right." "You got the lord on your side." "Don't you know that by now?" "Well, now let me see, parson." "I don't remember taking on any extra hands lately." "Just me and the missis and the boys and two good mules named Sam and ike." "I think we'll get along without any help from the lord." "Well, folks can get along without eyes, too, but they can't see." "Come on, John." "You boys ought to take better care of this old Billy goat..." "Keep him out of fights he can't win." "See you, parson, good-bye, now." "Ow!" "How are you, Sarah?" "Just fine as silk, thank you, parson." "My, don't they grow!" "They sure do." "These are for Harriet." "Thanks." "And if you're going by Harris' place," "I'd be obliged if you leave this soup for old doc." "Tell bessie just to add water." "Can you remember that?" "Remember that, John." "When you coming to church, jed?" "Just as soon as you get god to plow that bottom land for me." "Shame." "I'll see what I can do." "Ha ha ha!" "Get along, Josh!" "What's the matter, chloroform?" "Yeah, what are you running away for?" "He's not gonna hurt you." "Don't you let him hurt you, chloroform!" "Now, Perry, I didn't say you couldn't knock it off." "I just asked you not to do it." "You said I couldn't." "Isn't that what he said, boys?" "That's what he said." "Sure did, he sure did!" "Wow!" "Did you see that?" "Ow!" "He's scared!" "He's right scared." "Now, Perry, I was just joking all the time." "Perry, I..." "I think I'll just draw your picture on that wall." "Now, now, Perry, now, pe..." "Say, Perry, don't you think that's about enough?" "It's enough when I say it's enough." "Pick up your hat and get out of here." "Ohh!" "Perry puts me in mind of a colonel I had once." "He never learned to protect his rear." "Doc?" "Oh, doc?" "Well?" "Well, Dan Harris." "You just get home?" "I arrived in Walesburg last night." "I take it you came to see my father." "I have a present for him from Sarah isbell." "You're supposed to add water..." "Well, he's resting." "He can't be disturbed." "He's not worse, is he?" "He's tired out." "So am I;" "Half the town's been here today, and the other half sent word they'd come tomorrow." "Well, he can't improve under that kind of treatment." "Nobody could." "I'd appreciate it, mister..." "If you'd spread the word that we're not holding open house here." "Well, don't get excited, Dan." "We want him to get well as much as you do." "Give him a chance." "Please stay away from him." "If there's any messages..." "Dan!" "You, Dan, who you clamoring at?" "That the parson?" "Kendall!" "Yes, sir, it's the parson." "Well, send him out here." "It's me he come to see, not you." "Side porch." "Well, good to see you at this hour." "Sit down, sit down, put your feet up." "I'm afraid I can't stay." "Oh, you don't want to pay no attention to Dan." "I was treating heart cases before I met his mother." "Put your feet up and be comfortable." "You sure there's anything wrong with you?" "You look spryer than a jaybird to me." "The fact is, if you want to know it," "I've walked out of my front door for the last time." "Next time I make the trip," "I'll be riding in style, and you'll be helping to carry me." "For once, doc, I hope you're wrong." "Well, for once I ain't." "Here's Dan come to chase you away." "Calls himself a doctor." "Well, I learned more medicine holding ol' doc Gilbert's horse than he'll ever know." "Here, what..." "What are you doing?" "I'm entitled to one pipe a day, ain't I?" "One pipe a day, parson." "Ha!" "Doctor's orders." "It's warm." "You ain't no doctor." "You're a dadblamed detective." "And quite a stranger in Walesburg at that." "We're hoping this time he'll take off his hat and stay awhile." "Oh, Dan's home to stay this time, ain't you, Dan?" "If you say so, pop." "Yes, everything's ready for you..." "Ready and waiting." "You won't even have to change the shingle." "We don't have to talk about it now, do we?" "Walesburg won't be needing a new doctor for years yet." "Well, don't do no harm to make plans, son." "I remember the day you was born." "I ran up and down the street like a short-pantsed kid, telling everybody I met," ""got another doctor in the family now."" "I never did make a plan that didn't have you in it." "But somehow lately, my feelings for you are kind of getting all mixed up with my feelings for this town, the folks in it." "I've lived so close to 'em and taken care of them so long, they're almost as much my family as you are." "Well, you look after them for me..." "You and the parson here." "Now, pa, don't..." "Yes, bessie, what is it?" "Someone wants the doctor." "I told..." "You tell them the doctor's resting." "Well, who is it, bessie?" "The widow Smith, she's got them pains in her chest again." "She's bad." "Annie Smith?" "Yeah." "Reckon you'd better go, son." "I don't know about that, sir, they asked for Dr. Harris." "Bessie, you're a fool!" "You go and tell them Dr. Harris is coming!" "Well, son..." "I just..." "I wish it was anybody but Annie Smith." "That's one case he ain't likely to win, and it's good to win the first time." "I reckon I don't have to tell you that, parson." "I reckon you ain't forgot the first time you got up to preach