The Yearling Page #2

- You're spindly enough as it is.

How can we spare rations for critters?

We can barely keep our bellies full.

I just want something all my own.

Something to follow me and be mine.

Something with dependence to it.

Well, you'll not find that nowhere.

Not in the animal world

nor in the world of man.

Going on 12 and still wanting

some kind of a play dolly.

Pa was doing his man's share

of work at your age.

Stop pestering and get to bed

afore I take a brush to you.

Yes'm.

Good night.

- Good night, Pa.

- Good night, son.

Seems like you get mighty hard

on the boy at times, Ora.

Let him tend to work.

Always running off...

...wanting to bring critters back.

Well, a boy ain't a boy too long.

Leave him kick up his heels a little.

Day will come, he won't even want to.

Ora, I've seen our boy stand agaze...

...and breathless at the wonderment

of bird and critter...

...wind, rain, the sun and the moon...

...just like I stood when I was a boy

in the forest.

Don't be afraid to love the boy, Ora.

I'll put up the stock.

What's the matter, Pa?

Your ma's gone down

to the burying ground, son.

Pa, a couple of old buck deer were

in our burying grounds today.

I seen their tracks.

Ora's and David's markers

were knocked down.

- Well, your ma wouldn't like that.

- I was obliged to right them.

One marker had something

written on it...

...but it's getting kind of dim.

I can't make it out.

That's Ezra Jr.

He never seen the light of day.

He died when he was born?

That's right, son.

- Ma never talks about them, does she?

- No.

Are they part of Ma's raring, Pa?

- You figured that out all by yourself?

- I was just wondering.

I'm proud you're looking

for the reason of things.

Figuring out what makes people rare

when they don't mean it.

- Your ma's a wonderful woman, Jody.

- Yes, Pa.

When we come here, years ago,

she was pretty...

...and full of the fun of life.

This place was a wilderness.

Your ma thought it were beautiful.

She pitched right in

and worked as hard as I did.

We made it a kind of game,

clearing this place we got.

The two of us together out here

in the wilderness.

A man couldn't have had a better wife.

Then when we lost the children,

one after the other.

It ain't easy for a woman to have

her young'uns taken away from her.

It does something to her. Makes

something inside her close up tight...

...so if it happens again,

she won't let it hurt her so much.

I was lucky, weren't I, Pa?

I'm 11 years old.

I'm way past the age of dying.

What you two doing? Stop visiting.

It's time that boy got to sleep.

All right, Ma. He's going to sleep.

Pa!

Come look what's happened!

It's a calf and a shoat!

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