Original subtitles

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Do you have the feeling that we are moving ahead too swiftly?

That in our quest for fame, for material wealth,

we are neglecting some of the old traditions?

The old customs from whence we once drew our strength?

This, for example.

This may look like a seesaw built for one,

but it is a ducking stool.

In Puritan times, if a woman were a scold or a gossip,

she was placed here.

The seat belt was fastened securely,

and a number of brave men and true

proceeded to dunk her in a pond

as though she were a donut.

It was most invigorating, I’m sure.

Unhappily, in modern day, we have no such convenience.

Today, if a woman is a gossip, she isn’t dunked.

She’s syndicated.

Tonight’s story has a connection, however remote,

to the proceeding.

While our sponsor has a connection, however,

obviously to the following.

Thanks again. Maybe we’ll have better luck next time.

I’m inclined to agree with Miss Grimalkin.

I didn’t like her.

Neither did I.

Ah, but she had one irrefutable point.

To find a house a hundred years old with a...

modern kitchen for you,

a study for me, and a tree for Kate’s swing,

three bedrooms, and central heating,

all for $9,000 down...

would take Miss Grimalkin’s entire staff of witches,

plus the Wizard of Oz.

No. We’ve got to look for something smaller.

We’re going to find just the house we want. I’ll guarantee it.

[man chuckling] How do you know?

’Cause I’ve got a feeling. Had it all day.

Turn right at the next intersection.

What?

[woman] Turn right at the next intersection.

What for?

Why-- I don’t know why. Let’s just try it.

Go on, dear. Don’t be an obstructionist.

[man sighs]

There you are. What did I tell you?

[man] Well, I don’t like that "discriminating buyer."

[girl] What does that mean?

[man] Expensive.

[woman] Positive thinking now. Don’t be a pessimist.

Look, Mom. There’s a creek down there.

You be careful, Kate.

Just what I dreamed about.

You suppose it’s really a hundred years old?

[woman] Looks like it.

[woman 2] A hundred and seven.

Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.

Uh, I’m Amelia Gastell.

Oh, how do you do? We are the Kendalls.

We saw your sign and...

We’re inquiring within.

You’re house hunting.

[Mrs. Kendall] Indeed we are.

-Oh... -[Kate] Mom!

Mom!

Mom, it’s the most wonderful creek, with frogs and everything.

Kate, darling. You interrupted Miss Gastell.

Not at all.

So this is Kate?

Yes, ma’am.

[Mrs. Kendall] Kate’s nine.

Nine. Oh, that’s a wonderful age to be,

isn’t it, Kate?

Haven’t tried many others.

[chuckling]

Wait till you’ve tried 74, like I have.

That’s why I’m selling, you see.

Going to move into the village.

Getting too old to be running back and forth all of the time.

Oh... [chuckle]

Well, for a minute I thought you’d changed your mind.

Uh... about selling?

Nonsense.

Why do you suppose I put up the sign?

Well, you’ll want to look over the house. Come along.

Uh, just a minute...

Maybe before that, we better talk about, uh--

-About terms? -Yes.

Well, if you like it, we could always find a way to manage.

There’s always a way, you know.

Come along.

Now, I am not just saying that, you know.

If there’s anything I can do to help you get settled, you call on me.

Well, you report tomorrow morning at 8:00.

We’ll put you to work painting the kitchen.

[laughing] I paint a pretty good kitchen.

You be careful, Reverend. He has a contract in his back pocket.

It was wonderful of you to call.

Thank Miss Gastell.

[Mr. Kendall] She’s a wonderful old woman.

Yes, isn’t she?

You know, she’s quite an institution around here.

Her family goes straight back to the Puritans.

A lot of them are buried in our own churchyard.

Really?

If you have any time, you come down

and I’ll give you a personal conducted tour.

Oh, dear. I must get along.

Well, I shall hope to see you on Sunday.

We’ll try to be there.

Bring Kate.

We’ll try and find her a playmate.

