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Whoa.

You better hurry if you're gonna make that stage.

And, Adam, don't quibble over the price.

We need these water wagons bad.

I'll do the best I can. Have them back here in a couple of days.

Have a good trip.

My Grandpappy had the power, friends.

He give it to my pa and my pa give it to me.

It's a potent power, I tell you.

It's the power to knock Satan's knuckles loose from that sky,

and bring the velvet touch of water to this here parched land.

Gentle drops to make your fields green again.

Blessed moisture to fill those wells

and rinse this evil dust and heat from the air.

Now, folks, I'm going to rest a mite.

As soon as your neighbors up the street

get finished making arrangements for me, I'm going to go to work.

I'd take a last good look at that blazing chariot up there.

Tomorrow night, you're gonna all be stomping in the mud

and shouting thanks to Tulsa Weems.

Oh, Ben, you're just the man we want.

I am? For what?

You'll know soon enough, and be just as glad as the rest of us.

Come on.

And there's another five. Don't need much more.

Here he is, boys.

Now we can swing it.

Ben's got as big a stake in this as the rest of us. He'll kick in.

Well, sounds like money talk to me, Abe.

Like, maybe you fellows want me to buy something, huh?

Water, Ben, water.

Since the drought, our town's become church-mouse poor, Ben.

But we all dug deep.

Providence led this man to our town, Ben.

And he ain't trying to gouge us either.

Just $30 from you and we'll have the 200 he's asking.

And he's ready to go to work right now and end this drought.

Now hold on there.

You boys thinking of hiring that rainmaker out there?

The one I saw in his wagon a minute ago?

You should have been here to hear him talk.

That man's got the power, I tell you.

Offhand, I'd say that this long dry spell we've been having

has addled your thinking.

But you remember that spellbinder that was out here last winter?

That medicine man, the one with the big voice and fancy bottles?

You fellas thought he had the power too,

and you bought every bottle he'd sell you.

Fred, did it cure your arthritis?

What about you, Abe? Did he fix up your gout?

You fellows want to waste money you can't afford,

that's your business, but count me out.

Here, that horse needs water,

and these horse troughs are all dried up.

Go on down to the livery stable. They'll give you a bucket for a nickel.

Tell them we'll pay them just as soon as that committee

gets here with my money.

We got her made, Jube. Sure, Pa. You can do anything.

No. Don't fret, child.

Your old pa has finally got himself a job of work.

We're gonna have money, so I can get you some nourishing broth.

A real bed with cool sheets down at the hotel.

Maybe even a little doll to help you get better.

We're gonna set old Satan back on his heels,

that's what we're gonna do.

Howdy, Ben. Roy.

You know that thermometer says 98 degrees?

Yeah, it's hot.

Roy, I got four more bags in there. Give me a hand, will you?

Ben, you wouldn't wanna kill off the town sheriff, would you?

Now, I've got to conserve whatever strength I've got

to keep law and order in town.

Oh, Roy, that's just about the weakest excuse I've ever heard.

Well, it's coming from a weak man.

Ben, if it don't rain soon, I feel like I'm gonna shrivel up to nothing.

That's funny.

That isn't the way I heard it over at the saloon.

The way they told it to me,

you were tucking away so much beer

that, uh, you could keep a brewery in business.

Tell you what, you help me tote these, and I'll buy you a beer.

Are you trying to bribe the law?

But I'm a weak mean, I said it, so shall we make it two beers?

Huh? Unh...

Two beers.

You be careful you don't melt away, Roy, working so hard.

Looky yonder. Here comes that rainmaker.

Looks mad enough to bite a spike in half.

Fellow down the street pointed you out to me.

Said that you was Ben Cartwright.

Uh, you owning up to that?

Yeah, I'm Ben Cartwright.

Well, I just wanted to gaze a spell on the kind of a man

that would snatch the food from a sick little girl

and cheat a man out of an honest day's job.

Hold on there. What are you talking about? What little girl?

My little girl, my little Mary Beth.

Racked with fever, she is down there, needing care.

Her poor mother trying to tend to her in a stifling furnace of a wagon.

Well, I'm sorry about that.

You're sorry, them is empty words, mister.

You're just mean. Plain, miserable mean.

You got spite and venom in your head.

Now you look here.

Name is Weems.

I'm from Tennessee, mister, the Big Smokies.

And when I think poorly on a man, I tell him right straight out to his face.

Not like you, telling those men I'm some kind of a quack

and a cheat and a faker.

Look here, we've had just-- Wait a minute, Roy. Just a minute.

