Activity 4.13: Civil Wars

Chunk 1

VINEY: Breakfast ready!

(VINEY comes down into the sunlight beam and pumps a pitcherful of water. While the pitcher is brimming, we hear conversation from the dark; the light grows to the family room of the house where all are either entering or already seated at breakfast, with KELLER and JAMES arguing the war. HELEN is wandering around the table to explore the contents of the other plates. When ANNIE is in her chair, she watches HELEN. VINEY reenters, sets the pitcher on the table; KATE lifts the almost empty biscuit plate with an inquiring look. VINEY nods and bears it off back, neither of them interrupting the men. ANNIE, meanwhile, sits with fork quiet, watching HELEN, who, at her mother's plate, pokes her hand among some scrambled eggs. KATE catches ANNIE'S eyes on her, smiling with a wry gesture. HELEN moves on to JAMES'S plate, the male talk continuing, JAMES deferential and KELLER overriding.)

JAMES: —No, but shouldn't we give the devil his due, Father? The fact is we lost the South two years earlier when he outthought us behind Vicksburg.

KELLER: Outthought is a peculiar word for a butcher.

JAMES: Harness maker, wasn't he?

KELLER: I said butcher. His only virtue as a soldier was numbers, and he led them to slaughter with no more regard than for so many sheep.

JAMES: But even if in that sense he was a butcher, the fact is he—

KELLER: And a drunken one, half the war.

JAMES: Agreed, Father. If his own people said he was, I can't argue he—

KELLER: Well, what is it you find to admire in such a man, Jimmie, the butchery or the drunkenness?

JAMES: Neither, Father, only the fact that he beat us.

KELLER: He didn't.

JAMES: Is it your contention we won the war, sir?

KELLER: He didn't beat us at Vicksburg. We lost Vicksburg because Pemberton gave Bragg five thousand of his cavalry, and Loring, whom I knew personally for a nincompoop before you were born, marched away from Champion's Hill with enough men to have held them. We lost Vicksburg by stupidity verging on treason.

JAMES: I would have said we lost Vicksburg because Grant was one thing no Yankee general was before him—

KELLER: Drunk? I doubt it.

JAMES: Obstinate.

KELLER: Obstinate? Could any of them compare even in that with old Stonewall? If he'd been there, we would still have Vicksburg.

JAMES: Well, the butcher simply wouldn't give up. He tried four ways of getting around Vicksburg, and on the fifth try, he got around. Anyone else would have pulled north and—

KELLER: He wouldn't have got around if we'd had a Southerner in command instead of a half-breed Yankee traitor like Pemberton—

Chunk 2

(While this background talk is in progress, HELEN is working around the table, ultimately toward ANNIE'S plate. She messes with her hands in JAMES'S plate, then in KELLER'S, both men taking it so for granted they hardly notice. Then HELEN comes groping with soiled hands past her own plate to ANNIE'S. Her hand goes to it, and ANNIE, who has been waiting, deliberately lifts and removes her hand.)

(HELEN gropes again, ANNIE firmly pins her by the wrist and removes her hand from the table. HELEN thrusts her hands again, ANNIE catches them, and HELEN begins to flail and make noises; the interruption brings KELLER'S gaze upon them.)

KELLER: What's the matter there?

KATE: Miss Annie. You see, she's accustomed to helping herself from our plates to anything she—

ANNIE (evenly): Yes, but I'm not accustomed to it.

KELLER: No, of course not. Viney!

KATE: Give her something, Jimmie, to quiet her.

JAMES (blandly): But her table manners are the best she has. Well.

(He pokes across with a chunk of bacon at HELEN'S hand, which ANNIE releases; but HELEN knocks the bacon away and stubbornly thrusts at ANNIE'S plate. ANNIE grips her wrists again, the struggle mounts.)

KELLER: Let her this time, Miss Sullivan. It's the only way we get any adult conversation. If my son's half merits that description.

(He rises.)

I'll get you another plate.

ANNIE (gripping HELEN): I have a plate, thank you.

KATE (calling): Viney! I'm afraid what Captain Keller says is only too true. She'll persist in this until she gets her own way.

KELLER (at the door): Viney, bring Miss Sullivan another plate—

ANNIE (stonily): I have a plate. Nothing's wrong with the plate. I intend to keep it.

(Silence for a moment, except for HELEN'S noises as she struggles to get loose. The KELLERS are a bit nonplussed, and ANNIE is too darkly intent on HELEN'S manners to have any thoughts now of her own.)

JAMES: Ha. You see why they took Vicksburg?

KELLER (uncertainly): Miss Sullivan, one plate or another is hardly a matter to struggle with a deprived child about.

ANNIE: Oh, I'd sooner have a more—

(HELEN begins to kick. ANNIE moves her ankles to the opposite side of the chair.)

