The Kentuckian

[first lines]

Little Eli Wakefield:
How long now, Pa? How many more days?

Elias Wakefield:
We ain't much more than started!

Little Eli Wakefield:
But won't you tell me something more about Texas?

Elias Wakefield:
Well, it's a place for the likes of us. No people there much, no neighbors to crowd ya, only wild game to see and to shoot at. And when you take a breathe, it's got a clean taste to it, like nobody ain't never used it before.

Elias Wakefield:
It ain't we don't like people - we like room more. Room to stretch in, room to see and hunt... and where you set your foot no foot's been set before. That's what ails Kentucky now; a man can't hardly move without he nudges up agin' a neighbor.

Elias Wakefield:
Well, the egg ain't hatched yet, but we sure got a hen settin'.

Elias Wakefield:
I overdone my fun and so poked my paw in the bear trap.

Drunk frontiersman with whip:
Who dares? Who dares to crack a whip with me? My mammy was a gator and my pappy was a bull! I can whup my weight in wildcats and drink my belly full. Who dares?

[Stan whips the jug out of drunk whipcracker's hand]

Drunk frontiersman with whip:
Not you, Stan. You cut too fine a seam for me.

Susie:
Sometimes you can ruin what you love.

Elias Wakefield:
I'm trying to be a right father to you. I'm trying to think what kind of man you'll grow up to be.

Little Eli Wakefield:
What kind of man are you coming to be? That's the worst of all!

Fletcher:
Hitting a poor scholar isn't going to cure your ignorance, my friend.

Elias Wakefield:
The way to start off new is to shuck off what's old.

Elias Wakefield:
You got to take things for what they are.

Zack Wakefield:
I know what's best for him. I'll make a businessman out of him. You leave it to me. I'll work the buckskin out of him and off of him both. He's my little brother.

Elias Wakefield:
Bodine, for once you've gone too far!

Stan Bodine:
I go where I please, Wakefield!

Elias Wakefield:
[referring to Fletcher] He's a windbag but high educated and mighty high.

Zack Wakefield:
Look, we're much obliged - more than I can say.

Hannah:
Eli, you're playin' the fool.

Zack Wakefield:
Maybe my own kind of fool then. [to Little Eli] Let's go, boy.

Zack Wakefield:
Just keep your powder dry. Our time to shoot will come.

Pleasant Tuesday Babson:
You don't measure land in Texas by rod and chain - you measure by the eye. And when the eye can see no further, that's where you drive your stake. The rifle ball has not been made that can carry to a neighbor's line.

[last lines]

Elias Wakefield:
No, Hannah, don't leave us. We're goin' to Texas. We're goin' to live it bold.