The Substitute Wife

Thank you.

- Martin. - Hm?

- I'm gonna die. - No, ya aren't.

Yes, I am.

What's wrong with me doctor?

Well, I can't give you a definite answer Mrs. Hightower,

in medicine we're never 100% sure.

Now, when the pain gets too bad take one of these.

But, try not to take more than two in any given day.

I'm gonna die, ain't I.

Well, we're all going to die, Mrs. Hightower.

Look, perhaps I should have a chat with your husband.

Doctor, I got three more like this at home.

I gotta know, I gotta make plans.

Seen him.

Well?

- He says I'm right about dying. - He's cracked.

He ain't cracked, he's got a paper with ribbons on the wall.

What about that doctor told the Henleys their...

little Jimmy had the ague, turned out to be the diphtheria? Doctors... all cracked.

- He's an Army doctor, he knows. - He's cracked.

- I got this thing growing inside of me. - I don't want to hear about it!

Ya gotta to hear about it.

- No. - Yep.

It's in me, and it just keeps gettin' bigger

till there's no room for the other stuff to do what

it has to do, and in time, my body's just gonna stop.

- How much time? - Two months, maybe a little more.

We gotta make plans, Martin.

No.

No plans.

Whatever happens, it happens, but I don't want to think about it.

And I don't want to talk about it.

You better get yourself into bed today. Give me that.

I was gonna make soap and vinegar and vanilla pudding...

I... I'll do all of it, you just tell me how, come on.

Well, what about the pharmacy? Well, I'll do it myself...

Oh! Oh! Oh!

- What are ya doing? - Just tidyin' up a bit?

I'm really... I'm feeling much better.

Martin, what are ya gonna do when I'm gone?

We gotta talk, I gotta know.

I'll get by.

How? You can't manage a farm and four young children yourself.

There went the today.

Come here.

If it's God's will, and you go, then I'll just worry about it then.

Be too late then, we gotta start worrying now.

What are ya going to do with the children?

Ya can't tend to 'em, what are ya going to do?

I don't know.

Jessica is old enough to tend to herself, maybe Nathan.

Maybe they could stay with me and we send Margaret

and Jack off to Emma's in Cleveland, at least for few years.

Your sister's got six of her own and poor as rat.

Well, maybe she could just manage Margaret

and we'll take Jack and we'll send him to

your brother Daniel in Baltimore. I don't know.

You expect me to die knowin' my

family's scattered all across the continent.

You can't separate my babies.

I'll come back and haunt you, I swear it.

Maybe I'll be just sell the durn farm and I'll go back

to Bucks County open up a harness shop with my father.

I'll have the kids with me all day long and have kin to help me.

Martin Hightower...

we came across 2000 miles of purgatory to claim this land.

We've been working 18 hours a day to make somethin' of it.

Ain't worth buffalo cookies now but someday...

This farm is their inheritance...

don't you dare sell it.

Don't you dare.

Well, what do ya want me to do?

Start worrying about it.

Don't you think I hadn't been?

Martin? I know we gotta do, we gotta find you another wife.

I don't want no other wife.

Yeah, but after I'm dead, you're gonna need another wife.

It's the only way, now put that down and think, who we're going to get?

Now looky here, Mrs. Hightower, if there ever comes a time where you are...

what you said, maybe I'll put my mind to it then,

but if you'll excuse me, I don't intend holding a discussion

with my first wife about the selection of my second.

It can't wait till after,

it'll be too late, everything will fall apart around here, we got to start now.

We got to have someone ready to step in my shoes the minute I'm gone.

Now you just stop this, Amy, this here conversation's ungodly.

God? Are you saying God don't want you and

the children have a life together on this farm.

God wants to disperse this family, is that what you're saying?

I don't know what the heck I'm saying.

But there are 10 men for every one woman on these plains from Texas to Dakota.

Now where are you going to find one,

wants to tend a farm and four kids what aren't even our own?

All the more reason to start looking now.

- Mr. Van Der Meer? - Yes.

I'm Amy Hightower from across the creek, I was wondering if I could have a talk.

Come in, sit, my wife Merka.

