A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[first title card]

Title card:
For childhood, Saturday - free from school - is the most changeless of institutions - whether it is in city or village, or main street, or in those vital, teeming streets which were the Brooklyn of a few decades ago.

[first lines]

Katie Nolan:
This'll be the last of them now, Francie.

[last lines]

Francie Nolan:
Neeley ...

Neeley Nolan:
Uh-huh?

Francie Nolan:
Am I good-looking?

Neeley Nolan:
Aw, what's eatin' ya?

Francie Nolan:
No, honest, Neeley, I wanna know.

Neeley Nolan:
[after considering her for a few moments] You'll pass.

Francie Nolan:
You're sweet, Neeley.

Neeley Nolan:
Aw, cut the mush.

Katie Nolan:
Flossie Gaddis died last night.

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush:
The poor baby. It was nice that her Mama got her all them pretty dresses.

Katie Nolan:
Only now the poor thing will have to lie in Potter's Field!

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush:
But at least she had the dresses!

Francie Nolan:
[Johnny has promised to get Francie enrolled in the school she admires.] Bend down Papa. [He does.] My cup runneth over.

Francie Nolan:
Out the window, our tree they killed it!

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush:
Well, would you like at that now.

Francie Nolan:
They didn't have any right to kill it did they papa!

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush:
Now wait a minute. They didn't kill it. Why they couldn't kill that tree.

Francie Nolan:
Promise?

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush:
Why sure baby. Don't tell me that tree is gonna lay down and die that easily. Look at that tree. See where it's coming from. Right up outta that cement! Didn't nobody plant it. Didn't ask the cement to grow. It just couldn't help growing so much it just pushed that old cement out of the way. Now when you bust it with something like that, can't anybody help it, like... like that little ole bird up there. He didn't ask anybody could he sing and he certainly didn't take any lessons. He's so full of singing it just has to bust out someplace. Why they could cut that ole tree right down to the ground and a root would push up someplace else in the cement.

Francie Nolan:
Mama says not to be too late, Papa.

Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush:
Look, God invented time and when He invents something, there's always plenty of it.