Original subtitles

[RUNNING WATER]

[BIRD SQUAWKING]

DENNIS HANKS: Want to know what kind of boy he was?

Well,

I myself, his cousin,

am the only one living that knowed him that early.

Knowed him the day he was born.

Lived with him most of the time until he was 21

and left home for good.

[BIRD SQUAWKS]

[BIRD CHIRPING]

[CHOPPING WOOD]

[SANDING WOOD]

DENNIS: His pappy didn't drink,

swear,

play cards,

and them were drinking, cussing, quarrelsome days.

This big old Injun...

Comes running out of the woods.

And he's got that paint all over his face

and he grabs me and he reaches down and picks me up...

He lines him up,

nice and steady like,

'cause it ain't no squirrel.

Shot rings out

and your uncle, Josiah...

DENNIS: A little slab of bacon with hoe cake...

[TALKING INDISTINCTLY]

[IMITATES GUNSHOT]

DENNIS: A little cornbread and milk every day.

[LAUGHING]

He said he never had a prettier target.

DENNIS: And he was satisfied.

[PUFFING]

You hoe?

Yes.

Do it right.

NANCY: [WHISPERING] What did you read today?

ABE: About Noah.

He lived to be 950.

Will you stay with me?

NANCY: I'm right here.

DENNIS: She couldn't read or write none.

Had to make her mark instead.

Cousin could.

Taught hisself.

[RUNNING WATER]

She was a believer.

Now you can mark your place in your book.

DENNIS: She knew so much of what she believed was yonder.

Always yonder.

Every day came scrubbin',

washin',

there was so little time to sing or think about the glory.

Her mind and his seemed to run together.

Look!

What happens is the wind comes

and it blows real hard

and then the seeds rain down and they're laying in the earth

and then they grow up.

We should move to a place where he can be schooled.

I've prayed on this.

Boy has more to learn here than any school house.

He asks questions I can't answer.

He's got a gift.

Can't turn our backs on what God has given us.

I know best.

[SCRAPING]

[THUDDING AND CLANGING]

[CHAIR SCRAPING THE FLOOR]

[FIRE CRACKLING]

[DOG PANTING]

I remember when you were born.

I wrapped you up in a bear skin and we slept by the fire.

When you cried

it was your papa who got up and tended to you.

I watched him hold you...

And I knew that no one would ever care for you more.

[FAINT SINGING]

[TURKEY GOBBLING]

We're always bragging about it. You go a mile, half a mile back that way.

I don't remember you.

Trevor says,

"What in tarnation you doing yelling, 'loafer,' when a fella's passing?"

Runkin says,

"What in tarnation are you doing passing when a fellow's yelling, 'Hello'?"

[LAUGHING HEARTILY]

Oh, boy. [LAUGHS]

Swoop up.

Should I?[LAUGHS]

Go. Go.

Over your mama's head.

[LAUGHING]

DENNIS: I was 18.

My folks was dead.

I like it.

I went with the Sparrow family.

Same folks that raised cousin's mama.

We lit out for Indiana.

Yes, sir.

[LAUGHING]

Kentucky was getting stuck up.

Where we heading?

No place for poor folk anymore.

There's a frog!Catch him!

That's my name.

It don't look a thing like you.

[GRUNTS]

[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]

DENNIS: He was sharper than me.

He'd learned Henry Clay's speeches by heart.

Get him by the arms.

Oh!

He took to writing on the floor.

Think I can get it?

The fence rails,

the wood and fire shovel.

All with a bit of charcoal.

Let's kick them like that.

[LAUGHS]

It pestered his pappy a heap to having him writin' all over everything.

He was just wrapped up in it.

Okay.

Lock your fingers,

bring 'em around,

go like this right here. You ready?

[BIRD CALLING]

[BIRD CALLING FAINTLY]

You're getting it.[BIRD CALLING LOUDER]

[BIRD CALLING]

[BIRD CALLING]

[WHISTLES]

Might be bad water.

[SNORTING]

[WHISPERING]

Ain't no one to drink from the well no more.

[WOOD CHOPPING]

All my cows are gone.

[GROANS]

All of them.

You too.

Both of you.

Go on.