down yonder in Jerry Higgins' saloon." "Come to think of it, Dan's worse off than I was." "At least I didn't have your shoes to fill." "Yeah, he'll fill 'em, all right." "Right now, he's a little long on education and a little short on sense." "He's got a lot to learn." "Even with that, he's a better doctor than I am." "Don't you tell him I said so." "Got a match?" "Uh-uh." "Well, I may as well smoke here." "No smoking in the hereafter." "Parson, you're wanted over to the widow Smith's." "How's Annie?" "Not so good, I'm afraid." "What do you want?" "I've come to say a prayer for Annie." "Mrs. Smith's very ill." "If you really want to help her, you'll get out and leave her to me." "Parson?" "Parson?" "I'm right here, Annie." "Parson..." "It's all over." "No, doctor, it's just beginning." "You can go in now." "The rest of you had better go home." "Here, you, what have you done to your hand?" "Dropped the stove lid on it 2, 3 days ago." "Don't amount to nothing." "Well, it will amount to something if it isn't properly attended to." "Why haven't you seen a doctor?" "Doc Harris is sick, ain't he?" "You call around tomorrow." "I'll take care of it." "Don't amount to nothing." "Dan?" "Good night." "Dan, I was thinking of a saying your father has." "He says if the lord wants a person bad enough, it's not up to him to stand in the way." "Mr. gray, we'd better get something straight right now." "I love and admire my father, but that doesn't mean that I have to accept his ways." "As long as I'm doctor in this town, you'll oblige me by asking my permission before you interfere with my patients." "I don't know about interfering." "I came out here tonight because I was sent for, same as you." "We'll be meeting like this right along now, and you may as well get used to it." "Souls don't always enjoy perfect health, you know, any more than bodies do." "Well, I'm not interested in souls, Mr. gray." "And when I want a sermon on the subject," "I'll come to church for it." "Good." "I'll be glad to preach you one." "Well, that'd be a waste of your time..." "And mine." "Good night." "Good night, Dr. Harris." "Yes, he's right here." "Someone to see you..." "Dr. Harris, this is Bobby Sam carroll." "Bobby Sam, quiet down, dear." "The doctor isn't going to hurt you." "We've had a little accident with a fish hook." "Yes, where?" "Why, at the Sunday school picnic." "Oh!" "Oh, it's caught in his leg." "You see, it won't come out this way because of the Barb, and it won't come out this way because of the eye for the fishing line, you know?" "Yes." "Yes." "Bobby Sam!" "I'm afraid some of the older boys have been frightening him." "With stories about me?" "Never mind." "Now, John, what did I tell you?" "Nothing terrible's going to happen." "John was showing Bobby Sam how to cast, and the first thing..." "Dr. Harris!" "Let me have one of your hatpins." "Look here, stop that!" "Now, look." "This is you, and this is that fishhook sticking into you." "Now here's the eye." "That's for the fishing line, you know." "Now, I'm going to take and cut the eye right off that hook like this." "Then I'm going to pull the shank out with one pull, like this." "See?" "That's all there is to it." "Now, you're not going to make a fuss about a little thing like that, are you?" "{There'd be...* 8!" "8 green bottles!" "Some other time, Bobby Sam." "Come on, pinhead." "Oh, and we're very grateful to Dr. Harris, aren't we?" "Please don't mention it, miss..." "Samuels, faith Samuels." "I guess I was still in short dresses when you went away to study." "I'm the schoolteacher now." "I live next door." "Miss Samuels, what makes you think I never saw a fishhook before?" "Why, I didn't say..." "Do I impress you as the sort of man who..." "Well, who isn't the sort of man who goes fishing?" "Well, you..." "Do I, or do I not, miss Samuels?" "Yes, you do." "I see." "Thank you." "I have to go in." "Aw!" "Why, Dr. Harris." "Miss Samuels," "I came to inquire if you would care to go driving with me some morning fairly soon." "I thought maybe we might take a lunch and go as far as tom's creek." "We might even do some fishing." "Why, I..." "I would be delighted." "Good." "We'll start tomorrow at 8:00." "Folks wondered what a sweet girl like faith could see in young doc Harris." "I guess the only person who knew the answer to that was faith herself." "As for young doc, when he drove her home that afternoon, he drove slowly, as though he didn't want the day to end." "All aboard!" "Faith:" "{THERE'D BE..." "Faith:" "But the happy day was forgotten when he saw the silent crowd in front of his father's house." "Don't they sound plain all of a sudden?" "Wind's freshening." "I know it." "Pa had a hound once, chased a fox for 10 days." "Only give up when he died of starvation." "Pa says I'm named after him... chase." "Aw, that's just a joke." "I know it." "Sounds like this old fox is working his way around that hollow in back of uncle famous' place." "Most likely got his hole up there." "Most likely fixing to hole up." "You don't have to tell me everything that's happening." "I wasn't telling you." "I was just saying." "All right." "On the way home, you want to stop by and see uncle