Original subtitles

No, Buff, you can't move there. Why not?

Because you've got to jump my checker here.

I don't want to jump here.

You have to. Mr.

French said it's the rules.

What rules?

The rules that came with the checkers.

Mr. French calls it Mr. Hoyle's rules.

Well, I'm not playing with Mr. Hoyle.

I'm playing with you.

So I'll move this.

You've got to jump my checker.

If I do, you'll jump three of mine.

Sure. That's why Mr.

Hoyle made the rule.

You can't make me jump there if I don't want to.

I don't have to, but you do have to. I don't have to if you don't have to.

you are not going to sock her.

Why not?

She swiped my checker.

Well, it's no reason to sock her.

Then I'll think of another reason.

No, you won't. You're not ever going to hit your sister.

Really?

Never. Can I kick her?

No, you can't.

You're not going to hurt her or any other girl.

What's this all about, anyway?

Well... were playing checkers, and Buffy wouldn't jump like she was supposed to.

So I took one of her checkers, and Buffy got mad and took one of mine, and she

won't give it back.

Well, Buffy, he's right. Now, according to the rules, if you don't jump, you

lose that checker.

Here's your checker.

I couldn't have won anyway against all three of you.

Three of us?

You, Jody, And Mr. Hoyle.

Uncle Bill, are you sure I can't hit a girl?

Positive. No exceptions.

eat with me and the girls?

No, thanks. I'll eat with Jody.

We have some new tattles.

You do?

About anybody I know?

About Mary Ann Barker and Ella Slipman.

Oh, boy.

That's all right, Buff.

Go ahead.

Thanks, Jody. See you later. Bye.

Bye, Buffy.

Hey, kid, what kind of sandwich you got there?

Bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

Is it good?

Sure, except the lettuce and tomato.

Trade. What kind do you got?

Sardines. Make me sick to look at.

No thanks.

They still got skins and tails.

I like them naked.

I don't like them period.

Here. No thanks.

Trade. No thanks.

You can't do that. I just did.

I don't want your sandwich. Give me mine.

What's the matter, afraid?

No, you're a girl.

What's that got to do with it?

I don't know. It's something my Uncle Bill told me.

You wouldn't do that if you were a boy.

You tell Mr.

French, or whoever he is, that you had better bring something I like tomorrow,

because I'm a girl, and I can hit you real hard.

Hi.

Hi, Uncle Bill.

You gonna eat all that?

Uh -huh.

Pretty big, isn't it?

I'm hungry.

Well,

it's getting kind of close to dinner time.

I'm gonna eat dinner, too. I didn't have any lunch. You didn't have any lunch?

What's the matter? Mr. French forget to make you a sandwich?

No. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

Uncle Bill, I wish you hadn't told me yesterday I couldn't hit a girl.

Well, what happened?

Well, this big girl asked if I wanted to trade her sandwich for mine.

I told her no, but she hit me and took my sandwich.

But I remembered not to hit her.

Good. You did the right thing.

Did you tell your teacher?

Tell my teacher?

Do you want the other boys at school to call me Jody the Fink?

Oh, no. I wouldn't want them to call you that.

Anyway, I'm proud of you. Go on, eat your sandwich.

Then I don't mind Uncle Bill, even if she keeps after me, just as long as

proud of me.

Lunch? I must have eaten inside the building.

I did. I ate with the janitor.

You know, it hurts a girl's feelings when a boy won't have lunch with her.

We weren't going to have lunch. You were going to have lunch.

Excuse me. I have to meet Buffy and Mr. French at the game.

You shouldn't do that.

Want to do something about it?

I'll think of something.

I bet this is what you're thinking of.

So long. Be looking for you tomorrow.

Oh, you're going to have a real shiner.

I never saw a real shiner before.

It's pretty.

And she said she's coming back to find me tomorrow.

Then you'll have two real shines.

Well, we can't just let her push you around.

We have to.

Uncle Bill's proud of me when I don't sock her.

Jody, maybe you could find some boy whose uncle didn't tell him he couldn't

girls.

But we do have to do something.

Where does she live?

She lives on the way to school.

Okay? Come on. We'll go right now and get this thing settled.

Are you going to talk to her?

Of course not. But I will give her a good talking to.

Are you the little girl who hit Jody? Leave me alone.

I'm Jody's sister.

You're not to bother Jody in school again.

Not ever.

Ma!

