The Shepherd of the Hills Page #4

Get up the trail, I told ya!

Pick him up, Wash.

Me? That idiot?

Pick him up!

Pick him up yourself.

Shoo, boy!

Oh, I didn't mean to hurt you none.

Thanks.

Let's go home.

Come on, Pete.

It's a funny thing about him.

As far as I can remember back,

he's either fightin' agin ya

or he's fightin' for ya.

Ain't nobody got a right

to Moanin' Meadow.

My mother's buried there.

It's hers.

I told him it was an unhappy land.

All he said was, "Maybe it just needs

a- carin' for, like unhappy folks. "

He didn't ask me who shot Pappy.

He just went ahead a-helpin' him.

And Coot's baby.

Ever since he's been here,

he's been actin'just like

a good shepherd.

Even when he talks about

liquor drinkin',

he makes it sound more right

than why we shouldn't do it.

Well, it ain't him.

It's Moanin' Meadow I'm talkin' about.

If he cares for Moanin' Meadow like he says

and like he cares for folks,

then he'll be a-helpin'.

Like what he's done for Granny Becky.

Sent her off to a city doctor.

Her blind-born eyes are gonna

be fixed so she can see out of'em.

He did that?

He did! 'Cause there ain't no bad in him.

There ain't nothin' but good!

Ah, Matt, let him stay.

Well, maybe.

I've been expecting you, Matt.

I come to ask are you still

of a mind to go fishin'.

- If you say so.

- The weather's right... now.

You know,

there's a funny thing about fishin'.

You can let your thoughts

drift downstream...

till they carry your troubles

clean outta sight.

Yep.

If I had me fins where I got legs,

I'd paddle me away from troubles...

instead of wadin' knee-deep

to meet 'em.

There's things come natural

with mountain learnin',

things I might could show you.

But...

what I'm needin' now takes a...

man with city knowin' to tell me.

I'd like to help you, Matt. Can I?

Might be you could.

Say somebody was... lost from ya...

somebody you had to find,

somebody you was in debt to kill.

We got a curse on us, we Mathews folks.

A curse as old as... me.

There ain't no rest for us,

livin'or dead.

Not till I find him who

marked me for what I am and...

aged my mother too young

for her grave.

Matt,

what would it be like,

as long as you live,

having to remember

that you stopped a man's life?

Whole days when...

you couldn't forget.

Nights when you have to face yourself...

and him alone.

Nights when...

when you just pray

for the comin' of daylight.

You think I wanna do it,

that it pleases me to think about it?

I saw a fella kill a man once,

when I wasn't half growed.

But I stood up to it and looked,

'cause I knowed

that's what I was born to do.

But there's Sammy to think of.

Sammy loves you, Matt.

Sammy?

I got no right...

to love nor marry.

I gotta forget thinkin' about Sammy.

We'll find him, Matt. I promise you.

Dan Howitt he calls his name.

Settin' hisself up

as shepherd of the hills.

We don't need no shepherdin'.

We ain't allowin' no stranger

to come in and hide among us...

and turn our mountain folk

away from their learnin'!

Makin' and drinkin' honest

corn liquor is blessed of old.

It's our livin'!

Already we been left

shorthanded at the stills...

and are gettin' closer to where

nobody'll buy or drink our makin's!

A... spreadin' his reach

into the family.

If somebody's come to see us,

they're bad off to go a place.

I'm gettin' educated.

You was being spoke of, Mr. Howitt.

Come on in, if you're a mind to.

I knew you'd be expectin' me.

Payment on Moanin' Meadow.

Money's a thing hands can't dirty.

I brought you a message, too,

an invitation.

You can take it back

where you brung it from.

Granny Becky's back

from her operation.

They're removin'

the bandages tomorrow

havin' what Coot calls "an unveilin"'

at Flying Clouds Bluff.

Becky was born blind.

She ain't never gonna see

'less she's born again.

She especially wanted her cousin

Mollie Mathews to be at her first seein'.

Shut up shoutin'.

There's to be an all-day singin'

and dinner on the grass.

Promise to take me with you, Pete?

Let 'em gather.

Let Becky see.

Let 'em sing.

You'll be missed if you're not there.

Oh, I almost forgot you, Pete.

You earned it... and more.

Why, that's twice as much

as any two of us earned last month.

Here she comes.

You gotta get ready now, Ma.

I'm ready.

Thank you, God.

The first tear I ever seen.

A mighty pretty thing

for human gladness.

I'm a-seein'!

I'm a witness to the color

of God's good dirt.

I was savin' you, child, till these old eyes

got used to seeing pretty things.

Howdy, Granny Becky.

You and your chairs.

A-rockin' me to seein'

all over the place.

You mind speakin' to me?

Hello, Granny Becky.

You're Corky!

Yeah.

And me a-thinkin' you was

a sawed-off little one.

You're Mollie Mathews, my blood cousin.

I asked a-purpose to have you here...

'cause I recollect you had a gift

for love and kindness...

when you was a girl.

Now there's a devil in ya.

Your soul's et up with hate.

You meddlin' old fool.

We hadn't oughta come, like I told ya.

I'm...

Sammy Lane!

Well, bless the sight

of you, child!

And...

Who is he? Him? You know him.

That's young Matt Mathews.

Then I'm as blind as ever I was.

He's no Mathews,

no more than he's

a poisoned Baldknobber.

No, Sammy. He's kin to his image.

Son of his father, if I can see at all.

That's Mr. Howitt.

Don't, Matt. She told you the truth.

He was gonna tell you hisself!

Get his rifle, Pete.

Stay where you are, Matt.

And leave your rifle restin'

where it's at.

Throw it away!

Stop, you poor fool!

Let go, Pete! Let go!

I wish I'd stayed stone-blind...

in the good, clean dark.

What's done is done.

We'll go home.

He done it! He done it!

If Pete dies, it's 'cause you all are

standin' around here mournin' womanlike...

instead of sheddin' the blood that laid the

curse on the Mathews from her day to this!

I guess...

I'm the only one to...

end the curse.

Don't. Please, don't, Matt.

I've been waitin'

and prayin' to stop ya.

You gotta turn back

turn back from killin'.

Get out of the way, Sammy. Go home.

If you go,

it's all ended between us,

all the feelin's and hopes.

There never was...

no hopes between us.

Don't.

Don't, Matt.

Matt.

Young Matt.

I got some words saved to tell ya.

Pete!

Pete. Son.

Ma.

I can remember...

when you had gentlelike ways...

till the lightning tree...

took away my speakin'.

It... It made you die...

inside.

It's you...

who's the curse.

Leave me alone with my baby.

Please.

Mollie!

Mollie!

I've tended him

to the best of my knowledge.

Hurt like Matt is, a man's

got to have the will to live,

something he'd he'd die for,

to bring him back to livin'!

The will to live.

Something to die for.

He can't be blamed for bein'learned

to see and fight for the wrong things.

I know, Sammy. Why can't he live

and see things good and clean...

and know that folks love him?

I watched him comin'down that meadow...

and I saw myself 25 years ago...

with nobody there to stop me

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