Act 2 (End)

Question 1

(When Ella lets Jane inside)

Answer 1

I just ran across to the store. I haven’t been five minutes. Here!

Question 2

Jane: “Here!”
Ella: “What’s that?”

Answer 2

Two hundred dollars. You can try that dressmaking business if you want to, Ella.

Question 3

Ella: “Two hundred dollars!”

Answer 3

You needn’t thank me.

Question 4

Ella: “That ain’t it. I was just wondering what’s come over you all of a sudden?”

Answer 4

It’s my birthday, that’s all. Did you know it was my birthday, Ben?

Question 5

Jane: “Did you know it was my birthday, Ben?”
Ben: “Is it? I shoveled them damned paths!”

Answer 5

Ella’s going into the dressmaking business, Ben.

Question 6

Jane: “Ella’s going into the dressmaking business, Ben.”
Ben: “What of it?”
Ella: “That’s what I say. It ain’t much of a business.”

Answer 6

Are you tired?

Question 7

Jane: “Are you tired?”
Ben: “Maybe.”

Answer 7

You’ve done a lot of work today.

Question 8

Jane: “You’ve done a lot of work today.”
Ben: “And every day.”

Answer 8

I don’t suppose you know how much good it’s done you, how well you look!

Question 9

Ben: “Beauty’s only skin deep.”

Answer 9

Folks change, even in a few weeks, outside and in. Hard work don’t hurt anybody.

Question 10

Ben: “I got blisters on my feet. The damned shoes are stiffer than they ever was.”

Answer 10

Icebound, you said. Maybe it doesn’t have to be like that. Sometimes, just lately, it’s seemed to me that if folks would try, things needn’t be so bad. All of em try, I mean, for themselves, and for everybody else.

Question 11

Jane: “All of em try, I mean, for themselves, and for everybody else.”
Ben: “If I was you, I’d not hold out long.”

Answer 11

If you put some pork fat on those shoes tonight, your feet wouldn’t hurt so bad.

Question 12

Jane: “…your feet wouldn’t hurt so bad.”
Ben: “Maybe.”
(Pause)

Answer 12

I’m lonesome tonight. We always made a lot of birthdays when I was a girl.

Question 13

Jane: “We always made a lot of birthdays when I was a girl.”
Ben: “Some do.”

Answer 13

Your mother didn’t. She found me once trying, the day I was fifteen. I remember how she laughed at me.

Question 14

Ben: “All the Jordans have got a sense of humor.”

Answer 14

She wasn’t a Jordan, not until she married your father.

Question 15

Ben: “When a woman marries into a family, she mostly just shuts her eyes and jumps in.”

Answer 15

Your mother was the best of the whole lot of you. Anyway, I think so.

Question 16

Ben: “I know it. I always thought a lot of her, in spite of our issues.”

Answer 16

She loved you, Ben.

Question 17

Ben: “She left me without a dollar, knowing I was going to State’s Prison, and what I’d be by the time I get out.”

Answer 17

Maybe someday you’ll understand why she did it.

Question 18

Ben: “Because she thought you’d take better care of the money than any of the rest of us,”

Answer 18

And you hate me because of that, the way all the rest of the Jordans do?

Question 19

Jane: “And you hate me because of that, the way all the rest of the Jordans do?”
Ben: “Sometimes.”

Answer 19

I suppose it’s natural.

Question 20

Ben: “But I ain’t such a fool as Henry, and the women folks. They think you took advantage and fooled her into what she did. I thought so at first, now I don’t.”

Answer 20

What do you think now, Ben?

Question 21

Ben: “She watched you; she knew you were worth more than all of us in a lump. I know it, too, but some way it riles me worse than if you wasn’t.”

Answer 21

That’s silly!

Question 22

Ben: “…I get all held up inside; I never was so damned uncomfortable in all my life.”

Answer 22

And I was never so happy.

Question 23

Ben: “I suppose God knew what he was about when he made women.”

Answer 23

Of course he did.

Question 24

Ben: “Anyhow, he gave em the best of it, all right.”

Answer 24

You don’t mean that! You can’t!

Question 25

Ben: “I do. Let a man get miserable, and he is miserable. A woman ain’t really happy any other way.”

Answer 25

Maybe you think I’m having an easier time right now than you are.

Question 26

Jane: “Maybe you think I’m having an easier time right now than you are.”
Ben: “I know it.”

Answer 26

They all hate me, and they all want something all the time. I can’t say yes, and it’s hard to always say no. Then there’s the farm, big, and poor, and all worked out. The Jordans have been taking their living out of this soil for more than a hundred years, and never putting anything back.

Question 27

Jane: “…never putting anything back.”
Ben: “Just themselves, that’s all.”

Answer 27

Worked right, like they do out west, this place could be what it ought to be.

Question 28

Ben: “I been thinking lately things could be done a whole lot different.”

Answer 28

With people who loved the old place. You Jordans robbed this soil always. Suppose one of you tried to pay it back, it would mean work and money, for a couple years maybe, then I guess you’d see what gratitude meant.

Question 29

Jane: “…see what gratitude meant.”
Ben: “It could be done. It ought to be.”

Answer 29

By you, Ben!

Question 30

Jane: “By you, Ben!”
Ben: “No, I guess I ain’t got the heart.”

Answer 30

You’ve got it, if you’d learn to use it.

Question 31

Ben: “Anyhow, I’ve got just a month, that’s all.”

Answer 31

Maybe you’ll have more.

Question 32

Ben: “I’m just as good as convicted as I sit here. I’ve only got a month.”

Answer 32

Then help me for that month. We could plan how to start out in the spring. I’ve got books that will help us, and I can get more. We could do a lot!

Question 33

Jane: “We could do a lot!”
Ben: “I suppose we could!”

Answer 33

Will you shake hands on it?

Question 34

Jane: “Will you shake hands on it?”
Ben: “What for?”

Answer 34

Oh, just because we never have.

Question 35

Ben: “We ain’t going to change everything, are we?”

Answer 35

One thin. We’re going to be friends.

Question 36

Ben: “We ain’t going to change everything, are we?”

Answer 36

One thing. We’re going to be friends.

Question 37

Ben: “You’re a good sport, much as any man, maybe more.”

Answer 37

And now for the surprise!

Question 38

Jane: “And now for the surprise!”
Ben: “What what?”

Answer 38

You’ll see. I want you to sit right here, until I’m back.

Question 39

Ben: “I wasn’t thinking of moving.”

Answer 39

Just sit right there.

Question 40

Jane: “Just sit right there.”
Ben: “And do what?”

Answer 40

Think.

Question 41

Jane: “Think.”
Ben: “What of?”

Answer 41

Oh, anything, so long as it’s pleasant. Of the spring that’s coming…

Question 42

Jane: “Of the spring that’s coming…”
Ben: “Of the prison down at Thomaston.”

Answer 42

Of France then, of the family that was so good to you. Of the beautiful lady, of the daughter, if you want to. The one that was most grown up. And of the wonderful blue dress. Just shut your eyes and think till I come back!

Question 43

Nettie: “I’m ashamed about wearing you dress, Jane. I’ll take it right off.”

Answer 43

You needn’t. I guess I don’t want it anymore. Supper’s ready, Ella!