Original subtitles

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Oh

From all

I'm more south-shanty on my plane.

I'm more south-shannings for us.

Hey, Rose.

I'm more howling wind.

Nice house by a spring.

Quiet hearth.

Farman may even give up, proper too.

Would you like that, Bessie?

Of course I will.

Speaking of crops.

We're going to take it.

It's for you.

Oh, look it.

Of course.

You're growing plenty more just like a dessert.

A new beginning.

I remember the way my restless father's eyes would shine when he spoke those words.

I have sought out a life of new beginnings as well.

Nice for you.

Nice for you.

Nice for you.

Nice for you.

Nice for you.

Nice for you.

Nice for you.

Manlin.

Yes.

Oh.

Nice for you.

Nice with you.

What do I want?

Nice for you.

Nice.

Nice.

Nice.

Stop right there.

Please.

Who are you?

I'm Miguel.

I'm pilgrim like you.

I'm not hard man, you.

See?

What do you want then?

What do I want?

I want talk.

Come.

Come with me.

Mr. and Mrs. and beautiful little girl.

We will talk and eat.

Come on.

But that summer when we set out from Dakota, I was not yet a writer.

I was like anyone else forced to move on by hard times.

My heart breaking for the loved ones I was leaving behind.

My hope swelling for what there might be at the end of the trail.

I would never have known I had a story to tell or a voice to tell it in.

If it hadn't been for that one crucial year and if my daughter hadn't been there to show me the way.

What is this?

This?

It's a writing desk.

This is very fine.

Never have I seen such a desk.

My husband made it.

Oh.

And you, Mrs. Wilder.

What do you write in this book?

Nothing in particular.

The temperature.

The look of the country as we're passing through.

But I'm feeling.

Things nobody but me would care about.

You had ill fortune, Mr. Wilder said.

There's no point in speaking of it.

There is point.

I want to hear.

We lost our crops to a hillstorm.

We lost our house to a fire.

I buried a child.

My husband got tip-thir and he can no longer do the work a man needs to do in a hard country.

So we had to leave our home.

Home.

It's a difficult place to leave.

Yes, it is.

These things.

Nobody but you care about.

Maybe someday you read them to your daughter.

After you make your start in Missouri.

When I was a little girl, younger than you are now, I had to leave my grandma and grandpa behind too.

You did?

We were living in the big woods of Wisconsin.

But I was getting too crowded for Pa.

He wanted to try Kansas.

So, one day he loaded up the wagon, put your grandma, your Aunt Mary in it, and we drove away across a frozen lake.

Did you want to go?

I was scared at first.

Scared but excited.

I remember my mother did not want to go at all.

She said to Pa, who would wish to leave home and wander forth in the world to meet its tempest in storms?

You know what he said to her?

What?

I would.

We'll see if you can find us in berries.

I've got a snake.

See you.

Please don't let him die, mister.

I can hardly spend losing other one.

Give me a little costy.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

My spirits, I got a bottle of whiskey.

Get it.

You didn't read Pepper in the cook box, you'll need that too.

Can we do it?

I'd be glad just if you would.

He's my only boy.

I'm a bit shaky.

It's me, I heard a bit of snot.

All right.

Yes, sir.

I know it.

Okay.

No.

No.

No.

Be brave, Jordan.

Be still.

Be still.

Be still.

Don't let her out.

Don't let her out.

Don't let her out.

Be still.

Be still.

Be still.

Be still.

Hold on.

Hold on.

All right there.

Do you think I...

I hope you will.

Swelling seems less.

It's too much for the Lord to ask.

First of all, it's him on top of the others.

The others?

His sister, Mary Ann, died of the whooping cough two years ago.

And last summer we lost the twins, James and Mylam, to Flashlight.

I'm sorry.

I'm Beth.

Laura.

And what's your name, dear?

Rose.

Rose.

Rose.

Oh, that's a sweet name.

I don't believe there is a sweeter name for a little girl than Rose.

I want to thank you for your help.

You and your wife.

What are you folks headed?

Missouri.

Land of the Big Red Apple.

You?

Missouri.

The hell would decode us what I say.

The hell would drowns some blizzards.

And the damn railroad that charges you more to take you across the market than what they were.

I'm tired of Dakota.

I'm tired of bad luck.

I'm tired of trying to make a living off wheat.

You're more than welcome to travel along with us if that would please you.

