The Yearling Page #3

- Why?

If you had wings, what would you do?

You'd fly with them, wouldn't you?

- You'd never come down, would you?

- I reckon not.

Nothing with wings

should ever come down again.

You never did try to fly again,

did you?

I tried to fly too young.

That's Push. You remember him.

Hey, Push.

They won't raise no young'uns.

Lem says they's brothers.

Here's the coon.

Here, Racket.

Ain't he a thing?

If I get me another one,

you can have one too.

I'd be proud to have one,

but Ma won't let me keep nothing.

Oliver said he'd bring a monkey

from the South Seas...

...but Ma said she had enough monkeys

around as it is.

She meant Pa and me.

- Where is Oliver now?

- Sailing somewhere on the sea.

I'd never go to sea.

They ain't got no animals on the sea.

I might go to sea some day

if I could go with Oliver.

Oliver's my friend.

I got three friends:

Oliver and Pa and you.

I got lots of friends.

He's eating me!

He ain't hungry,

he just wants to be doing something.

- He likes you, Jody.

- I guess so.

He sleeps with me.

I sleep up there now.

Buck made it for me.

If you can stay the night,

you can sleep up there with me.

You like to sleep up there?

You see things at night

and hear things.

What?

All the things scared of the daytime.

I seen a deer and a wolf

playing together.

You couldn't have seen that.

They's enemies.

That's what folks tell you.

And I seen the Spaniards

riding on big black horses.

They's tall and dark

and have shiny helmets.

There ain't no Spaniards left.

They all gone, like the Indians.

They's here.

Listen to me. The next time

you go to your sinkhole...

...you know that magnolia

with the dogwood around it?

Just you look behind it.

There's always a Spaniard

on a big black horse...

...riding past that magnolia.

Guess we'd better go in.

Well, Jody and me set out

after them dogs.

That bear took them

across the scrub...

...along the ponds,

through the thicket...

...right to Juniper Creek,

where they caught up with him.

- Tarnation! I wish I'd been there.

- Get on with it!

- This dog go with them?

- Yes, he went along.

Do he hold the bear at bay?

No, he's sorry. The sorriest bear-dog

I ever owned or followed.

- Got himself lame?

- No, he ain't lame.

What you holding him so careful for?

Keep him out of the jaws

of them bloodhounds.

- Valuable?

- Shut up, Lem!

Go on, Penny!

There he was, at the edge of Juniper

Creek, raring up on his hindlegs.

Before I shoot,

Julie gets him by the throat.

He pushes her off, and I get a chance

to shoot... and what happens?

- What did happen?

- Go on!

My gun won't shoot.

Tried it again and again,

but she won't shoot.

Julie's getting killed, Rip's getting

slashed, this dog's no good...

...my shotgun's no good,

and I'm in a pure fix.

- Quit that stopping all the time.

- Go on.

Well, just as I try the gun for

the last time, she hang fires on me.

Knocks me down. That makes

Slewfoot decide he's had enough.

He swims to the other side

of the creek...

...and the last we seen,

he's heading for no-man-knows-where.

I'd give a gallon of whiskey

to been there.

"Heading for no-man-knows-where"

is right!

- That Slewfoot is something!

- You're a liar, Penny Baxter.

No man ever said that of me afore.

Just two dogs don't make a bear run.

How come you never mentioned this dog?

Now don't press me, Lem.

I done told you, the dog is worthless.

He come out in good shape.

Not a mark on him, is there?

No, there's nary a mark on him.

Takes a clever dog to fight a bear

and get no scratch.

He's no good.

I wouldn't want you to get

no idea of trading for him.

- You'd get fooled and cheated.

- Simmer down, Lem!

If Penny don't wanna trade,

there's nothing say he got to.

Where's your manners, Lem?

Drinking all that jug.

Where's yours? Not giving company

a chance to wet their whistles?

Pa, you got the most sense

for such an old buzzard.

Don't take sense to crave liquor.

- Give it here.

- All right.

Pour me a noggin in the cup

and you can all sit down.

If I'd known you was coming,

I'd have cooked something fitting.

This looks fine enough

for the governor.

I reckon you folks give thanks, Penny.

Pa, it won't hurt you none

to ask blessing once in your life.

Oh, Lord...

Oh, Lord...

...we...

We...

Oh, Lord, thou hast seen fit...

...to bless our sinning souls and...

And bellies with...

With...

With...

- With...

- Good vittles again. Amen.

- Thanks, Penny.

- Amen.

I want two things, Penny. I wanna

be in at the death of Slewfoot...

...and I want that dog.

- Mind what you do, Lem.

When I want a thing, I get it.

From England. No muzzleloading,

fill your own shells, easy as spitting.

Stick your shells in,

breech her, cock her...

...and you're ready for anything.

Shoots as true as the eagle flies.

Now take the gun for him,

or by thunder, I'll...

Well, I don't figure to get myself

murdered in the tracks...

...if that's the way it stands, Lem.

You gotta promise not to beat me

after you hunted him.

Shake.

You scapers got enough covers

up there?

- Yes, Ma.

- Yes'm.

- Good night.

- Night.

- Night, Ma.

- Night.

And then what happened?

It were a sunny day,

like this one we just had.

- You went to the roof?

- I went to the edge of the roof.

- And then you jumped?

- I jumped way out in the air.

What'd it feel like?

When I was jumping, it felt just

like I were flying for a minute...

...just like a bird.

And then it went kind of dark.

It were dark for quite a time.

- Was you bad hurted?

- I reckon.

It should've worked.

I were too young. Someday, I'll fly.

I'll just fly on and on.

It'll be easier than walking.

Walking ain't easy for me

since I tried to fly.

I guess near about everything

would like to fly.

Birds fly. Birds and angels.

Do you know what the end

of the world's like?

What?

It's empty and dark

and only clouds to ride on.

But the clouds is sunny and soft.

You just float on them

and go nowheres.

And all the animals

has little bright clouds to ride on.

Racket'll have a little one,

just alongside of mine.

And do you know what?

Sometimes, as you're drifting along...

...you drift right inside

another cloud.

You'll be on that one,

and we'll lie there and talk.

Just like we're talking now.

And you know what, Jody?

What?

The clouds are really

just the backs of angels...

...who are flying around up there

looking after things.

They'll look after you too, Jody,

until you're ready to fly.

How do you know that?

I just know.

Could be.

Yeah.

Could be.

Pa! Pa! Pa!

I can see him, Pa. I can see him.

An old Spaniard riding along.

Fodderwing said I could spy him here.

That's nice.

- What'd he say he seen?

- A Spaniard.

What Spaniard?

I don't know.

There, now. I was scared this

wouldn't stand another washing.

- What else you got that's cool to wear?

- Nothing, excusing my wedding dress.

- That black alpaca's nice.

- That went to pieces three years ago.

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