"Though the early years of the Depression were difficult on Walton's Mountain, we still felt a sense of security in our isolation from a troubled world." "The building turmoil of the times, it seemed, lay beyond the mountains and across a distant ocean." "Then, in 1936, we became aware of Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy." "A war was being fought in Spain." "Historic events, yet all them were overshadowed by my acquisition of an old printing press and the prospect of publishing my own small-town newspaper." " What do you think you're doing?" " Enjoying myself." "Ever tried it, John-Boy?" " Selena Linville?" " Lady Godiva." "I might've known it'd have been you, crazy riding like that." " You look different." " Well, some people change, some don't." " What are you doing around here?" " Well, I'm home from Vassar." "You married one of those backwoods beauties yet?" "Well, I always figured I was saving myself for you." "I suppose you're one of Boatwright's brightest." " I'm enjoying it." " Oh, that's too bad." " Why's that?" " Well, if you didn't, there might be some hope." "Well, Boatwright's a fine school." "Well, it isn't just Boatwright." "It's what you're doing with your life." "Hiding away in these backwoods hollers." "I'm not hiding away anyplace." "I'm studying writing." "Oh, "What I Did On My Summer Vacation"?" "Oh, wait a minute." "You don't understand." "I'm gonna have a newspaper." "I bought myself a printing press." "I'm gonna be a publisher soon." "Oh, covering spelling bees and church socials." "John-Boy, wake up!" "Nothing that matters ever happens here." "Nothing ever will." "Do you know where Ernest Hemingway is right now?" "With the Republican Army in Spain." "And Martha Gellhorn's right there with him." "Two real artists sharing everything together." "But Boatwright and Rockfish suit you just fine." "Well, I admit I'm not Ernest Hemingway." " How long are you gonna be around here?" " For a few days." " Grandfather isn't feeling well." " Well, I'm sorry to hear that." " I'd like to see you." " All right." " Come to dinner." "Tomorrow night." " All right." "I'll be there." "And you be careful." " So red!" " She had it coming to her, though." " She sure did, for a week now." " I'm glad she got it." " Elizabeth." " Coming." "Why do you keep turning around?" "Well, I wanted to see if Ariel could catch up." " She sure is a peculiar child." " You're the only one she talks to." "Well, making friends isn't that easy." "Well, neither is changing schools in the middle of the year." " Yeah." " Elizabeth!" "Hold it." " Hi." " Hi." "I had to talk to Mrs. Fordwick." "Oh." "Well, I got my sewing project back." "Made aprons, one for my grandma and one for my mama." "They're pretty." "I guess they'll like them." " Elizabeth." " I'm coming!" "I wish you could see the aprons I made for my mother." "Well, I'd like to." "I edged it with the very finest lace, and Mother was so pleased, there were tears in her eyes." " Well, I hope I can see it someday." " I hope so, too." "Well, I'll be waiting for you here in the morning." " Elizabeth!" " Coming." "I won!" "All right, Jason, you have to do Ben's chores for a week." "Now, wait a minute." "I demand a rematch." "That's the way it goes, Jason." "It's just the way it goes." "So you're moving up in the world, huh?" "What do you mean, I'm moving up in the world?" " Having supper with the Linvilles." " Now wait a minute, fellas." "You know Selena as well as I do." "It's real likely that I'll just show up there and she'll have forgotten all about it." "If you don't wanna have supper at Selena Linville's, don't go." "Mama, I wanna go." "I just don't wanna go and feel like a fool, that's all." "Now, look." "This is a kitchen and not a playground." "You boys go on outside." "And no more of that gambling." "Stop that." "We're not gambling." "We're just playing around." "You know what I'm talking about, Jason?" "She's just that kind of girl." "I might show up there and she'll say, "What are you doing here?"" " Hi, Daddy." " Howdy, Daddy." "Hi, Son." "How are you, Son?" "I found these band of hens just dawdling along." "Dawdling?" "Elizabeth dawdles." "I spend half my life telling her to hurry up." "Yeah, and the other half telling me to slow down." "Mary Ellen, here." " Grandma!" " Put those in your..." "Put them in your brother's room." "Elizabeth, aren't you forgetting something?" "The surprise." "Mrs. Fordwick had us do this special sewing project." "And, well, I made these." "Aprons?" "Grandma?" " This one is yours, if you want it." " If I want it?" "Imagine you going