OK. Bye, Reverend.

-Goodbye. -Goodbye.

You know, that’s the only fly

in an otherwise beautiful ointment.

-Kate? -Mm-hm.

He says there isn’t another family with children

the whole length of this road.

Be a little lonesome for her till school starts.

That’s only a couple of weeks away.

Well, shall we tackle that kitchen?

[door opening]

What are you up to, young lady?

How much water does a frog need?

Well, usually a creek full. Where did you find him?

I didn’t. Letty did.

Who?

Letty. The little girl I was playing with.

Well, now. There you are.

And Letty is a little girl about nine and a half, just like you, eh?

How’d you know?

You see?

[laughter]

Where does she live, honey?

I don’t know. I didn’t ask her.

Why didn’t you invite her in?

She had to go to Meeting.

Said her mom had the gig ready and they didn’t dare be late.

The gig?

Yeah.

What is a gig?

Some kind of car?

-What do you suppose...? -Well, it’s a--

it’s a kind of a buggy people used to ride around in years ago, Katie.

Letty rides in hers all the time.

They always go to Meeting in it.

I better take him outside.

Tomorrow, you bring Letty up to meet us, eh?

Sure.

[chuckle] A gig, yet.

Sounds like some kind of a religious sect or something.

Like those people who won’t wear buttons.

Well, buttons or no buttons, she is nine and a half

and likes frogs.

I give you Letty.

-Hear, hear. -[both laughing]

Katie!

Katie, where are you?

[Kate] Down by the creek!

It’s lunch time.

Can’t we go on playing?

[woman] You come up right this minute.

Katie, do you hear me?

Why’s she always have to call

when we’re right in the middle of something?

[woman] Katie!

Mom!

Letty and I are building a dam.

Can’t we finish it, Mom?

Would Letty like some lunch?

[Kate] She says no, thanks.

All right, dear. I’ll bring yours down to you.

Where’s Letty?

She had to go home.

Why?

I don’t know.

Ask Letty.

Come on, honey. Let’s go up and change those clothes.

You said I could eat here.

Well, I know, but Letty’s gone and I don’t like for you to play here alone.

Come on.

What do you and Letty talk about mostly?

I don’t know, Daddy. A lot of things.

Well, give me a sample.

Oh, lots of things. School and...

Letty go to school?

Yeah.

Funny kind of school, if you ask me, though.

They don’t use real books, just horn books.

What’s a horn book?

I don’t know. Ask Letty.

Honey bun, you keep telling us to ask Letty,

but we can’t seem to get in the same ballpark with her.

She just likes me, I guess.

Well, now. Can’t you do a selling job?

Tell her what tremendous people your parents are?

We’d kind of like to meet her.

I’ll ask her, Daddy.

OK.

Where did this come from?

A Child’s History of New England.

You remember. Miss Gastell left it here.

Oh, yeah. Have you been reading it?

I just look at the pictures.

Honey bun.

You mind if your old man tells you a secret about little girls?

What?

Well, you see,

sometimes they get lonesome.

And they start wishing they had someone to play with, and...

they wish it so hard, they begin to think it’s true.

You think I’m making Letty up?

Oh, no. Not exactly, no.

Well, I’m not.

I only said you might have thought about her so much...

She was here the day we came, down by the creek.

She was lonesome and she saw we bought the house,

and she was down there waiting for me.

I didn’t draw this. She did.

-[Mr. Kendall] When? -Yesterday.

Well, who is it?

Letty’s aunt Bridget.

What’s her last name?

Same as Letty’s. Bishop.

Letty’s real, Daddy.

I didn’t make her up.

What’s the matter?

I think you’ve got a little fever.

Come on, now. It’s after eight. It’s time you hit the sack.

Still think I made her up?

Now, we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Go on, hop into bed.

What did the doctor say?

She’s running a fever all right, but it’s just a cold.

We’ll have to keep her in for a day or two.

She’s telling him all about Letty.

Ah, well, it’s all here.