Thank you.

It would indeed.

Yeah, I believe I've got some of that whiskey left.

Here's to Missouri.

And apples that fall right out of the tree any of asking.

How many days to ride into Dakota?

I think we'll be at the Missouri River by, uh, day after tomorrow.

It all looks the same no matter how far we go.

It all looks the same.

I don't know how you can say that, Rose.

I saw a very interesting blade of grass about two miles ago.

And here comes a handsome man on horseback.

Whoa!

Whoa!

What's in it, Chad?

You like it, no.

Careful, split.

Milk!

Where'd you get it?

I'm a farmer over there, Waze.

I'm a farmer over there, Waze.

I'm a farmer out for it.

I'm a same man, I want to farm out some bad in all my life.

Now, if we can just get us a little bacon...

Day to ya.

Hey, folks, coming from Missouri.

Where you about?

Back to Dakota.

You mind if I ask why you back trailing?

Because Missouri's a world rock with not but an inch of soil on top.

You'll have nothing to eat but whole cake and clapper.

And that's if you're lucky.

Now, if you kill yourself trying to make the land pay,

you'll have a hard time finding enough dirt to even bury yourself in.

Here from now, you'll be back trailing too.

Mamba?

He doesn't like Missouri.

I say we try for another five miles before we camp.

We best be on our way there.

Every destination is uncertain.

Every journey at risk.

Every footstep, a test of fate.

Mamba, on the bed.

We're going to go to the

town of Missouri.

But we weren't the only ones that were traveling the unknown road that year.

Times were bad everywhere.

The promises of the past were broken and there was nothing to trust in but the beckoning future.

You ready?

You ready, Rose?

Huh?

Alright.

You don't have to, son.

No!

No!

No!

No!

No!

You don't have to, son.

No!

No!

Look at those two.

Do you remember feeling that way?

Standing there with the whole world at your feet?

I remember.

Oh!

I wonder if it's possible that we feel that way too fast.

Look what going on tonight?

Jump sounds…

No!

Jump!

Up, here.

Come on!

Jump, whoa!

Whoa!

You ready?

Come on, Rose.

Charlie, I'm crossed.

We'll see you on the other side.

Go, go, go, go.

Jump, go, go.

Go, go.

Go, go.

Go, go.

Go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

Go, go, go.

O Fort's out.

Goanges on the roof.

Come on.

Wyallen shazzolog.

Ooh!

Who would wish to wander forth in the world and meet its tempests and storms?

Those were the simple abiding words of my mother.

What you looking at, mama?

It's our last sight of Dakota Rose.

What is it?

I'm all right.

But even as the home of my youth vanished beyond recovery, I seemed to hear my father's voice,

not calling me back, but urging me forward, forward beyond the realm of the world.

Just the ripe ones, Rose, there's plenty enough for us to be picky.

When Pot took us to Kansas, we didn't have any roads.

The only roads we had were wagon tracks.

I remember thinking how mysterious they were, just leading on and on across the prairie.

And then one day, he just pulled away from the tracks, drove off without anything there to guide him.

Ooh! Let's take a look, curloud.

Oh, where are we stopping?

What are you two girls still doing up in that wagon?

Is this the place?

This is the place, Butter budget.

This is where we're going to build our little house.

Come on.

Oh, here we go.

Oh, come on, half-time.

Whoo!

That was a sage country back then.

It's wild as you could walk.

And it wasn't long after we got the house built that a group of Indians decided to pay a call on.

Get away. Get back. Get away from us.

Go on. Get out of here.

He's scared. He's just lonely, Mama.

Well, the poor things half-starved.

We could feed him.

Please?

All right, Rose.

But you cannot touch him until after I've washed him.

Do you understand?

I understand.

Well, all right.

Come along unless you've got some place better to go.

Charlie, you take these drippings to your mother for me, please?

Yes, ma'am.

And tell her I want the three of you to come back here and help us eat this cobbler.

The dog's been ill-treated.

I know he has.

I'll eat your turn on her.

I don't think you would, man.

Like, doesn't that mean this thing?

Anyone can see that. She saw it right away.

I don't have it in my heart to take that dog away from her.

You can do it yourself if you care to.

Nope.

You go get me some water if you'd like some coffee with your cobbler?

Got any more?

You picked out fun.

You do? What is it?

Fido. You mean faithful? You like it?

I reckon I do.

