← Scripts

Act I

The bells ring out, the overture begins and the town of Salem comes to life. From every platform, vom and cranny, the residents of the town arise and step out to meet the new day. We see mothers hustling their night-gowned youngsters to the washtub, old timers climbing out of their bedding in long johns, last night’s drinkers groggily nursing their pain, early risers sauntering out to spit, scratch & check the weather. Almost at once the town becomes a cacophony of shouts, greetings, complaints, and general confabulation.

THE TOWN: (singing as they go about their morning constitutionals) Land of a thousand hopes! Land of a thousand chances! Land of a thousands dreams… And mine!

(And again the small community bustles its way toward another day with a host of familiar shouts and exhortations.)

BILL: (spotlighted as the activity continues in the shadows around him) One more day to live and grow to know this land of a thousand wonders! One more day to give and try to make this land my own… LADY ONE: Just another day to make my way to where it leads me… Just another day to find my dream … another day. SADIE & WILLY: (in harmony) One more day to wonder what this land will be when we make tomorrow One more day to hope and try to smile when heartache comes Just another day to make our way to where it leads us… Just another day to find our dream… another day. (And once again a shout goes up as the town bustles with activity, setting things straight for another day) THE TOWN: Land of a thousand hopes! Land of a thousand chances! Land of a thousands dreams… And mine!

(And the townsfolk gradually form a static tableau as the music ends. As they stand in statue-like poses, Thomas Reep enters, his mode of dress out of sync with this crew. He’s dressed as a 1920’s man about town, his straw skimmer at a jaunty angle. Reep observes the assembled antiquity. He smiles.)

REEP: No. Before you ask, I don’t belong here.. at least not now. The town’s theirs. Always will be. My name is Thomas Reep ..born a few miles west of Petersburg. This used to be my playground as a boy. I was born some forty years after the town died. Nothin’ much left of it then. .. a few basements and boards. But don’t ya wonder.. it made me wonder… don’t ya just wonder what it must have been like … (moving to a group in tableau) And them. What kind of man and woman would fight whisker-high snow, fish-killin’ drought, and dog-drownin’ floods to stake out a claim up here on this New Salem hill? My college asked me to write a paper about my home territory of New Salem. Seemed easy enough. Town was founded in 1829 or thereabouts, died out some ten years later, and it raised a President to manhood. Simple enough. But then…well, I was lookin’ for a President and I run into somethin’ else…(indicating the group in tableau) Them… the New Salem folks…(moves among the citizens) Bull-necked, rowdy, pious, and persnickety. Brave and outrageous and noble and some just plain foolish. You can’t look at ‘em too close without somethin’ startin’ to happen… a respect.. an admiration … sometimes a fear.. but always… always the feelin’ that right here somethin’ was beginnin’ to rumble. The stirrings of a nation. Not the spit-polished demagogues of some history book, but the real pith and vinegar of what this country was to become. Like a thunder you hear off in the distance that rolls and rumbles and you just know that somethin’ mighty powerful’s a-headin’ your way. So what struck me most about these New Salem folks? Maybe it was the deep affection they had for each other.

MRS. WILSON: Denton Offutt was a gasy…windbag…brain-rattling man. (she exits as the town comes to life and most exit)

REEP: Well, sometimes. You see, Illinois was speckled with frontier settlements. New Salem folks were mostly quiet and well-mannered.

OFFUTT: (absolutely roaring out of the woodwork) Damn it, Lincoln!

REEP: Sometimes. Denton Offutt.

OFFUTT: Lincoln!

REEP: You might have thought the tall, graceful form of Abraham Lincoln brought a new refinement to the town.

LINCOLN: (running on) You hollerin’ for me, Mr. Offutt? (he continues to run, stumbles, and ends up flat-bottomed)

REEP: But you’d be wrong.

OFFUTT: Lincoln, you need a job?

REEP: New Salem wasn’t a frontier settlement like the others.

LINCOLN: I reckon I do, Mr. Offutt.

REEP: Its business was business!

OFFUTT: I need you to split enough rails to hold a thousand hogs!

REEP: And it existed for one reason…

LINCOLN: A thousand hogs?

REEP: To make money.

LINCOLN: You ain’t got a thousand hogs, Mr. Offutt.

REEP: Lincoln came here in 1831.

OFFUTT: That’s your trouble, Lincoln. You don’t dream big enough!

REEP: Just two years after Camron and Rutledge set up a mill.

LINCOLN: That’s a powerful lot of rails, Mr. Offutt.

OFFUTT: And I’m gonna buy a powerful lot of hogs, Lincoln! You doubt me?

REEP: Some folks did.

LINCOLN: I reckon not.

REEP: The town had the sawmill and gristmill…

OFFUTT: You in it then?

LINCOLN: I reckon I am.

REEP: …blacksmith, a cooper, a hat maker, one or two general stores, a shop for carding wool…

OFFUTT: I don’t mean next week!

REEP: And a tavern. The place Denton Offutt spent a good deal of his time.

LINCOLN: I suppose there’s pay attached to this.

OFFUTT: You doubt me, Mr. Lincoln?

REEP: Some folks did.

MRS. WILSON: (enters) Denton Offutt was amiable, free handed and extremely sociable.

LINCOLN: I reckon not.

MRS. WILSON: And like I said, a gasy…windbag…brain-rattling man. (she exits)

REEP: But he thought big! In his mind, New Salem was destined for greatness.

OFFUTT: Then come here and let me give you the specific!

REEP: He’d put Lincoln onto his first job soon as his boat hit the New Salem dam. Once before, Offutt had hired Abraham and John Hanks to take another flatboat of goods to New Orleans.

OFFUTT: I’m gonna sell them thousand hogs down the river then I’m gonna ship 4,000 bushels of seed corn, sell it for a dollar a bushel, bring up some cottonseed from Tennessee….

REEP: Sometimes that thunder holds a crick-bustin’, fire-breathin’ Midwest gullywasher.

OFFUTT: And you and me… we’re gonna be rich!

REEP: And sometimes it’s mostly wind. After Lincoln got back from New Orleans, he hired the young man to clerk his store.. and with very little supervision

OFFUTT: Once the steamboats start chuggin’ up and down the Sangamon, we can retire fat and happy!

REEP: He disappeared in 1832. Never came back. And Lincoln never got fat. Nearly thirty years later a young friend of Lincoln’s ran into Offutt in Mississippi. He sent the message that Lincoln should give up politics and join him in training horses and they’d make a barrel of money. Lots of wind. Little rain.

OFFUTT: Well let’s get it at, boy!