Church meetings, Cotton Mather, gigs, and hornbooks.

This is where she got it.

Then why didn’t she say so?

I don’t know. You’re a girl, you tell me.

It’s nothing to make jokes about.

Well, now. Look, it’s nothing to get upset about, either.

Alice in Wonderlandgrew up to be a...

a fine, normal woman, and so will Katie.

[doctor] Alice in Wonderland?

Oh, Mrs. Kendall’s a little upset about Katie’s friend Letty.

What do you think, Doc?

Well, I’m afraid Letty’s a bit out of my field.

I could refer you to a good child psychologist in Salem.

You think she’s imagining it?

I would say so, yes.

Have you run into this before, Doc?

[chuckle] I have two daughters myself.

I wish I were as confident.

[Mr. Kendall] Now, Phyllis.

I’m sorry. I just can’t help it.

Well, this is...

Letty’s aunt Bridget.

I’m sure Kate didn’t draw that.

Now, Phyl, you’re not making sense.

Well, you aren’t either.

Kate’s nine and a half.

She doesn’t care a hang about the history of Puritans

or even books.

We couldn’t even get her to read the Sunday funnies.

What makes you think she’d suddenly sit down with a--

a-a-a dry old tome like that and bone up on the Pilgrims?

-Puritans. -All right, the Puritans.

Well, maybe she’s tutoring with Letty’s aunt Bridget Bishop. I don’t know.

Who?

Oh, that’s Letty’s Puritan aunt.

Name is Bridget Bishop.

Katie probably invented her, too.

No, I don’t think so.

Why not?

Well, I’m not up too much on my local history,

but that name rings a bell.

Bishop, Bridget.

Page 73.

Yeah, here she is. There’s a picture of her. She--

She what?

"The trial of Bridget Bishop of Salem Village

by the elders of the church.

Convicted of witchcraft and hung."

June 1692.

Hey.

Don’t try and kid your old man, Possum.

I couldn’t sleep.

Well, neither could I with the light in my eyes.

Do you know it’s after midnight?

I was just thinking, that’s all.

Well...

the fever’s gone down, but it could come back.

Now, look. You keep that light out and log a little sack time, OK?

All right.

What kind of beads are these?

They’re buzzard bones. Letty gave them to me.

Buzzard bones?

To keep off the pox.

What?

[Kate] That’s what Letty said.

[sighs]

Now look, Katie.

You may not realize it, but you’ve upset your mother pretty badly

with all this talk about Letty.

Now it’s time you stopped making things up and started telling the truth.

-But Daddy... -Now let me finish.

Now, when we were cleaning up around here the day we moved in,

there was a pile of knickknacks and junk Miss Gastell left behind.

We swept it into a corner in the keeping room,

and I remember you playing there.

Now, that’s where you found this, isn’t it?

I’m sleepy.

Katie, answer me.

Can I keep ’em?

If you tell me where you found them.

Yes, Daddy. It was in that pile.

Well...

all right.

Now look. No more making things up, understand?

Um-huh.

-Goodnight. -Goodnight.

[Mrs. Kendall] Lauretta Bishop.

That would be Letty for short, wouldn’t it?

Yes, I should think so. Why?

She died of the pox.

Oh, there must have been a terrible epidemic of smallpox at that time.

It took off a lot of the children.

I didn’t realize that.

Yes, medicine was about on a par with the methods of an African witch doctor.

You know, charms, fetishes, broths of lizard tails and fingernails.

And buzzard bone necklaces.

[reverend] Yes, against the pox.

Also, they practiced exorcism of demons.

Exorcism?

It was an ancient rite of the church.

Driving out an evil spirit.

How did they do it?

Well, as I recall,

it was a pretty involved sort of ritual.

Is it still done?

Oh, very rarely nowadays.

Could you do it?

I? But my dear child, why would I?

Well. I mean, if there were a real need for it.

Well, I-I’d have to investigate pretty thoroughly, before--

But it is possible.