to all that trouble for me." "Thank you." "Mama, this one's yours." " That's nice." " Why, Elizabeth, that is just beautiful." "Thank you." "John, will you look at the beautiful work that child has done?" "Well, that's real pretty, honey." "You know, maybe if I could learn how to embroider," "I could put some flowers on yours and some birds on yours, Grandma." "I like it just the way it is." "See, it's a perfect fit." "We'll have company over and show them off." "It's not that pretty, Daddy." " I wouldn't change a thing." " Well, that's real nice of you, honey." "I tell you what." "I'm gonna take a ride over the ridge to Staunton after a while." " You wanna go along?" " Oh, can I?" "Yeah." "We might even stop at the park and feed the deer." "You know, maybe they'd look prettier if I had some better lace." "Elizabeth, I think they're just perfect the way they are." "Well, I make nice daughters, don't I?" " John-Boy!" " Vesper." " Come in, come in." " Thank you very much." "I was so happy when I heard you were gonna be with us this evening." "Thank you, Vesper." "That girl's been with those northern boys too long." "Needs somebody like you to straighten her out." " Thank you very much." " Come on." " Colonel?" " Yes?" "Your guest is here." " Excuse me, won't you?" " Of course, of course." " John Walton." " Oh, Colonel." " Nice to see you again." " Thank you very much." "It's good to be here." "You have such a beautiful home, and..." "Well, this clock belonged to my grandfather." " Oh." " Came over from England." " Really?" " Please, please, please." "Thank you." "Selena will join us shortly." "Last-minute primping." "But I don't have to tell you about the ladies." "No, no." "Bourbon, rye, sherry?" "Sherry will be fine, thank you." "I believe Selena told me you attend the Boatwright University?" " Yes, sir." " Fine school." "Thank you very much." "Yes, I find my work there very challenging." "I listen to Selena talk about her school." "With all the meetings and forums and rallies," "I wonder when they find time to go to class." "John." "You did remember." " Good evening." " Good evening." "Selena, isn't that a rather bizarre costume for dinner?" "This is a copy of the uniform worn by the members of the Lincoln Brigade in Spain, Grandfather." "Highly useful for fighting a war, but not for entertaining guests." "I see you're a sherry drinker." "Well, yes, for tonight I am." "I'm glad." "The national drink of Spain, you know." "Oh." "No, I didn't." "We were just talking about John's work at the university." " Yes, I was just..." " Gentlemen, a toast." "To Spain." "To her brave Republicans, fighting for democracy and freedom." "To the Lincoln Brigade, fighting the common enemy while most of us hide in our hollers." "Cheers." "Everybody knows the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis are pouring money, men and weapons into Spain to support Franco's Nationalists." " Your soup's getting cold." " I don't want any more, Vesper." "The Fascists and the Nazis are testing bombs, planes and guns." "It's a dress rehearsal for something a whole lot bigger." "Thank you very much, Vesper." "But aren't the Communists doing the same thing?" "I mean, aren't the Russians just doing the same thing" " for the other side?" " That isn't the point." "Seems like a very good point to me." "Grandfather, the Republicans have to take whatever help is offered, whoever offers it." "It should be us, not the Russians, because they're fighting for what we're supposed to believe in, free speech and free press." "Well, certainly it's not that simple, Selena." "It is." "Oh, Vesper, they look divine!" "Oh, they're as nice as any I've ever seen." "Wonderful." "Oh, you like?" " I hope you like lobster, John." " Here you are." "Grandfather, everyone likes lobster." "They're perfect, Vesper." "I had them brought in specially as a surprise." "I'll bet you never expected anything like this, John." "No, I never did." "Thank you very much." " Enjoy yourselves." " Thank you." "So, you say the situation in Spain isn't as simple as I make it sound?" "You're one of those people who insists on taking a perfectly simple situation and complicating it in order to avoid taking action." "I just don't wanna take action and find out I've done the wrong thing." "Oh, so while you sit there juggling right and wrong, this and that, the doers are in there getting the job done." "This is no world for the timid, John-Boy." "You've got to be aggressive." "Make your move." "Attack." "That's the key." "And the first time you're pushed back, attack again and again." "It's better to