REEP: With Offutt, “Let’s get it at!” usually meant you get at it and I’ll go off and dream another big dream. (Offutt exits) Of course, that was the dream of everybody in 1831.. just get that first steamboat up the Sangamon.. It was more than a dream. It was the future of New Salem.

JAMES RUTLEDGE: (as several gather at Offott’s store) I think it can be done.

REEP: James Rutledge.

WARBURTON: And I say you’re crazy, Rutledge! The Sangamon’s too shallow of summer and too wild in the spring!

REEP: George Warburton. Drowned in six inches of Sangamon water. They said he still had a full charge of whiskey in his mouth.

JAMES RUTLEDGE: It’s a new country, Mr. Warburton. In need of new rules.

HARRISON: The Almighty rules the Sangamon, Rutledge, and no river boat captain’s about to convince Him otherwise.

JAMES RUTLEDGE: And what does New Salem’s newest resident think, Mr. Lincoln?

HARRISON: You’ve plied this old river, Abraham. What’s your line on this argument? Can she be navigated?

LINCOLN: I’d be a fool to say.

REEP: But there were no laws against bein’ a fool in New Salem.

GEORGE WARBURTON: Go ahead.

LINCOLN: Well, I….

JAMES RUTLEDGE: Don’t be shyin’ down now, Lincoln. You’ve plied this river from one end to the other. If there’s any man knows the Sangamon, it’s you.

REEP: They all knew Lincoln.

GREEN: He was standin’ on the Mill Dam wearin’ blue jean breeches all rolled up, a hickory shirt striped blue and white, and a buckeye chip hat.

REEP: William Green.

LINCOLN: At high water, you got a chance.

MENTOR GRAHAM: When I first saw Lincoln he was lying on a trundle bed rocking a cradle with his foot…

REEP: Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster.

LINCOLN: But she can drop fast.

GRAHAM: . . . He was almost covered with paper and books and there was a half-foot of space between the bottom of his pants and his socks.

GREEN: He’d got Offutt’s boat stuck on the dam and had to drill a hole in it to break ‘er loose.

LINCOLN: And then there’s the matter of rastlin’ them branches out of the way.

ROIL CLARY: Jack Armstrong legged Lincoln or he’d never got ‘im whupped.

REEP: Roil Clary.

ROIL CLARY: ….Later on Jack whupped another man for abusin’ Lincoln. He won everbody’s respect.

REEP: But why would Lincoln stay in such a raw-boned, rough-necked town?

LADY CITIZEN ONE: What’s wrong with stayin’? Where you from?

REEP: Petersburg.

LADY CITIZEN ONE: Figures. Big City talk. New Salem will crowd your Petersburg right off the map. Then we’ll set our eyes on Springfield.

DENTON OFFUTT: He needed a job and I had a job for him to do. I saw a promise in that boy! He was the smartest man in the United States. Simple as that.

LINCOLN: I’m not sure I’m smart enough to figure it out.

LADY CITIZEN ONE: Nobody who spends that much time with books could be in his right mind.

LINCOLN: How about I study up on it?

ROIL CLARY: To make it in New Salem you had to be equal parts horse and alligator and then be able to whup your weight in wildcats.

T.G.ONSTOT: They were two classes of folks…

REEP: T.G. Onstot.

T.G. ONSTOT: . . The first class was good, solid folks. After they built a home for their families they started lookin’ to the social and religious welfare of the community.

REEP: And then…

T.G. ONSTOT: …then there were the others. Good neighbors while they were at home but once they headed to town… Well, the devil got into ‘em.

JACK ARMSTRONG: I measure a man by who he can whup! Any sign of a coward and I’ll find him out!

LADY CITIZEN TWO: We came to New Salem from two directions.. the South and New England. Easy to tell ‘em apart. Your ox died you’d go to your Southern neighbor and borrow his. You lived next to a New Englander, you’d have to pay rent.

JACK ARMSTRONG: Gander pullin’ is serious business.

REEP: Jack Armstrong.

ARMSTRONG: You hang a tough old gander by his feet ‘bout eight feet off the ground from a tree, then grease his neck down slick. It’d cost you ten cents to get on your horse and come ridin' like thunder down toward the gander. You manage to snap his head off, the gander is yours!

REEP: And..uh… all this with ladies present?

ARMSTRONG: Shoot no! We’re civilized! We only allow ladyfolk in to the cock fightin’.

(As the townsfolk’s line begin tumbling over one another and they commence to converge upon poor Reep)

LADY CITIZEN ONE: What’s wrong with New Salem? You got somethin’ in your craw? You think we’re a bunch of illiterate boobs? This is a fine place! A good place to raise kids! What’s wrong with New Salem? Eh? Just what’s wrong with it? ARMSTRONG: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Man’s got to fight his way to respect on this prairie, young fella! That’s what we did! We fought our way in and we fought our way out! You put that down! You put that down in your paper! ONSTOTT: .. . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . .. It was a land of opportunity! A land of promise! You had a mind and a strong back and the future was yours! It’s was yours, I tell ya! The whole future was yours for the havin’!

HARRISON: (booming voice bursting through the din) And I say you’re all loco! (they hush) Mad as a sunburnt dog!

LADY CITIZEN ONE: Well!

HARRISON: Crazy as ticks on jackrabbit! Look at this place! Scrub brush and prairie grass!

ARMSTRONG: You’re blowin’ it out your ears, Harrison! This is gonna be the new state capitol!

REEP: (becoming part of the scene) State capitol?

ARMSTRONG: Just south of the mill. I’ve got some plans up at the house.

HARRISON: Talk, talk, talk, jabber, talk! You come out here with nothin’ but a couple bucks and head full of dreams! This place’ll dry up and blow away like a hundred other towns before it! And you know it! You know it! That scrawny little puddle of a river down there will wash you away in the spring and dry up to nothin’ by summer! And then you know what’s gonna happen? The whole world’s gonna pass right on by here and nobody’ll even know we was here! (a silence as his audience is cowed at this bit of pessimism)

RUTLEDGE: (quietly as the others have begun to move away) Possums.(the group stops…Huh?)

ONSTOTT: Mr. Rutledge?

RUTLEDGE: Possums.

LADY CITIZEN ONE: Did he say…

REEP: He said possums.

RUTLEDGE: You ever catch a possum in a trap, Harrison? He’ll chew his right leg off tryin’ to save his left. He just skulks around the woods lookin’ for some coon or rabbit to make a mistake so’s he can jump on him and take advantage of his misery. A possum’s a miserable little thing, Harrison. Afraid of his own shadow, too much a coward to come out into the light of day.. don’t take no chances, don’t go where he don’t feel safe, just don’t do nothin’… and don’t amount to nothin’, either.