—heroic issue myself, I—

KELLER: No, I really must insist you—

(HELEN bangs her toe on the chair and sinks to the floor, crying with rage and feigned injury. ANNIE keeps hold of her wrists, gazing down, while KATE rises.)

KELLER: Now she's hurt herself.

ANNIE (grimly): No, she hasn't.

Chunk 3

KELLER: Will you please let her hands go?

KATE: Miss Annie, you don't know the child well enough yet. She'll keep—

ANNIE: I know an ordinary tantrum well enough when I see one, and a badly spoiled child—

JAMES: Hear, hear.

KELLER (very annoyed): Miss Sullivan! You would have more understanding of your pupil if you had some pity in you. Now kindly do as I—

ANNIE: Pity?

(She releases HELEN to turn equally annoyed on KELLER across the table. Instantly, HELEN scrambles up and dives at ANNIE'S plate. This time, ANNIE intercepts her by pouncing on her wrists like a hawk, and her temper boils.)

For this tyrant? The whole house turns on her whims. Is there anything she wants she doesn't get? I'll tell you what I pity—that the sun won't rise and set for her all her life, and every day you're telling her it will. What good will your pity do her when you're under the strawberries, Captain Keller?

KELLER (outraged): Kate, for the love of heaven, will you—

KATE: Miss Annie, please, I don't think it serves to lose our—

ANNIE: It does you good, that's all. It's less trouble to feel sorry for her than to teach her anything better, isn't it?

KELLER: I fail to see where you have taught her anything yet, Miss Sullivan!

ANNIE: I'll begin this minute, if you'll leave the room, Captain Keller!

(Silence. Then, KELLER marches out, followed by KATE and JAMES. ANNIE locks the doors behind them, turning to face HELEN, who still kicks and cries on the floor.)

Chunk 4

(ANNIE stands over HELEN, who continues to kick and struggle on the floor. ANNIE is determined, her grip firm but not cruel. The sounds of the family talking outside the door fade as she focuses entirely on HELEN. The struggle continues, but ANNIE does not relent.)

(HELEN, realizing her usual tactics are failing, pauses, breathing heavily. ANNIE takes this moment to kneel beside her, gently but firmly taking her hands. HELEN tries to pull away, but ANNIE holds on.)

ANNIE (softly but firmly): No. We’re going to start understanding each other. Right now.

(HELEN, frustrated, tries once more to pull free, but ANNIE maintains her grip. Slowly, methodically, ANNIE places one of HELEN’S hands on her own plate, then spells out the word "plate" into HELEN'S palm. HELEN jerks her hand back, confused, but ANNIE does not give up. She takes HELEN’S hand again and repeats the motion, spelling "plate" again and again.)

(HELEN stops struggling. Her brow furrows as she tries to make sense of what is happening. ANNIE, sensing the shift, spells "plate" one more time, then releases HELEN'S hand and lets her process it. HELEN touches the plate tentatively, then frowns and turns away. The moment is small, but significant.)

(ANNIE sighs, exhausted but determined. She knows this is just the beginning.)

(The scene fades to black as the sound of the family murmuring outside the door continues, unaware of the breakthrough happening inside.)

(He marches to the front door. Kate and JAMES follow him. Simultaneously ANNIE releases HELEN'S wrists, and the child again sinks to the floor, kicking and crying her weird noises. ANNIE steps over her to meet VINEY coming in the rear doorway with biscuits and a clean plate, surprised at the general commotion.)

VINEY: Heaven sakes—

ANNIE: Out, please.

(She backs VINEY out with one hand, closes the door on her astonished mouth, locks it, and removes the key. KELLER meanwhile snatches his hat from a rack, and Kate follows him down the porch steps. JAMES lingers in the doorway to address ANNIE across the room with a bow.)

JAMES: If it takes all summer, general.

(ANNIE comes over to his door in turn, removing her glasses grimly; as KELLER outside begins speaking, ANNIE closes the door on JAMES, locks it, removes the key, and turns with her back against the door to stare ominously at HELEN, kicking on the floor. JAMES takes his hat from the rack and, going down the porch steps, joins Kate and KELLER talking in the yard, KELLER in a sputter of ire.)

KELLER: This girl, this—cub of a girl—presumes! I tell you, I'm of half a mind to ship her back to Boston before the week is out. You can inform her so from me!

KATE (eyebrows up): I, Captain?

KELLER: She's a hireling. Now I want it clear, unless there's an apology and complete change of manner, she goes back on the next train! Will you make that quite clear?

KATE: Where will you be, Captain, while I am making it quite—

KELLER: At the office!

