The Culpepper Cattle Co.

Kiss my ass, Ben Mockridge! Ha!

Kiss my ass, Tim Slater. If you can catch it!

Let's go! Let's go!

Shit!

Whoa! Whoa!

- Got you again, Tim. - Oh, goddamn.

Teach you to mess with the Ben Mockridge Express.

I'm gonna get you next time, Ben.

Goddamn birds.

I tell you, Ben, if I don't ever see another chicken again

as long as I live, it'll be too soon.

- I've been making plans. - Yeah? Like what?

You'll see.

- I finally got it. - Yeah? Where?

- It's in the wagon. - Let me see.

- Maybe I will. Ben, did you bring the laundry?

Er, here it is, Mr. Slater.

Tell your ma we'll pay her next week.

Unless you wanna trade for a couple of chickens.

No thanks, Mr. Slater.

My ma says we could wait.

Go get the laundry, Tim.

Hey. You gonna show it to me?

- How much? - Four dollars.

Yeah? Let's see.

That looks like a nice one. I wish I had one.

If my pa caught me with one, he'd give me hell.

- Does your ma know you got it? - No.

- You've been practising, huh? - Yeah.

Can you do it? Can you... Can you really do it?

- Of course I can. - Let me see.

Told ya I've been making plans.

Yeah, but ain't you still delivering laundry for your ma?

Not for long.

It so happens that Frank Culpepper's gonna be

driving 2,000 head to Fort Lewis, Colorado.

- I plan to go with him. - Yeah? He signed you on?

Not yet.

Oh, hell, I bet you ain't even asked him.

I'm waiting for the right time.

Oh, yeah, when's that gonna be? Three days after he's gone?

- I just told ya. I'm... Tim! Unload those crates!

Goddamn chickens!

- (HORSES WHINNY) - (SCREAMING)

What you doin' raisin' so much dust around here?

(CLEARING THROAT) Excuse me.

Could you tell me where I might find Mr. Frank Culpepper?

Thanks.

- (COW MOOING) Yah!

- (COW MOOING) All right. Coming in.

Get that big one. Come on. Bring in another one.

Keep that rope tight.

Stoke up that fire, boy.

Aay! (YELLING IN SPANISH)

Sorry.

Mr. Culpepper?

Mr. Culpepper is right over here.

Er, Mr. Culpepper?

Mr. Culpepper!

- Mr. Culpepper? - What is it, boy?

Can I talk to you for a minute, Mr. Culpepper?

That's what you're doing, ain't it?

I wanna go with you, Mr. Culpepper.

I ride real good, and I can do a lot of things.

I mean, I'll work at almost anything, Mr. Culpepper.

- Oh, I really wanna go. - Why?

'Cause I wanna be a cowboy more than anything, Mr. Culpepper.

Well, that's one hell of an ambition, boy.

I work hard. I work real hard.

All right. See the cook and...

tell him you're gonna be his Little Mary.

Thanks, Mr. Culpepper.

I'm Ben Mockridge. Mr. Culpepper told me to see you.

- He did? - Yes, sir.

- What for? - He told me to tell you...

- Well... - He told me to tell you...

I'm Little Mary.

I got the money, Ma, from the Newsomes.

Er, Mrs. Burns paid me, too.

And, er, Mr. Slater said he'd pay next week.

Ma...

I talked to Mr. Frank Culpepper today.

They're leaving in the mornin'. Pointin' them north.

I asked him if I could go along.

He hired me, Ma.

Bye, Ben.

- Bye, Ma. - Be a good boy now.

Yee-ha!

Yee-ha!

I've never been up north before.

Wait till we get to the desert.

Sand scorching your eyeballs.

Driving through country that ain't fit for scavengers.

Dry enough to make you drink your own piss.

Sittin' downwind, son.

You really got the itch, ain't ya?

Well, I do.

I guess all I want to do is

punch cows and ride and

well, just cowboying.

- There's nothing better than that. - Like hell there ain't.

Well, that's all I want.

Kid, cowboying is something you do when you can't do nothing else.

Paging the old belly cheater.

Damn, what a day.

Finished skinning them birds yet?

- This here's the last one. - Did you gut him?

- No. - Hell, what are you waiting for?

How do you know what to put in there?

I don't.

How do you make that look so good?

Print, you and Wallop take the early watch.

Burgess and Old John, you take the next.

- When's your turn, Frank? - Not me.

I'm the king on this one, mister.

King don't do nothing but sit on his ass.

The way the good Lord intended.

Hey, Little Mary...

Picket my horse for me.

Er, yes, sir. Pete.

Good God Almighty!

I just told that kid to take the horse over to the picket line.

I didn't say to ride him.

- (LAUGHING) Boy, there he goes!

I'm telling you, that kid's as green as grass.

Say, I had a girl back home once.

Lily of the Valley. Yeah, she was real pretty.

Uh-uh. Pretty goddamn ugly and pretty likely to stay that way.

Nah, I was gonna marry her.

You'd fall in love with a stump broke mule.

Oh, you sons of bitches can go to hell.

She's probably like one of them girls you was telling us about, in that saloon.

Oh, yeah. You should have been with me, Print.

That was some place.

Oh, a place like any other saloon.

Only it had this here glass ceiling.

Bunch of Parisian girls living up on it.

- How many of them was there? Sixteen, seventeen of 'em.

- Naked as jay birds. Damn!

That's right.

Every now and then, one of them kinda hunkered down on all fours

and licked the glass with her tongue.

Goddamn!

I'm telling you. I was sitting down there looking up at 'em.

Well, how come, er, with all the naked Parisian gals up there...

the glass didn't break?

Small. Little, tiny girls.

Only stood about that high.

Well, that's the truth.

Well, I gotta get out to the herd.

About enough of this for one night.

Stampede! Stampede!

Stampede, boys! Get mounted!

Hah! Hah! Hah!

Yah! Yah!

Don't get... Don't get too close to 'em!

Get 'em milling! Mill 'em around!

I can count twenty strays,

but there's two hundred more in a box canyon about three miles...

Good, Pete.

An old man's got 'em, and he's holding 'em.

- Did you talk to him? - Yeah.

He said, "Come and get 'em."

How many's there?

- Like I said, about two hundred head. - I mean men.

Oh, the old man's the only one I saw.

Hmm.

Burgess, Wallop, stay here with Marco.

The rest of you boys, come go with me.

Does that mean me, too?

You got ears, ain't ya?

In there.

The old man was standing right there before.

Well, he ain't there now.

Print. Cook.

Ramon, arriba. Rutter, come with me.

Pete.

Stay here and hold their horses, kid.

Sure glad to see you, mister.

Been waiting for hours.

Your cattle, huh? They sure do run.

And by the time we found these here,

they was plumb run out.

You're mighty lucky we come upon 'em,

the way they was a-wondering.

I appreciate it.

The way I see it

generosity deserves its own reward.

Say, erm...

Fifty cents a head?

Rounds out nice and even that way, don't it?

I don't think I'm that generous.

You sure disappoint me, mister.

And, what's more, you disappoint these boys back here,