Fido?

Well, that is name at all.

We always used to call him Weezer, because that Weezer

is not saying that he may but he's a pup.

Hey, there. Weezer.

Mama, come over by me, Russ. Come over here.

What do you want?

We just come for our dog, as all.

We got away from us.

What might your name be?

Mrs. Almondzo Wilder.

Is there a Mr. Almondzo Wilder around here somewhere?

There is.

Yeah, well, if I was in his place with such a calmly wife to my account,

I wouldn't straight be far in either.

Where are you folks bound?

East.

Is there a right?

Well, you're certainly well provisioned for the trip, Mrs. Wilder.

You got a lot of fine goods in here. Quality good.

See there, we should have spent more care putting our outfit together.

Right there, like the Wilder said. You know, we should have made more of a plan.

I don't care to make plans.

Well, I know.

When a little forethought don't hurt every now and then,

like maybe if you remember, Ty Weezer up this morning, he wouldn't run off.

Hey, there, Weezer.

Oh.

What's gonna help you men with?

Well, we just come to get our dog here and we'll leave you folks alone.

I'm fucking about to have yourself a fine supper. Arthur, give me a hand there, catch him.

Where is it?

No. Rose.

Look, we're not about that dog for me.

Little girl taking a lock in the Weezer, here she is.

Well, he ain't a fit dog for a girl.

He's a skittish and untrustworthy and he needs a strong hand.

I'll give you two dollars for it.

I can't do it.

Look, that dog's no use to you that I can see.

Well, that ain't for you to judge, mister.

I'll give you two fifty.

I said that ain't for you to judge, mister, and I don't care to have you and your wife

sitting here staring at us like we ain't even fit on the dog.

You got no right to judge us. You got no right at all.

Don't get too excited over that unless you won't get blown in too.

Well, I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

Unless comms can be a mister.

Let's get the hell out of here.

Don't take them. Don't take them, please.

Listen.

Stop.

Listen.

Tell us the dog.

You don't got good ears to hear, did you? I just told your husband no.

Well, I'm asking now.

You were right about what you said earlier.

It wasn't fair of us to judge you like we did.

I can tell that you have some feeling in you.

What was that effect?

You hear that arthorn lady says we ain't co-lareded after all.

Please.

Please.

Keep the damn dog in a hell with you.

The hell with all of you!

You're all right?

I'm fine.

Where's that little revolver?

In the cook box.

It might be a good idea for now, just in case.

I've done you a fierce one, Bessie.

You're all right?

I'm fine.

Who's that little revolver?

In the cook box.

It might be a good idea for now, just in case.

I'm not gonna do a fierce one, Bessie.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I'm fine.

I've done you a fierce one, Bessie.

Rose, come here.

I have something I want to show you.

Do you know what this is?

It's money.

It's a $100 bill.

This is the money we're gonna use to buy our farm in Missouri.

If anything should happen to your father or me,

this money will be right here in the desk,

and it'll be yours.

You understand?

All right.

Why don't you go get Fido?

Long drive ahead of us today.

It's beautiful country.

You want all to be?

Come 650 miles to see it.

We're gonna have a house like that someday, Rose.

But where will I go to school?

Mansfield?

It's up ahead a few miles?

I suspect we'll be happy here.

I suspect we'll be happy here.

Come on!

Taking a long journey is like writing a book.

One plotting step after the next.

One more word set down on one more tablet sheet.

You grow so used to the slow procession

that you forget that it's leading somewhere,

and are astonished when it comes to an end.

That'll be hard work, that's for sure.

But we got 400 young apple trees all healed in, all ready to set out once the land is cleared,

and it's only mine to have the town, so Rose can walk to school.

$300.

12% is what the bankers ask about it every three months.

Of course we got the $100 to put down.

I think it's a pretty fair price for a 40 like this.

This is how Paul messed up out.

Standing on a new piece of my hand with nothing inside but the future.

So you like it then?

I like it.

This is it. This is where we stop.

I figured we could make out a right song firewood first,

maybe even do pre-will once, have a tree star bear.

Now if you wanna look around a bit more, we can, but if you...

This is where we stop, isn't it?

Why can't I go to town too?

Because your father and I have some business to conduct a man's field.

And do I get to see the farm?

Very soon. You'll stay with the magnusons, and as soon as we've signed all the papers at the bank,

we'll come back as fast as we can and take you to our new home.