HARRISON: Mr. Rutledge are you callin’ me….

RUTLEDGE: This land’s no place for possums, Harrison.

HARRISON: (looks around a bit, embarrassed, then) I assume you’re talkin’ about the animal and nothin’ else.

RUTLEDGE: Assume what you will. (Satisfied, Harrison begins to move away) Or you can go wrap your tail around a tree and swing from a branch for all I care.

HARRISON: (as he charges at him) That’s it!!!….(and they go at it… some of the villagers cheering them on, others trying to break up the brawl… poor Reep caught momentarily in the middle before he weasels his way clear…after a good scuffle, Dr. Allen enters, sees the ruckus and….)

ALLEN: In the name of God!

REEP: (breathless and still nursing his wounds) Dr. John Allen.

ALLEN: In the name of God, it’s the Sabbath!

REEP: He was more than a doctor. He was a Presbyterian.

HARRISON: I seen you at Miz Greene’s place this mornin’, Doc.

ALLEN: She was giving birth.

HARRISON: You workin’ on Sunday?

ALLEN: And giving every Sabbath nickel to the Lord.

RUTLEDGE: Then we’re square up. I was just about to send a possum to glory.

ALLEN: Prayer meeting at the schoolhouse. Seven sharp.

RUTLEDGE: I’ll be there. (Allen gives a benedictory glance and exits)

HARRISON: I still say you’re spittin’ in the wind. This land ain’t nothin’ but trouble and heartache. First it breaks your back then it takes out after your spirit!

RUTLEDGE: It’s raw. I’ll give you that. It’s a long sight from pretty. But by-God boys, don’t she just … I mean can’t you just…. Feel it! Can’t you just see it!

RUTLEDGE: This land is nothin’ but toil and trouble… This land is nothin’ but sorrow and strife… This land is nothin’ but briars and rubble… This land is nothin’ but promise and life!

ALL: This land …RUTLEDGE: belongs to all of my children ALL: This land …RUTLEDGE: belongs to all of their dreams! ALL: This land’s …RUTLEDGE: a strong and mighty notion… ALL: This land’s …RUTLEDGE: a song my soul can sing!

RUTLEDGE: Here’s a promise of a place that’s yet to be… Stretchin’ from the East out to the West’s bright shinin’ sea… This land is more than any man could ever know And I’m gonna fight to make this land my home! (spoken) And I will fight! I’ll fight every flood and every drought and every storm and every man who says I can’t!

ENSEMBLE ONE: This land is nothin’ but toil and trouble… ENSEMBLE TWO: This land is nothin’ but trouble

ENSEMBLE ONE: This is land nothin’ but sorrow and strife… ENSEMBLE TWO: This land is nothin’ but sorrow…

ENSEMBLE ONE: This land is nothin’ but briars and rubble… ENSEMBLE TWO: Thunder rumbles!

ALL: This land is nothin’ but promise and life!

ENSEMBLE ONE: This land belongs to all of my children ENSEMBLE TWO: Toil and trouble! ENSEMBLE ONE: This land belongs to all my dreams! ENSEMBLE TWO: Hope and sorrow! ENSEMBLE ONE: This land’s a strong and mighty notion… ENSEMBLE TWO: Mighty nation…. ALL: This land’s a song my soul can sing! Here’s a promise of a place that’s yet to be… Stretchin’ from the East out to the West’s bright shinin’ sea… This land is more than any man could ever know And I’m gonna fight ….to make ….this land my home!

ENSEMBLE ONE: My home! ENSEMBLE TWO: Mighty, mighty! ENSEMBLE ONE: My home! ENSEMBLE TWO: Mighty troubled! ENSEMBLE ONE: My home! ENSEMBLE TWO: God Almighty! ENSEMBLE ONE: My home! ENSEMBLE TWO: Land of Thunder! ENSEMBLE ONE: My home! ENSEMBLE TWO: Hear it rumble! ENSEMBLE ONE: My home! ENSEMBLE TWO: Gonna make ALL: My home! ---Blackout----

(Duffy Armstrong, a young man, runs onto the stage, looking desperately for something or someone…He doesn’t see Reep hiding in the woodwork. Then Ellie Graham comes running on in a similarly hurried fashion.. they see each other, quickly glance around to see that they’re alone, then steal a furtive kiss.)

STELLA: (a child, running on to platform, shouting above the din) School’s out! ( As he speaks, the children come exploding out of the schoolhouse to the well site. Stella Berry, Pudge Camron, Willa Carey, & Alexis Ferguson) (Duffy and Ellie)

STELLA: I won!

PUDGE: Did not!

STELLA: I got here first!

PUDGE: Did not!

DUFFY: She beat you by a mile, Pudge.

REEP: Children! They were more than a legacy. They were an investment! If the Lord saw fit to bless you with ‘em then He blessed you with a bunch! Maybe eight or nine out of dozen would live and they’d best be able to work soon as they started to walk. Soon as Graham’s school was out they’d meet by the well outside Rutledge’s Tavern and the real business of bein’ a child would begin.

PUDGE: She cheated!

REEP: On a November afternoon you had about two good hours of golden daylight between Master Graham’s studies and Ma’s call for supper and chores. There wasn’t no time to waste.

PUDGE: She tripped me comin’ outa the school house.

WILLA: You tripped on your own big feet, Pudge Camron! Nobody could run with feet that big. Heck, you’ll never amount to nothin’! You’re clumsier than a three-legged mule!

PUDGE: I ain’t neither. Nobody’s got bigger feet than Abe Lincoln! And my pa says nobody’s clumsier (and as he speaks, Lincoln enters and comes up to behind him.. all the children see him approaches..except poor Pudge) .. Pa says that Abe can’t even walk across Berry’s store without knockin’ somethin’ over! (notices that they’ve stopped jeering) What’re ya’ll starin’ at?

LINCOLN: (bumps Pudge and he goes sprawling) Oop. Sorry Pudge. Didn’t see ya. I guess it’s ‘cause I’m so … clumsy.

PUDGE: . . . I was talkin’ about Duffy.

LINCOLN: (huffing up to Duff) You tryin’ to take my job as the clumsiest man in New Salem?

DUFFY: I couldn’t touch your record, Lincoln. Honest. You’re the worst.

PUDGE: You ain’t mad?

LINCOLN: A fella tells you the truth, you wanna thank him, Pudge. (extending his hand and lifting the boy to his feet) So I’m much obliged.

PUDGE: Shoot, I’ll never amount to nothin’, Abe. I’m always comin’ out on the wrong side of the wash. Even girls can beat me in a footrace.

