Curly Top Page #2

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And what's this item?

"Sandboxes and swings"?

It's a problem to keep them occupied.

When I was young,

we didn't have a play problem,

because we didn't have time to play. No.

"Floor runner for the dormitory."

- What's the matter with the linoleum?

- It's been so cold this winter.

The children have coughed so badly

that I've been worried.

No need for that.

Madam, you have no doubt heard

of the famous Wyckoffs cough mixture.

Of course.

I have manufactured and sold

that cough mixture for many years.

Anyone taking it regularly will never cough.

I would suggest that

you lay in a fresh supply.

- Very well.

- When I was young, I lived in Maine,

where the weather was 20 below zero.

In those days, we didn't even have linoleum.

And look at me now.

When I was young, I lived in Maine, where

the weather was about a thousand below zero.

No, no, Mrs Denham.

No carpets, no linoleum, no nothin'.

And look at me now.

(coughing)

Madam, is this the kind of respect

you teach them?!

Oh, my goodness!

- How dare you take my hat and coat!

- I beg your pardon, but those are mine.

- Yours?

- Yes.

Oh, yes. I see.

- This eyesight of mine is bad, you know.

- I was only playing.

There, Mrs Higgins.

That's what comes of letting them play.

- Ridiculing their benefactors.

- I'm sorry.

It seems to me that this child

is absolutely incorrigible.

Every time I see her,

she's making a disturbance.

- She is rather a problem.

- Problem?

She's the sort of problem that might be

better solved at a public institution.

- We couldn't send her away.

- I say you shall send her away!

I say she'll have to go to a public institution.

She'll have to do nothing of the kind.

If she's sent away,

I shan't contribute another cent.

- Now, Mr Morgan, you can't...

- Oh, yes, I can.

Mrs Higgins, I'd like to talk to you

and to this little girl privately.

- Your office would be the best place.

- Why, of course, Mr Morgan.

Young lady, I've got a great idea.

Would you like me to tell it to you?

- Yes.

- Elizabeth.

Excuse me. Yes, sir.

That's better.

Now look here. Here's the secret.

How would you like it if you and I

got to be very, very good friends?

- I don't think I would like it, sir.

- Why, Elizabeth!

I would like to talk to Elizabeth alone.

Do you mind?

- Of course not.

- Thank you.

Tell me. Why wouldn't you like to be

friends with me?

- Oh, just because.

- Just because?

You've got to give me

a much better reason than that.

Well, it's just because

when grown-ups come to visit us

we have to say "Yes, ma'am"

and "No, sir" and smile all the time.

- Can you keep a secret?

- A secret?

Mm-hm.

- I won't tell anybody.

- Shake.

Now, here's the secret:

You don't have to say

any of those things to me.

You see, all this business

out here is new to me.

- My regular business is being a lawyer.

- What's a lawyer?

If you ever get into trouble, a lawyer

is a person who gets you out of trouble.

Oh, my, I could use one almost every day.

- Tell me, what's your name, sweet?

- Elizabeth Blair.

Elizabeth Blair. I've got

a much better name for you than that.

If I had my way, I'd call you Curly Top.

That's what my daddy used to call me,

and my mommy too.

They did? I'll bet you're

just as wise as wise can be.

- Well, I can recite.

- Recite? Recite what?

- Oh, poems.

- What kind of poems?

"Before I was a little girl,

I was a little bird.

"I could not laugh, I could not dance,

I could not speak a word.

"But all about the woods I went

and up into the sky.

"And isn't it a pity I've forgotten how to fly?"

I think that's the loveliest poem I ever heard.

- I know more.

- Go right ahead.

"I wake in the morning early,

and always the very first thing,

"I poke out my head, and I sit up in bed,

and I sing and I sing and I sing."

- I know more.

- I'll bet you do.

But listen, I've got a friend that...

- Oh, I bet that isn't true.

- What?

You said you had a friend.

I bet you have lots of friends.

Curly, you are an old flatterer.

- Is that something bad?

- Of course not, darling. Now, look here.

I'm pretty sure this friend of mine

would like you.

I think he'd like to give you a beautiful home,

lovely dresses to wear, dozens of dolls,

and send you to the grandest kind of school

and all sorts of nice things like that.

How could your friend do all that? I thought

only daddies could do such nice things.

Well, being a lawyer,

that's where that comes in.

You are too young to understand, but I could

arrange with my friend to legally adopt you.

All I want you to tell me is how you'd like it if

my friend could do those nice things for you.

- Would you want him to?

- I don't think I could do it.

You couldn't? Why not?

Do I have to say right off?

You mean you want time to think it over?

- Could I come back and tell you in a while?

- Why, of course. I'll wait for you right here.

- Promise?

- Promise.

Cross your heart?

Mary!

Mary! Oh, Mary!

Mary! Mary!

Mary!

Mrs Denham, suppose that youngster

had a real chance in life.

Suppose someone gave her

everything money can buy.

Of course, we always hope

our children may be adopted.

But Elizabeth's case

presents a special problem. You see...

There's no human problem

that can't be solved by kindness.

- By Jove, Mrs Denham, I'll do it.

- You mean that you'll adopt Elizabeth?

On one condition. She must

never know that I'm her guardian.

Why not?

Because she's always had to

give thanks for every mouthful.

She's never gonna have to be grateful to me.

From now on, she's going to have

all the lovely things in life,

just because she has a right to them.

- But the child will have to be told something.

- That's right. Let's see.

I've got it. Tell her that I'm acting for a client.

We'll say that she's being adopted

by a man by the name of...

- Let's call him Hiram Jones.

- Oh, Mr Morgan...

Before you go on, there's something

about Elizabeth that you must know.

(knock at door)

Come in.

Well, have you made up your mind?

- You haven't? Why not?

- Could I tell your friend?

My friend?

Oh!

You mean Mr Jones. Hiram Jones, hm?

What is it you want to tell him?

I would like to tell him that I'd love to go and

live in his house if my sister could come too.

- Your sister?

- Yes, my sister, Mary.

- She works in the kitchen. There she is.

- This is Mary Blair, Mr Morgan.

We've met.

Isn't my sister pretty?

And she's awfully nice, too.

Mr Morgan, I'm very grateful to you -

I mean, to your friend -

for wanting to adopt Curly.

But you see, when my father and mother...

- Darling, could you run outside?

- Must I?

- I think you'd better.

- All right.

You see, Mr Morgan, at the time

my father and mother were killed...

- Killed?

- Yes, in an automobile accident.

- I'm so sorry.

- At the hospital, just before they...

just before they died,

I promised them Curly and I

would never be separated.

I couldn't break that promise, Mr Morgan.

She needs me. And I need her.

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