Ma, don't let her hit me. She's bigger than me.

I wasn't going to hit her.

I want her to stop bullying Jody. You'd better not hit my little girl. A great

big kid like you.

Jody has orders never to hit a girl.

He's a gentleman.

Oh, I wish you'd tell that to my husband.

Maybe the idea would catch on.

Go on upstairs, Jeannie.

Don't come around here making trouble.

You kids stay in your own neighborhood.

You know what I think?

No.

Jeannie's bigger than me.

And you're bigger than Jeannie.

And Jeannie's mother is bigger than you.

ask Uncle Bill what to do.

Oh, boy.

That is a real mouse.

I don't want to go to school tomorrow with a black eye.

Jody, if I put some makeup over it, you wouldn't be able to see it at all.

Me? Wear makeup?

I'd rather wear a black eye.

Sure you would.

Anyway, you handled yourself real well, sport.

See, the main thing is to talk it over.

After I talk it over, then can I hit her?

No, no, nothing. Just a minute. Would you really feel better to hit a girl?

Her?

Yes.

Well, you can't.

Now, you've got to be a gentleman, that's all.

I know that's very difficult sometimes.

Ready?

Okay, let's see this one.

Ouch!

Here you are, sir.

Now, how's that? Better?

Okay.

Here.

We're going to go and see that little girl right now.

Boy, am I glad to hear that.

Let me get my coat.

Here, sir.

Is Uncle Bill going to sock Jeannie's mother?

Certainly not, Mr. Davis. It's a gentleman.

Maybe her father will be there, and he can sock him.

Yeah, that'd be neat.

Children, Mr. Davis is civilized and not in the habit of striking anyone.

My Uncle Bill's not afraid of anybody or anything in the whole world.

He'll hit the guy all right.

Jody, we are not barbarians.

Now, how does it feel?

Okay, now that me and Uncle Bill are going after the bad guys.

Ready, Jody?

Bye -bye, Mr.

French.

Just think, if I hadn't took Jody's checker, Uncle Bill wouldn't be shocking

anybody. So I get some of the credit.

Make up what ifs all day long now. Let's wait and see what happens, huh?

Hi. This the girl?

Yeah. And see, she doesn't even have a black eye.

I didn't even sock her once.

Uh -huh.

I need your mother home. Your father.

Pa!

What? Somebody to see ya.

Well, tell him to go away. I ain't buying nothing.

Mr. Michaels.

My name's Davis. I'm Jody's uncle.

Is that supposed to mean something to me?

Well, I just thought maybe Mrs. Michaels had said something to you about the

kids.

Uh -uh.

Well, do you mind if we come in?

For what?

Well, there's something we ought to talk over.

Like what?

Well, I just thought instead of standing out here in the hall... Now, look,

Phil, if you've got something to say, say it.

Oh, hey.

Your little girl has been taking advantage of Jody because, well,

because he's not allowed to hit girls, even if they hit him.

Really, huh?

How about that, huh?

Now, I don't want to make a big thing out of it, you know, but I just thought

I'd ask you politely. Oh, look, fella, listen, you're interrupting me. I'm

watching TV. Now buzz off and quit bothering me with this kid stuff.

Now, just a minute. We can settle this calmly. Take your hand off that door.

You want to try this the hard way?

All right.

Well, you can see how she got that way.

Yeah.

What's the matter?

Disappointed because I didn't hit him?

We'll get a soda and talk about it.

Jody, people don't go around punching each other in the nose all the time like

you see in these westerns on TV, you know.

I mean, this would be a fine world, wouldn't it, if everybody went around

punching everybody in the nose just because they had a difference of

Yeah.

It's okay, Uncle Bill.

Okay.

Now, just because I didn't hit Mr. Michaels, that doesn't mean that I'm

of him.

See?

I mean, what if we did have a fight?

Suppose I won.

What would that prove? Just prove I'm a better fighter than he is, but it

wouldn't solve the problem.

Now, see, the grown -up way to do these things is to talk it over.

You mean I'm supposed to talk to Jeannie while she's hitting me?

No, no, son. No, you talk to her before she hits you, see?

Now, maybe you could start taking an extra sandwich along to share with her.

And first thing you know, maybe she'd bring a candy bar or something to share

with you, and then you'd get to be good friends.

Sure. It's a candy bar.

Well,

growing up is pretty tough sometimes.

All I thought you had to do to grow up was...

Hang around.