famous?" "What for?" "Aunt Harriet made a big pan of gingerbread yesterday." "I brought him some." "Maybe it's all gone." "It was a big pan." "Sounds like that fox changed his mind about holing up." "Sounds like he's doubling back across uncle famous' place." "I know what it sounds like." "I was just talking." "You don't have to listen." "Whoa, whoa." "Famous!" "Come on over here." "Famous, what in tobit's been happening here?" "!" "Some kind of accident?" "No, sir, I reckon it wasn't no accident." "Told you how it'd be when I had to close down the mine." "No, sir, t'ain't in nature for men to sit quiet whilst the bread's took out of their mouths." "Famous, I tell you what I'll do." "I'll make you one more offer for this land of yours." "50 cents an acre, cash on the barrelhead." "What do you say?" "Mr. backett, that's uncommon kind." "Aw, no, it ain't nothing." "But I told you before," "I couldn't see no reason why I should sell my land, and there ain't nothing happened to change my mind." "Nothing's happened?" "!" "No, sir." "Why, your stock's gone, ain't it?" "Your stores is gone." "Your feed and green crop, your corn crop." "Where you fixing to get money to buy seed to plant again?" "How you aim to restock and rebuild?" "How you gonna live?" "Where's the money coming from?" "Why, you old fool, you'll starve to death!" "Tom..." "Go on home and fetch some seed corn out of the crib." "Cabe, tell your ma we'll be wanting some chickens and all the bacon and meal she ain't got any use for." "Jeb, we'll be needing the mules and the plow." "Rolfe, you and me better start cleaning up this field." "Mr. isbell?" "Just don't mention it, don't mention it." "No, sir." "You's a real Christian, sir." "When you coming to church, jed?" "Hup!" "Get along there!" "Hey, if you was god, what'd be the first thing you'd do?" "Heap of things." "No, I mean the first." "I don't know." "What'd you do?" "Well, first off," "I'd make it so it was summer all the time." "No Christmas?" "Oh, I'd have it in the summertime." "I'd have everything in the summertime... 'cause that's all there'd be, just summer all the time." "Gee, what about school, though?" "Oh, there wouldn't be any school." "Whoever heard of having school in the summer?" "Whoever heard of having Christmas in the summer?" "Well, god could do it if he wanted to." "Gee." "Another thing." "If you was god, and it was summer all the time, and there wasn't any school, what would the schoolteachers do?" "I don't know." "I haven't come to that yet." "But I know one thing." "There'd be wars all the time..." "Fighting every day, but nobody'd get killed." "Who'd win?" "Well, my side, of course, and I'd be the general." "And I'd ride around on a white horse just like Robert e." "Lee, and I'd never wear any shoes." "That ain't fair." "You'd have all the fun." "What's the good of being god if you can't have all the fun?" "Pinhead." "Ha ha!" "Hey, here comes somebody." "Hurry, close the well up." "It's the enemy." "Hurry up!" "Whoa, whoa." "I'll only be a minute." "Faith, can't I have an answer..." "A real answer this time?" "Look, I've done everything you said." "I've waited." "I've tried to be patient." "Dan, please." "I know what I'm asking." "I'm asking you to leave this town, your home where you've lived all your life and where you're loved and secure." "I'm asking you to give all of that up just to be with me." "All I want is to be with you." "You know that." "John!" "Yes'm?" "Have you got your new shoes on?" "Well, let me see you walk in them." "Hurry up, now, I want those shoes broken in before school takes up." "Why do I have to wear those shoes to school anyway?" "They don't make me any smarter." "Well, we can always hope." "Walk!" "Whoa!" "Here's the parsonage, professor." "Good morning, buckaroo." "Your pa to home?" "He ain't my pa." "Well, whoever he is, tell him I want a chin with him." "Yes, sir, I'll fetch him." "Hold on, there." "What's that sticking out of your ear there?" "Parson?" "Parson?" "Parson!" "Parson!" "A man just pulled a watch out of my ear." "Parson gray?" "Yes, sir." "Your servant, ma'am." "Parson, I'm Sam Houston Jones from the panhandle of Texas..." "A businessman, sir, as you can see." "My line is to make folks happy inside and out." "Now, in pursuit of my policy," "I aim to put on a little entertainment tonight in town, and I'd sure be obliged if you'd come along and share in the festivities." "I'm prepared to give your church 10% of the proceeds if you do." "Isn't that a little unusual?" "Nothing unusual about it..." "Just stimulates confidence." "See, if I can tell the folks in these parts that their parson's planning on coming, they'll know it's all right for them to come, too." "What does your entertainment consist of?" "Well, sir, there's a band, there's frank Zeke there." "Play any kind of musical instrument you can mention." "Frank sings, too, he's got a voice like a cross-eyed meadowlark." "I'm the featured attraction." "I do magic tricks and give educational talks, illustrated." "With a free sample." "What do you say, parson?" "Well, I'm, uh, sorry, mister... uh, professor Jones." "I'm afraid I can't accept your kind offer." "Aw!" "However..." "If