I used to go all the time when I uz yore age. In Kansas City. Woods wuzn’t fur away. Used to go—a whole crowd of us—ever Sunday. Set on the ground ... real ground, ’stid o’ pavement ... with grass a-growin’ out of it. First I’d ever saw. We thought it wuz fine. You’ve missed a lot. LLOYD Yes’m. I guess so. But I’ve had fun. I been out with Paw a lot—drivin’ cattle. He buys ’em up differnt places—Verdigree, Foyil, Sageeyah, even ’s fur away’s Pryor Crick. Nen we saddle up our horses’n go out ’n drive ’em in to ship to the market at St. Louis. ELLY W’at’s fun about drivin’ cattle? Sounds like work t’ me. LLOYD Well, it’s work. And it’s fun, too. ELLY In winter, looks like you’d freeze yer ears off.... LLOYD We don’t drive ’em much in winter. ELLY Well, in the summer then, ’n the spring: I doan see w’at’s fun about the scorchin’ heat ’n the dust ’n the hot wind. I’d wanta be in out of it. I’d wanta be under a roof whur the sun didn’t hit me.... LLOYD Sun’s bad. Dust’s bad, too. Wind ain’t so good. But they’s sump’n else.... ELLY Yeow? W’at is it? LLOYD (_going across to her_) I doan know ... it’s kinda crazy.... ELLY I had a crazy brother. LLOYD (_smiling_) Well, it ain’t as bad as that. ELLY My brother wuzn’t bad. Jist wuzn’t right. He used to run out in the woods here like he uz wild. He lived here with us. He done queer things. LLOYD This is queer too. You’ll laugh. You see, when Paw and me goes out t’ drive cattle, some time or other we pass by the Big Lake. ELLY (_strangely_) The Lake? LLOYD Yes’m. Sometimes it’s early ... when we first start out frum the Switch. Sometimes it’s the middle of the day—when we’ve got back frum Grand River. Sometimes it’s night. But we alwys pass by it—some time or other. ELLY I doan see w’at’s fun about it. I been livin’ here three year. I c’n see the Lake any time. They’s no fun to that. LLOYD I cain’t explain it very well. It’s nice—nice t’ see it. ’N no matter whur you’re at, whut time o’ day it is, it’s nice to know the Lake’s thar. ’N it’s nice to know ’at some time mebbe you’ll git a chance to go out on it. I ain’t never been. I alwys want to. (_Smiling._) Kinda crazy, ain’t it? ELLY (_thoughtfully_) Yes. LLOYD I told you it wuz. ELLY (_slowly_) You’re not the only one. LLOYD The only one whut? ELLY Crazy. They’s others. I’ve saw ’em. Do you ever read the newspapers? LLOYD Why, no’m—I— ELLY Cain’t read? LLOYD Well, not much. But I’m gonna learn better. ELLY How long you lived at the Switch? LLOYD Alwys lived thar. ELLY Then you musta heerd of people gettin’ drownded in the Lake? LLOYD Yes’m. ELLY Crazy. Why’d they go on it? LLOYD ’Tain’t the Lake’s fault. It’s their’n. ELLY Yeow. Fer goin’ out on it. LLOYD No. Fer keerlessness. Some of ’em fall in. Some of ’em turn the boat over. Sometimes the boat leaks.... ELLY