I said those words. Yeah.

But I didn't mean them in any personal sense.

I was just trying to explain the way I--

Oh, you explained fine, just fine, mister.

They was all set to hire me,

until you come stuck with your mealy-mouthed,

penny-pinching gabble.

Now, look, Weems, or whatever your name is,

I don't believe in rainmakers.

I don't believe there's a man in the world

can dredge water out of a sky that doesn't wanna give it.

If I thought there was, I'd bet my last dollar on him.

You're wrong, mister, you're dead wrong.

Now, I can make them heavens open up.

I can make the thunder and the lightning,

I can flood this land with life-giving rain.

I got the power, mister, you better believe that.

Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Weems, I just don't believe it.

I'm also sorry that you have a sick child

and you can't take care of your family.

We'll have some rain in a couple of days,

and if we do, then there'll be plenty of work for everybody.

Honest work.

Maybe this will help tide you over till then.

I'm Hill people, mister.

Hill people don't take the insult of charity from no man.

Mister, we don't allow no gunplay in this town.

Uh... I wasn't really going to shoot.

Old devil got a hold of me for sure.

I wasn't gonna shoot.

You're gonna come down to that jail and cool off. Now come on.

Roy.

What's the point?

The man has a family to take care of.

His family's going to be a sight better off with him in jail.

He ain't got a dime, you heard him say so yourself.

And in this case, the town will pay for good food

and a place for them to sleep until I decide to let him out of jail.

They're mountain folks too, ma and the kids.

They don't take charity either. Hear?

Now we'll see about that. Come on.

Oh, Ben.

I'm in luck.

I was afraid maybe you snuck out of town

before you bought my beer, heh.

Oh, no, I was gonna drop by your office.

You were? Yeah.

You forgot something.

Oh, yeah.

It wasn't loaded.

I didn't think it was.

You know, Roy, I always thought you were kind of softhearted old coot.

What have I done now?

You didn't lock up Weems.

Well, I sure did. He's locked up right now,

and that's where he's gonna stay until he gets some sense into his head.

What about his family?

I sent Clem out to see that they was put up at the hotel.

And the town is gonna have to foot the bill.

Roy, you, uh, might have Doc Crane look in on the little girl.

Weems said she was kind of sick.

Ben, I already sent for the Dec, now if you got any more sage advice

for this poor old, stupid sheriff, I'm listening.

Well, Roy, as a matter of fact, I have.

Oh, you have?

Get yourself a beer and cool off.

That's just what I intended to do. Two of them, in fact.

Cal, a couple of beers for our good friend the sheriff here.

And put them on my account.

Oh, and, Cal, two beers.

Two.

Hello, Clem. Hello, Ben.

Roy tell you I was buying, you better put another beer

on my account for Clem here.

Roy? Yeah?

Something happened out there, and you ain't gonna like it.

Now it's too hot for riddles. What is it?

I tried to do what you told me.

But they just up and left.

That Weems kid, Jube? Nice as pie I talked to him.

All of a sudden, the little varmint kicked at me,

he spit at-- Shh.

He spit at me. He called me a whole bunch of names.

They jumped in the wagon and they was gone.

Don't come running to me.

Get on your horse, go after them. There's a sick child in that wagon.

But I did.

I couldn't have been more than five minutes behind them. You know--

That wagon ought to have been a cinch

to follow out there in that dust.

It was as if the earth swallowed them up.

There wasn't nary a trace.

Have a beer.

Thanks, Roy.

Just hold it a minute, old man. Old Hoss is gonna help you.

Here you go.

Enjoy it while you can. There may not be none tomorrow night.

If that tub were any bigger, I might climb in there with him.

Hi, Pa.

You couldn't sleep either, huh?

No.

The way that thing's creaking, there's no use trying.

How long's it gonna last, Pa?

How long?

Well...

...you aren't asking, Hoss.

You're just hoping, like the rest of us.

Yeah, I am.

Like when I was a young and I used to ask about

that red wagon for Christmas. I wasn't asking. I was hoping.

I checked that south waterhole today, Pa.

Dry as a powder house.

I, uh, met Mr. Olmsted this afternoon.

He thanked me for those three barrels of water

you toted over to his place this morning.

I figured as long as it ain't gonna rain, we might as well all to go together.

There ain't no use in doing one at a time.

Besides, Olmsteds have got them five little young'uns.

Well, when Adam gets back with these water wagons,

we'll be able to get some water out of the lake

and make it easier for everybody.

Might as well get up to bed. It's no warmer there than it is here.