All right?

I can't wait.

Just be patient, dear.

We've traveled all this way, certainly you can wait just a few more hours.

Now, I'm last thing.

Okay.

All right. How do I look?

Almost perfect.

There.

Well, as nice as you folks look, I wouldn't be surprised if the banker asked you for a loan.

You look elegant, Laura. Thank you, Pat.

Well, best be on our way, Bessie.

She'll make a withdrawal from our account there.

What do you want?

I'm just scouting with you, Mark.

Ladies and tell me about a couple of good forties not that far from our place.

It says one's all cleared and already in the grass.

Well, if it's already cleared, I reckon they'll walk 400 if they want an echo, but...

Or look.

Manly?

Good luck to you.

Thank you.

Manly, the money's not here.

What?

The $100 bill. It's not here.

I'm a good, excited Bessie. It's got to be here.

The little tray. We always kept it in the little tray.

No, we kept it Bessie. Not just because we call him now.

Those men. Those men came back and they took it.

No, they didn't. I said guard at home right.

It's gone.

It's just gone.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I'm not going to go.

I kept your dinner warm.

I'll be not too tired of you.

I ran away Bessie.

You're any coffee?

What are you writing?

Letter to my parents.

Letter to our trip mostly.

You're going to tell them about it?

No.

You're the one she bought that I can't provide for my family.

You'd never think that.

I saw George Magnussen today.

He said he got a job in town out in a hotel.

He pays nothing but what he says,

but at least he won't be living out of the back of the wagon.

How's she doing?

I'm disappointed.

When we were standing there looking out at the farm,

I was so happy, manly.

I was thinking that when we laid down together the other day, that...

What?

Well, maybe that a baby would come from it.

I was thinking that that would be a fine thing.

To make a baby.

Oh, we're so full of happiness and hope.

I miss the wind.

I miss the wind helling across the prairies back home.

All these trees make everything so silent.

What are we going to do, manly?

The wages you're making are barely enough to keep us alive,

let alone by us a piece of land.

And what about winter comes?

We're going to work.

And we're going to keep working until we work away out of this thing.

I promise you that.

I promise you.

I don't want you to read me a letter you wrote to your folks.

Go and read it to me.

It's here.

What?

It's not my name, it's here.

You found it?

You found it?

You found it!

You found it!

You found it!

You found it!

Oh, God!

Oh, God!

Oh, God!

All right, I'll get to work there in this rush while you women at this house that live in.

And the three of us...

Oh, that means you too, young lady.

We'll have to get to work there in this rush for the orchard.

Okay, Rose, will you go get that broom?

We've got a lot of housekeeping to do.

I think we can do this.

And better luck comes our way over now and then if we can keep our health.

This is what I've always wanted, Bessie.

I know.

This is where we're going to live.

Oh, you'll be surprised how nice of a look once we get it cleaned up.

Go over here.

Yes, this will do just fine.

It's not big, but I like a nice small cozy house.

Now, when we lived in Wisconsin...

Oh, I see it right there.

Stay away, Rose, go get your father.

No, no, no, no.

Don't, don't touch me, or I will kill you.

I didn't mean Bessie.

Bessie! Bessie!

Bessie!

Bessie! What happened? What happened?

I don't know.

Dad, a man, I didn't know.

Are you?

No.

It's all right.

It's all right.

We'll be just somebody down and let's let me in the place to stay, so...

You all right, Rose?

Huh?

You're almost shot at me.

I guess he knows she means business then.

You got real tired from mother, there, Rose.

It's okay. Let's go back in here.

Come on.

In my life as a writer, I have craved long hours of solitude and idle thought.

But I know the value of ordinary life as well.

A life in which the task at hand is plain and hard and unchanging.

It was the sort of rooted life that I learned from my father to Talbury,

but learned from my mother to cherish.

A life that is full not because of the places you've been or the miles you have traveled,

but because you have stayed where you are,

have cooked something of value from the unforgiving earth

and have passed each day in harmony with those you love.

The dog blanked at the cat, Sarah.

Bar?

Excellent.

Margaret, the horse blanked the wagon.

Gold.

Also excellent.

Rose, the mockingbird, blanked in the tree.

Linger.

What did you say?

The mockingbird lingered in the tree.

Children, please.

Linger, very interesting choice of word.

Rose, very interesting.

Jeremy, a snow blanch in the sky.