LINCOLN: That bad, huh?

PUDGE: It’s all that and more. I reckon there ain’t nothin’ for me in life but to just jump into the Sangamon and suck up mud.

LINCOLN: Don’t talk that way, Pudge. There’s lots of things you can be.

DUFFY: I’m gonna be a pirate! I’m gonna sail the seven seas and find me a bounty!

ELLIE: You don’t even know what a bounty is.

DUFFY: When I find one… (coming nose to nose with her) .. I’ll know. And then you’ll wish you had one, too.

STELLA: I’m gonna have the biggest house in New Salem.. a frame house! Two stories tall and sixteen kids who all say “Yes Ma’am. No Ma’am. Excuse me, Ma’am.”

WILLA: Your petticoat’s showin’, Ma’am!

DUFFY: I might be a pirate and sail the ocean tide! ABE: You might get to try it, just be what’s down inside! WILLA: I might be a showgirl and dance ‘til the night is through! ABE: You give it a go girl, but just make sure it’s you! What’s round the corner, well I can’t rightly tell! But I can be what I really wanna be if all I wanna be is myself! ALL: I can be what I really wanna be ….if all I wanna be is myself! PUDGE: I might be a soldier and march to the drum alone! ALEXIS: I’ll cry on your shoulder and beg you to come home! STELLA: I might be a singer who sings from shore to shore! ABE: You’ll be what you want to be and maybe just a little bit more ALL: What’s round the corner, well I can’t rightly tell! DUFFY: But I can be what I really wanna be if all I wanna be is myself! ALL: I can be what I really wanna be ….if all I wanna be is myself! And tomorrow I might be somethin’ else All I know is .. I gotta be myself by golly ELLIE: I might dress in diamonds and pick my teeth with pearls Drink my tea with the Queen of France and all of them elegant girls! DUFFY: I might be a miner with gold comin’ outa my dig! ABE: I might be the President … ELLIE: If your feet weren’t so derned big! ALL: What’s round the corner, well I can’t rightly tell! ABE: But I can be what I really wanna be if all I wanna be is myself! ALL: I can be what I really wanna be ….if all I wanna be is myself! And tomorrow I might be somethin’ else All I know is .. I gotta be myself by golly! ABE: Can’t be no one else, by golly! ALL: I gotta be myself!…. PUDGE AND STELLA: We might have a mansion way on top of the hill! PUDGE: You can wash and cook and clean… STELLA: And you can pay all of the bills! ALL: We might be wrong now! Heck, we might be all wet! But there’s a me inside of us we ain’t discovered yet! ALL: What’s round the corner, well I can’t rightly tell! But I can be what I really wanna be .. I’m standin’ tall and fancy free! DUFFY: Don’t try to stop me… ALL: I’m just gonna be myself!

(the kids & Abe exit, triumphant) REEP: (strolling out onto the stage) Oakland Cemetery, Petersburg. Lots of ghosts up here. Beautiful place.. everybody’s buried on one hill or another. So it takes some lookin’ and lots of climbin’ to find what you’re lookin’ for.

HANNAH: (an elderly lady, entering) Pretty night, ain’t it?

REEP: I’m sorry, M’am. Wasn’t expectin’ to run into anybody else up here.

HANNAH: You should. Popular place. Lots of folks up here.

REEP: Pretty quiet tonight.

HANNAH: Should be. Everybody’s dead. Quiet’s ‘em down some. Lookin’ for anybody in particular?

REEP: Hannah Armstrong.

HANNAH: (begins to move to a spot) I’m right over here.

REEP: (goes to stop her then pulls back) You….

HANNAH: I didn’t pick out the stone. Don’t blame me for that.

REEP: But….

HANNAH: And here’s Jack.

REEP: Your…your husband? (getting spooked now, gazing around) Is.. is he here, too?

HANNAH: Ha! Not likely. He’s dead.

REEP: But….if you’re…I mean.. and he’s…Could you maybe explain this, uh…?

HANNAH: Horseweed.

REEP: What?

HANNAH: I hate horseweed. (bends over to pull a clump of weed away from her stone) It’s everywhere. Here we are.. “Hannah Armstrong, died August 19, 1890. Age 79 years and 17 days.” (speaking to another marker) I outlived ya, Jack! By thirty-six years! (to Reep) You know, I loved the little finger of his hand more than the whole body of any other man I ever saw.

REEP: And I understand you knew Lincoln?

HANNAH: Knew lots of folks.

REEP: But Abraham Lincoln?

HANNAH: He was my son.

REEP: But…..

HANNAH: I’s a much a mama as he had here. Every time the boy was without a job he’d come and stay with us. I made his shirts. He chopped my wood and I mended his pants. (to the grave) You remember that, Jack? He’d stand out back of the house in his altogether while I mended his pants? What? Oh sure, you taught him everything he knew. That’s what you always claimed.

REEP: (going hesitantly to Jack’s grave) Did he say something?

HANNAH: Who?

REEP: Jack.

HANNAH: Jack’s dead. I loved that man. Really loved him. Undependable… shiftless sometimes.. anybody came along he’d stop and talk….all day. The neighbors saw more of him than I did. Anybody needed a job done, Jack was there… my wood needed choppin’ and where’d he be? (to the grave) Don’t you contradict. I held this family together while you was out skinnin’ the cat with your friends. (Reep moves closer to Jack’s grave to listen as Hannah moves off.) Oh he was a scrapper. Whupped Lincoln in a wrestlin’ match to hear him tell it. Abraham had his own version, o’course.

REEP: (still looking at the grave) And your children?

HANNAH: Plenty.

REEP: Excuse me?

HANNAH: Had plenty. Had a pair of twin boys. Duffy and Boger. Duffy was a scrapper like his daddy and Boger was more like me. Even-tempered, kindly and pretty of face. Jack died and we moved to Mason County, bought a forty-acre farm. But I don’t care what you heard, Duff didn’t kill nobody.

REEP: I didn’t say….

HANNAH: All the witnesses at the Beardstown trial said they seen him kill Preston Metzker by the light of the moon that night. I didn’t have money for no lawyer so I went to Springfield to ask Lincoln for his help. Offered him my farm in payment.

REEP: That was quite a price.

HANNAH: He wouldn’t take it. He remembered how I used to mend his pants. Got Duff off clean… proved the moon wasn’t up yet that night. (to Jack’s grave) You know, if Duffy wasn’t so much like you, he’d never been in that mess. You hear me, Jack Armstrong?

REEP: (a long beat as Reep listens for an answer) What did he say?

