Cimarron Page #4

Therefore, let us open

this auspicious occasion by singing...

What do you know, boys, anyway, huh?

How about...

Who Are You At Home, for a starter?

Thanks, Rickey.

It's a good song, though a bit secular.

But you all know it. That's the main thing.

Here, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

While we are singing,

we'll take up a collection.

What for?

Because, Pete, you infidel...

part of a church service

is in taking up a collection...

and your donations, fellow citizens,

ladies and gentlemen...

and you, too, Pete...

will be for the new church organ.

Great guns, Yancey.

We ain't even got a church.

Now, that's all right, Pete.

Once we buy an organ, it stands to reason

we'd have to build a church to put it in...

and, members of the congregation...

anybody contributing less than two bits...

will be thrown out of this tent by me.

Indians not included.

All right, Jesse,

will you please favor us with a pitch?

Will the ladies please join in

with their sweet soprano voices?

Now, once again, please.

Fellow citizens...

the sum of the collection for the organ

for the first Osage church...

whose denomination shall be nameless,

is a gratifying total...

of $133 and 55 cents.

Wait a minute, Grat,

did you say 55 cents? 55?

That's right, Yancey.

Some miserable, tightfisted,

skinflint of a...

Well, maybe it is an Osage by mistake.

How about a Cherokee, Yancey?

Not a Cherokee, Sid.

I recognized your voice by the squeak.

If you knew anything at all, you

and Yountis and the rest of your outfit...

you'd realize that a Cherokee

is too smart...

to put anything in the contribution box of

a race that's robbed him of his birthright.

Friends, we've come to the sermon.

Anyone wishing to leave,

kindly do so now.

Please make way

for all departing worshippers.

My text is from Proverbs.

"A lion is in the way.

There's a lion in the streets."

Friends, there's a lion

in the streets of Osage.

I have a confession to make.

I have gone about seeking information

of this lion.

I might say this jackal or dirty skunk...

if it wouldn't be sacrilegious.

But this jackal in a lion's skin...

who by threatening sudden death...

has held this little town

abjectly terrorized.

I intended to announce from this pulpit...

this platform...

that I would publish this knowledge...

in the first issue

of the Oklahoma Wigwam...

coming off the press next Thursday,

thereby starting my paper off with a bang.

Friends, and fellow citizens...

I repent of my greed...

and my desire for self-advancement

at the expense of this community.

I no longer intend to withhold the name

of that yellow, skunking murderer...

who shot down Jack Paigler

when his back was turned.

I will tell you all now the name of that...

Was Lon Yountis.

Stay where you are.

Louis Hefner...

as coroner, do your official duty

and remove the body.

Okay, Yance.

It's self-defense and justifiable homicide.

This town needs a boot hill,

and I'll start it with this burial.

Come on, boys.

Fellow citizens...

under the circumstances...

we will forego this sermon...

and conclude this service

with a brief word of prayer.

Bless this community, O Lord.

Amen.

I swan...

that's the most surprising church meeting

I ever attended.

But I must say,

your husband did the proper thing.

The cleaning out of that gang

is one of the first moves...

to make this town fit to live in.

Thanks to you, Yancey.

- Horrible, he might've...

- But he didn't, honey.

Everything's all right.

- Did you have to kill him like that?

- No, I could've let him kill me.

Congratulations, Mr. Cravat.

Haven't seen you since the run.

Well, how do you do Miss...

Lee?

No wonder.

- I heard you were in town.

- You've known.

Yes, I'm here.

Thought you'd settle down

on that quarter section that I didn't get.

Well, I tried to be a farmer,

but I had to give up the land.

The neighbors' wives formed a vigilance

committee, and I left by request.

A vigilance committee would.

You haven't said a word

all the way home, pet.

What's stirring you?

That woman, smirking and smiling.

And you stood there actually

talking to her, holding her hand...

after she'd stolen your land in the run, too.

She wanted that land because she was

trying to give up her way of living...

- was desperate.

- Well, what's she doing here, then?

Driven out by the neighbors...

she heard the railroad was coming

through and came down here.

You talk as though

you know a lot about her.

A little. Comes from a good family,

victim of circumstances.

Well, in a way, she's a good girl.

A good girl?

I know a lot of people

scattered over Oklahoma...

that shouldn't cast a stone at her.

Don't you quote your Bibles

and Magdalenes at me, Yancey Cravat!

- Hello, Bill.

- Well, well, well.

First anniversary numbers.

Say, you've been meaning to pull some

blood for a year. Why don't you subscribe?

Well, it cost $1.

Cravat could use that dollar

to buy the new baby a rattle.

And a pair of rubber boots

till the streets get paved.

You sure need rubber boots here,

or go barefoot.

I got to get a pair of new boots...

Darling, she's awake.

Hello, baby Donna. Hello, sweetheart.

Look, this is Daddy.

This is Mama,

much more important to you just now.

Yancey, darling, I'm so happy.

I'm highfaluting myself, sugar,

smiling as a basket of chips.

I'm gonna do so many things.

Build a porch for Donna.

Start a woman's club, a real one.

Make this town better for Donna to live in.

No saloons. No women like Dixie Lee.

And I'm gonna have a hired girl

as soon as the newspaper...

Yeah, all those things, sugar,

but you mustn't try too much.

The garden looks fine, Miss Sabra,

and them morning glories sure is climbing.

Thank you, Isaiah.

Hi, there.

Look, she know me.

Who you rolling your eyes at

and making faces?

Just wait until you get

a little more bigger.

I've got a lot of things

I is gonna teach you.

May I come in? I brought you some of

the nicest chicken broth, made it myself.

Old family recipe.

You must take some between meals

to keep your strength up.

Thank you, Mrs. Wyatt.

- How is the little darling?

- Simply blooming.

I do want to congratulate you

on the first anniversary of the newspaper.

"In youth and beauty, wisdom is so rare."

Shakespeare.

That reminds me,

your idea of the new club.

- We must take up literature, too.

- Yes, and maybe early American history.

Why, honey,

don't you know you're making it?

Yes.

Wallpaper! Why, it's the first in town.

- Where'd you get it?

- In Mr. Hefner's store.

- I had him send East for it.

- Has he got any left?

I think so. I think he got several patterns.

It's a new department.

Do tell. Well, I must be going. Goodbye.

Goodbye, Donna.

- Goodbye.

- Goodbye.

I reckon Louis Hefner's

gonna have a run on wallpaper soon.

I want to get a nice little

dainty rosebud pattern...

for Donna's new bedroom.

Should we get a new house, too?

Sugar, you are getting ambitious.

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