Phil.

I'm going to go to school.

I don't want to go to school.

Why?

What's wrong?

They were mean to me.

They laughed at me.

Who?

Those girls?

Well, I bet they were just upset because you were the prettiest girl in that whole school.

The other day, I thought they were just instant.

A lot of kids were not interested in this.

No, not either.

All right, you got to go.

Well, I bet they were just upset because you were the prettiest girl in that whole school.

Ah!

Manly.

I'm all right.

It's my feet just must have gone to sleep on me.

I mean, I'm gonna hang in this chair right here, girls.

Oh.

What's wrong with you, Papa?

What's your word, I'm fine, all right?

You can just get ready and go to school.

I don't want to go to school.

I want to stay here with you.

Rose, please, just get dressed.

You know you have to go to school.

I'll be all right.

It's just this cold weather.

I just need to...

I'm gonna have to get blood back in my feet, that's all.

It's okay.

Don't worry about your father, Rose.

He's gonna be just fine.

And you're gonna have a better day at school today.

I know it.

But why do I have to go?

Because...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

I can't...

Rose, if something is worthwhile, you don't just give up on it because it scares you at first.

I don't want you to be afraid.

I don't want you to give up.

It's poor way to live your life.

Okay, go on.

Let me have it.

Normally?

Basically let me have it.

You have it, that's it.

Come on.

Let's go back inside.

This land has to be cleared and those trees planted before the first freeze.

That's the only chance we have a makin' here, Bessie.

I know, but you need to rest.

You don't rest, you might not be able to walk again.

At all.

I can't stand being useless.

I can...

I can stand being sick.

I just...

I just hate being useless.

Maybe...

What?

Maybe before we get any deeper here, we ought to...

We ought to consider things.

Consider what things?

I'm just not strong anymore, Bessie.

You know, sometimes I can trick myself into thinking that I am and I'm the same as I was before I got sick, but I'm not and I know it.

I don't know that I can take care of you and Rose here, Bessie.

But maybe back home, maybe with your family's help, I can get it back trailing.

Having this farm.

It was always my dream not yours.

And I made it my dream so that we could share it.

And now you just want to give up on it?

I don't like the thought of it anymore.

I don't like the thought of it anymore.

I don't like the thought of it anymore.

I don't like it.

I don't like the thought of it anymore than you do.

Well then stop thinking it.

Just stop thinking it.

I just got through telling Rose that she needed to face down her fear and go back to school.

Now is it going to look to her when she comes back here and we tell her that we're quitting?

The people who prosper are the people who say, Manly.

Ma always said it and she was right about it.

I'm looking for a hired man.

Well, not hired exactly.

I can't pay cash but if someone would want to help cut down some trees,

he'd be able to take away all the firewood he could carry.

Would you know somebody who would be interested?

Would you?

Well they keep me pretty busy here at the store, ma'am.

I don't know of anybody who would want to work for firewood.

Not on the railroads, honey.

Thank you anyway.

You're welcome, ma'am.

Hey, good luck to you.

Poor man works all day as it is and he has to sleep on a cot behind the desk in case somebody

shows up in the middle of the night and you know, really.

I don't see how I can even ask him, Laura.

What about Charlie after school?

Charlie's here after school, working beside us.

The three of us have to keep this whole place running all by ourselves.

There may be trees full of apples here, O'Hara, and there may be people walking down the street

and fancy clothes, but it's just as hard in Missouri as it ever was in Dakota.

I don't like not being able to help you, Laura.

After all you and all the lawns have done for us, I don't like it at all.

It's all right, Pat.

I know you would help if you could.

Laura?

You're going away, aren't you?

George wants to give Florida a try.

He doesn't think we'll make it here.

The three of us working at the hotel day and night and not a penny ahead.

Not a penny.

When are you going?

At the end of the month.

That's soon?

It has to be soon, Laura, before it gets too cold to travel.

Then God keep you, Pat.

You and your family.

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

You're looking for something?

I was just...

I didn't know this was your property.

I didn't know it was anybody's.

You planning to shoot me?

No.

That's good.

I wasn't planning to shoot you before.

Just frightened me.

Well, I'm frightened. That's a fact.

My name is Mrs. Almanza Wilder.

Cornelius Lautomilke.

Are you interested in work, Mr. Lautomilke?

Worked on the nurse, me and itself.

Getting paid for it sometimes does.