you should decide to come to services at my church next Sunday and put something in the collection, that's your business." "And, of course, if I decided to bring my family to your show tonight, that's my business." "I won't promise to buy any medicine, though." "Ha ha ha!" "Oh, come here, buckaroo." "Come here, son." "What in the world have you got in your other ear?" "Why, it's not in your ear at all, there it is right there." "Uncle famous." "Good evening, famous." "Evening." "Evening, parson." "Step aside, folks, and let the parson pass." "Evening, Mrs. gray." "Good evening." "Good evening." "Oh, is that a new hat, Ms. gray?" "No, it isn't new." "It's just my old one with a different ribbon on it." "Step this way, folks." "Right this way." "Let the parson in there, please." "Hey, jed." "Hey." "How's that game leg of yours?" "Tol'able, j.D., just tol'able." "Maybe you ought to buy some of that medicine." "They say it's good for old folks." "Don't seem to help you much!" "Ha ha ha!" "I don't think that's very funny." "What's the matter?" "You feeling bad?" "Now, ain't this a silly way for a full-grown man to make a living?" "All right, now let's get it nice and quiet here, folks." "Quiet down." "Nice and quiet." "My friends, you are about to witness for the first time on any stage, a feat of black magic, legerdemain, and sleight of hand taught to me by an old Indian friend." "A feat astounding, confounding, and pretty near impossible..." "You wait and see if it ain't." "Now I'm gonna require the assistance of some young gentleman from the audience." "How about you, buckaroo?" "You'll lend a hand, won't you?" "Come on up here." "Don't be shy." "You don't have to go up there if you don't want to." "That's it." "Well, it's the parson's boy." "My goodness sakes." "Fine husky boy you got here, parson, yes, sir." "What in the world have you got in under there now?" "Just a minute, let's see." "What in the world is this?" "Just look at that." "Look at that!" "Does this belong to you?" "Now, don't you let it worry you." "You just stand..." "Now, he's got something in here, too." "Now what in the world is this?" "Hold on." "Look at that... sausages." "3 sausages, 4 sausages, 5 sausages..." "A whole crock of sausages." "Oh, what do you know?" "He brought his supper along with him." "You hungry, buckaroo?" "Of course you are." "I never seen a boy your age yet that wasn't." "And we're gonna do something about that right now." "Bring on the fixings, boy." "Yes, sir." "Lookahere, buckaroo, are you game to sample some of my celebrated specialty..." "Professor Jones' popular 'n penetrating' pickapoo pudding'?" "Won't take but a minute to throw it together here." "We'll just put some flour and some water in there, then some fine old aged pickle juice." "Put that right in there." "Pulverized apple core, and some essence of old rubber overshoes." "Any of you ladies out there like a recipe of this unusual dish, you're mighty welcome to come around after the show and ask for it." "Just bring along your paper and your pencil and some smelling salts, that's all." "Now a pinch of baking soda." "We'll put that in there." "Some melted candle wax, and how about it, men..." "Wouldn't you like to see something different on the table for a change?" "Sure would!" "Well, you just ask for delicious, pernicious pickapoo pudding'." "Now I will finish it off with a dash of this famous pickapoo extract." "We'll garnish it with a tail feather of a tom Turkey." "We'll let it simmer awhile, put the lid down on it tight closed..." "Hold that, boy, will you?" "Now we'll repeat the magic formula... abbadickadabba duzza duzza buzza da buzzadabaloo presto chango, and there's your pudding." "Well, don't you want to see how it turned out, son?" "Come on, let's have a look at it." "That's all today." "Thank you very much." "Now, if you folks will gather in here a little bit closer, when you hear the name of my product, old Jones' lodestone tonic, well, friends, there are just 3 words I want you to remember." "What are these 3 words, my friends?" ""There is hope," that's what they are." "Now, friends, I don't care what's your ailment..." "Be it the lights or the liver, be it the nerves of the organ, be it recurring, malignant, epidemic..." "Fetch young doc Harris." "He didn't eat much supper to speak of." "We thought it was just the excitement of the show." "I'm afraid it's typhoid." "Slow fever?" "What can we do?" "Not much." "Keep him as comfortable as possible." "Give him a spoonful of this if he gets restless." "And ice when the fever's bad." "Now, listen." "He's young, and he's strong." "He's got everything on his side." "With a little luck, there's no reason why he shouldn't come through this all right." "Let's go down to the creek." "Let's go swimming." "Let's have a drink." "I'm thirsty... awful thirsty." "The sun's so hot." "Let's put our heads in the water." "You haven't slept for days." "I'm gonna put you to bed." "I'm not tired." "Just lie down a little while, honey." "I'll be right here all the time." "I'll call you if anything..." "Remember what the doctor said?" "It's up to John now." "That's the way." "Days sure seem like years at a