The Education of Little Tree Page #3

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this army of Jews and Catholics

who's bent on picking

everything from your pockets.

Thank you!

Thank you, thank you.

God bless.

Granpa, look!

A fellow sold him to me, for 50

cents, but he was a Christian man,

and that's what them

fellows do, so it's OK.

I didn't take advantage

of him or nothin'.

- Take care. Bye-bye.

- See you later!

Granpa!

Do you know any Jews or Catholics?

I'll tell you what, Little Tree.

If you were to take a knife and

cut into that politician's heart,

you'd have a hard time

finding a kernel of truth.

The son of a b*tch didn't say nothin'

about getting the whiskey tax taken off,

the price of corn, nor

nothin' else of value.

I stand against politicians

and all such sons of b*tches.

Listen here. That's a new cuss word with

a whole lot of starch attached to it.

You don't want to use that

no way at all around your...

- I believe your calf's died.

- No, he ain't neither.

Come on, get up. Get up!

He's dead, Little Tree.

If something's dead, it's dead.

There's disease on the liver.

Can't eat it.

We'll send the dogs back.

It'll make a meal for them, anyhow.

For the calf's hide.

Ain't no way of learning

you, except letting you do.

If I'd stopped you buying the

calf, you'd always want it.

If I told you to buy it,

you'd blame me for its dying.

- You just gotta learn as you go.

- Yes, sir.

Well then, tell us what

you learnt out of this.

Well, I sure as hell...

I reckon I learnt not to

trade with no Christian.

Tell me something. Did you

find your secret place yet?

Secret place?

- I don't know.

- Well, you'd know.

- What's it look like?

- It's a place only for you.

Sometimes you feel

you gotta go there.

All Cherokee got a secret place.

Is that so?

I tell you what. Instead of

working the still this morning,

you'd be better off searching out

your own place, before the snow comes.

- You think?

- I do that.

Come on, Blue Boy!

Gotcha!

This is it. This is my place.

- Revenuers!

- Damn!

- How far back?

- Some.

All right.

Take this. I'll clean up

and meet you at the cabin.

- Can you manage it?

- Yes, sir.

Come on, Blue Boy!

- Indian!

- Just a kid.

- Yeah, Indian kid.

- Wait a goddam minute.

Ain't you Sally's kid?

Sally, who married the Indian.

- Could it be?

- Ain't you?

- What you got in your sack?

- What's in the sack, boy?

- Can I take a look?

- Terrible thing...

...teach kids to be whiskey-runners.

Give it over.

You ain't going no place.

- Watch her.

- Hand the sack out.

Easy as one...

...two...

Get off!

Help me!

He's gettin' away!

Hey, Blue Boy!

Little Tree?

I'm here, Granma. Over here!

Are you all right? Are you OK?

You can let go of the

sack now. Let go, let go.

- Didn't break one!

- Couldn't have done better myself.

You're coming to be one of the best

whiskey-makers in these mountains.

Come on!

Maybe they thought it

was somebody else's kid.

How'd they know he's yours? There's

plenty young 'uns in these parts.

- Sure!

- They recognized him.

Called his ma by name.

One of 'em said, how could we...

...put him in the whiskey trade

at his age? Don't look good.

Bound to get back to

somebody. And then what?

- Is this yours?

- Nah!

Look here what I got.

It's a present.

I owe it to Willow John.

He gave me this.

- It ain't as good, is it?

- Well, I like it.

- You do?

- Did you show him the calf?

The calf?

You name him yet? I've come

up with the perfect name.

- Wanna hear it?

- Sure.

OK. Brown Eyes. 'Cause he's

got them pretty brown eyes.

How is Brown Eyes?

Can I still come up and see him?

He's...

He's dead.

- Say, what?

- He just...

He just... keeled over

and died, just like that.

I couldn't do nothin' about it.

The fellow cheated me.

- I didn't know. He said he was...

- Little Tree, come on to church now.

I'm sorry.

Ain't nobody in the

world oughta cheat you.

All right!

What makes this day

different than all others?

Tell me! Tell me! Speak it!

Testifying day.

Today you will stand before

the Lord and confess your sins.

- Amen.

- Yes, sir.

Stand up and make yourselves clean.

Praise Jesus.

- Praise God.

- I'm a sinner.

- I'm a sinner in the face of the Lord.

- Tell it, sister!

- I committed...

- Tell it!

- ... fornication!

- Amen!

- Beelzebub!

- With...

...Junior Logan.

- And with...

- More!

- Tell it, sister.

- And with...

- Tell it.

- And with...

- Got it?

- Yeah.

You want to be shortening

up on that handle some.

Just kind of let her fall.

See now...

That maul's got enough weight

to split that pine just like a...

Hang on, there...

Son of a gun. It just hit

me like a bolt of lightning.

I'm teaching you everything,

the land, the business,

and I forget the most important one.

What's that?

Half of dinner. You get the other

half, we'll have the whole shebang.

If you come across a frog or two, I

don't believe we need any more gifts.

Don't move, Little Tree.

Don't turn your head

or even blink your eye.

Thank you, Granpa.

Hell, we showed that son

of a b*tch, didn't we?

Yes, we did.

He'll sheer clear of us from now on, and

tell his relations to sheer clear of us.

Hotter than hell, ain't it?

For this time of year...

- What happened?

- Granpa... rattlesnake...

- Where?

- I led him as far as the shelter.

But he...

Build up the fire, Little Tree.

Make it hot as you can.

Damnation!

That's good.

You keep the fire hot.

We can't move Granpa so we've got to

keep him warm all through the night.

Thank you, Little Tree,

but that won't be necessary.

What'll help is the

heat off our bodies.

He ain't gonna die no more, is he?

After all you've done?

Well, now...

There's all kinds of

dyin', Little Tree.

I've seen people at the settlement

walking around like you or me,

but they're as good as dead,

'cause they spent their

lives in meanness and greed.

The spirit inside of them shrunk down

to no more than the size of a pea.

'Cause the only way to make

your spirit big is to work on it.

You got to use it to understand.

The more you try to

understand, the bigger it gets,

till it gets so big and powerful...

...you come to understand everything,

you remember all your past body lives.

I believe Granpa is gettin'

near such understanding,

though he don't know it.

But...

...if his body dies,

he'll remember us.

That's what I want you to know.

We'll all of us be

together in spirit always.

That's the important thing.

That's the important thing.

My God! A fellow can't

lay his body down nowheres

without you stripping buck

naked and hunchin' at him!

Oh, my God!

Mr. Wales...?

I'm Elizabeth Dubois.

This is Mr. Lane.

We're from the State...

- Politicians.

- Pardon?

Oh, no. We're from the

State Department of Welfare.

Politicians.

Sir, we'd very much like to talk

to you. It's really quite important.

It... has to do with...

I think the boy, Little Tree, is it?

I think he should...

He sits in on everything

there is to sit in on.

A complaint has been filed

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