Have some trees that need to be chopped down and some others should be planted.

I could give you all the firewood that you can haul away to sell,

and you could use our wagon.

I'd feed you three meals a day.

Apple trees?

Who's on the other end of the saw?

I am.

I'm not considered.

Have a surprise in here for you.

Who does it?

Well, it could be an apple, or a saucer pie,

or a carrot.

The old staff to wait until lunch to find out.

Hi, Papa.

Mama Rosie.

Mama?

It's all right, Ros.

It's just Mr. Lautomilke.

But at least the one me.

I know.

It's all right.

Go on to school.

We can knock on our door, Mr. Lautomilke.

I don't need to sit out here like some sort of timberwell.

I reckon we can start with this one.

It is a rider's business to notice things.

But there have been times in my life when I seem to notice nothing at all.

Times when every moment is claimed by the urgent business of survival.

When wearyness kept me from seeing a broken heart,

and when fear kept me from recognizing a shattered soul.

Morning, Mr. Lautomilke.

Morning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll go get lunch.

Good spot for an orchard.

Nice house slope with a frost one, sir.

You're facing south too.

Makes for good color in your apples.

You've done this before?

How to farm once.

I can see you looking at me.

I was on through these trees.

I can see you trying to guess what it is happened to this fella's face.

I'm sorry.

Farm was over in Henderson County.

Good soil for the most part.

60 bushels off to the acre and 30 a week.

One night we had a fire in the house and burned down on us.

It's a hard lot, Mr. Lautomilke.

Not hard on anybody else's, I suspect.

Anyway, I told you all about it now, and there's no need to speak of it.

A bit of stuff, seeing these stumps.

We've got a world of trees to plant.

Come on, pull them out!

Come on.

Take them back, pull them out.

Take them to the right.

Come on, there you go, it's coming.

There you go, it's coming.

Come on, there you go, it's coming.

Come on, Maxie!

What's that, Maxie?

What is this?

Oh, here she is.

What is that?

What?

On your bread?

It's not butter.

What is it?

I don't know.

She did too.

It's bacon grease.

Covered wagging people can't fool butter, so they eat bacon grease on their bread.

That's not true.

That's terrible.

It's disgusting.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

That's terrible.

It's disgusting.

I don't pay any attention to them, Rose.

I don't like cover wagging people here.

This falls over there.

And they find me too.

Actually, this, they like me just fine.

And mostly they can't forbid me.

No, I'm your friend.

Even if those girls ain't.

Then yes, I don't know how long I'm going to be around here.

What do you mean?

I'm not a little girl, I like to read too.

That was her favorite right there.

What happened to her?

Lost in the fire.

Her and her mother.

She had a secret hiding place in the barn where she used to go.

Read that book to her son.

That's how come we didn't get burned up.

Never cared much for books myself.

It was always peaceful for me watching her read.

You can almost see the pictures the book was making in her head.

Yeah.

But life slides on whether it's noticed or not.

And gradually, the very things you could not see become the things you could not forget.

And the long silent moments become a story you are meant to tell.

I'm not a little girl.

Family.

All right.

I reckon I'm willing not to dig a hole or two.

I will try to fight him.

That's good.

You saved her far, Bessie.

It's not getting ahead of ourselves.

We've still had a lot more saving to do.

Yeah.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

Mr. Lautermilk.

I want to thank you.

Well, thank you too.

Uh...

Uh...

Get her!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Get her!

Stop that!

Stop that!

Leave her alone!

What is the matter with you children?

Is there no kindness in you at all?

Okay. We're going home.

Rose, I want you to take those girls out of your mind.

They're not worth thinking about.

They're certainly not the sort of person who deserves to be your friend.

Don't be ashamed of what you are, Rose.

You traveled all the way from South Dakota to Missouri in a covered wagon.

You're helping your father and me build a farm from nothing.

No amount of fancy heirs or fancy clothes can measure up to that.

Come with me. I want to show you something special.

What is it?

It's a letter that I sent home to your grandpa and grandma about our travels.

Published it in the paper.

See? There's your name.

You mean something your old is in in his paper?

I guess that makes me an author.

It's funny.

I never thought of an author as a person before.

Certainly not a person like me.

I wonder what it would be like to see your name on a book.

Maybe someday those children back at that school will be in a library

and they'll pull down a book and it will say,

I miss Rose Wilder.