time like this." "All I can think of now is the times" "I wasn't sweet to him;" "the times I spoke sharply to him." "I don't know if he always understood." "A little boy doesn't always understand that you love him and still speak sharply to him." "It's so hard to know." "He's always been just the same as my own to me..." "Just exactly the same." "Maybe it hasn't been the same for him." "I suppose it's foolish of me to think it could ever be the same." "Don't talk, honey." "I just wish I'd been sweeter to him, that's all." "He's such a good boy." "He's never done anything really bad." "I just wish I could tell him what a good boy he's been, what a blessing." "Harriet!" "Aunt Harriet?" "Yes, dear?" "I'm hungry." "Gray:" "You're going to be late, Mr. gray." "Come on, up, up, up." "What about you?" "You going to church like that?" "I'm playing hooky today, like you." "Mr. gray..." "Plenty of time, Harriet, plenty of time." "Oh, you always say that." "Here." "I declare, Mr. gray, I could get your whole..." "Congregation ready for church..." "Before I could you." "Well, Harriet, you have to admit the result's worth the bother." "Hmm." "You don't sound like you mean it." "Maybe you're still looking for that straight stick." "That's such an old joke." "Gonna miss your sweet voice today." "Sometimes you sound just like a ribbon drummer." "Now, go." "John, you mind you keep your window open, you can hear the singing." "ARE YOU GONNA SING STARS IN MY CROWN?" "I think that might be arranged." "Oh, don't you cut your eyes at me, you two." "I know just what you're thinking, and it won't do you a particle of good." "Gussie Lou lyles is going to oblige you at the organ, Mr. gray, and the hymns are all picked out." "Would you like to know what they are?" "You see, John?" "You can't get ahead of your aunt Harriet." "Straight stick, indeed." "Straight stick what?" "Oh, it's just an old story." "I never heard it." "It's about the young man who used to come call on me." "Tell me the story, aunt Harriet." "Well, you see, before I met the parson," "I was never satisfied with any of the suitors who came calling." "I used to laugh at them and make jokes about the way they acted." "Finally, my mother said to me," ""Harriet, I once knew a man" ""who went walking in the woods" ""looking for a good, straight stick" ""to make into a walking cane." ""He hadn't gone far before he found" ""what he thought was the proper oak limb." ""But as he went to cut it," ""he noticed it wasn't quite" ""straight enough to suit him." ""I'LL JUST LOOK A LITTLE LONGER, SAID THE MAN." ""And it was the same with every tree in that wood." ""The first thing he knew, it was dark," ""and he'd spent the whole day in that wood, and he didn't have anything to show for his trouble."" "Mama said," ""Harriet, that's the way you are about men."" ""Why," she said, "every man born" ""has something the matter with him." ""And if you're looking for the perfect man, you'll never find him."" "But the minute I saw the parson," "I knew mama was wrong." "Aunt Harriet?" "Yes, dear?" "You know," "I'm glad I live with you and the parson instead of with a ma and pa like other boys." "Did you hear what I said?" "I was still in bed when school opened, but the parson went down as usual to start the term off in style." "Now, there's one thing more I'd like to ask you." "How many of you say your prayers regular?" "Fine, fine." "That's first-rate." "Just so you don't get to leaning so hard on god's help that you forget how to help yourselves." "Puts me in mind of a time..." "I think it was in the battle of chattanooga in '63..." "My horse fell with me, see, and I had to make a dive for cover." "Well, I lit right alongside this old tobacco-chewing Lance corporal." "He looked at me laying there on the ground, and he looked at the Bible sticking out of my pocket." "He says to me, "son"," ""just 'cause you're a prayin' man don't mean you don't have to keep your hind end down."" "Well, I know it's been a long summer, and you're all anxious to get back to your books." "I think those books will keep for one more day, don't you, children?" "Class dismissed." "Mr. gray, I'd like a word with you." "May I ask what you're doing here?" "May I ask why you're asking?" "Use your head, man." "There's typhoid fever in your house." "If you don't want to spread it all over town, you'd better go home and stay there." "Now, wait a minute." "Last I heard, slow fever came from bad drinking water, not from bad preaching..." "Or even from good preaching." "Kindly allow me to know my business." "Did you visit John this morning?" "Yes." "You stood around talking to him?" "Sat on his bed... touched him?" "Yes, I suppose I did." "Well, that makes you a potential carrier." "Don't you realize that?" "Don't you realize that by coming down here today, you might have exposed these children and miss Samuels to infection?" "You can stop right there." "Sure, I've been going in and out of John's room." "So have you." "I've been going about my business, paying calls and making speeches." "So have you." "If there's anything in what you say," "I reckon they ought to lock us both up." "How long do you suppose this town could