martie!
ain't worth the mendin'.
what you gettin' red-in-the-face for?.  i have brothers, haven't i?
i'm a woman, martie.  we wash and mend your dirty clothes all our lives.  when you're little we even wash you.  how a man can ever make out to get bashful in front of a woman i'll never know.
wouldn't bother me.  i wouldn't try it in front of pa, though, was i you.
ma!.  martie's drawers is a sight! ain't fit for rags!.  would it be all right if we gave him some of brad's things?
shush!.  time for bed anyway.  likely these'll need some takin' in.  oh, martie, you're that gaunted! . ma's havin' a turkey for dinner tomorrow and.
yes, pa!.  good night, martie.  good night, mr. edwards.
ethan rode on.  an hour ago.
i don't know what you can do about finding debbie that he can't.
he'll find her now, martie.  please believe me.  i know.
i hoped i could hold you here.  but i guess i knew.  so i stole this for you.
finish your breakfast.
go on then! pa's in the barn saddlin' the fort worth stud.  an' you can take the light gelding with the blaze.
take it and welcome.  but don't count on finding me here when you get back.  i've been dallying around this god-forsaken wind-scour almost two long years waitin' for you.  i ain't cut out to be an old maid!
i was just readin' to see if.  anyway, it's my letter!
oh, all right! well.  martin says.
'dear miss laury'.  he spells it with a y instead of an i.  e.  wouldn't you think he'd know.
dear miss laury.  i take pen in hand to let you know ethan and me still are trying to catch up with them comanches the late mister futterman told us about.
the late mister futterman?
we cut north through indian territory and.
'there is one other thing i got to tell you before you hear it from ethan.  how i got myself a wife'.
a wife?
a little comanche squaw - squaw!
i'll read it.
maybe she left other signs for us to follow but we'll never know -- 'cause it snowed all day and all the next week.  we were heading north, through the buffalo country when something happened that i ain't got straight in my own mind yet.
so we're setting out for new mexico territory in the morning.  i am sorry i won't be back for christmas again this year.
what's the difference!
there's a word crossed out.  it looks like 'i wish' or 'i will'.  anyway.  'i set pen aside in the hope you are enjoying good health and your folks the same.  i remain, respectfully.  yours truly, martin paulie.'
yours truly.  and he even has to write his full name.  martin pauley.  not even just martie!.  i don't care if he never comes back!
hello, martie.
one letter in five years.  i read it till the paper dried up and the writing faded out.
no, it wasn't.  you mighta said you loved me.  you mighta asked me to wait.  at least that'd have been something.
it isn't fair.
it isn't fair, martin pauley, and you know it!
you do and i'll die, martie.  i will! i'll just die!
stop it! both of you.  i won't have any fighting in this house.
martie.  don't go! not this time.
it's too late.  she's a woman grown now.
fetch what home?.  the leavin's of comanche bucks -- sold time an' again to the highest bidder?.  with savage brats of her own, most like?.
do you know what ethan will do if he has a chance?.  he'll put a bullet in her brain! and i tell you martha would want him to!