It won't be throwing snowballs then.

Can you join me and keep it up to you, Dad, to me?

Rose, what is that you're saying?

Nothing.

I couldn't understand you.

That's because it's a different language.

A language?

Fisbuko.

Fisbuko?

I've never heard of Fisbuko.

Does anything professor K-Tow you in school?

No.

You made it up.

Who do you speak it with?

The other girls at school?

No.

I just want to buy myself a new photo.

Fisbuko?

She invented the whole thing.

An entire private language all her own.

There's no doubt she's an extraordinary child.

Please.

We were reading the snowbirds song.

Do you know it, Mrs. Wilder?

It's a perfectly monotonous little poem in the third reader.

And I asked Rose to transpose a line or two.

Tell us what the poem meant in plain speech.

You know what she said?

She said she wouldn't do it.

She wouldn't?

No, it was not a matter of defiance.

Mrs. Wilder was a matter of principle.

There was no point in telling what the poem meant.

She insisted because the meaning of a poem exists only in the words of the poem itself.

Yes, quite an extraordinary girl.

She's very unhappy.

Yes.

Rose is a girl of rare intelligence and rare feeling.

These are wonderful gifts, Mrs. Wilder, but they are dangerous gifts as well.

They can drive a child inward, perhaps too far inward.

Oh, would you right off the house?

Oh.

Rose, darling, I don't want you speaking this language anymore.

Why?

Because it's not good for you.

You need to speak a language that everyone else speaks.

You cannot build your own private world.

Do you hear me, Rose?

I don't want you to speak this fispoo-co again.

Do you understand?

Not even to Fido.

Rose, not even to yourself. Now promise me.

I hate it.

I hate it in this dessert.

You said we were going to be happy here.

No, we won't. Not me.

It won't ever be happy here.

I want to go back to Dakota.

I want to go back to Grandma and Grandpa.

Will you take us back home?

Will you take us back home?

Rose, this is our home now.

No, it's not. No, it's not our home.

We all live

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Now,

you change the plan.

All right.

So now we can Lift the house where we'll see.

I know.

I know.

I know.

I know.

I know.

Oh, yes.

Come on, let's go.

Ouch!

Ouch!

Where's the land?

Oh, manly, I didn't need to upset her.

It was just a pain.

I don't know.

I found her.

I found her and set things right.

Maybe, maybe she went into town.

Why was she going to town?

I don't know, Bessie, but she had to go somewhere.

I'll settle the horse around along the road.

I'm going to go.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

We're lost.

There's something wrong with the year and year.

Rose!

It's alright, Vidal.

We'll find this.

Papa!

Papa!

I'm going to go.

She told me to tell you this during my mom told me.

It's about when she was little girl.

Once when she lived in Plum Creek, she stopped big dark cloud in the sky.

Only it wasn't a cloud.

It was grasshoppers.

Millions and millions of grasshoppers.

Mama was afraid sometimes when she was a little girl.

She was afraid of dark?

The wolf's in night.

I don't know what would take down this fiddle on play.

And she wouldn't be scared anymore.

Rose!

I don't know what would take down this fiddle on play.

But she wouldn't be scared anymore.

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Remember, it was here to play this little movie.

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

It's a chill.

It's a chill.

You're something.

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Is that out?

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

Rose!

It's Wilder, not you.

The pastor tells me how the road...

I said the road was lost.

She's in this cave somewhere.

I heard the dog, but I don't know where she is.

Come down, Swather.

Don't be breathing so fast.

Your hair is falling here.

Rose!

I believe we can't answer the honor.

Come on.

Rose?

Rose?

In here.

Rose.

Rose.

Wake up.

Wake up.

She needs her.

Oh, my.

Come on. Come on, Fido.

Rose.

Rose.

Rose.

Rose, wake up, Norman.

Rose.

Family.

Rose, wake up.

Rose.

Rose.

Rose.

Rose.

Rose, wake up.

Rose, it's alright.

It's alright.

It's alright.

You're home now.

You're alright.

Rose.

Rose.

It's alright.

Rose.

What'd you find?

It's present for you, Rose.

It's from Mr. Lettermilk.

R

We did it,bessie.

We did it, we did it.

We did it!

We did it!

Come on.

We better get to work if we intend to beat the crewworms to those apples.

Oh.

Come with me.

There's something I want to show you.

The other morning I was standing out here just before it got light.