HANNAH: Nothin’. Jack’s dead. You know, I was probably the strongest woman in the county. Jack whupped Lincoln and I could whup Jack. And I nearly had to.. lots of times. He’d come back from a week of cock fightin’ and gander pullin’ and here I’d be with a house full of kids, the crops to get out and no help. I’d say, “Jack Armstrong, if you’re gonna get in this door tonight you’ll have to fight your way in!”

REEP: (speaking to Jack’s grave) What did you… (catching himself and turning to Hannah) .. What did he say?

HANNAH: Said he was sorry. Said I was the most beautiful woman in the Sangamon country. Said he’d probably do it again but that he’d be wrong if he did and that he loved me more’n any man oughta be allowed to. Jack was always honest. Never knew whether to slap him or hug ‘em. Usually did a bit of both and we’d make our peace then go to bed. Anything else you wanna know?

REEP: Uh…thank you, M’am.. Hannah.

HANNAH: Could you get that last horseweed?

REEP: Yes’m. (goes to the grave to pluck the weed) Excuse me, Jack.

HANNAH: No need talkin’ to Jack. Jack’s dead. (and she saunters off as a bewildered Reep is left behind)

T.G. ONSTOT: (a young man, running onto the stage, green walnuts in hand and shouting out) Get outta here! (he hurls a walnut offstage and we hear the sound of a dog yelping offstage) Get your mangy tail outta here! (another walnut is hurled offstage and again the painful yelp of a hound dog) (ducking low to spy them, trying to outsmart the offstage hounds) I..see.. you… don’t .. think.. I… don’t …see.. you.. One..more..step.. just get your head …out ..from …behind …that..wagon..and… (Wham! He hurls another walnut and again the dog yelps).. And don’t come back! (he hurls another and again the yelp) .. (turning to the audience) ‘Scuse me. I work for God.

GUTHRIE WHITE: (from offstage) What’s the commotion!!!? T.G. ONSTOT: I’m the dog pelter. Somebody’s got to do it. MRS. ONSTOT: (from offstage) Thompson! T.G. ONSTOT: Yes’m! MRS. ONSTOT: They’re at it again! T.G. ONSTOT: (peers offstage then hurls another walnut and again a dog howls in agony) GUTHRIE WHITE: (from offstage) Keep those dogs quiet! T.G. ONSTOT: There weren’t no churches in the early days of the county and the Cumberland Presbyterians lead the way in what we called camp meetings. We’d commence to put up a big old shed on Thursday afternoon and by Sunday mornin’ it looked like a whole town had sprung up as folks’d move it to set up their camps. Out back of the camps the women’d do their cookin’. They’d hoist two big logs together then stick an upright forked pole ‘tween each end and. .

MRS. ONSTOT: Thompson!!!

T.G. ONSTOT: (suddenly seeing something out of the corner of his eye, he wheels and fires!) (the dog howls) …they’d set to cookin’ for everbody that come. Every man in Menard county had a dog and most had a dozen. They was the worst part of any camp meetin’. Soon as you turned your head, you’d lose a ham .. or whole shank of beef.

GUTHRIE WHITE: (charging onto the stage) What in God’s creation is goin’ on out here!!?

T.G.ONSTOT: I’m protectin’ the women’s cookin’ from them dogs, Brother White!

GUTHRIE WHITE: You the cooper’s boy? Onstot?

T.G. ONSTOT: Yes sir!

GUTHRIE WHITE: Them’s Jim Berry’s dogs you’re peltin’.

T.G. ONSTOT: My mamma says Jim Berry don’t want ‘em hurt, let him keep ‘em at home.

GUTHRIE WHITE: Well can’t you wallop ‘em… quieter??

T.G. ONSTOT: I’ll try, Brother White. (White exits)

MRS. ONSTOT: Thompson!

T.G. ONSTOT: Yes’m! (and he hurls another walnut offstage, this time causing an unusually large commotion among the dogs) (White rushes onto the stage ready to berate poor T.J., T.J. turns and shrugs helplessly to him, then White gives up and exits again.) You see, here’s how they laid it out. (he draws imaginary circles in the dirt with his toes, then gets down on his knees to point and explain) Here.. here’s the camp meetin’. Then there’s the circle of wagons and tents and cookfires (a dog yelps offstage) .. and dogs. Lotsa dogs. Then there’s this bigger circle around the whole thing. … this is the carousers .. the men that come to watch the action and just drink all night and all day. It’s takes more’n a green walnut to fetch them away. There’s some awful fights goes on out here in this big circle. And then right in the middle. (looks up, wide-eyed) That’s God! God’s in the middle, then the camp, then the food, then the dogs then the drunks. But I’ll tell you the truth, sometimes it scares me worst to be in this little circle where the preachin’ goes on. There’s some powerful strange things goes on in there. Some folks.. and it’s mostly the ladies.. they get the shakes.. sometimes for a day or two then they’d be sick as Adam’s goat for days after that. Bob Johnson’s the wheelwright and sometimes Mrs. Johnson she’d get to shakin’ so bad that you couldn’t get close to her for fear of gettin’ shook yourself. And sometimes.. and this is the queer part of the whole thing.. sometimes that Holy Spirit would jump (indicating on his little dirt map) plumb over the camp meetin’, leap over cook pots, hurdle them dogs and land right among the carousers! One of them old drunks’d get the spirit and he’d take off runnin’ like Satan was on his tail.. They’d chase him sometimes a half-day ‘til he just give out and flopped right there into the dirt. But the noisiest part of all this conflagration . . it was… (leaning close to make his point in the dirt)… right Here.. the preacher.. a big old foghorn givin’ God advice and directions how to run the world.

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: (entering with bombast as a congregation forms around him) Oh send a flood!

CONGREGATION: Send a flood!

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: A flood of repentance!

CONGREGATION: A flood of repentance!

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Let the blind see the error of their sin!

CONGREGATION: Let them see!

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Let them shout their salvation!

CONGREGATION: Let them shout their salvation!

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Shout their salvation!

CONGREGATION: Shout their salvation!

(And at this, T.G. sees an errant hound winds up and fire. The dog howls painfully. The congregation slowly turns to look at a guiltily besmirked T.G. holding a green walnut in his hand.)

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: (temporarily flummoxed, then continuing in full singing voice) When the Still!

CONGREGATION: When the Still!

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Of the night!

CONGREGATION: Of the night!