(He begins off left, finds his napkin still in his irate hand, is uncertain with it, dabs his lips with dignity, gets rid of it in a toss to JAMES, and marches off. JAMES turns to eye KATE.)

JAMES: Will you?

(KATE'S mouth is set, and JAMES studies it lightly.)

JAMES: I thought what she said was exceptionally intelligent. I've been saying it for years.

KATE (not without scorn): To his face?

(She comes to relieve him of the white napkin, but reverts again with it.)

KATE: Or will you take it, Jimmie? As a flag?

Chunk 1

VINEY: Breakfast ready!

(VINEY comes down into the sunlight beam and pumps a pitcherful of water. While the pitcher is brimming, we hear conversation from the dark; the light grows to the family room of the house where all are either entering or already seated at breakfast, with KELLER and JAMES arguing the war. HELEN is wandering around the table to explore the contents of the other plates. When ANNIE is in her chair, she watches HELEN. VINEY reenters, sets the pitcher on the table; KATE lifts the almost empty biscuit plate with an inquiring look. VINEY nods and bears it off back, neither of them interrupting the men. ANNIE, meanwhile, sits with fork quiet, watching HELEN, who, at her mother's plate, pokes her hand among some scrambled eggs. KATE catches ANNIE'S eyes on her, smiling with a wry gesture. HELEN moves on to JAMES'S plate, the male talk continuing, JAMES deferential and KELLER overriding.)

JAMES: —No, but shouldn't we give the devil his due, Father? The fact is we lost the South two years earlier when he outthought us behind Vicksburg.

KELLER: Outthought is a peculiar word for a butcher.

JAMES: Harness maker, wasn't he?

KELLER: I said butcher. His only virtue as a soldier was numbers, and he led them to slaughter with no more regard than for so many sheep.

JAMES: But even if in that sense he was a butcher, the fact is he—

KELLER: And a drunken one, half the war.

JAMES: Agreed, Father. If his own people said he was, I can't argue he—

KELLER: Well, what is it you find to admire in such a man, Jimmie, the butchery or the drunkenness?

JAMES: Neither, Father, only the fact that he beat us.

KELLER: He didn't.

JAMES: Is it your contention we won the war, sir?

KELLER: He didn't beat us at Vicksburg. We lost Vicksburg because Pemberton gave Bragg five thousand of his cavalry, and Loring, whom I knew personally for a nincompoop before you were born, marched away from Champion's Hill with enough men to have held them. We lost Vicksburg by stupidity verging on treason.

JAMES: I would have said we lost Vicksburg because Grant was one thing no Yankee general was before him—

KELLER: Drunk? I doubt it.

JAMES: Obstinate.

KELLER: Obstinate? Could any of them compare even in that with old Stonewall? If he'd been there, we would still have Vicksburg.

JAMES: Well, the butcher simply wouldn't give up. He tried four ways of getting around Vicksburg, and on the fifth try, he got around. Anyone else would have pulled north and—

KELLER: He wouldn't have got around if we'd had a Southerner in command instead of a half-breed Yankee traitor like Pemberton—

Chunk 2

(While this background talk is in progress, HELEN is working around the table, ultimately toward ANNIE'S plate. She messes with her hands in JAMES'S plate, then in KELLER'S, both men taking it so for granted they hardly notice. Then HELEN comes groping with soiled hands past her own plate to ANNIE'S. Her hand goes to it, and ANNIE, who has been waiting, deliberately lifts and removes her hand.)

(HELEN gropes again, ANNIE firmly pins her by the wrist and removes her hand from the table. HELEN thrusts her hands again, ANNIE catches them, and HELEN begins to flail and make noises; the interruption brings KELLER'S gaze upon them.)

KELLER: What's the matter there?

KATE: Miss Annie. You see, she's accustomed to helping herself from our plates to anything she—

ANNIE (evenly): Yes, but I'm not accustomed to it.

KELLER: No, of course not. Viney!

KATE: Give her something, Jimmie, to quiet her.

JAMES (blandly): But her table manners are the best she has. Well.

(He pokes across with a chunk of bacon at HELEN'S hand, which ANNIE releases; but HELEN knocks the bacon away and stubbornly thrusts at ANNIE'S plate. ANNIE grips her wrists again, the struggle mounts.)

KELLER: Let her this time, Miss Sullivan. It's the only way we get any adult conversation. If my son's half merits that description.

(He rises.)

I'll get you another plate.

ANNIE (gripping HELEN): I have a plate, thank you.

KATE (calling): Viney! I'm afraid what Captain Keller says is only too true. She'll persist in this until she gets her own way.

KELLER (at the door): Viney, bring Miss Sullivan another plate—

ANNIE (stonily): I have a plate. Nothing's wrong with the plate. I intend to keep it.