It's a plague.

There's nothing you can do.

The last of days.

It's all prophesied.

We'll all be buried by the end of the week.

[LAUGHS]

All gone.

Gone.

We should pray.

For what?

For ourselves.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

DENNIS: The cows ate the poisoned weed.

We got milk sick.

One week, they were gone.

Will you get it, too?

No.

NANCY: Don't worry.

[SLOSHING]

[LAUGHS]

[INHALES SHARPLY]

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

[SHIVERING]

[MOUTH HARP PLAYING]

[CROW CAWING]

Shh.

Mama.Shhh.

It's been such a long time.

[THUNDER]

ABE: Please, Mama.

You're a good boy.

[GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING]

[WHEEZING]

TOM: Take her, Lord.

She was yours from the beginning.

Forgive her for her sins,

though she committed none.

[RAIN FALLING]

[GUNSHOT]

DENNIS: Uncle wasn't worth shucks that winter.

He put the corn in in the spring.

Left us to tend to it.

He lit out for Kentucky.

We can't go on like this.

DENNIS: We knowed what he went for.

Look after yourselves and don't let our crops go to waste.

DENNIS: We didn't think he'd have any luck,

being as poor as he was.

[WATER BOILING]

SALLY: I can't cook like Mama.

Tastes real good.

DENNIS: Me and him got her a baby coon

and a turtle.

We tried to get a fawn,

but we couldn't catch it.

It makes me think of her.

[WIND BLOWING]

[MAJESTIC MUSIC PLAYING]

DENNIS: He wrote a letter to our reverend from Kentucky.

Told him that his mama went without a proper burial.

REVEREND ELKINS: [READING] "...a long eternity of love.

"Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His direction,

"much less a person.

"For we are of more value than a sparrow

"and know that He is God."

REVEREND ELKINS: Be strong.

Can't fall into despair.

[DEEP BREATHS]

[CRYING]

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

TOM: Get over and say, "How do."

Pleased to meet you.

This is Tilda.

Johnny.

TOM: Grab a load.

Take it on in.

Come on.

TOM: Bless this food, Lord, and the hands that made it.

We've endured many a hard time, Heavenly Father.

You seem good to us now.

Let us live, happily.

Good to see you again. Thank you.Thanks for dropping them off.

DENNIS: She was a widow.

She'd been fending for herself for a while now.

SALLY: I snuck out of the house and she was outside, watering the horses.

She went back in the house. I went in there and snuck out on the porch,

and she had locked the doors.

[LAUGHING]

And I scared her and she got scared.

Do you pray?

At night?

Do you pray for her every night?

Not too tight.

DENNIS: Sister was always a say nothin' little gal.

A couple times.

DENNIS: With eyes like an owl.

Angle it.

DENNIS: She'd chirped right up with a new mother

and a sister for company.

That was my dress, Mama.

Ten steps.

Nine, ten.

[LAUGHING]

[CHEERS]

[ALL LAUGHING]

DENNIS: I was glad she had some good times.

[READING] "A singular number...

"Expresses.""Expresses..."

"Three...""Plural."

"We may..."

DENNIS: She married pretty young.

Died with her first baby.

I reckon' it was like her mama.

She didn't have no cure.

She asked if we'd seen her trinket.

Empty your pockets.

It's nothing.DENNIS: Didn't mean nothing by it.

I said, empty your pockets.

Please, Tom.

I don't want this.

Go wash up.

[THUNDERING]

Go on.

Run off.

No one keeping you here.

I see you,

keep your distance.

Burying like hell at suppertime.

Your mama saw something in you.

She thought you was blessed.

That you was smart.

You see, I've always known it to be

that men who are smarter than you don't got to act like it.

He don't have to show no one he's better than them, he just is.

You're like this corn,

you're all closed up.

You won't break free, you won't come out.

Seed can't stay in the ground forever, son.

It has to grow

and give.

Don't you like having a mama again?

Sometimes I forget what Mama looks like.

That ever happen to you?

[LAUGHS]

Can you do it?

[LAUGHS]

Your eyes closed?

Ooh!

SARAH: I'll never take your mother's place.

But I'll love you like she did.

If you choose to love me less,

I'll still love you the same.