And if you don't cut out that creaking, I might just pull the plug on you.

Listen, Pa.

I have to stuff my ears with cotton not to hear that green friend of yours.

No, no, not the frog. Listen.

You hear that? That's what I'm hearing. Hear it?

Sounds as if it's coming from the barn.

You're Jube Weems.

Sheriff sent you to the hotel. What are you doing here?

Sheriff sent us no place.

Hill folk don't take handouts.

This is my barn. Isn't that a handout?

Ain't no such thing.

You owes us something, mister.

I figure you owes us a place to stay until pa can get us.

Now wait a minute, little-- Hoss.

I'm not gonna argue as to what I owe you, son.

But the barn is no place for your sister and your mother.

We got plenty of room in the house with soft beds and good food.

No, that would be charity.

Son, your sister needs a doctor.

I won't have no flatland doctor pawing over Mary Beth

with his dirty fingers.

Now you get.

You stick your nose in here again and I'll blow it off, you hear?

Pa, that poor little girl in there needs some decent care

and a decent bed.

Not in that stifling barn on a pile of lumpy hay.

That kid in there, he's crazy, he don't know what he's doing.

I can jump him easy, and get that little gal out of there

and give her the kind of care-- Leave them be.

I'm going to town to get Doc Crane.

Pa, that-- Now, don't argue.

And stay away from that barn.

Hoss.

Little gel in there, I saw it back East.

It's typhoid fever.

Who is it?

It's Ben Cartwright. I've gotta see Dr. Crane.

I'm sorry to have disturbed you at this time of night, Mrs. Crane.

My husband isn't here, Ben.

He left this morning for Perrysville.

There was a mine accident.

Oh, no.

Well, I'm sorry, but he was needed.

It's not one of your boys?

Oh, no, no. It's a little girl.

I think she's got typhoid fever.

Typhoid?

Well, I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Thank you.

Good night.

Okay, Joe, let her go.

Little sweetheart

you quit all this tossing and turning.

You let old Hoss do the worrying for both of us, will you?

Ma'am, there's no purpose served in you sitting out here.

I'll fix you a cup of coffee.

How about you, boy? Something to eat maybe?

Say, uh, bacon, eggs, toast and coffee.

I ain't hungry. Hear?

And even if I was starving, I'm Hill people.

And we don't take handouts.

Of course, that all depends on how you look at it.

I think there's a big difference between a handout and a helping hand.

One may be charity, but the other one's friendship.

Ff tend?

That big hulk you call a brother sneaks into the barn

and steals my sister.

Come on new, boy.

You make it sound like the worst bunch of low-living varmints

that ever crawled.

You gotta admit, your sister's a lot better off upstairs in that bed

than she was sleeping out in a barn on a stack of hay.

Ma was taking care of her fine.

Was your me getting her fever down, like Hoss is?

I hate the thought of that big ox up there.

Him and his big clumsy hands prodding and poling over poor--

Big maybe, but not clumsy.

Sure, I've seen him bend a horseshoe with those hands.

But I've also seen him pick up a hummingbird

just as gentle as a feather.

I got half a mind to go up there and take my sister away from him.

Why don't you just rest easy for a while?

If anybody can pull your sister through,

it's that big ox who's up there right now.

Little lamb, everything's gonna be fine, do you hear?

You're already a heap better than you were.

And you'd get to where you can really hear me,

I might even sing you a ditty or something.

Morning, Ben.

Say, you're an early bird.

Going to be another hot one.

Listen, Roy, I gotta talk to your prisoner.

I want you to hear what I have to say.

Well, all right, Ben. Come on.

Weems.

Weems.

Cartwright here wants to talk to you.

I said it yesterday, mister. You got a glib tongue.

In other words, it can cut up a man's life.

What words you're gonna slice me with today?

I came here to tell you something about your little girl.

You got something to tell me, you spit it out.

Well, last night, I...

I found out that Mary Beth is...

Well, she's sicker than even you think.

There's no use beating about the bush.

She has typhoid fever.

Typhoid fever?

Ben, this is really bad news. Yeah.

Typhoid? What's that? What's this typhoid?

Mary Beth's gonna be all right, ain't she?

Typhoid is a very serious disease even in a strong man,

to say nothing of a little girl like yours.

You gotta let me out of here. Mary Beth needs me.

Easy now, see, she's at The Ponderosa.

I'm afraid you won't be able to see her, though.

You're talking nonsense.

If she's there, I'm going to see her.

Well, you don't understand. See, my son had...

Roy, you have no choice.

