The Actress Page #2

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That's what she is.

How old is she,

anyway? 14? 15?

I'm 17, papa.

17? At your age, i had

nine years before the mast,

two of them

under a ma...

what's the cat's meat?

That the steak we had

last night?

Of course not.

That was called

louisiana steak.

It was a receipt i got out

of the boston globe,

and you ate it

like you liked it.

So good, why didn't you

give some of it to the cat?

He have to have

special cat's meat?

It's good enough for me,

it's good enough for him.

No. You've

got it all wrong.

What's good enough for me

ain't good enough for him?

I'll kick that cat from here

to gibraltar and back!

Oh, clinton,

you're so hasty.

The day i got

the cat meat

was the day

we had baked beans.

There wasn't anything

else left in the house.

You can't feed

a dumb animal beans.

I don't know

what's so dumb about him.

Don't do no work,

got a fair-to-middling

place to live,

upwards of 3 to 40

square meals a day.

I wish to jiggers

i was a cat!

What was we doing

with four tangerines?

Well, now, clinton,

the child took one a day

to high school

in her box of lunch.

Well, couldn't

she just take a orange

like any other

ordinary...

or is that

too big a piece of fruit

for her to lug

with that weak back?

Dribble, dribble,

dribble.

Well, that's where

the money goes.

The mellins food

pays me 37.50 a week.

You got me living

like i was w. k. Cottington

sitting at a roll-top

mahogany desk.

Clinton, saying you live

like mr. Cottington...

don't forget,

i got to pay something

on dr. Adams' bill.

On the 23rd,

the mutual premium comes due.

I'd like to go to sleep

and wake up on april 24th.

Clinton,

what a way to talk.

Why, suppose

that premium slid?

What would ruth and i do

if anything happened to you?

I guess you

wouldn't starve.

I'd like to know

why we wouldn't.

You'd be stuffed so full

of the food

i buy you from s. s. Purse

and backus grocery.

That's why

you wouldn't.

Don't forget.

Besides the $37.50,

there's your bonus.

Can't count on a bonus till

you got it in your hand.

A man has to grovel

and curtsy 364 days a year,

then on the 365th,

say something wrong

to old cottington,

and there goes

the bonus.

Oh, well. I guess

money isn't everything.

No, no, no,

but poverty is.

It's everything

in my whole world.

Clinton, you can't

call us poverty.

Yes, i can too.

I even know the color of it.

It's a dirty

rotten brown.

It's everywhere i go.

Every minute of my...

it's in my eyes,

my nose, my ears, my feet.

It's on the front walk

when i come home at night.

It's in this dog-eared,

borrowed-from-the-neighbors

magazine!

Clinton,

you're just crazy.

Yes, i'm crazy.

I'm crazy because i'm poor.

Just seems like there's

nothing i can afford.

Just nothing.

Not one blasted nothing.

I can't even afford

to catch cold.

Old swolman up on the hill

wants to have a cold,

he can have one seven days

a week if he wants to.

Can't even sit

on the furniture,

especially that stuff

in the parlor.

Whenever i sit,

i sit real careful like

because i'm afraid

i might spoil it, and...

and i buy

the new england gazette.

I'd like to buy

the scientific american,

but i buy

the new england gazette.

You know why i buy it?

Because it costs a measly

5 cents, and the other...

what's the use?

I got the brains

and the inclination.

I just haven't got

the 35 sou,

that's all.

Live on hash and stew

and louisiana cat meat,

for all i know,

when i got a taste

for oysters and curry

the way they used to

fix them in bombay.

Bird's nest soup

the way that little

french girl used to make it

in wiscasset when i went

with fred gee that time.

And rich custard apple

they almost give away

for nothing in mozambique.

I don't know what

to do, clinton.

I really don't.

Don't bother.

I'm going out.

Oh, clinton.

Don't do anything rash,

for all our sake.

Nothing rash in going out

and laying down

on the new york, new haven,

and hartford railroad tracks.

Clinton,

you wouldn't!

I'm going to take

that cat with me.

Look at him. Got himself

on the register again.

Scientific wonder to me

he ain't fricasseed.

Come on, now.

Out from under there.

Oh!

Oh, you bad cat!

Oh, you...

i'll wash it off

with saltwater, dear,

extra strong.

That's my own blood.

You thankless cat.

Aren't you ashamed?

Get the cat's answer

later, will you?

I don't propose to stand here

till gangrene sets in!

Hey!

Where's the fire?

Where's the fire?

What? I just got

a letter from...

oh, see you.

Oh, excuse me!

Anna, she sent it!

Her picture!

Who?

Hazel! Hazel dawn!

Oh!

Oh, let me see!

I didn't even

open it.

Think of it, anna.

Just think of it!

Anna, just

think of it!

Oh, i may die!

Oh, isn't it

beautiful?

Oh, i certainly am

the happiest thing.

It's from

the touraine hotel,

boston, mass.

And i wrote, too,

but she didn't send mine.

Oh, things

happen to me...

the greatest

in the whole world!

This has to mean...

it has to!

I was meant

to be an actress,

or else why didn't

she send one to you?

No matter

what happens...

look. I'm taking

a vow unto myself

on this picture.

I am going to be

somebody wonderful

like you'll

read about,

and nobody

can stop me,

not even

my own family.

Say, for a minute,

you looked different.

I'm going to live in

some gorgeous place

like the touraine hotel

or some other gorgeous

place just as good,

and i'm going to

have mama and papa

be living up on a hill

with a hired girl

and a thoroughbred

fox terrier.

I'm going to run up

terrible grocery bills

and never look

at the price, and...

oh, i'm going to get

everything great

for everybody!

It's disgusting

to live just to

support yourself.

I have to fly

and tell katherine.

She'll die!

Ooh, how are you?

Sick.

Oh, good... -

i mean,

that's a shame.

See, now,

there's pernambuco

right up that channel.

Move that

whale's tooth.

See, right there.

And it's

pernam buco, too.

I don't give a snap

what they say

at quincy high school.

It's not per nam buco.

That's how they say it.

They ought to know.

Now, go right up...

what was that?

Just ruth leaving

for the braintree dance.

Fred whitmarsh called

to take her.

Oh, well!

Here i was learning her

something

of some real value.

Something that everybody

don't know, too.

I know.

And that certainly

brings up a point.

What she knows,

you could put in a frog's ear.

She don't know beans

when the bag's untied.

What's she aiming at,

anyway? Anything?

She's young.

She's not that young.

If anything

was to happen to me,

what would she do?

Took her a year

to make a buttonhole.

I'm not too sure that,

if called on,

she could correctly

boil egg.

Ruth's deep.

She may be

striving...

what could she do?

Just supposing

i was laid out

up at fay's undertaking

establishment.

What could ruth

draw down?

Oh, dear,

don't be morbid.

What could she?

Tell me.

After you've

driven behind me

up to mount wollaston

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