until you came along we were going to sonora.
not exactly. they decided gambling and dancing were bad for people. can i make it?
thank you, mr. graham.
aspen doesn't want us mr. graham. they threw us out.
we tried to point that out. but there were some pretty nosey citizens who wouldn't listen to reason. they said aspen had outgrown us. it's all right to play poker in your own home but not in a saloon.
goodbye and thanks.
no. we came down the hill a little fast and.  . the wheel broke. can you fix it for us?
too much excitement. how about the surrey. can you fix it?
it was a gift from the citizens of aspen. i'm mary wells.
and this is helen carter.
i was at first. then i was hanging on. are you going far?
as far as -- sonora?
we're going to sonora, too, so that solves everything.
we can ride in your wagon.
we wouldn't think of asking you to take us for nothing.
there's only four of us.
they won't be riding in the wagon.
you can't leave us here.
what good is it going to do us to go to some ranch?
we have to get to sonora. there are jobs waiting for us there. we'll pay you for your trouble.
our kind of women?
maybe in sonora.
too much excitement. or maybe it's just the heat. how about the surrey. can you fix it?
now where's she goin'? --
who's the old folks?
it was a gift from the citizens of aspen. i'm mary wells.
and this is helen carter.
come on, honeybunch. we're changing trains.
a nice, kind wrangler is letting us ride in his wagon.
as far as the first ranch. from then on --
what's the difference?
there's plenty of time for that. come on, now. you've got to lie down out of this sun. stop worrying. i'll find out what ranch after a while.
she's worried about where you're taking us.
so am i.
thanks. and isn't there something we can do about supper -- or making the beds?
but you eat, don't you?
where do you keep the can opener?
marcia -- all of you. come on.
i see he did.
why didn't you say you wanted to get married back in aspen. i told the man in sonora there were four of us. if only three show up, he might call the whole deal off. we've got to stick together. like we've always done.
that's what i'm gettin' at. it never works. don't forget we were thrown out of aspen.
but jim isn't the only one you're marrying. he has folks and friends. what are they going to say? and how're they going to feel? i tell you, it won't work.
and look at it this way. how about jim -- it puts him in a sort of tough spot.
you've talked this over with them?
and they don't like the idea!
if you were in his shoes would you take one of us home?
would you, mr. phillips?
don't you want him to hear your answer? well, i know what it is. for the other fellow it's all right -- but not you. all you want is to get rid of one of us.
no need to do that, marcia.
we've got two horses and they're four of us. so half of one of 'em is yours. the other half's a wedding present.
big-hearted fella. can't see young love thwarted -- especially if it makes one less girl to worry about. that's all you really want, isn't it.
is that your kind of reading, steve?
you can't read?
your brother's always looked after you, hasn't he?
but he just never troubled to have you get any schooling?
don't you even know your letters?
would you like to learn them?
maybe i could start you out.
did someone say i wasn't nice?
good night, steve.
there's a nice boy.
that why you always took him on the other side of the street?
maybe i don't make the grade in some ways, but i know enough to teach a kid his letters.
like what?
where's elaine?
elaine!
because she's sick.
elaine -- elaine -- elaine.
why not? you went farther than that last time.
don't be silly.  nobody's too old to learn.
he's learning his letters.
learnin' to read has nothing to do with the right or the wrong side of the street.
they're stragglin'.
she should be in bed where it's dry.
can we get a doctor at that ranch?
is she very sick?
so that was why she tried to run away.
i didn't know anything about her except she wanted a job because some man had left her stranded. i couldn't leave her in the street. let's go.
we can't stay here!
back in the wagon.
no. we're not stayin' --
everything's all mixed up, so don't ask questions.
go on, steve.
that's not what's worryin' me. why didn't she tell us? maybe we could have done somethin' -- gone somewhere else -- puttin' a poor sick kid through this --
no, thanks. i hope we won't be a burden to them.
a time like this people ought to be alone. having us around is going to make it sort of hard on 'em.
i suppose it is.
you don't have to explain. did i tell you how grateful i am for what you've done?
you could have treated us like they did in aspen. no. you wouldn't do a thing like that -- it isn't in you to be mean or cruel.
no man who brings up a kid like you've brought up steve could ever be cruel to people.
i hope you get everything you want out of life --
you've earned it -- the horse ranch on the toulomoe -- the girl in the spotted gingham.
you should know. she's in your dream.
ever since you've looked after steve you've had the dream -- a ranch on the river -- good grass, good water, barn corral and house --- that part you've shared with steve. the girl in gingham you plan sneakin' in when he isn't looking.
she wears this gingham dress -- cooks popovers -- makes jam in season -- makes her own soap from pig fat and wood ashes and has cheeks the color of red apples.