All right, Weems, get your belongings.

Ben, let me get this straight.

You're telling me that your boy Hoss locked hisself up in his room

with that little girl and he ain't about to come out

until she makes a turn for the better?

Yeah, he son of beat me to it.

But somebody had to do something to help Mary Beth and...

Well, Hoss just up and did it.

Well, does he know that she's got the typhoid?

That's why he's got the door locked.

Won't let anyone in.

Well, ain't he scared?

Well, sure, he's scared.

So am I. You mean Hoss, this boy of yours

might catch typhoid fever from my little girl?

He might.

Doctors don't rightly know how it spreads.

And he's still bent on sticking with her, trying to save her?

Yeah.

It's the devil's work, that's what it is.

He took away the water

and he's brought the hot blast of vengeance

to this blighted land.

That's what that fever is,

the fever that's twisting and torturing her.

It's the curse of Satan.

Yeah.

Cartwright,

I'm gonna teach that devil a lesson.

I'm going to choke off the hot flaming breath,

and I'm going to do it with clean, pure water.

Mr. Weems, that ain't going to help your little daughter none.

When I bring rain, cool rain, it's going to put Lucifer on the run.

It'll kill the fiery touch, kill the fever flaming inside her.

What'd be the nearest hill with a fair-to-middling bulge in it?

Well, I'd say that Connel's Hill, wouldn't you?

About three miles south of here.

Yeah, that will be about right.

I'll get my wagon. Um...

Roy, why don't you take Tulsa right on to Connel's Hill,

and I'll fetch his wagon for him?

Yeah, that's better. I can get working faster.

Yeah.

Listen.

Keep him away from my house, will you?

There's nothing he can do there, anyway,

and it just might mean more trouble.

Who knows? He might be able to bring rain.

He thinks he can. Well, yeah, he might.

This way, at least, he'll be out of the way and he'll be doing something.

And it might make him feel as if he's helping.

All right, Ben.

Listen here.

Little one, you're going to be all right, you hear?

You just listen to old Hoss.

I'm no great cook, but I can make sandwiches. Here.

Now look, boy, if you don't eat, you're going to collapse from hunger.

Then you're not going to be able to keep an eye on us low-life Canwrights.

Look, it's not charity.

You're going to work. I have to eat.

I'm sure you don't think us

Canwrights are going to give anything away, do you?

Maybe you're pulling something, and maybe you ain't.

But you made a deal, and I'm calling you.

You set that there grub on the ground and back off.

Mm-hm.

They're good.

Like to give you a hand?

Oh, I got to do it.

Mary Beth, how is she?

Yeah, well, she's doing as well as can be expected.

Where's Jube? He didn't come to watch his pa?

Jube wouldn't budge.

He's just sitting by my house hanging onto that squirrel gun.

Says he'll shoot Hoss if Mary Beth, well, if anything happens.

Then Jube done an evil thing.

And you should have jumped him, took away his gun.

Tulsa, boy's trying real hard to be a man.

If I was to jump him, take that gun away from him,

it'd make him feel like he was still a child.

He won't do no harm.

I was wrong about you, mister.

You got a head.

You got a feeling for things. Well.

I'm going to prove you was wrong about me.

Jube.

Easy, son.

You sneaking varmint. I ought to blow your head off.

For what? I was just bringing you some lemonade.

Mary Beth.

Dear God.

Hey, Joe, Joe, send me up another bucket.

Mary Beth's feeling real bad.

Right.

You better understand this, mister.

My little sister dies, so does he.

Sweetie, everything's going to be all right. You wait and see.

It's going to be just fine.

Listen to old Hoss now, you hear?

You know what that is?

That's thunder.

You know what thunder means? It means it's going to rain.

Maybe the rain will cool her temperature down.

Take some of the fever out of that poor, little body of yours.

There it is.

I'm going to knock you out of that sky, Satan.

I'm going to boot you out and send you back down below,

where you belong.

Did I just hear thunder?

That ain't thunder. That's cannon fire.

Cannon what?

He's doing it, ma.

Pa's up there in the hills and kicking the devil out of the sky,

whomping up a rainstorm.

Look, look there. Pa's really shaking up that sky.

I'll admit it makes a lot of noise and it looks right pretty.

But you don't think all that commotion's

really going to bring rain, do you? Let you know about it, mister.

Them rockets is made a secret way.

Oh.

Hey, Joe.

Yeah.

Send me up some dry sheets.

I swear, I never saw anything like it.

He really thinks he can make it rain.