go down fighting than to waste your life on the sidelines." "But aren't there times when you just have to admit that you're licked?" "Not me." "Oh." "Can I have the rolls, please?" "Thank you." "I've checked into ways of getting to Spain." "There are still some ships going into the smaller ports, despite the blockade." "And when do you plan to leave?" "Soon." "Grandfather." "I hope you young folks will excuse me." " Oh, certainly." " I..." "I have some accounts to go over." "Oh." "I understand." " Happy you could be with us." " Thank you." "It was my pleasure, sir." "Next time we'll have soft-shelled crab or lobster Newburg." "All right." "All right." "I'll come in to say good night just before I go to bed, okay?" "He's gotten so different." "Just in the last few months since I've been here." "So much older." " Well, people do get older." " Not me." "My life's going to be one smashing adventure." "It's not how long you live, it's how you live." "Oh, I don't know." "I think there's a great deal to be said for how long you live." "Look at my grandma and my grandpa." "They've lived a lot of years, and they still enjoy living each new day." "John." "You..." "You don't understand." " What you people do here isn't living." " Well, we think it is." "John, you have a brain." "You have talent." "For you to stay here is like using my thoroughbred" " to pull a junk wagon." " Oh, oh, I see." "So the answer to being a useful human being is to run away to Spain, is that it?" "Yes." "Look at the great American writers." "e.e. cummings, Dos Passos, Hemingway, Stephen Crane..." "Stephen Crane, you see?" "Stephen Crane wasn't even born during the war between the states, and that didn't keep him from writing" "The Red Badge of Courage, now did it?" "Forget Stephen Crane." "I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't care, if I didn't feel you have so much to offer." "The writers of our times, they're not hiding in the hollers." "They've all gone out in the world to experience war, death and passion!" "You've been practicing since the last time." "Well..." " Not bad." " What do you mean, "not bad"?" "A little reminiscent of Post Office and Spin the Bottle, but..." "Oh, yeah?" "I've been practicing my sketching since the last time." " I think I've gotten better." " Oh, I see." "I've been thinking." "Wouldn't it be fantastic to go to Spain together?" "What?" "Go to Spain?" "Well, that's impossible." "Just think." "You could do the writing." "I could do the illustrations." "Imagine." "Jonathan Walton and Selena Linville reporting from Valencia, Barcelona..." "All the important magazines would be interested, Harper's and Atlantic." " Oh, that's nonsense." "I couldn't do that." " Why not?" "Well, I can't just run away from school." "I've got a newspaper to get started." "I've gotta pay up on my printing press..." "Every day you spend here is another link in the chain that holds you to being a backwoods nonentity for the rest of your life!" "However, you have to make up your own mind." "Stay in the sidelines, but don't expect me to keep you company." "You're not leaving tomorrow or tonight, are you?" "It's getting late." "I want to check with Grandfather." "Oh." "Well, I'd like to see you again." "Is there any point?" "Well, of course there's a point." " All right." "Would you like to go riding?" " Yes." "Tomorrow?" "I don't know." "I'll have to let you know." "Good night, John." "Good night." "Mama and Grandma seemed to like the aprons I gave them." "I told you they would." "I just wish I could've made them more like yours." "Well, anyway, my daddy's taking me on a trip to Staunton anyhow." "It's fun to go places with your parents." "Do you that much?" "My favorite trip was when we went to Europe." "You went on a ship?" "We sailed for days and days." "We played games on the deck." "At night, there was music." "Mother and Father danced, and once he danced with me." "You just quit!" "He is so excited." "Well, you can't blame him." "He's got a date with a thoroughbred." " Doesn't make any difference to a mule." " That's right." "Well, I saw Selena riding the other day, and that sure was a beautiful horse she was riding." " Yeah?" " And don't you wish we had a horse like that, Blue?" "You don't wanna hurt his feelings, do you?" "Hey, here comes Daddy." " Hey, Daddy." " Hey, Daddy." " Hey, Daddy, how are you?" " Hiya, Son." " Have a good time?" " All right." "Where you off to?" "Oh, I got a riding date with Selena Linville." "Hear anything about her grandfather giving an auction over in Staunton?" "Yeah, something about it." "I'll ask her