Colonel Stonehill:
Nine and a half for low middling and ten for ordinary.
Mattie Ross:
Well, we got most of ours out early -- sold to the Woodson Brothers
in Little Rock for eleven cents.
Colonel Stonehill:
Then I suggest you take the balance of it to the Woodson Brothers.
Mattie Ross:
We took the balance to Woodson. We got ten and a half.
Colonel Stonehill:
Why'd you come here to tell me this?
Mattie Ross:
Well,
I thought we might shop around up here next year but I guess we're
doing all right in Little Rock.
I'm Mattie
Ross, daughter of Frank Ross.
Colonel Stonehill:
Oh...Tragic thing. May I say your father impressed me with his manly
qualities. He was a close trader
but he acted the gentleman.
Mattie Ross:
Well, I propose to sell those ponies back to you that my father
bought.
Colonel Stonehill: Oh, that, I
fear, is out of the question. I will see that they're shipped
to you at my earliest convenience.
Mattie Ross:
Well, we don't want the ponies now. We don't need 'em.
Colonel Stonehill: Well, that
hardly concerns me. Your
father bought the ponies and paid for them and there's
an end of it. I -- I have the bill of sale.
Mattie Ross:
And I want three hundred dollars for Papa's saddle horse that
was stolen from your stable.
Colonel Stonehill: You
have to take that up with the man who stole the horse.
Mattie Ross:
Tom Chaney stole the horse while it was in your care. You are
responsible.
Colonel Stonehill:
[Chuckling] Yeah, I admire
your sand1, but I believe you'll find I'm not liable for
such claims.
Mattie Ross:
You were the custodian. If you were a bank and were robbed you could
not simply tell the depositors to go hang.
Colonel Stonehill: I do not
entertain hypotheticals --
the world as it is is vexing
enough. Secondly, your valuation
of the horse is high by about two
hundred dollar -- H-How old are you?
Mattie Ross:
If anything, my price is low. Judy is a fine racing mare. I've seen her jump an
eight-rail fence with a heavy rider.
I'm fourteen.
Colonel Stonehill: Oh, well, that's all very interesting. The ponies are yours
-- take
them. Your father's horse was stolen by a murderous criminal. I
had provided reasonable protection
for the creature as per our
implicit agreement. My watchman
had his teeth knocked out and can
take only soup.
Mattie Ross:
Well, I will take it to law.
Colonel Stonehill: You have
no case!
Mattie Ross:
Lawyer J. Noble Daggett of Dardanelle, Arkansas may think
otherwise -- as might a jury, petitioned by a widow and three
small children.
Colonel Stonehill: ...I will
pay two hundred dollars to your father's estate when I have in
my hand a letter from your lawyer absolving me of all liability
from the beginning of the world to date. Now --
Mattie Ross:
I will take two hundred dollars for Judy, plus one hundred for
the ponies, and twenty-five dollars for the gray horse that Tom
Chaney left. He was easily worth forty. All right, that is three hundred
and twenty-five
dollars total.
Colonel Stonehill: The
ponies have no part in it! I will not buy them.
Mattie Ross:
Then the price for Judy is three hundred and twenty-five dollars.
Colonel Stonehill: Ah, ha, I would
not pay three hundred and
twenty-five dollars for a winged
Pegasus! As for the gray horse, it
does not belong to you --
Mattie Ross:
The gray horse was lent to Tom Chaney by
my father. Chaney only had the use of 'em.
Colonel Stonehill: ...I will
pay two hundred and twenty-five dollars and keep the gray horse.
I don't want the ponies.
Mattie Ross:
I cannot accept that.
There will be no settlement after I leave
this office.
It will go to law.
Colonel Stonehill: All
right, this is
my last offer: two hundred
and fifty dollars. For that, I get
the release, previously discussed,
and I keep your father's saddle.
The gray horse is
not yours to sell.
Mattie Ross:
The saddle is not for sale. I will keep it. Lawyer Dagget will
prove ownership of the gray horse. He will come after you with a
writ of replevin.
Colonel Stonehill: All
right, now look -- listen very carefully, as I will not bargain further.
I will take the ponies back and the gray horse, which is
mine, and settle for three hundred dollars. Now, you must take
that or leave it, and I do not much care which it is.
Mattie Ross:
Well, Lawyer Daggett would not wish me to consider anything under
three hundred and twenty-five dollars. But, I
will settle for three hundred and twenty -- if I am given the
twenty in advance.
Now, here's what I have to say about that
saddle....