The shadows from the trees over there started to come toward me.

And it was as if the earth was moving under my feet, rolling into the sunlight.

This would be a nice place for a house, don't you think?

We're going to build a house?

Well, not right away, but someday when the trees are bearing and the farm starts to pay,

a house with a nice big porch to the north, so to be cool on a hot summer day.

And we'll have a well just outside the door with a pump, no more lugging water from the creek.

And in the parlor, we'll have a bookcase.

No, two bookcases, full of books, and a hanging lab to read them by.

It'll have to be white, of course, a beautiful white house.

We don't plan for me to be the one to paint it.

Wouldn't hurt you to take your nose out of a book every now and then, Rose?

I know.

What's gotten to you?

Will you, Mr. Ferris, what about my essay?

Congratulations.

You have a discerning eye and a way of expressing yourself that is magical.

Magical! Oh, Rose, I am so proud of you.

I'm going to be a writer, mama.

That's a fine ambition, but don't forget, you're going to be a house painter first.

I'm serious.

Alright.

Remember when I was a little girl and you showed me that article you had written in the newspaper?

The one grandpa sent you from Dakota.

I remember.

Called yourself an author.

And you sounded so proud when you said it.

I've forgotten about that a long time ago, Rose.

I didn't forget.

Something's wrong.

Mary, she's...

More than anything else, my books have been about home.

About a dream of home that all of us share.

I'm so proud of you.

Mary, you're so proud of you.

Mary, I'll be back.

Mary, I'm so proud of you.

Mary, I'm so proud of you.

Mary, I'm so proud of you.

About a dream of home that all of us share.

A dream in which loss and pain belong to the past.

To a different and distant place.

In our dream, we know that home is where sorrow can never reach us.

And then we wake.

Dr.

Steve DAVIS

Pa.

Flutter butch.

Why are you not glad to see you?

How are you, Pa?

I almost fit as can be.

Almond's gonna get your house built.

How about them apple trays? They're still barren, all right?

They're barren, fine.

Well, I'm glad of it.

Oh, there now.

I already got four weeping women in this house. I don't need them other one.

What do you need, Pa? What do you want me to do?

Well, I'll tell you the truth, half-pined.

I've sort of been waiting for someone to come along and offer to take me out for a drive.

You forget what it's like out here.

Living in town.

Forget how quiet it is.

Mm-hmm.

You and Almond's oh, gonna stay put in Missouri?

Guess so.

Well, that's good.

Proud of you.

Proud of what you made of that farm.

How I thought I'd live more like you, Pa?

Wander. See the Pacific?

Well, you know, I thought I would, too.

Well, maybe I'll see it on the other side.

Maybe it won't be all angels and dominions, but just...

...new country where you look.

No roads, no wheel road tracks going through it, no towns.

And the band of it, that...

...that big old Pacific Ocean.

Just as blue as your mother's eyes.

That'd be hidden to me.

That would be the speedfied by.

Who would you die, Pa?

Well, there's not much I can do about it,

but this whole heart in the shape is in.

Oh, it ain't so bad.

I never was one to mind moving on to a new place.

I remember once in Kansas when...

...Mary and I were little.

You took us to that old Indian queue.

And her beads scattered all around the ground.

We looked all day long for those beads.

And it was time to go.

You put me up on your shoulders and carried me home.

I'm glad for that day.

Riding on your shoulders.

Holding those beautiful beads in my hands.

And latching all those metal arcs just fly out ahead of us.

I'm glad for all those days like that, Pa, that you gave me.

Oh, the way Dakota's filling up.

All this prairie's gonna be plowed under and no time at all.

They don't seem awesome, does it?

Nope.

The Pioneer Endays are a bloody budget.

In a few years' time, it'll all be forgotten.

Don't you forget about it.

Don't you little Rose forget about it.

I won't.

I won't.

Oh, the

Things don't happen all at once in life.

It would still be many years before I had the courage to begin to think of myself as a writer.

Rose became a writer long before I did.

She wandered all over the world and collected many stories to tell.

But the stories that mattered to her the most were the old ones.

The story she had heard from me about the days before she was born.

Those hard and beautiful times before the cities were built and the prairies all plowed under.

She would not let me forget and because of her, I wrote them down and found a part of myself that had always seemed to be out of reach.

All this happened far beyond the prairie.

In the home we built on Rocky Ridge.