There Was a Crooked Man... Page #3

it'll just weaken your mind.

How many?

Well, none that lived to tell about it.

What time do they change the guards?

And where?

It's always different times

and different places.

And it's never all at once.

They don't miss a trick.

Those on the front gate,

always the same number on top? Below?

Believe me, sooner or later

you're gonna give up.

Son, let me tell you something.

It'll help you make your time here.

About 25 years ago...

...when I seen I wasn't ever

gonna get out of this place...

...I said to myself, "Kid," I said:

"Kid, you better figure out some way

to keep from going cuckoo."

Well, you know,

I tried this and I tried that.

And then one day, like, sudden-like,

it come to me.

A way to bust out of here.

No. There ain't no way out.

No, listen. I thunk me up a farm.

I mean, not a big place, it...

There's no more than 25 acres,

but it's real good land.

And now when things get too tough

around here for me...

...I just close my eyes...

...and I farm that land.

Well, anyway, I was thinking, son...

...if you was to get yourself...

Get yourself a farm, a store or something...

...why, it would help you

to pass the time.

It'd give you something...

Give you something to think about.

Thanks, Kid,

but I got something to think about.

All right, get to work!

Hey, hey, come on!

Chop, chop, chop.

We thought some little, bitty ones

might come in handy.

You see, there's this shoulder wound

I got at Gettysburg.

I was just a kid.

- Name.

- Cavendish.

- First name.

- Coy.

Coy.

Maybe we can find

something easier for you to do.

Let's talk about it sometime.

Hey! Hey! Come on! Hit it! Hey, hey!

Hit it!

Oh, my God, how will I live through this?

I've got the chilblains all over.

I can feel my consumption coming back.

The one you caught at Gettysburg?

How can you eat that?

Oh, this ain't that bad.

It ain't as good as my cooking.

It'll be a long time

before you get anything that good again.

You got some gall to talk like that.

If you hadn't backed your butt

into that stove...

You put me here,

just like you'll be the death of me!

Fish piss.

It's no one's fault we're here but yours.

If you'd have listened,

we could've had a nice little house...

...you could've got a decent job and gone

to work the way that other men do.

I'd have cooked and cleaned

and worked my fingers to the bone.

But, oh, no, no, no. That wasn't

good enough for you, Mr. Big-ldeas.

"Just one more dodge.

Make a million. Easy money."

- Everything I did, I was only thinking of us.

- Lies.

- Of you!

- Lies, lies, lies. Just a pack of lies.

- I'm coming down with something.

- Yeah.

- Consumption, I tell you.

- Yeah.

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