Pleased to meet you, I'll get some coffee.

No trouble, please.

I have a sickness, gonna die reasonable soon.

Ain't the fever.

Well, that's too bad, I'm sorry to hear that.

My husband and I have four children, eldest seven.

After I go he's going to need a wife real quick.

I hear ya have a daughter, Caroline.

I assume that's her.

Oh, no, that's Hester, she's just big,

she's only 11. That's Caroline.

Well, anyway, I was wondering if you'd let my

husband take her to wife when the time comes.

Oh... I see.

We're homesteaders, got a fine piece of land,

20 acres corn planted this year.

We got six cows, ox, pigs and hens, got a nice size soddy.

And an oak sideboard we brought from Maryland.

We got a cotton mattress, a goose feather quilt

and a Calico store bought frock she'd have.

Might just need some takin' in.

Martin's a real gentle, wholesome man.

He'd make her a fine husband.

Miss Hightower, you seem like a fine woman

and I wish I could help you out with your situation,

but they... they're already five offers

of matrimony on line for Caroline ahead of you.

The mill owner over there at Bellevue, he offered my $600 for her,

he's an old man, but he's a good Christian.

And that smith over there, he's got a handsome young

son that's gonna inherit that whole business one day soon.

Mrs. Hightower, I know the kind of life a soddy woman lives.

I just want something better for my Caroline.

I'm sorry.

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of

the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil.

Thy rod and thy staff comfort me. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

He was a good farmer, a good husband, a good father, a good man.

We know you'll take him gentle into to your bosom Lord,

and we pray you'll send comfort and grace to those he left behind.

Dust thou art and under dust thou shall return.

Excuse me. I ask your forgiveness for intruding on your grief.

But I happen to be riddin' passed and witnessed the proceedings.

I just had the feeling it was fate brought me here.

Please, can I talk to you for a moment, please?

All right.

- I see you've just been widowed. - Yeah.

You're going to need a father for your children.

And it just so happens in a short time,

my husband's going to be a widower in need of a mother for our children.

So I'd like to ask you on his behalf

if you consider marrying up with him.

I understand and I appreciate it,

unfortunately, it comes a little late... I'm already spoken for.

Oh... well...

I wish you both the best.

Whoa!

Excuse me, I was looking for the widow Donohue.

You found her.

Oh, I'm sorry. I must have been laboring under some misunderstanding.

Sorry for disturbing you.

Good day.

Hey! You looking for the widow Hattie Donahue or the widow Isabel Donahue?

- They're coming, Ma. - Nathan.

Alrighty. Now, you good now, and don't you speak lest you're asked something.

Martin!

Please, come in.

This is Miss Hattie Donahue and Miss Isabel Donahue.

This is my husband Martin Hightower.

- Hello. - Nice to meet you.

And these are our children, Jessica, Nathan, and Jack...

and baby Margaret over there in the crib.

The Lord never saw fit to make me a mother.

But they all seem... healthy.

They are, and good natured, all of 'em.

Well, shall we sit down?

Ladies...

My wife has made a chokeberry pie and I hope you'll stay and refresh yourselves.

But Miss Donahue, I aren't gonna marry you and that's the finish of it.

I thank you for the visit.

Now, if you'll excuse me, one of my hogs is ailin'.

I'm sorry, Amy, I just couldn't take that woman t'wife.

But we agreed, ya have to get married again.

I know, but not her.

Why in damnation not, she's a strong, moral, healthy woman.

- She don't give me the tingles. - What?

She don't give me tingles.

A man oughtn't have to bed a woman don't give him the tingles.

Then don't bed 'er.

Ya don't have to if you don't want to, ya could still marry her.

It's a man's duty to bed his wife, a man don't bed his wife is not a man.

There ain't nobody else, I've looked for miles around.

Well, we'll just look... further afield then.

Criminy!

Do I give you the tingles.

Every time I look at ya.

Every blessin' time.

Excuse me, do you have any single women livin' in these parts?

Do you know of any single women livin' in these parts?

Naw, not in this town.

- What can I get ya? - A lemonade?

Sarsaparilla?