I mean, you could do it, or have it done.

Yes, I suppose so. But why?

I can’t tell you. Not yet, anyway, but...

I may have to ask for some help.

Thanks for the tour. Goodbye.

[Miss Gastell] Curious, isn’t it?

No idea where it came from.

It turned up from somewhere at moving time and I just tossed it on the scrap heap.

Do you suppose it’s really Puritan?

Well, I don’t know.

And I don’t really care.

I think you know what our problem is, Miss Gastell.

Kate’s alone all day.

Mmm... she should have a playmate.

Yeah, we realized that when we first moved in.

I-- I guess we didn’t appreciate how important it was.

She didn’t have one, so she made one up.

Dear me.

A little girl named Letty.

Letty. That’s an old-fashioned name.

Oh, she’s an old-fashioned girl.

Strict Calvinist, goes to church meetings every day in a gig,

listens to Cotton Mather preach,

knows all about the stocks and the ducking stool...

and wears these buzzard bones to keep away the pox.

Katie got it all out of that old history book you left here.

You know, I don’t think I could

get her to study that book for a hundred dollars,

but if this keeps up much longer, she’s--

she’s gonna be the world’s youngest PhD

in Puritan History.

Did you find out about it?

It’s just as I said.

Was it yours?

Well, of course, I should have gotten rid of that trash.

She’s asleep now.

Make sure she keeps covered, will you?

Don’t worry. We’ll get along just fine.

But we’ll have to find her a little playmate.

It isn’t right for a child to be alone so much.

Well, if you hear of an agency that rents out little girls,

you let us know, won’t you?

[laughter] I’ll put on my thinking cap.

OK. Come on, now. Come on.

[Miss Gastell] Have a good time.

Oh, thanks a lot for being our sitter.

We won’t be too late.

And don’t count on that either. Goodnight.

[Miss Gastell] Goodnight.

Mom.

Yes, dear?

What’s exorcism?

What’s what?

Exorcism.

Why do you ask that?

I don’t know.

Katie.

Now, Katie, tell me. Where did you hear about that?

On TV last night.

What is it?

Well, it’s kind of hard to explain.

If you exorcise somebody,

does it hurt?

Oh, no. Of course not. It’s--

It’s just a ceremony, a very serious one

that has to do with driving away something harmful.

And they never come back?

The person you make go away?

Well, we’d hope not.

Did...

Letty tell you?

Letty?

Your little friend, Katie.

Oh, Daddy.

You know she wasn’t real.

I just made her up.

Can I have sliced banana on my cereal?

[doorbell rings]

-Well, good morning. -Good morning, good morning.

This is Judy Davidson.

Judy, this is Mrs. Kendall.

How do you do, Judy?

How do you do?

-Please come in. -Oh, thank you.

Kate, come here.

Judy’s father is my new milkman.

She’ll be taking the same school bus as Kate.

Kate, this is Judy Davidson.

Hi, Judy.

Hello.

Judy may stay all day if you like,

and then I’ll take her home tonight.

Katie, why don’t you take Judy upstairs and show her your playroom?

Sure. Come on, Judy.

Miss Gastell, if my wife weren’t a jealous woman,

I-- I think I’d give you a great, big hug right here and now.

Well, I told you, Mr. Kendall,

I told you I’d put on my thinking cap.

-Well, thank you. Bye-bye. -[Miss Gastell] Goodbye.

’Twas a fine notion, Mistress Kate.

Mmm...

Would we had thought of it sooner.

I wish we had thought of it sooner.

I wish we had thought of it sooner.

Listen, Letty. If I can remember to call you Judy,

you should remember not to talk in that old-fashioned way.

Do you want to get yourself exorcised?

Then who am I gonna play with?

I hope you enjoyed our story, "Summer Shade,"

because that would give you strength to face this next item,

after which I’ll return.

That is all of tonight’s entertainment.

We shall return next week with more of the same.

Now I must hurry up. I’m shooting a picture.

Goodnight.