But it's not that easy.

Hi,

what's for lunch?

Chicken salad sandwich. Let me see if I like it.

Not bad. How many money?

Ten cents.

I'll need that for milk to go with the sandwich because it's kind of dry.

Uncle Bill says you have to talk things over with her.

Jeannie, I'll give you a nickel every day for milk if you let me keep my

sandwich.

Make it a dime.

Okay, a dime. I hope you enjoy my sandwich.

And I'm sorry it's too dry.

Yeah. See you tomorrow.

I guess Uncle Bill was right.

Talking is better than getting clobbered. You did very good, Jody.

A sandwich is worth a lot more than a dime.

Yeah, I bet Uncle Bill would be proud of me again.

Here, you can have half of my lunch.

Thanks, Buff.

I wonder what... this is?

I guess it's something that Mr. French made up for me because I didn't have

lunch. It tastes real good.

Hi, kids.

Hi, Uncle Bill. I'm sorry I couldn't have dinner with you. I had some

Sissy's eating with Sharon so they can giggle together.

That's nice.

Well, how'd it go in school, Jody?

Okay.

Did Jeannie give you any trouble?

We talked it over just like he said, Uncle Bill.

I guess your father must have given her a good lecture, huh?

Oh, no.

Jody gave her ten cents.

I have to pay her ten cents every day.

There's nothing about this to me, son.

You give her ten cents a day.

She wanted more.

She wanted a sandwich and a nickel, but Jody discussed it with her just fine.

What's she giving you in exchange?

She's leaving me and my sandwich alone, starting tomorrow, after I pay her.

Wasn't that good of Jody?

Yeah,

yeah, I guess it was.

Hey,

you got any ideas on how I can explain the difference to Jody?

No, sir, I'm afraid I have no idea.

Well, one thing's for sure. It's time to call on the Michaels and be back.

Oh, may we come along, sir?

I have to hold your coat.

No, I got myself into this with the best of intentions.

It's my responsibility.

It's you again, is it?

I have to talk to you from the hall.

You don't have to talk to me at all.

Fella, are you looking for trouble?

No, I'm not looking for trouble when I'm not going to walk away from it either.

Out. Out before I throw you out.

Now look, you tell your kid to leave Jody alone and quit blackmailing him,

got that?

What?

Blackmail?

That's right.

I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so important to you.

Well, sure, I'll tell Jeannie if you want me to.

That's all I ask.

Well, just as soon as she comes home.

And, say, I'm sorry about talking rough to you, but you know when a guy comes in

dressed in a $200 suit and tries to tell me how to run my family, well,

naturally...

There's no need to regret your drastic actions, sir. It was unavoidable.

I mean, negotiations are a fine thing, sir, but one must draw the line at

appeasement.

How do you explain that to a six -year -old?

If I may say so, sir, I doubt that you have to explain anything to Jody.

He accepts you without question, sir.

That makes it worse. Everything he looks at, you know, movies, TV, everything's

settled by a knock -down, drag -out fight. Now I do it.

Well, sir, perhaps I could give Jody a simple background of world history and

the disasters which follow crave an appeasement.

Well, sir, in that case, sir, let us be glad that the twins are asleep and let

us hope that they never find out about tonight's common brawling, sir.

Mostly. He's going to turn into a frog, the teacher said.

And we read of Little Peter Rabbit.

And Jeannie Michaels gave me back my tie.

Oh, that's nice.

And she's going to bring Jody a sandwich to make up for the one she swiped.

Well, I'm glad to hear that. I guess she knows she was wrong now, huh?

Yeah, and she's real nice now.

Ever since you belted her dad in the eye.

Now, look, I didn't start it, see?

I mean, I wanted to talk to him and discuss it like I told you, and he hit

first. I didn't hit him first.

Anyway, I'm sorry it happened.

Well, perhaps we might take the tack that everybody makes mistakes and we'll

never strike anyone again.

No, Uncle Bill, no.

I guess we should explain to you about kids.

You see, Uncle Bill, you don't go around stalking other kids to show off. But

when somebody else stalks you to show off, or makes you give her your lunch so

she won't stalk you, that's different.

I think you're right, too. I'm real glad you told me, because I feel better now

that we've got that settled.

Just one more thing.

Yeah?

Now that we get to talking about it, if she brings sardines tomorrow, is it okay

for me to tell her I only like the naked kind?

Yeah, that's okay.

Bye.