about it." " All right." " See you later, John-Boy." " See you later, fellas." " Have fun." " Thank you, Daddy." "I had a good time." " I'm glad, honey." "Well, Elizabeth." " You have a good time in Staunton?" " It was okay." " Good." " Daddy bought me a Fairy Stone." " Pretty." " Yeah." "Did you and Elizabeth enjoy yourselves?" "Well, I did." "I'm not so sure about her." "She mention a girl named Ariel to you?" "She's new." "Elizabeth seems to think a lot of her." " What do you know about her?" " Not much." "Why?" "I just get this feeling we're being compared to Ariel's parents and we're not coming off too well." "Come on, Blue." "Come on." "You're gonna break your neck riding like that." "You look about 65 years old when you shake and frown like that." " Oh, yeah?" " Yes." "Well, how do you feel about older men?" "Oh, play it safe." "That's your motto and your epitaph." "I see." "Well, before I die and you set up my tombstone, how about this?" "For an older man, you certainly have a lot of young ideas." " Which I hope you share." " Wait!" "I think we've established the fact that you're attracted to me and I'm attracted to you." " You are?" "Really?" " That's exciting." " Yes." " Temporarily." "Only I'm looking for a lot more than just the physical." "Well, so am I, of course." "Ideally, a man and a woman should share on every level." "Well, I agree with you 100%." " Have you thought any more about Spain?" " Of course I have." "I've read everything I can get my hands on." "In the magazines, the books, everything." "Well, you don't have to settle for secondhand experience." "I've been on the phone to New York, and we can be in Spain by the end of the month." "You really got it all arranged, haven't you?" "We leave on a freighter a week from Thursday, and once we get there, we're given contacts to get to Barcelona, and when we get there, I know someone who will introduce us to Hemingway." " I suppose all this is a free ride, huh?" " $200 will cover it." "$200?" "I haven't got $200!" "Well, sell your car, your books." "Borrow, whatever." "I'll lend you the difference." "You can pay me back when we start selling our stories." "What about your grandfather?" "How does he feel about all this?" "I haven't told him yet." "Oh, he'll be upset for a while, but he seems to be living in the past these days." " We've got to live now, for this moment." " Well, what about the future, Selena?" "Well, we'll be shaping it." "We'll be the ones making history instead of studying it." "Oh, it'd be wonderful to do it all alone, of course, but to share it with someone who feels the same way..." "Oh, that's crazy!" "I can't do that." "I can't go running away from home for $200, which I don't have." "I've got commitments, Selena." "The only commitment that matters is to yourself, as a writer." "I can't." "I'm sorry." "You're afraid." "You're one of the world's frightened rabbits," " hiding in your little briar patch." " Hey, now wait a minute." "You haven't the courage to go out and meet life." "All right." "Stay here." "And let the men and women who have the courage go out and do your fighting for you." "Well, Selena, wait a minute." "I..." "Now..." "What are you doing?" "You just wait!" "Careful, careful." "That clock is four times your combined age, so please be careful." "Grandfather." "What's going on?" "Selena, forgive me." "I meant to tell you the first day, but I kept putting it off." "Has something happened?" "The..." "The house and the land has been sold by the bank, and there will be an auction on Saturday for the rest." "Everything?" "Everything in the house?" "Everything but the tenant farm, and that's where we'll be living." "We lost it all." "I'm sorry." "Selena?" " Selena, I wanna talk to you right now." " Get out." "Get off this property." "What do you mean, "Get off this property"?" "Selena!" "Now, you listen to me." "You've had your say, and I wanna have mine." "Get out of here!" "John-Boy, I think it's best that you leave." "Seems a little upset to me." " Did you enjoy your ride?" " The ride was fine." "John-Boy, did Selena say anything about the auction?" "Daddy, I would rather not talk about Selena Linville right now." "It's your business, Son." "I do not understand why anybody should have that kind of a view of the world all the time." "She acts as though nothing has ever happened in the state of Virginia and nothing ever will." "I mean, there have been wars fought in the state of Virginia, too, you know." "We've had our share, Son." "And Ernest Hemingway may be off in Spain being a hero and a great writer, but John Steinbeck is