The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

Judd, you can't.

I got to

get in the house.

Poke your head out in the

clear, and a Falin will get you.

But Melissa,

she's going to have a baby.

Hit you, David?

No Falin can ever

get me, Uncle Judd.

Oh, God, give her the strength to be good,

to be never hateful

and never fight.

And don't let her

carry the burden of fear,

watching her loved ones

and seeing them die.

Always asking

out of her heart,

"Why has it got to be?

Why has it got to be?"

When it's twilight

on the trail

And I jog along

The world is like a dream

And the ripple of the stream

is my song

When it's twilight

on the trail

And I rest once more

My ceiling is the sky

And the grass on which I lie

is my floor

Never ever have a

nickel in my jeans

Never ever

have a debt to pay

Still I understand

what real contentment means

Guess I was born that way

When it's twilight

on the trail

And my voice is still

Please plant

this heart of mine

Underneath the Lonesome

Pine on the hill

And I says to him, I says,

"Look here, Zeke Denker,

"you're driving your hogs

to mighty poor swill."

Bet that buttoned him.

Not Zeke.

He's the laughingest man I

ever met. Nothing bites him.

Laughs when it's clever enough to rain.

Laughs when

the sun shines.

He looks me

right in the eye...

Dave's better.

Is he?

Yep.

Perking up a mite.

Arm's a little green

but I stuck a chaw

of tobaccy on it.

Cold rifle barrel

will do it more good.

What he have to say?

About the Falins I mean.

"Eat your sow belly and get

for home." That's what he said.

Said, "Ain't gonna be no

fighting till I can tote a gun."

And I come six miles.

Six miles.

I can throw a clump

of dogwood that far.

I'm nigh on to 30 miles.

Look. Look.

Gather around now.

Gather around.

I'm really going to

show you something now.

Maybe we's will

get a go at the kid.

Whenever Judd Tolliver gets

an itch to plug the Falins,

he starts playing

with the young ones.

I'm gonna be

the human hub.

Now, Willie, you go down there and

stop me if I get to going too fast.

Lizzie Bee, you better

go down and help Willie.

Look out now, here I come.

Don't forget to stop me.

Well, why didn't

you stop me?

Judd's better than that

wagon show we saw once.

Melissa, you got a bellyache or something?

Just thinking, Lina.

Sakes and sassafras!

Thinking

boils the pot over.

It boils over and over and

over if you ain't thinking.

Killing.

All the time killing.

They are planning it now.

They done it yesterday,

and the week before,

and the year before that.

Ever since I was a little child they done it.

Kill a Falin.

Kill a Falin.

That's all they could say.

Plowing, splitting reins.

Filling the corn crib.

Kill a Falin! And the echo comes

back to us from over the hills.

Kill a Tolliver.

Kill. Kill. Why?

Melissa!

What you biting

your paws about, Auntie?

Worrying, I guess, June

and Buddie ain't back yet.

Where they be?

Over at the yard doctor,

getting a potion for you.

Is that the way

you like it?

Just right.

You should have let me

get a town doctor, Dave.

It don't look right.

It's too swole up.

You're awfully

good to me, Auntie.

You're a good boy, Dave.

Your boy.

My boy.

Sometimes I wished I was,

Auntie. Then I wished I wasn't

'cause if I was, I couldn't

marry June and if I wasn't...

Relations like we ones

got me all thicked up.

Cousins are always thicker than

fleas in the mountains, Dave.

I'm a big, big

black bear.

I'm a mean black bear.

I'm getting closer.

I'll get you.

I'm coming closer.

You laugh at me, foreigner,

and I'll... I'll...

I don't blame you, I'd

do the same thing myself.

That was funny.

Why didn't you laugh?

She's one of

the Tollivers.

That's still funny.

She didn't think so.

That's a woman's privilege.

Now, where were we?

Right in the middle of

that fault, over there.

Yeah.

Two years supply of strip-coal

before we have to drift mine it.

We'll steam-shovel

the top coal

and make it pay for

the railroad up here.

You haven't got it yet.

No.

Well, suppose you let me worry about that.

The right and title to that

privilege is yours, my friend.

You got that privilege

this very minute.

Start using it.

I was just

running in that wood,

and I heard

she was a bear.

And when I looked

around to see if she

was going to eat me,

she was gone.

Maybe she ate herself

and disappeared.

Judd Tolliver,

how you talk.

Child. Child. You mustn't.

Juny's coming back.

Maybe she stopped

down by the river.

Looks like she fetched

the river with her.

June!

Well, I brung it,

didn't I?

June, if you ain't

the lookingest...

I've been running

across that log

ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

I can catch a squirrel

on it with one hand,

but when that dog

see that foreigner...

Foreigner?

He stopped right smack-dab in the

middle of the log and I tripped.

What was

the foreigner doing?

Don't know.

Wasn't looking.

Before you know it, there

I go. Plunk, right down.

What did he look like?

Just had a squint.

He's about so tall,

about that wide.

Was all dressed in brown,

even his hat.

And his coat had a belt.

Just a squint?

Dave Tolliver,

if you're thinking

what I'm a thinking, I'm

going to tell you off.

Go down to the creek

and wash your dirty face.

For two carrot seeds,

I'd rub it all over you.

You do it, and I'll spank you where it hurts.

You will, will you?

Did that hurt?

How could it?

Oh!

I've been talking

to your pappy.

We's going to get married.

When?

Hog killing time.

Your pappy has invited all the Tollivers.

The whole kit

and boodle of them.

I ain't marrying

till green up.

Spring's always

the time to do them things.

Then it'll be next green up and the next.

I don't feel nothing.

Like... What do you mean?

I don't know.

Come on. Come on.

Dinner.

Come on.

Better make it just a dipping, June, or them

hungry mouths

will eat that table bare.

Ma. Come here.

Ma. Do I...

Do I like Dave?

Why, honey,

I think you do.

Like you like Pappy?

Well, you remember when

Dave went to Pokey Wells,

you was a-grieving for him

then, weren't you?

And when he's to home, he

don't make no nevermind to you?

But, Ma...

Melissa,

the folks are waiting for their dinner.

Coming.

Well, that's

liking, honey.

This here man wants

to talk to you, Judd.

Does, huh?

My name is Hale,

Jack Hale.

I wonder if I could

see you alone.

Here's all right.

Well, I...

You see, I wanted to

talk to you about coal.

The coal on your property,

I mean.

You know what I mean? The

fault down about a mile.

Well, you've seen the coal.

You know what I mean.

The fault. The Alton people,

I'm with them and they...

You was talking

about coal.

Oh, yes. Coal.

There'll be a railroad

up along the Ticopi

and then down across the ridge to your place.

Who said there would?

I mean, of course,

if it's agreeable with

the contracting parties,

like yourself.

The thing will make you rich.

There's no doubt about that.

And if we can

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