but the rest is right.
blonde as a new mop. and beautiful as the girl on a feed store calendar.
i hope you find her -- because, like i said, you've earned your dream. goodnight.
i tried my best, but these things take time.
there's still tomorrow morning.
they are.
until pa gets around to driving us to minden.
no we don't. but that's where we're going. from minden we take a stage to reno, then another one over to auburn and another one to placerville. then it's a day's trip to sonora.
he certainly could. about a month.
how many ways can a man say no.
you'd think he'd do it for elaine's sake, at least.
what's the use.
that's the end of the line.
from a to z. all you have to do now is figure out what they mean put together in words.
without someone to teach you, it's tough.
he knows his alphabet.
maybe clay will take up where i left off.
you were right -- a man has only so many no's in him. but he had me worried -- that last one sounded so final.
there's plenty of use for reading -- you'll see.
unicorn -- a kind of animal --
hmmm.  sort of like a horse -- with a horn in the center of its forehead.
no.
would they be good to eat?
kind of tough, i guess.  but you're not liable to hunt them -- i don't think there's any alive now, anyways -- and i'm not sure but i don't think there ever were.
you don't read to fill your stomach.  poetry, for instance. all the poems in the world wouldn't fill you half as much as a bowl of eatmeal -- but they make you feel good.
well, steve?
where you goin'? over to the other side of the street?
are we leaving?
you're not going out to look for them?
oh, i wasn't worrying. i saw him saddling up and thought he was ready to leave.
and you've got me all figured out?
you were supposed to be reading words.
better not let clay catch you waitin' on us.
but you're his brother.
she was only teasin'.
let me do that.
i know now.
don't you trust me?
i like to see where i'm going.
maybe not! but i want to get there in one piece.
why did you change your mind about bringing us along?
i don't know. i thought i did. now i'm not sure. i thought it had something to do with me.
just how do you mean that?
so that's it -- you think i was making fun of your girl in gingham.
yes. but -- that was the other night. now -- i don't think i would.
we might as well start a fire.
got a light?
roll me a cigarette, clay.
thanks.
why didn't you wake me?
you should have. i don't like leaving things unfinished.
you don't mean that clay.
tell me, darling.
what does a man usually tell a girl?
tell me -- please --
all right you don't love me. so let it go at that.
i don't expect anything. a minute ago i hadn't cuite waked up.
i'm awake now. go on. say what you want to say. i'll listen.
save 'em for the girl in gingham. just tell me i'm not good enough for you. go on. say a woman like me can't change.
then let's get started. the sooner i get to sonora, the better i'll like it.
give it back to him. we're leavin'.
i'm not raising horses or kids for anybody. i'm opening the slickest gambling house in california with a crystal chandelier, the biggest you ever saw --
-- gaslights and a dance floor and a big bar. cash registers with bells and a couple of boys with armbands just to keep 'em ringing. what do you think of that?
that's it then.
if there were more men like you, there wouldn't be so many of us.
it's nice to meet a man who doesn't want to own a woman from the day she was born. i never had the luck. the only kind i've run into were tramps or dirty-minded hypocrites.
i don't care what he thinks.
no, i'm not all right. i'm soaked and i hit myself against that rock.
all my clothes --
for the wagon.
go on, take it. then you can't spend the rest of the trip expecting to get paid.
for the last ten miles i've been trying to figure out how to sleep sitting up. i'm getting to the point where i don't think there's any place named sonora.
if you want to go on, i can make it all right.
thanks, steve.
stop it -- both of you.
i won't have you fighting over me.
steve --
mind sortin' out my things -- i'm leaving.
maybe it isn't going to sonora, but it's going somewhere, which is all right with me.
fine -- maybe i'll see you there sometime.
because as you said, that's where i belong.
some of 'em you didn't mean but most of 'em you did. i don't blame you because i understand your way of thinking and why you think that way. you want your women on pedestals. but they have to be born on 'em -- they can fall off but they can't climb back up.
i can't change either. not unless somebody wants me enough to give me a hand.
i'm fool enough to believe that one of these days somebody will. somebody who wants me as i am will maybe walk into the place where i'm working and take me out of there.
goodbye, steve. don't fight with him any more.
it's not his fault, just you remember that. it's mine. don't ask me why because you couldn't understand now. some day you will.
goodbye. thanks for the lift.
by the way, if you ever go past the wyatt ranch, have another talk with elaine.
is it very bad?
holding the lamp.
thanks for loading me on the stage. i know now why you did it.
goodnight.
if you need me, i'll be --
to the other side of the street.
why?
i haven't got the job yet.
but if you want to wait until tomorrow --