[TOM SINGS UNDER HIS BREATH]

♪ Augment our swells

♪ Our tones refine

♪ Performance ours The glory thine ♪

[CHUCKLES]

JOHNNY: He doesn't say much.

He thinks he's better than us.

SARAH: That's not true.

He talks to himself.

I've seen it.

He's strange.

He's your brother.

Drop it!

Come on!

Come on!

[GROWLING]

Let go of the stick.

[LAUGHS]

Come on.

DENNIS: Found a dead coon.

[WHISTLES]

Couldn't get it off.

The dog made a beeline for the woods.

Wild dog scenting coon,

tracked the little animal home,

speedily demolished him.

You do it?No, sir.

You do it?No, sir.

I did it.

[WHIP LASHING]

How'd your husband die?

Bad water.

Were you scared?

Yes.

Scared for him.

Scared to be alone.

Are you sad still?

In a different way.

I'll always miss him.

He was a sweet man. A good father.

But I have a new life now.

A good one.

[BELLS TOLLING]

[FIRE CRACKLING]

Strong, sturdy...

DENNIS: Everyone was real pleased to have a new house for worship.

I can't think of a better man for the job.

The Reverend asked his pappy to build it.

It was an honor.

REVEREND ELKINS: If we call to mind our beginning,

some of us may find a time where

our fathers were under affliction and suffering.

The wilderness in which our fathers passed the days

of their pilgrimage are now pleasant fields.

[BELLS TOLLING]

This was not done to be buried in oblivion,

but to prepare a people

for a greater destiny.

And the remembrance of that

ought to humble us and create in us

a Christian benevolence

towards our inferiors.

Whoever supports the cause of some,

promotes the good of all.

[PLAYING UPBEAT MUSIC]

No time!

I want to live on the river.

On a flat boat!

[WHISTLES]

[WHISTLES]

[WHISTLES]

[BIRD CALLING]

[WHISTLES]

[BIRD CALLING]

[LAUGHING]

[LAUGHING]

JOHNNY: That a snapping turtle?

It'll bite you on the finger,

won't let go till it turns dark, neither.

Try.

SALLY: Ain't you gonna do something?

JOHNNY: From here to here.

Come on!

No!

Come on!

Come on!

DENNIS: Never seen you fight like that.

[LAUGHING]

I want you to finish the firewood before you go too, don't want to be without it.

DENNIS: His pappy sent him to a tannery.

Don't want you to be hungry.

It would take him three days.

He'd never been gone like that before...

Alone.

She didn't talk all evening.

Just worked.

Stayed by herself.

She didn't have no education herself.

But she knowed what learning could do for folks.

SARAH: A new school's been built.

Only 5 miles from here.

DENNIS: She'd do anything for him.

[BELL CLANGING]

MR. CRAWFORD: Single file.

Armstrong?Present.

Goslin?Present.

Fagen?Present.

Gore?Present.

Peckington?

Merritt?Present.

ALL: Our father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

CHILDREN: Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,

in Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our trespasses...

...as we forgive them...MR. CRAWFORD: Speed doesn't matter,

neatness does.

In soft strokes.

MR. CRAWFORD: Better."Neb-a..."

MR. CRAWFORD: "Nebuchadnezzar."

"Full of..." [STRUGGLES]

MR. CRAWFORD: "Fury."

"And the form of the visage..."

MR. CRAWFORD: Whose visage?

BOY: I-E-D.

CHILDREN: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,

[CHILDREN RECITING]

Massachusetts, Maryland...

MR. CRAWFORD: Be without malice

or envy.

Scoff at no one.

Love learnin'.[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

MR. CRAWFORD: Be cheerful.

ABE: Go![LAUGHING]

Go, go, go![LAUGHING]

Oh, no![LAUGHING CONTINUES]

[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

MR. CRAWFORD: Hear,

and answer.

You tell me,

where's your spirit?

How do you know it's there?

CHILD: I feel it.

What did Jesus do when he was young?

Worked in his father's shop.

MR. CRAWFORD: What was his mind doing?

"It came to pass as he was alone, praying.

"His disciples were with him

"and he asked them, saying,

"'Who say the people that I am?'

