ROBERT--There isn't any secret, Bud. I'm just going to take mother out to ride just as I always do. SLATS--Well say, can't she stay home just for once? ROBERT--She does stay home all the time except when I take her out to ride. Now be careful, or she might hear you, and not want me to take her out. FAT--Say, if I'd thought of that sooner, I'd have talked at the top of my lungs. BUD--Be careful, Fat, or Rob'll have you yelling at the top of your lungs. ROBERT--Good luck, boys. Run along and have a good time. I hope the fish bite as fast as snapping turtles. (_He goes in the house._) BUD--Come on boys, no use trying to get Rob. When he makes up his mind, you might just as well not try to budge him. FAT--Aw, he's tied to his mother's apron strings. SLATS--You shut up before I make you! BUD (_To FAT_)--Say if you were half as manly as he is, no one would know you. FAT--I didn't mean anything. I like Rob just as well as the rest of you, but if I did all the things for my mother that he does for his, everyone'd call me a sissy. SLATS--Yes, and probably they'd be right. Come on, Fat, I mean "Sissy." (_BUD, SLATS and FAT go on their way. Negro servant leads out horse and carriage. ROBERT comes out of the house helping his mother down the stairs._) MRS. LEE--Don't strain yourself, Robert. ROBERT--You don't know how strong I am, Mother. Lean harder. I don't feel you at all. MRS. LEE--I don't know what I'd do without you Robert. You're both sons and daughters to me. (_ROBERT helps her into the carriage._) ROBERT--There, are you quite comfortable, mother? (_He arranges the cushions for her._) MRS. LEE--Yes thank you dear, but I do feel as if you ought to be out playing instead of taking an old invalid like me out to ride. ROBERT--You aren't old and you must get well so fast that you won't be an invalid any longer, and both of us are going to have the best possible ride. (_They drive away._) SCENE II _The Harbor of St. Louis, banks of the Mississippi River, 1839._ Characters Captain Robert E. Lee First Lieutenant Smith Buck Brown, Town Bully Coyote Jim, his pal, a half-breed Soldiers at work Eight friends of Buck and Coyote Jim BUCK--I'm a-lookin' for the boss of these diggin's. LIEUTENANT--You want Captain Lee. (_Pointing to him._) BUCK--Be you Captain Lee? LEE--That's my name. What can I do for you? BUCK--You can't do nothin' for me. Me and my friends can do anything we want for ourselves. We ain't helpless, see? LEE--That being the case, I wish you would proceed to your own affairs and allow me to attend to mine. BUCK--We'd be happy to have you, but this here you're doing now, don't happen to be none of your business. LEE--Evidently you are looking for trouble, but I am much too busy to oblige you. BUCK--Unless you leave off being busy right here and now, you're pretty liable to land in a heap o' trouble.