Well, Ben, after watching him work and all,

ain't it ever occurred to you that just maybe you could be wrong?

Oh, Roy.

Nothing's going to convince me that a lot of colored powder

and rockets and explosions are going to bring rain.

Well, now, there could be something to it.

Certainly you heard that it always seems to be raining

during a big battle.

Well, I had an uncle who was in a lot of big ones during the war of 1812,

and he recollected how he was just

always a-fighting in the mud and downpours

every time the big cannons let loose.

More powder.

Not a cloud in the sky.

No, but, Ben, give him a chance.

Oh, Roy, he's running out of supplies.

He's ready to collapse.

Let me be.

Got to make it rain.

Got to fire the cannon.

That'll do it.

Fire the cannon.

I need more rockets to blast Satan.

To burn.

I didn't have the power when I needed it most,

Mr. Cartwright.

For Mary Beth.

You tried.

All a man can do is try.

And I failed.

There ain't a speck of a cloud.

Old Lucifer's laughing and grinning at me, for sure.

I done and fought him, and I lost.

Easy now, Weems. Easy.

Don't put yourself though the wringer.

Come down to the wagon and rest a spell.

Oh, I got to get back to my family.

Didn't have no word on Mary Beth?

No. No word.

Well, that's something.

We're going to need to send somebody if...

Of course they would.

Ben, I better be heading back to town.

Mr. Weems, I sure hope your little daughter gets better

and not going back to jail, well...

Well, come on, Weems. Ponderosa's just over the next hill.

You can pick up your cannon and things in the morning.

I'll leave them here.

Satan owns them.

Won them fair and square.

She's quit whimpering, Jube.

I don't hear nothing, ma.

Nothing at all.

Well, Hoss has just got her resting easy, that's all.

He's got her quieted down.

The furnace of Satan has cursed this land.

His fever flame's got a hold of my Mary Beth.

I tried to beat him off.

I was too puny.

Now, look, Tulsa, we're in the middle of a drought.

But it's going to rain again.

It's nature's way, Tulsa, it's not the hand of the Devil.

It's the Devil's work, I tell you.

You must need this Devil of yours real bad, Tulsa.

Real bad. What is he?

Someone you blame for your troubles and failures?

Is he your easy way out for you?

There you go, using words against me.

Words are a potent power, my friend, if you know how to use them proper.

Well, if the Devil can't hear the roar of cannon,

he sure can't hear your jabbering.

I aim my voice in a different direction.

An ear which can hear the softest whisper,

if it's spoken sincerely.

I don't ask nobody to fight my battles.

I do my own fighting, toe to toe, tooth and nail.

You got pride. Yes, sir.

Real fierce, mountain pride.

Why, even to help Mary Beth, you wouldn't ask for help.

I got to go back to what I said yesterday.

You are just plain mean and spiteful.

You want to see me on my knees like some whipped puppy

groveling and begging?

That'd make you laugh, wouldn't it, to see a mountain man praying?

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess, it would make me laugh

loud and long.

Why, I can't imagine anything funnier than to see a real fierce,

proud mountain man

praying to the Lord to help save his sick child.

Lord, have I been too proud?

Have I forgotten you can help me?

That you can save my little girl?

Come on, ma.

We...

We best go up to that room.

To Mary Beth.

Hi.

Are you an angel?

Guess maybe you're not an angel.

Angels ain't got whiskers.

I'd like to sleep now.

She wants to sleep.

She's okay, ma.

Them were good breakfast Vittles, Mr. Cartwright.

Well, thank you.

But like I said, hi" folk don't hunker to charity,

so I'll get to paying for them.

Oh, come on now, son. You're a guest in this house.

Uh-- Now, just a minute. Hold on, pa. He and I made a deal.

All right, now the barn needs a good cleaning.

You'll find the tools right inside the door.

I'll clean her slicker than a whistle.

Joe, I could have sworn that today was your day

to clean that barn.

Hoss, you know what? I believe you're right.

Yeah, well, since you talked yourself out of that little chore,

you can help me with mine.

No, no.

No, no, that'd be charity, Hoss.

Us flatland folk don't go for charity.

Well, how's Mary Beth feeling this morning?

Sleeping right now.

But she ate her porridge fine.

She even asked for more.

Well, hey, everybody, it's raining outside. Raining.

You don't believe in rainmakers, Mr. Cartwright.

It's a mite late, but you'll have to admit, I finally came through.

Oh, I believe in a rainmaker, Tulsa.

The rainmaker you talked to last night.

The one you prayed to help Mary Beth.

This has been a color presentation

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