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Meets the gold…

CONGREGATION: Meets the gold…

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Of the day…

CONGREGATION: Of the day…

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: In the still

CONGREGATION: In the still

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: Of the night…

CONGREGATION: Of the night…

REV. NEAL JOHNSON: I hear that voice of calm! (a bark)

MRS. ONSOT: (offstage) Thompson! (he tosses another walnut and a hound howls)

CONGREGATION: I hear the voice of calm (he tosses another this time the howling is fierce and continues throughout the song as the confabulated choir try to retain their deteriorating decorum.) I hear the voice of calm… In the still of the night…… I hear the voice of calm! (The music continues under … But by now the commotion of the hounds has completely discombobulated the congregation’s concentration and they begin to exit the meeting as the Rev. Johnson tries vainly to hold them in place. Seeing his cause is hopeless, he storms over to young Onstot, takes the two remaining walnuts from his trembling fist and gives one a vicious hurl offstage.. the dogs quiet…and Mrs. Onstot enters rubbing her head and glaring at the preacher holding the walnut and preparing to chuck his last one.. T.G. looks at the audience, shugs.. and ..)

T.G. ONSTOT: Amen? (BLACKOUT)

(the lights come up to reveal Mrs. Barnett alone on a platform) MRS. BARNETT: We were hungry. I didn’t have no choice. I made him go!

REEP: Mrs. John Barnett.

MRS. BARNETT: I didn’t have no choice!

REEP: 1830… the winter of the Big Snow.

MRS. BARNETT: Down to just one cow and the damned wolf killed it! The poor thing had broke through the snow and she couldn’t get free. But the wolves.. the wolves walked on top of the snow. …

REEP: Three days before Christmas, 1830, it startin’ rainin’. Then on Christmas Day the snow began…

MRS. BARNETT: …they walk on top of the snow…

REEP: … and it would not stop. Days and days of snow..

MRS. BARNETT: …they walk on top….

REEP: Then the snow began and for two weeks the temperature never topped twelve below… twelve below…. Formed a crust that would bear the weight of man… But things began to die.. livestock…the crops were still in the fields and what grain was stored, well the mills were miles away…then the animals in the woods began to die..except for the wolves. The sharp hooves of the deer would break through the frozen crust and there they’d be trapped…to wait for the wolves…they walk . . .

(together with MRS. BARNETT) .. on top of the snow.

REEP: The settlers tried to break roads with ox teams but the snow would blow into the ruts and they had to be broken again and again, packin’ the snow in tight… It was nearly March and still you could see those silver threads of frozen tracks snakin’ their way across the spring grass.

MRS. BARNETT: I’d told him.. I said, “You’ve got to kill that wolf, John. You’ve got to kill him!” He allowed as how that was true.. and besides, even wolf would make a meal with a night’s boilin’. I didn’t have a choice. I made him go! He took his horse and the dog … one day.. two.. the snow wouldn’t let up. I stayed up all night waitin’ for the sound of Mayfire’s hooves on the snow… nothin’.. nothin’. Me and the girls lived on lye-hominy for a week.. and nothin’ else. I’d put ‘em to bed at sunset then I’d cry. I’d just cry all night. The weather broke enough for me to walk for help and the neighbor men went out lookin’.. Nothin’. No man, no horse… no dog. Nothin’. Nothin’ but those silver threads stretchin’ out across the new prairie grass to where the thaw began. They found John the next spring. Forty miles from the house. He must of got lost and confused in the storm and rode Mayfair ‘til the horse gave out… just before he got to the silver thread of road… And the wolf… he’d found ‘em first. Twenty yards from the silver thread. (with quiet bitterness) I didn’t have no choice. I made him go. (The lights dim out as a the sound of a single guitar is heard in the distance and a spot comes up on Marie.)

MARIE: The stars shine cold and lonely … Come to me, my child…my child, my on---ly… The night is cold around me, Run to me my child…hold tight my love.

MARIE & MARGARET: Oh Hold me… until the first light comes Stay here by my side until the dawning Come and help me spin a silver thread of hope and love Sit here by my side until the morning.

MRS. BARNETT: The darkness all surrounds me, Come to me, my child… my child, my on---ly… Sit and pray that soon the moonlight shows the way Oh child…. Hold tight, my love.

MARIE, MARGARET & MRS. BARNETT: Oh Hold me… until the first light comes Stay here by my side until the dawning Come and help me spin a silver thread of hope and love Sit here by my side until the morning.

MRS. BARNETT: The stars shine cold and lonely … Run to me my child…hold tight my love. (Blackout)

MULE MAN: (music under) Well, you did it to me. I got 13 prime acres to plow, every ox in New Salem’s been put to bed for the night and here you sit. You ain’t moved since I unhitched you last night and you’re lookin’ at me like the fool I am for trustin’ my livelihood to a mule!

Well you dad-blamed old mule, You done done me wrong, If it wasn’t for you I’d never, I’d never be singin’ this song. ‘Cause you’re a dad-blamed, half-lame lame-brained insane old mule!

Well you sorry so and so you never gave me the chance To make a dad-burned nickel by the seat my pants Oh it’s plain I’m ashamed you became such a dad-blamed old mule!

BREAK: Well I never, I never, I never, I never, I never, I never seen nothin’ so worthless as you! If I ever, I ever, I ever, I ever, get flush or whatever, you know just what I’m gonna do. I swear if I ever get sight of whoever was clever sell me on you… I’ll kick ‘em wherever there’s fire in the weather for talkin’ me into a dad-blamed old mule!

You sucked up my feed and you drained last dime Now I’m on the derned brink for the very last time. Well you profane, half-tamed, scatterbrained dad-blamed old mule!

You caused me to drink and you caused me cuss And this time old mule, well enough is enough Hey, you worthless old Jack am I assssskin’ too much of a just plain old pain of dad-blamed old dad-blamed old mule?

BREAK: Well I’m gonna, I’m gonna, You know that I’m gonna get one of those buggies and sit down upon it buy me horse in your place… It’s over! It’s over! And hell will freeze over before I again buy a dad-gummed disgustin’ disgrace! I’d been better off just a drivin’ a goose or teachin’ a hound dog to plow! I’m gonna shoot you some day, oh heck I think I just do it now! You sorry son of a no-good humliatin’ frustratin’ constipatin’ Razzle-Frazzit…Mule!

UNCLE JIMMY: (an irascible old geezer of a firebrand-scalawag, shouting) "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help. But he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores!”

REEP: Uncle Jimmy Pantier.

UNCLE JIMMY: Hosea Chapter Five! Verses 12, 13 and 14!

REEP: The second white male child born in Kentucky.

UNCLE JIMMY: “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness!”

REEP: ….now of New Salem. His father was a good friend of Daniel….

UNCLE JIMMY: Matthew, Chapter 10!

REEP: … Boone.

UNCLE JIMMY: Verses 1 and 2!