in California, and Robert Frost is in New Hampshire, and William Faulkner is in Mississippi, right?" "If you say so." "Reminds me of me when I was 20." " I didn't know you ever let girls upset you." " Only one." " Are you comparing me to Selena?" " It was my salvation you were after." "You were worried about whether I was gonna spend eternity in heaven." "I was worried about the next half hour." "I guess we did have a few set-tos." "Sure am glad you decided to marry me then and try to save me later." "I'm still trying." "Courage is to feel the daily daggers of relentless steel and go on living." "Recklessness, a mask labeled courage to hide the lack of true courage." "So, from her point of view, I'm a coward." "I don't have to accept her definition." "I'm a fool to be touched by it for one minute." "Who is Selena Linville to tell me what I am or what I should be?" "Philosopher?" "Saint?" "An understanding and caring friend?" "None of the above." "She's spoiled, selfish, limited, and it's ridiculous to waste one second caring what she thinks of me." "I care." "Well, as I was saying, Elizabeth, I got this consolation prize, and I just don't know what I'm gonna do with it." "It's right in here." "Here." "Isn't that pretty?" " Never saw anything like it." " Well, it sure is nice." "You know, you can put enough pencils in it to keep you all the way through college." " It's just beautiful." " Yeah, it is nice." "But it reminds me too much of school." "I think I'm just gonna give it away." " Well, I'd sure like to have it." " Okay, it's yours." " Do you really mean it?" " Sure, it's yours." "For keeps?" " I'm gonna go show the girls." " Okay." " Hello, Ike." " Hello, Elizabeth." " I need a pencil." " Oh!" "Excuse me, Curtis." "You need a pencil?" "Now, if you need a pencil, you're probably gonna make some mistakes." "And so, better sell you a pencil with an eraser, huh?" "Well, of course." " Okay." " It's for this." "What a nice pencil box." "Where'd you get that?" "Ben gave it to me." " Oh, what a nice brother he is." " Hi." " Erin told me I could find you here." " Well, I missed you at recess." "Mrs. Fordwick was helping me with my schoolwork." "I wanted to show you something." "My brother gave it to me." "Your brother gave you this?" "Why?" " Just 'cause he likes me." " It certainly is big." "Well, you see, there's a special place for the erasers and the crayons." "I've got a place for rulers and compasses, and lots of room for pencils." " It's almost like the one I have at home." " Same kind?" "Mine was imported from Switzerland." "My father gave it to me for my birthday." "It has beautiful flowers painted on it." "Oh." "I guess you and I have the nicest pencil boxes in school." "I guess so." " Elizabeth, you gonna take your pencil?" " No, thanks, Ike." "Maybe I can sell you a pencil for your pretty pencil box, huh?" "No, I already have enough at home." " Boy, it must be nice to be rich." " Yeah." "Bye." "Bye." "All right." " Here we go." " I got it." "Thank you, Son." "It's good to know I can do something without getting criticism." "What's got into you, John-Boy?" "That face on you would curdle Chance's milk." "I'm sorry." "I know I haven't been a real pleasure to live with lately." "We haven't gone so far as to say that." "Oh, I won't deny it." "I'm hot under the collar." "I've been called "one of the scared rabbits of the world," ""afraid to leave my briar patch," all 'cause I won't go over to Spain." "This war she's talking about over there, is it something that endangers the things you believe in" " and the folks that you hold dear?" " It seems awful far away to me, Grandpa." "'Course, things were different down in Cuba in '98." "There were no ifs, ands or maybes." "My best friend over at Schuyler Way had been blown up in the battleship Maine, right there in the harbor, and I was just itching to take off." "In '17, when I was called up, it seemed the whole world was at war." "If we didn't stop the Kaiser over there, he'd be over here." "Sure." "As a rule, the men in our family don't go off looking for a fight." "But if the cause is clear, I guess we're right in there." "Well, of course." "No reason to think you'll be an exception, Son." "Well, it's good to know that there's somebody else who feels that way." "Maybe you're just taking this whole thing too serious." "No, she got me to asking myself some important questions." "You know, what is courage?" "What makes a man a coward?" "I think I came up with some good answers, myself." " Well, what are they?" " I don't like being called a coward just because I don't wanna go