The Outsider

I'm ready, Da.

And where are you going, our Benjo?

I'm going with you.

You have to stay here.

- But why? - You have your own chores,

which I count on you to do, Ja?

Besides, I need you here,

to protect your mother.

I'll see you tonight.

Let's go inside, Benjo.

Benjo?

Come on.

Come on, now.

Pull me up now.

Hey, there!

Uh, morning, Mister, uh, Yoder, is it?

- Ja, I'm Ben Yoder. - Ja!

That just kills me, you know,

the way they say that. "Yaw."

I thank you to mend that fence you just cut.

My sheep will get out.

Well, see, now that's just what we intended.

You got no right to fence in open range.

This is not open range anymore.

It's my land.

Legally homesteaded.

Mr. Hunter knows that.

We ain't fixin' no fence.

Are you all right?

Get off my land.

My family has worked this land for three generations.

Along come you strangers with...

...your fences and your sheep...

...and your piece of paper, think you own it.

We'll make this easy.

I'm gonna buy it from you.

I won't sell.

No, I guess not.

But your widow will.

Benjo!

What is it?

I don't know!

No...!

Our Rebecca.

You can go back to town.

We take care of our own.

Mrs. Yoder...

take this.

She does not need your pills, Doctor.

She will pray.

Have it your way.

When will someone stop this man?

You'll have to take that up with the sheriff.

Tell us. Have you arrested Fergus Hunter and his hired killers?

I've been over there and I've talked to them.

They said they caught Ben Yoder with Hunter cattle.

And I suppose Ben Yoder cut his own fence, too.

No, they cut the fence all right,

and I told them to fix it.

A man's dead,

and they will fix the fence?

Hunter has witnesses.

Nothing I can do.

So this is your justice?

Time and again, Satan comes as a wolf among lambs,

slaughtering the innocent.

And yet you...

You do nothing.

Pays to stay on the winning side, don't it, Getts?

I don't make the rules, Doc.

Oh.

You just work for the man that does.

M-M-M-Mam?

Benjo,

ride into town and fetch Doc Henry.

- Benjo, you have to. - But I c-c-c-...

If you can't say it to him,

then you write it down, okay?

This man is dying, Benjo. Now, go!

Judas, how much blood can you have left?

The bullet glanced off his rib and

lodged right next to the liver.

Is he gonna die?

I've seen men punctured with more holes than a pie safe

and they still clung to life.

Well, makes you wonder why they bother.

Another one.

Do you think he's...

A shootist? Yeah.

You still want to save him?

He's God's creature.

It is God's decision.

If God had an ounce of sense,

he'd send this one before the day is out.

But you will do your best to prevent that.

Yes. I'll try to save us the trouble of burying him.

Help me out here, will you?

Well, look at that.

Prison shackles, no doubt.

Yeah, let's get this off him.

Okay.

Hmm. Somebody took a whip to him, too.

Makes you wonder what kind of marks were left on his soul...

and if he'll thank you for saving him,

in the unlikely event that he lives.

Hold him down.

Hold him down, hold him.

Okay.

There it is.

I'm going to leave you this carbolic acid to cleanse his wound.

You needn't fry his insides with any more kerosene.

But I thought you were taking him with you.

He's in no condition to travel,

or to do you any harm.

M-M-M-Mam? Is he gonna shoot us?

We mean him no harm, Benjo,

so why would he want to hurt us, hmm?

Besides...

he'd need these.

Noah!

Benjo.

There's a man in our house.

And the doctor sewed him up.

- and I-I got to watch. - Is that so?

Well, our Rebecca.

Noah.

In your bed?

What was I to do?

Dump him in the corner like a bundle of old gunnysacks?

Would I say such a thing?

Hmm.

The boy said you had the doctor out.

He would have died otherwise.

We don't need outsiders all caught up in our lives.

We need to do kindness, our Noah.

You don't listen.

You never did.

You reason things out for yourself.

God gave us minds. He must have meant us to reason.

For the head of the woman is the man.

My man is dead.

You set this food that was meant for me at Ben's place.

I have to believe...

I did it without thought.

It is no disloyalty to him for you to turn to me.

I cannot think about those things yet.

Ben is gone, Rebecca.

So is my Martha.

And we still have lives to live. Plain lives.

With boys to raise

and more children to bear for the glory of God and the church.

The Zooks' barn was burned to the ground last night.

Every week it's something else.

You need the protection of a husband.

You'll be running low on firewood soon.

I'll send my boy over in a few days with his axe.

That would be kind...

if Mose doesn't mind.

He does what I tell him.

Everything comes to be part of the music,

sooner or later.

And now you have, too.

I don't know where it comes from.

Music is forbidden in the Plain life...

except for singing of the hymns...

...so I've never told anyone.

Where's my gun?

Where is it?

It's in the cabinet.

Now go get it.

When you let go.

Where am I?

In a safe place.

No such thing.

What did you do to scare my boy?

Well, I might've said "bang."

Put that thing down.

It appears to me you don't have a hell of a lot to worry about.

Hear me well.

I'll let you die before I let you harm my boy.

Maybe I can change your mind.

Evening, Doc.

Mr. Hunter.

Sheriff.

Some sick people out at the Yoder place.

Concerned about your neighbors' welfare, are ya?

You recognize anyone?

Well, is that him?

Is that the man out there with the Yoder widow?

Yeah.

I was up there looking at the hole in his side.

Probably dead by now.

I'm thinking those holy howlers have hired him.

I thought they relied on the Lord to fight their battles.

Maybe they're getting sick of losing.

What the hell?

Are you some kind of nun?

I'm a daughter of the Plain people.

This is a Plain house.

We trust in our God to take care of us.