REEP: Uncle Jimmy spent his days in the woods.. folks said the animals and birds knew him as their friend. He could walk right up to a rabbit or a possum and shake their hand.

UNCLE JIMMY: “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.” Luke 5! Verse 14!

REEP: They say he could heal your ailment by blowin’ into your face!

UNCLE JIMMY: (blowing into someone’s face) Be gone ye evil spirit of disease!

REEP: Warts were his specialty.

UNCLE JIMMY: (blows on a passing wart) Be gone! Be gone! “Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you!”

REEP: Uncle Jimmy had committed long passages of the scriptures to memory. He’d carry his own split-bottom chair down to the Cumberland Presbyterian at Concord and place it right in front of the preacher. (Jimmy has picked up his chair and now carries it through a slightly surprised congregation)

PREACHER: (preaching as Uncle Jimmy enters) And God had that self-same trouble with the Israelites as He does today with the citizens of our community today! My Brethren, it says that thou shalt not steal and we’ve had by my count two horses and twelve cattle pilfered this very week! Yes! I said this very week! Exodus Chapter 22, verse 1: “If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep and kill it, or sell it…he shall restore four oxen for and oxen and five sheep for a sheep!”

UNCLE JIMMY: (standing, finger raised) Tut, tut, tut!

REEP: Uncle Jimmy would interrupt any preacher.

UNCLE JIMMY: You’ve got your numbers wrong, preacher.

PREACHER: I…uh…

REEP: The service would come to a halt.

PREACHER: I may have..uh..Brother Pantier, where have I …uh…erred?

UNCLE JIMMY: You’re the preacher. Why are you askin’ me?

REEP: Uncle Jimmy liked to see ‘em squirm.

PREACHER: Six oxen and four sheep?

UNCLE JIMMY: Nope.

PREACHER: Three oxen and twelve sheep?

UNCLE JIMMY: (shakes his head and the congregation become increasingly disgruntled)

PREACHER: Four and seven?

REEP: The service would stop ‘til he got it right.

PREACHER: Three and four? Nine and seven? Five and four?

UNCLE JIMMY: Hot diggity! Five oxen and four sheep! Amen! Preach on, brother! Preach on!

PREACHER: I…uh… seem to have lost my place.

REEP: That happened a lot when Uncle Jimmy was around.

PREACHER: (confused and looking for an out) Have we taken up the offering?

REEP: It happened a lot.

PREACHER: (totally flummoxed now) A hymn! Let us a sing our final hymn! (and the organ strikes up the intro and the congregation sings as Jimmy packs up his chair and exits the church)

CONGREGATION: (singing) There is a balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole, There is a balm in Gilead, To heal the sin sick soul! REEP: (as the Congregation sings under) Uncle Jimmy lived to an old age but never ceased to wear his linsey-woolsey shirts and old fashioned jeans trousers with one flap in front buttoned by a single button to his shirt. And, like many of the Kentucky settlers, he liked his drink.

UNCLE JIMMY: (crossing to Reep) Be healed!

REEP: I’m not sick, Uncle Jimmy

UNCLE JIMMY: (tipsy by now) You just never know. You never know.. (and he wanders off toward Petersburg)

CONGREGATION: (singing) There is a balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole, There is a balm in Gilead, To heal the sin sick soul! Sometimes I feel discouraged, And think my work’s in vain, But then the Holy Spirit Revives my Soul again! There is a balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole, There is a balm in Gilead, To heal the sin sick soul!

REEP: It was a cool autumn evening when Lincoln was givin’ a political speech in the Petersburg courthouse yard.

LINCOLN: (speaking to an assembled crowd) ….and sometimes the legislature reminds me of George Warburton’s dog. Old Ralph would just bay and holler for no good reason until George would….

UNCLE JIMMY: (Xing to directly in front of him) Evenin’, Abe!

LINCOLN: Evenin’ Uncle Jimmy… Old Ralph would bark his fool head off until…

UNCLE JIMMY: How are you, Abe?

LINCOLN: I’m fine, Uncle Jimmy. (reaches down to give him a hand) Here, why don’t you just have a seat with me on the platform?

UNCLE JIMMY: (taking his hand and climbing up to sit near where Abe is speaking) Obliged. Much obliged.

REEP: He brought him right up on the platform with him.

LINCOLN: Sometimes the legislature reminds me of that old dog when he’d…

UNCLE JIMMY: Abe, how are all your folks?

LINCOLN: (Still smiling) Everybody’s just fine, Uncle Jimmy. Just fine. (waits for him to respond)… Well?

UNCLE JIMMY: Oh don’t let me bother you runnin’ for Congress and all. I’ll just sit right here and listen.

LINCOLN: ‘Preciate it, Jimmy. (back to the crowd) You see, Old George’s dog would…

UNCLE JIMMY: Shoot, I wouldn’t mess with a feller runnin’ for office.

LINCOLN: (stops, rolls his eyes a bit…wonders where to go next).. So….

UNCLE JIMMY: I knew George’s dog. Knew his dog better’n I knew George. Liked ‘im better, too. You gonna tell about him, Abe? Go on and finish your story. I’ll just sit tight.

LINCOLN: (a beat, then) Tight. Uncle Jimmy, you got that one right.

REEP: Uncle Jimmy died in the winter of 1859. Buried him in the Concord Settlement Cemetery.

UNCLE JIMMY: (going to Lincoln) That a wart, Abe? You want me to blow on it?

REEP: His son David joined up with Abe in the Black Hawk war and became one of his closest friends.

LINCOLN: Well look there, Uncle Jimmy! I believe they’re openin’ the bar!

UNCLE JIMMY: You hold onto that wart, Abe. I’ll be back directly. (singing as he marches off to the tavern) There is a balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole, There is a balm in Gilead, To heal the sin sick soul!