manage without me or somebody like me who'd do my work?" "Who'd do mine?" "School had hardly opened when it had to close again." "Faith Samuels was down with slow fever." "And in no time, lights were burning till daylight all over town as the sickness spread and kept on spreading." "You're late, Mr. gray." "I stopped by the isbell place." "Chase has got slow fever." "Chase too?" "Don't say anything to John." "I never saw jed in such a state." "He's scared." "Wanting to yell for help, not knowing who to yell to." "To tell you the truth, I'm scared myself." "Come and eat." "7, no, 8 cases this week." "Faith Samuels, Kim aldridge, effie meyers..." "Both the ware girls." "Little Carol bowie, Bobby Sam." "And now chase." "And tomorrow, someone else..." "Unless we find the source." "We've got to find it." "When Mr. backett came by with my provisions, he said he thought it mighty strange that you hadn't thought to examine the school well." "If lon backett had half the brains he was born with, he'd know it couldn't be the school well." "John came down with the fever first." "That was before school even started." "That's so." "This chicken pie is good." "Chicken pie?" "Why, Mr. carroll." "What is it, thad?" "The missis sent me, parson." "It's our Bobby Sam." "He's... parson, will you come?" "Of course I will." "Oh, go in if you want to." "I've given up trying to tell you what to do." "But there's a child dead in that house who might be alive and well if it weren't for you." "You've said enough!" "He's dead." "Oh." "I'll go straight over." "No, wait." "I told you, didn't I, about having words with Dan Harris down at the schoolhouse?" "Happened again tonight." "He has a notion all this is my fault." "He's pretty near got me believing him." "How does he mean, your fault?" "He means I picked up the fever from John and passed it on to the other kids somehow." "Even gave it to faith and no telling how many others." "It isn't true." "Who are we to say it isn't true?" "He's a doctor, he's a good doctor." "He knows his business." "I guess I should have listened to him that day, but he riled me, kind of." "Now I keep thinking maybe he was right." "Maybe he's been right all the time, only now it's too late..." "Too late for Bobby Sam, anyway." "Harriet, what am I going to do?" "You're going to keep on, of course, the same as always." "Why, now, with all this trouble, now's the time when people need you most." "They... you know what Dan Harris told me, right off?" ""Go home and stay there."" "I wasn't man enough to do it." "I can't say whether I'm man enough to do it now, but..." "I aim to find out." "Tomorrow, though." "The services?" "There aren't gonna be any services." ""Services will not be held at this church" ""until further notice." ""We ask your prayers for the sick." "J.D. Gray, pastor."" "When the parson closed the door to the church, he also closed the door on himself." "It was all he could do now for the folks who trusted him." "The rest was up to young doc Harris." "So, in a way, you see, this unhappy time was young doc's real homecoming." "Now, for the first time, he knew how good it was to be needed;" "good to be watched for and welcomed like a trusted friend." "It was even good to go red-eyed and dog-tired, snatching sleep wherever he could on the road from house to house in order that others might sleep easier because of him." "He just couldn't go on feeling a stranger among folks whose lives had suddenly become a part of his life." "It's all right." "He'll recover." "Oh, thank god." "The lucky ones, like the isbells, whose faces spoke their thanks to him better than any words, and the others, like Kate and Harry ware, whose sorrow was his sorrow." "I did all I could." "I know, doc." "I reckon what we need now is another kind of help." "Then it began to seem to young doc that perhaps he, too, stood in need of another kind of help." "But beyond that lighted window, if he'd only known it, was a man in deeper need than his." "All that we had in those days came from the people of Walesburg." "The house that sheltered us, the food we ate, the clothes we wore." "But what we learned to value most was none of these things." "It was the living faith in the hearts of those who gave them." "We'd never been rich..." "Except in that." "And now we were poor indeed." "For days, no one had come knocking at the parsonage door." "And for the first time since I could remember, there wasn't enough to eat." "If you're going out, put on your other coat." "Did I mention I was going out?" "I thought you might be going up to the burying ground again." "They buried the ware child today." "I..." "I saw the rigs go by." "I thought I would go up there." "Mr. gray, it's been nearly two weeks now." "Won't you write the bishop to send somebody?" "Somebody to do my job for me?" "It's still my job." "If the folks around here want a change, they'll ask for it." "It's for them to say, not me." "I reckon you're thinking they'll do just that before long;" "maybe even hoping they will." "No." "John believes in you, the same as I do." "That ought to be enough for any man." "Any man except you." "You don't have to make any pretty speeches to me." "If