Savannah Page #5

Oh, apropos you would

liken yourself to a dog.

Woof!

I am my own master.

Leave me be, woman.

Never.

You will if I say so.

So you'll shoot me?

See me now?

By the plaintiff's own admission,

on the day in question,

and by her own eyewitness account,

she has established it was I

that shot out cleanly the

eyes of this portrait

from a distance of no less than...

15 paces,

our parlor being the

largest room in the house.

There are many tests

of a man's relative sobriety.

And I offer to you that such

a piece of marksmanship

belongs among those tests.

It can only be deduced then

that the esteemed lady is incorrect

in one statement or the other.

Either I was drunk... Whoo!

Or I made these shots.

But most certainly...

Most certainly, the

two statements stand

as mutually incompatible

assertions.

This is ridiculous!

Mr. Allen, your reputation

as a marksman is well established.

And clearly, I would not have

to bend the law or my judgment

very far to dismiss the charge

and send you on your way.

Fancy logic does not

change the truth!

Sit down, please, Mrs. Allen.

Get off of me!

However, I find it in the

interest of public safety

to call you guilty...

What?!

and put you in jail for 10 days.

Hear, hear!

Order. Order.

This is an atrocity.

Approach.

Approach now.

10 days may not be

enough to cool her off.

If I were you, I would

spend those 10 days

using my way with

words to conjure up

one big Kingdom Come

prayer for your salvation.

I, Ward Allen, was wrong.

I, Ward Allen, may have been wrong.

Before you check to see

if the fires of hell

have turned to ice,

let me emphasize that I would do

or have done

nothing different in my life.

But it seems that perhaps our world

met a fork in the road,

and the world took one path,

and I took the other.

Perhaps this is an

inevitable result,

and each of us are

doomed to find ourselves

on a path alone in the end,

especially those of us who

found the world as it was

to be a close to perfect place...

those who accepted that

the affairs of men

are like those of a river,

where time and tide are the

ultimate shapers of a life,

where procreation,

migration, and even death

are spokes of the same wheel

that turns in heaven's vault

just the way it should.

But there are others

who are determined

to reshape that wheel

and turn back the tide,

and they appear ready to do it.

Maybe they are right,

representing as they do,

an impulse in the breast of man

that drives our species

toward restless industry.

Maybe we are here to

remake everything,

reshape everything,

create our own new

idea of perfection

and leave God's idea to the

dim shades of history.

And maybe I, having fought

against that new idea,

rejected that idea,

found that idea abhorrent,

maybe I was wrong.

But I do not think so.

Because I believe if we

have grown as a species,

it has been because of

the test of wildness,

and if we succeed in remaking

wildness into mildness,

then we will begin to diminish.

But all I have accomplished

is a broken knuckle or two

and hurting myself and my own

more than those who are

the target of my calumny.

So perhaps I'd do better

to take my pokes on these pages

and take direction from the Bard...

"Let there be gall

enough in thy ink."

It's worth a try.

Did you read my article?

Yes.

Good.

Is that all?

Uh...

Hmm.

I won't be disgraced again.

It's not befitting a mother.

Doctor Bryson is sure.

What?

Don't speak right now, Ward.

I want you to think very, very

carefully about how you feel,

because I can't bear

for you to tell me

anything less than God's own truth.

Oh, bring me a gator

Girl, when you come off the island

Whoa, just a ringtail 'ator

Girl, when you come off the island

Just a Darien gator

Girl, when you come off the island

Oh, girl, when you

come off the island

That's the quota.

12 for Ehrlich's store,

20 for the DeSoto.

Next thing you know,

they'll make us buy

the duck we shot back

from the grocery store,

twice what they paid

us in the first place.

Christmas...

would you look at that!

Lucy's barge.

Lucy hit it.

I'll be damned.

One of the more improbable stories

this old boat's got to tell.

You reckon she's seaworthy?

Well, it'll float,

that's what you mean.

Christmas, white oak.

Virginia.

Uncle John took me to

Richmond when I was a boy.

Told me the aggression was coming.

I ever tell you about

my tree house?

Uncle John built it.

Came up to Allen Station

when Sherman got near.

I was scared half to death.

He said we'd live in it,

the Yankees burn the

big house down.

You must have seen the war.

No, sir.

Too young to remember.

Yeah.

What's a man to do he

can't work an honest day?

Well, two hours at least

before we get these

duck off our hands.

I have a surprise.

Ward, don't sneak

up on me like that,

unless you want this

baby to come early.

For the boy.

What if it's a girl?

Anyway, I just wanted to show you.

Let me see your duck

hunting face, Ward.

No.

Let him see your duck hunting face.

Now, Sheriff, I didn't take

one more than the law allows.

Ward, it's Mrs. Allen.

You got yourself a little boy!

Oh!

Whoo!

I'm sorry, Ward.

I...

She's resting.

I'll just sit with her.

That won't do right now, Ward.

Where...

Where's the boy?

Ward, you need to look past

a crude understanding

of the word "asylum"

and see that it's a refuge.

There has to be another way.

She needs to be watched constantly,

force-fed if need be, and bathed.

Can you do that?

He can't even keep her

in out of the rain.

Perhaps she'll come

back to herself.

It... It's just a signature.

I have a pen.

There's something I

need to show you.

My family was a grand family.

I figured out how

to make my own way.

You said it yourself.

It was a lot of bluster.

But this is...

This is real.

The river and you.

I should have brought

you here before.

You're cold.

You're past the quota.

Ward!

That was a standing order.

Game and Fish were here.

They told us if we bought

anything more from you,

they would take our license.

You think Judge

Harden wants to find

yard scratch on his

plate come Sunday? Hmm?

Have some backbone, Mathias!

You are a crazy man!

You want to see crazy?

Aah!

You want to see crazy?

Aah! Aah!

Ward...

let's get out of here.

This ain't the place

for us no more.

If you see my mother

Oh, yes

Won't you tell her from me

Oh, yes

I'm a-riding my horse

Get up!

In the battlefield

I want to see my

Jesus in the morning

Has the family been

here since the fire?

Do you know these

waters around here?

This make it worth your while?

I need a river guide.

There's nothing Mr. Allen wants?

No, sir, Mr. Walton.

Just sell the house,

give Mrs. Lucy the best.

Mr. Walton?

Maybe there's one thing.

It's just like you say.

Mrs. Lucy gonna be comfortable.

Mr. Walton gonna to see to it.

Judge Harden say to tell you

they upholding the law.

City can't go against Federal.

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