YOUNG FERGUSON: My daddy is Alexander Ferguson. He makes shoes. You wanna make somethin’ of it? They ain’t real good but they’re cheap and everbody needs ‘em. I used to lie about what he did. When we was at recess at Mr. Graham’s school the other kids’d brag about their fathers. Pudge Camron would shoot off his lip about his dad ownin’ the mill and Stella Berry just wouldn’t shut up but we’d have to hear all about her dad, the great Preacher Berry. Then they’d turn to me and they’d say, “Hey, young Ferguson. Your daddy still makin’ shoes?” I lied once and said that he was a Prince from Russia and he’d fallen on hard times and someday he was gonna go back to Russia and be King. Ellie Graham says, “Ha! You’re a liar, Ferguson! Russia ain’t got no King. They got a Czar!” I said, “Yea, but the Czar’s just holdin’ the job ‘til the King gets back! So there!” My dad didn’t go to school. Mama had to write his name down for him when we bought the house. But he works.. he works really hard ‘cause that’s all he knows how to do. Folks’ll bring in their hides .. sometimes by the bushel or the wagon full and Daddy’ll make ‘em shoes. Last week a fella took home two whole armfuls. Daddy works fast when we’re hungry. We mostly don’t wear shoes at New Salem. Don’t wear much at all but a long shirt all summer then britches when the November winds start whippin’ up. It’s gotta be powerful bad weather to put on a pair of shoes ‘cause …you see, the shoes don’t fit. Bowling Green bought a pair of boots in Springfield and the next night half the town turned out to look at ‘em. But the shoes… they don’t fit. Daddy knows about shoes…he just don’t know much about feet. I come home cryin’ once and tellin’ Mama how the kids had teased me ‘cause my dad made shoes and she said, “Your Daddy is a Godly man and he almost always puts food on the table and his children are always scrubbed clean. Besides, everbody wears shoes. We don’t all need a doctor or a lawyer but everbody needs shoes.” That made me feel some better.. until they all started at me again. Sometimes at night I lay there and pretend my daddy owned a mill like John Camron or that maybe he was a wheelwright like old Bob Johnson. I know it’s a sin to wish such things but sometimes I wish that Daddy really was a King of Russia and that he’d go back someday and show that old Czar what’s what and then I’d come back here to New Salem and I’d show ‘em…I’d just show ‘em. My daddy is Alexander Ferguson. He makes shoes.

REEP: A town… a frontier town.. is never a sure thing. It’s …a proposition..an idea. You hopes could be rooted as deep as the Illinois prairie grass but even the grass is never a sure thing.

(The following takes place at various places around the village as the citizens come out to view the approaching storm, first those indicated below, then the entire village.)

FELICITY: (entering and looking out) Storm’s comin’.

MAJORS: (her husband) Come inside, Leese.

FELICITY: Storm’s comin’.

MAJORS: Leese, let’s talk about this in the mornin’. …

FELICITY: Tennessee.

MAJORS: Huh?

FELICITY: Then Ohio then Indiana. Which bad idea you want to talk about, Majors?

MAJORS: Leese, this place is gonna make it. I can feel it.

FELICITY: Can you hear yourself? Can you just hear yourself talkin’? Boomtown! Riverboats plyin’ the Sangamon and trade comin’ in so fast we can’t keep count!

MAJORS: You gotta give it time, Leese! We gotta take chances or we’ll be out of the runnin’! (she turns to look at the approaching storm) Leese? (nothing) Leese, just come to bed. (nothing) We’ll talk.. I promise we’ll talk in the mornin’.

FELICITY: (a long beat, then) Storm’s comin’.

STELLA: (a young girl in another space) Mama, I can’t sleep.

MRS. BERRY: You daddy catches you out here in this wind and you’ll be walkin’ sore tomorrow.

STELLA: What makes the thunder, Mama?

MRS. BERRY: God. God makes thunder.

STELLA: But what’s it mean?

MRS. BERRY: Most of the time…Trouble.

MRS. RUTLEDGE: (in another space) You really believe it, James?

RUTLEDGE: (looking out at the approaching storm) Got to. Some things you gotta believe or there’s no use goin’ on.

MRS. RUTLEDGE: And if it don’t make it? That Talisman riverboat’s been hung up for days down river.

RUTLEDGE: You one of ‘em? You say we’re sunk too? Maybe I’m sleepin’ in the wrong house tonight.

MRS. RUTLEDGE: Don’t talk that way to me, James. I’ve sweat as much as you and I’ve hauled as much lumber up this New Salem hill. I was just… I was just wonderin’ is all.

RUTLEDGE: (a long beat, then) Storm’s comin’.

MRS. RUTLEDGE: I can feel it.

ELLIE: (running in to another area where Lincoln is standing) Whatcha doin’, Abraham?

ABE: You ought be in bed, Ellie.

ELLIE: Whatcha doin’?

ABE: You hear me?

ELLIE: Yep. Whatcha doin’?

ABE: Watchin’ the storm a-comin’.

ELLIE: How come?

ABE: Full o’ questions, ain’t cha.

ELLIE: Yep. Watcha watchin’ for?

ABE: Look at that lightening, Ellie. Gonna be a big’n.

ELLIE: You scared?

ABE: Yep.

ELLIE: Really?

ABE: You always gotta be a little bit scared, Ellie. That’s what keeps you goin’… sometimes it’s what keeps you alive.

ELLIE: It’s okay then…to be scared of the thunder?

ABE: You’d be a fool not to.

MAJORS: Leese, come inside. Please.

FELICITY: In a minute. I want to see this one comin’.

STELLA: Lightening, Mama!

MRS. BERRY: We’ll be alright.

MAJORS: We can do it, Leese. You know that. (she says nothing and continues to watch the storm roll in)

MRS. RUTLEDGE: What’s in this storm, James?

RUTLEDGE: I’d give anything to know.

1st SOLO WOMAN: Silent horizon… Storm clouds arising… Night rides the wind ‘cross the plain The song of the rain…. I know…

1st SOLO MAN: Somebody’s cryin’ Some hopes are dyin’ Sometimes you face to the wind And sometimes you win … I know… FEMALE ENSEMBLE: Like Distant thunder Nights full of wonder Days when you lose all you’ve been And sometimes you win… I know…

MALE ENSEMBLE: Somebody’s prayin’ Some prayers are fadin’ Sometimes you hear it again The song of the rain… I know…

MALE SOLO: You’re never clear if the sound you hear is the thunder or the rain You’re never sure if the dream is yours and if it won’t come back again. You’re never far but you get so tired of throwin’ dreams up to the sky You pray to God you’ll know before you die……. I know…

FEMALE ENSEMBLE: Silent horizon…

Storm clouds arising…

Night rides the wind ‘cross the plain

The song of the rain…. I know… MALE ENSEMBLE: Somebody’s cryin’

Some hopes are dyin’

Sometimes you face to the wind

And sometimes you win … I know…

MALE SOLO: You’re never clear if the sound you hear is the thunder or the rain You’re never sure if the dream is yours and if it won’t come back again. You’re never far but you get so tired of throwin’ dreams up to the sky You pray to God you’ll know before you die……. I know…

(And the storm is upon the village. The people hold each other a moment then step inside their homes.)

CHILD: (as the music ends, waking and stepping out to look at the coming storm) Mama?

------Blackout------ -----End of Act I------

Distant Thunder

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