"They answered and said..."

Then he tried to stop and come back,

well when he did this,

he came back and hit his head on the wall.

MR. CRAWFORD: Just shake my hand.

DENNIS: I ain't no scholar.

Firm, yeah, that's good. Keep your head up.

Do it again. Very good.

You could smile, it won't hurt ya.

DENNIS: I asked him where'd he get so many blamed lies.

He told me when a story learns you a good lesson,

it ain't no lie.

God tells truth in parables.

MR. CRAWFORD: I was struck by his honesty the other day.

I saw a buck's horn hangin' against the wall

that was broken off,

thought some of the boys did it,

so, the next day

when they all got still, I asked 'em,

"Who done it? Who broke it off?"

And he said, "I did it."

Takes the blame all to himself,

won't put any on anybody else.

He won't stay in these woods forever,

and even if he keeps on in Spencer County,

he won't be a back woodsman for long.

Now, as immigration is going on now, by the time he's

30 years old, it'll be a whole different world.

MR. CRAWFORD: He'll make his mark.

[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

ABE: [READING] "I came down to Friday

"and asked him if he would stay by me.

"He was very cheerful."

[LAUGHING]

"He would die when I bid die."

[SQUEALING]

[WHISTLING]Here, boy! Come on, keep up!

[SARAH LAUGHING] Oh!

DENNIS: And when he'd come to the house at night,

he'd tilt the chair by the chimney

and sit on his backbone and read.

ABE: Where did that come from?

The jungle.

DENNIS: She always put a candle

on the mantelpiece for him.

His pappy'd just shoo him off to bed.

She said it didn't bother her none.

MR. CRAWFORD: He's a fast learner.

Interested in everything.

I'd like to tutor him here, in fact,

on days away from school.

TOM: You was in the war.

Nothin's ever the same since, I bet.

Takin' odd jobs,

never had no proper learnin' yourself.

I'll pay you in corn and odds.

If you want more,

you're gonna have to take it someplace else.

Well I don't want payment.

I brought two books for him.

JOHNNY: I'm ready.

TOM: Who wants this? Come on, get it on.

[EXHALES]TOM: You're up next.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa!

All right, nice work there.

Come here. I want to show you again.

Come on, push harder! Come on. That's it.

See come on. Come again.

Get down low. Yeah. That's nice.

All right, you're up now, come on.

You and me.

Get your hand up there strong, put it out strong.

All right, see?

Get a grip on me so you can feel me now, can't ya?

And you got that other hand,

you're looking to get in there,

trying to work that leg.

Come on, I got you all tangled up now, see?

Come on, start again, start again.

[GRUNTS] Come on.

Look, oh! He's got him. He's got him now.

Come on, you can't get like that.

Don't give me your back.

Come on, I ain't finished yet. Come on.

That's it. Try to knock me down. Nice work.

You're tying me up. Good.

That's good. That's good!

[LAUGHING]

JOHNNY: My pappy got real sick and died.

Sure glad to have another one.

Yours is real nice.

DENNIS: Everybody runs him down.

Never gave him credit for what he was.

He made a good living.

His pap kept his word.

He paid his way.

Couldn't say that of every man.

Not even today.

When men are decent-er than they used to be.

Found 'em.

You found 'em, son. Keep 'em.

I wanna be as strong as you.

You're a good boy.

Your ma would be real proud of you.

I ain't

a fair man.

Not to nobody.

You always looked out for you and your sister.

You're gonna be twice the man I am.

[FAINT SINGING]

[LAUGHING]

One, two, three,

four, five, six, seven...

[LAUGHING]

Three, four, five,

six, seven, eight...

Ah!ABE: Hey! You cheat!

Now, it's your turn.Two, three,

four, five, six...

JOHNNY: What it means when you hear locusts nearby

is somebody died and their soul is risin'.

It's true.

My dad told me that once.

DENNIS: There ain't nothin' worth talkin' about.

Nobody worth much talkin' to.

Since he's gone.

My God.

I had to go out to the farm

to tell her.

She was living on there,

alone.

I knowed they'd kill him.

I'd been waiting for it.

She never asked no questions.

I reckon she thought she'd soon join him.