fight in a war which is basically somebody else's war." "See, it seems to me that the true test of a man's courage, the true test of what a man is, comes in the little ways." "You know, those day-to-day, hand-to-hand skirmishes of life." " There's plenty skirmishes around here." " Yes, plenty to go on right around here." "Of course, you can't come back to newspaper headlines and bands and cheering crowds." "Only the man knows for sure, and maybe the people close to him, whether he stands his ground or turns and runs." "That makes sense to me." "Think it'll make sense to her?" "No." " Elizabeth, is something troubling you?" " No, Mama." "Your daddy took you on a nice trip to Staunton" " and you didn't seem to enjoy it at all." " Oh, I thanked Daddy." "And now Ben tells me that he gave you a beautiful pencil box and you set it on a shelf, and you don't even take it to school anymore." "I wanna keep it nice." "Does any of this have something to do with your new friend, Ariel?" " You wanna tell me about it?" " I don't know." "She just seems..." "Whenever I do something, Ariel does something better." "Even her name is prettier." "Well, Elizabeth, you're gonna find a lot of people like that around, who seem to have it better than you do." "You just have to live with it." "You know, I bet she doesn't have a Fairy Stone." "I used to have a Fairy Stone like that when I was a little girl." "You know, I bet she's never even seen a Fairy Stone." "Well, just make sure you don't brag on it when you show it to her." "I won't." " Are you all right?" " Yes." "Are you sure you're all right?" "All right." "Now, be careful with that piece." "Take it on over there, past that..." "Yeah, it's open over there." "Don't scratch that on the bushes." "Vesper?" "I don't know why she wouldn't tell me something like that." "She didn't know." "And Selena's proud." "I begged the Colonel to tell her." "You don't know how many times I begged him." "Well, we had no idea he was that bad off." "We all knew there was gonna be an auction over in Staunton, but we thought that was just to get rid of a few extra things." ""Extra things."" "They went a long time ago." "After tomorrow, there'll just be that farm and some furniture and a few personal things he's managed to hold onto." " How's he taking it?" " Oh, he's fine." "More relieved than hurt." "This has been coming on for so long, and he's been under such a strain." "When this is all over, maybe he'll enjoy a little peace." "I hope so." "What about you?" "Me?" "I'm not going nowhere." "Seems like all my life, I've been working for the Colonel." "Besides, they're all the family I've got." "True, he won't be able to pay me no more, but that's how it is with families." "We gotta stick together." " I'm just worried about that girl." " Don't worry about Selena." "She's gonna finish her schooling." "The Colonel took care of that a long time ago." "You know how he is about Selena." "Vesper, you don't think you could get her to see me, now do you?" "She's hurt, embarrassed, all mixed up inside." "She doesn't know how to take this." "Well, she doesn't have to be embarrassed around me." "You know that." "She knows that." "When Selena sets her mind, no one can out-stubborn her, and you know that." "Well, we'll see." "Maybe I'm the one who can out-stubborn her." "'Cause I wanna see that girl." "You tell her for me, I'm gonna wait here until I see her." "I'm gonna camp right here till kingdom come if I have to, but I'm gonna see her." "Yes?" " Does Ariel live here?" " You mean Effie?" "No, ma'am, I mean Ariel." "Effie sometimes calls herself that." "You come on in." " Are you the little Walton girl?" " Yes, ma'am." "I'm Elizabeth." "Oh, well, Effie'll be so glad to see you." " Are you her mother?" " Her mama and her daddy are gone." " I'm her aunt." " Oh." "Her mama and daddy go on a trip?" "Died." "Her mama last year and her daddy the year before." "Oh." "Effie's in there with her catalogs." "Well, go on in, honey." "Of course I'll come to your party, Jenny-Ann." "I have a new dress all bought for it." "It's this one here." " All white, with little roses all over." " Ariel?" " I don't live here." "I'm just visiting." " Your aunt told me." "Ever seen a Fairy Stone?" "They're very rare." "Looks like a cross." "You can only find them in one place in the whole wide world." " It's pretty." " Would you like to have it?" " Thank you." " You're welcome." "I was going to have a pretend tea party." "I used to have lots of them." "It's more fun with a real person." "Do you want to pour or do you want me to?" "You can." "It's your party." "I