Part 2 (2/2)

FAT--Say, if I'd thought of that sooner, I'd have talked at the top of my lungs.

BUD--Be careful, Fat, or Rob'll have you yelling at the top of your lungs.

ROBERT--Good luck, boys. Run along and have a good time. I hope the fish bite as fast as snapping turtles. (_He goes in the house._)

BUD--Come on boys, no use trying to get Rob. When he makes up his mind, you might just as well not try to budge him.

FAT--Aw, he's tied to his mother's ap.r.o.n strings.

SLATS--You shut up before I make you!

BUD (_To FAT_)--Say if you were half as manly as he is, no one would know you.

FAT--I didn't mean anything. I like Rob just as well as the rest of you, but if I did all the things for my mother that he does for his, everyone'd call me a sissy.

SLATS--Yes, and probably they'd be right. Come on, Fat, I mean ”Sissy.”

(_BUD, SLATS and FAT go on their way. Negro servant leads out horse and carriage. ROBERT comes out of the house helping his mother down the stairs._)

MRS. LEE--Don't strain yourself, Robert.

ROBERT--You don't know how strong I am, Mother. Lean harder. I don't feel you at all.

MRS. LEE--I don't know what I'd do without you Robert. You're both sons and daughters to me.

(_ROBERT helps her into the carriage._)

ROBERT--There, are you quite comfortable, mother? (_He arranges the cus.h.i.+ons for her._)

MRS. LEE--Yes thank you dear, but I do feel as if you ought to be out playing instead of taking an old invalid like me out to ride.

ROBERT--You aren't old and you must get well so fast that you won't be an invalid any longer, and both of us are going to have the best possible ride. (_They drive away._)

SCENE II

_The Harbor of St. Louis, banks of the Mississippi River, 1839._

Characters

Captain Robert E. Lee First Lieutenant Smith Buck Brown, Town Bully Coyote Jim, his pal, a half-breed Soldiers at work Eight friends of Buck and Coyote Jim

BUCK--I'm a-lookin' for the boss of these diggin's.

LIEUTENANT--You want Captain Lee. (_Pointing to him._)

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