John and I were enough for you, you wouldn't be the man that you are..." "I know that." "And I know that what you want now is so much more than we can give you." "More than food or shelter or praise or love, what you want is your town back again." "Well, boy, come in this house." "I ain't laid eyes on you in so long," "I was near 'bout 'fraid you'd forgot me." "I've come for belle." "Is she here?" "My belle?" "Well, you ain't fixing' to go huntin' this time of night, is you?" "Yes, I am." "We need..." "Well, aunt Harriet, she wants me to." "Hmm." "Well, you better step inside." "I'm standing in a breeze." "I've just come for belle." "Well, belle, she ain't accepting invitations just now." "Look at what's happened since you was here last." "What's the trouble, boy?" "Who told you about any trouble?" "Your face is doing the talking." "Well, I can't help it." "It's awful at home." "It's just like being in jail..." "Only it's worse than being in jail, 'cause we ain't done nothing." "Course you ain't." "Well, why does there have to be such a thing as slow fever?" "What's it good for, except to hurt people?" "We can't know everything, honey." "Might be good in it yet..." "We're just obliged to wait and see." "But I've waited, and I still don't see." "Well, the slow fever ain't no new story." "I reckon it's kind of like the sow thistle in the field..." "Just bound to crop up every now and then." "I've known water just as sweet and clean-looking as you'd want to see give folks the slow fever." "Seem like that fever will get into a creek or a well in spite of everything." "Couldn't be the creek." "I never drank any of that creek water." "I ain't said it was the creek." "Facts is, when I first heered about all them children taking sick," "I said to myself right off," ""that school well is done diseased."" "But I reckon... what?" "I said... no, I mean about the school well." "I mean, maybe that was the cause of it." "Oh, I reckon not." "I reckon they examined that well..." "What's ailin' you?" "Boy, where are you runnin' to?" "John kenyon!" "John?" "I know what gave everybody the slow fever." "Take it easy, son." "It was the school well." "Uncle famous got some puppies." "Can I have one?" "It couldn't be the school well, dear." "The parson thought of that first thing." "Don't you remember you were taken sick a week before school started?" "But I drank out of the well." "Say that again." "Honest, I did." "I was up there one day with chase isbell, and, well, we didn't know the well had slow fever in it." "Harriet, where's my hat?" "Now, who's gonna notify gene Caldwell to board up that well?" "I'll notify him." "Good." "Tell him to meet me out there as quick as he can make it." "We'll do the job together." "And, John, as soon as you've done that, I want you to help me spread the word around town." "You, too, honey, if you will." "We've got to make certain that well's done all the damage it can do." "Parson, they want you over to Mrs. Belcher's." "I reckon miss faith Samuels is a-dyin'." "Faith?" "John and I will tend to things." "You go." "Sure." "Who sent you, chloroform?" "Them over to Mrs. belcher's." "But who?" "Was it Mrs. belcher?" "Oh, no, parson." "Young doc asked me to fetch you." "Thanks." "Evening, Mrs. belcher." "Mr. gray, I sent for you because I know she'd want you to be here." "There's nothing more I can do for her." "Please wait outside." "Once you asked me to leave a sickroom." "Now I'm asking you to leave one." ""This is your last chance." ""You've got 24 hours to clear off this land." ""Get off, or get a rope around your neck." "We mean business." "The nightriders."" "Let me see." "Can't understand it." "Just can't understand it." "Why, there ain't a man for miles around that I ain't knowed as well as I know this boy here." "You still don't want to sell?" "I don't see how I can do that, parson." "That's my property." "Everybody knows it." "If I've got to die, I'll do it on my property." "Mr. backett?" "I'm here to tell you this persecution of uncle famous has gone far enough." "You call... now hold on, parson." "I'm a churchgoing man, and you know it, but that don't give you the right to come bustin' into my store and interfering' in my business." "Right now, Mr. backett, your business is interfering with mine." "I'm asking you, before god... don't you realize what you're setting out to do here?" "Murder one old man, steal his property, take your cut, and then call the job done?" "It won't end there." "Don't think it." "You... all of you." "Where have you been in the last weeks?" "Haven't you seen the slow fever at work?" "Haven't you seen one poisoned well spread grief and trouble through half the town?" "Don't you realize the poison in that well was catlap compared to this?" "If that poison's allowed to start, it'll spread until there isn't a whole soul or a healthy conscience left in Walesburg." "Well, I aim to see..." "You wait and see." "There'll be no rope around anybody's neck as long as there's one man of us left to stop it." "Nightriders." "Yellowbacks in fancy dress." "You shame me, and you shame the lord that made you and called you men." "And if I wasn't his servant, I'd take a buggy whip to