baked some nice cookies." "Here." "It's hot." "I wanted to be sure these personal things went to the little house" " before the auction tomorrow." " Must be a hard thing to do, Colonel." "Well, I look at it this way, John-Boy." "I've had a lot of good things in my life." "With the way things are going for most people these days," "I'm not bad off." "Selena must be worried about you, though." "Oh, I'm all right." "It's easier for me than she thinks." "She has it in her mind that I live for my money." "Oh, I enjoyed it." "I don't deny that." "But losing it?" "Not the end of the world." " I hope you two work out your differences." " So do I." "I'm trying." "You gentlemen take this load down to the farm, then come back for the rest." "I wouldn't go along with her on this Spain deal, Colonel." "I just couldn't." "She got upset about that." "Then this hard luck hit you folks." "Well, I know Selena." "She'll be all right in a while." "It takes her a little time to change her mind about things." "Selena!" "Excuse me, Colonel." "Go on." "Selena?" "Selena." "Selena?" " Are you all right?" " Yes." " I thought maybe you'd taken a fall." " Disappointed?" "Oh, don't be crazy." "I've been needing to talk to you." "All right." "Get it over with." "Tell me all about myself." " It doesn't matter now." " Well, I think it matters." "You called me a coward because I wouldn't go fight in some war" " that you picked out for me." " That I picked out?" "The survival of the free world could depend on what happens in Spain." "Oh, it could." "It very well could." "Survival can depend on a lot of things, Selena." "There are people in this country right now who are fighting a war." "Somebody decided to call it a depression, but it's a war all the same." "People are fighting for food, for shelter, to hang on to simple human dignity." "I'm in that war with my family, and so are you now." "And the question for you and the question for me is exactly the same thing, "Are we gonna survive?"" "And you haven't won that war yet." "Oh, so I try to enlist you in my war in Spain and now I'm supposed to join yours?" "Selena, for someone who cares, there are a lot of battles a lot closer home than Barcelona." "Just look around." "People are fighting for a decent wage." "They're fighting for a clean place to live." "They're fighting for the vote." "I don't have to run away from college and borrow $200 and travel 3,000 miles to volunteer." "There's plenty of battlefields right here at home." " Are you finished?" " No." "I'm not finished." "A coward is a person who finds himself on the battlefield, under fire, and runs away from the people who are depending on him or her." "Well, then, nobody better depend on me, because I wasn't just running from you." "I was running from all those empty rooms, everything that I cared for." "I couldn't stand the pain on my grandfather's face." "He needs you now, Selena." "He's a strong man, but he needs you now." "He'll be relieved not to have me around, making him feel guilty." "Oh, you don't believe that." "You're just saying that so you can run off to that fancy school up north and pretend none of this ever happened." " I hate the idea of going back!" " You're never going back." "And you know you're never going back." "And you're not going to Spain, either." "Stay here." "Please." "You can transfer to Boatwright." "You can help Vesper take care of your grandfather." "He'd never allow that." "He'd allow it if he thought that's what you really wanted." " I don't know." " Selena, you're a fighter." "You got something worth fighting for right now." " You make it sound so simple." " Oh, I see." "So you're one of those people who insists on complicating a perfectly simple situation in order to avoid taking action." "Is that it?" "Using my own weapons against me?" "That isn't fair, John." " Selena, all's fair." " In love and war?" "You said it, not me." " Do you want me to stay?" " Yes." "You might regret it." "I probably will." "Selena did stay with her grandfather, did transfer to Boatwright, and, as she predicted, there were times I regretted it." "But mostly after the collisions, when we had picked ourselves up, got our bearings, we found ourselves headed in the same direction and grateful to have each other's company." " John-Boy?" " Yes, Elizabeth?" " Are you gonna marry Selena Linville?" " That's a silly question." " It sure is." " Oh, it sure is." "Fellas!" "Wait a minute, fellas." "Fellas, it's not that silly." "Well, John-Boy, you've got plenty of time to decide." "Thank you, Elizabeth." " Good night." " Good night." "English"