the lot of you." "We gonna take that from him?" "We don't want no preacher..." "Shut his mouth for him." "If he wants a fight, let's give it to him." "Kind of looking forward to tonight." "Rolfe here tells me you run into trouble with lon backett's crowd." "That's one way of putting it." "Well, is there enough trouble for 6 of us?" "Oh, jed, you never change, do you?" "Ha ha!" "Just like old times." "Well, I brung you a horse, so get your pistols, and let's go." "I'm not taking my pistols with me this time." "Afraid I might forget myself and use 'em." "Well, that's what they're for, ain't they?" "Maybe, but it's not what I'm for." "Lord knows, I want you boys along..." "Want you bad." "But if you want to come, you'll have to come like I tell you, and on my terms." "So I'll just take charge of those guns." "Oh, now, lookit here." "You ain't got a friend in that crowd since this morning." "And if you're aimin' on spoiling their party, you're gonna need some care taken of you." "I figure I'll be taken care of, all right." "Oh, j.D. Gray, I don't know you no more." "When are you gonna shuck off that long tail coat and be a man again?" "When you comin' to church, jed?" "Oh... come on, boys." "Take care." "I'll never forget how I felt that night as I watched the parson set out, leaving me behind." "But I knew the way to uncle famous' as well as he did." "And if his town had failed him, that was no reason for me to do the same." "Come on out, famous, or we'll come in and get you!" "All right, let's fetch him." "You're wastin' your time, parson." "He ain't got a chance." "Stand aside." "Stand aside, parson." "Come on out, famous!" "Wait!" "Wait a minute, all of you!" "And before you men go any further, there's something I'd like to take up with you." "Mind you, I'm not out here to try and talk you out of anything." "If you're still determined to do this thing," "I don't know of any way I can stop you." "I came out here to..." "Uncle famous!" "Don't let them do it, parson." "Don't let them!" "Let go of me!" "Parson!" "Parson!" "Why don't you stop them?" "You gotta stop them!" "You got to!" "You got to!" "He don't belong here, anyhow." "You didn't let me finish." "I came out here tonight because uncle famous asked me to come." "He knows he's got to die." "But like everybody else, he wanted to get things straight with god and man before he goes." "We've prayed together, and we've talked together." "Uncle famous has even made a will." "A will?" "Will?" "Who's gonna get his property?" "Yes, who's gonna get the mica vein?" "Wait a minute." "Just so there won't be any argument about this," "I'm gonna read the will to you right in front of uncle famous." "And after you've heard it and know it's really his, you can go about your work." "The will is in uncle famous' own words." "It isn't in lawyer form, but just as he spoke it." ""I ain't been able to put much by in this life," ""but the things I has," ""I wants to go to my friends." ""My house I leaves to Mr. Ernest cumberly," ""whose daddy give me my freedom." ""I couldn't go out of this world without leaving" ""something to old Mr. cumberly's son," ""and next to my freedom, my home is the thing I values most." ""I wants my fishing poles to go" ""to Mr. clem elkhart." ""When he was a little boy," ""I teached him how to catch sunperch." ""He didn't have as good luck as I did," ""and I told him it was 'cause I had a magic pole." ""His eyes used to shine at that." ""Maybe now he can catch some fish." ""I sure wants Mr. Perry lokey" ""to have my watermelon patch." ""He was a full-growed man afore he quit snitching my melons," ""and he knowed I seen him, too." ""That old shotgun of mine, I wants to leave" ""to Mr. len childers." ""When he was a little boy," ""he shot it off at a cottontail" ""and knocked it plumb over a rail fence." ""I reckon he's big enough and man enough to handle it now." ""I wants to leave my hogs and chickens to Mr. thad gabry." ""My, how that boy did love barbecue." ""He could smell it a mile off." ""I wants him to give a big barbecue" ""and invite all our friends." ""Mr. bill Cole can have my razor." ""Ever since he was knee-high to a hop toad," ""the thing he wanted more than anything else" ""was a beard." ""Now I reckon he's got more beard than he wants." ""Every time he hones my razor," ""I hopes it'll remind him that the lord will provide." ""My tools I leaves to Mr. Matt Gibson." ""One time helping' me chop wood," ""he like to cut off his big toe with my ax." ""Now I reckon he's the best sawmill boss in the world." ""My old dog belle, I leaves to Mr. Justin Briley." ""He didn't have no dog of his own" ""when he was a little boy." ""I wants him to let her run free and not keep her on no rope."" ""I wants all the mica on my property" ""to go to Mr. lon backett." ""Seems like he wants that mica powerful bad." ""Now he can have it." ""There's something else I wants to leave to Mr. backett." ""I wants him to have my Bible." ""It ain't fancy." ""I guess it's almost wore out." ""But I wants Mr. backett to have it." "I hope he reads it."" "You can have him now." "There's no writing' on here." "This ain't a will." "Yes, it is, son." "It's the will of god."