(Silence for a moment, except for HELEN'S noises as she struggles to get loose. The KELLERS are a bit nonplussed, and ANNIE is too darkly intent on HELEN'S manners to have any thoughts now of her own.)

JAMES: Ha. You see why they took Vicksburg?

KELLER (uncertainly): Miss Sullivan, one plate or another is hardly a matter to struggle with a deprived child about.

ANNIE: Oh, I'd sooner have a more—

(HELEN begins to kick. ANNIE moves her ankles to the opposite side of the chair.)

—heroic issue myself, I—

KELLER: No, I really must insist you—

(HELEN bangs her toe on the chair and sinks to the floor, crying with rage and feigned injury. ANNIE keeps hold of her wrists, gazing down, while KATE rises.)

KELLER: Now she's hurt herself.

ANNIE (grimly): No, she hasn't.

Chunk 3

KELLER: Will you please let her hands go?

KATE: Miss Annie, you don't know the child well enough yet. She'll keep—

ANNIE: I know an ordinary tantrum well enough when I see one, and a badly spoiled child—

JAMES: Hear, hear.

KELLER (very annoyed): Miss Sullivan! You would have more understanding of your pupil if you had some pity in you. Now kindly do as I—

ANNIE: Pity?

(She releases HELEN to turn equally annoyed on KELLER across the table. Instantly, HELEN scrambles up and dives at ANNIE'S plate. This time, ANNIE intercepts her by pouncing on her wrists like a hawk, and her temper boils.)

For this tyrant? The whole house turns on her whims. Is there anything she wants she doesn't get? I'll tell you what I pity—that the sun won't rise and set for her all her life, and every day you're telling her it will. What good will your pity do her when you're under the strawberries, Captain Keller?

KELLER (outraged): Kate, for the love of heaven, will you—

KATE: Miss Annie, please, I don't think it serves to lose our—

ANNIE: It does you good, that's all. It's less trouble to feel sorry for her than to teach her anything better, isn't it?

KELLER: I fail to see where you have taught her anything yet, Miss Sullivan!

ANNIE: I'll begin this minute, if you'll leave the room, Captain Keller!

(Silence. Then, KELLER marches out, followed by KATE and JAMES. ANNIE locks the doors behind them, turning to face HELEN, who still kicks and cries on the floor.)

Chunk 4

(ANNIE stands over HELEN, who continues to kick and struggle on the floor. ANNIE is determined, her grip firm but not cruel. The sounds of the family talking outside the door fade as she focuses entirely on HELEN. The struggle continues, but ANNIE does not relent.)

(HELEN, realizing her usual tactics are failing, pauses, breathing heavily. ANNIE takes this moment to kneel beside her, gently but firmly taking her hands. HELEN tries to pull away, but ANNIE holds on.)

ANNIE (softly but firmly): No. We’re going to start understanding each other. Right now.

(HELEN, frustrated, tries once more to pull free, but ANNIE maintains her grip. Slowly, methodically, ANNIE places one of HELEN’S hands on her own plate, then spells out the word "plate" into HELEN'S palm. HELEN jerks her hand back, confused, but ANNIE does not give up. She takes HELEN’S hand again and repeats the motion, spelling "plate" again and again.)

(HELEN stops struggling. Her brow furrows as she tries to make sense of what is happening. ANNIE, sensing the shift, spells "plate" one more time, then releases HELEN'S hand and lets her process it. HELEN touches the plate tentatively, then frowns and turns away. The moment is small, but significant.)

(ANNIE sighs, exhausted but determined. She knows this is just the beginning.)

(The scene fades to black as the sound of the family murmuring outside the door continues, unaware of the breakthrough happening inside.)

(He marches to the front door. Kate and JAMES follow him. Simultaneously ANNIE releases HELEN'S wrists, and the child again sinks to the floor, kicking and crying her weird noises. ANNIE steps over her to meet VINEY coming in the rear doorway with biscuits and a clean plate, surprised at the general commotion.)

VINEY: Heaven sakes—

ANNIE: Out, please.

(She backs VINEY out with one hand, closes the door on her astonished mouth, locks it, and removes the key. KELLER meanwhile snatches his hat from a rack, and Kate follows him down the porch steps. JAMES lingers in the doorway to address ANNIE across the room with a bow.)

JAMES: If it takes all summer, general.

(ANNIE comes over to his door in turn, removing her glasses grimly; as KELLER outside begins speaking, ANNIE closes the door on JAMES, locks it, removes the key, and turns with her back against the door to stare ominously at HELEN, kicking on the floor. JAMES takes his hat from the rack and, going down the porch steps, joins Kate and KELLER talking in the yard, KELLER in a sputter of ire.)

KELLER: This girl, this—cub of a girl—presumes! I tell you, I'm of half a mind to ship her back to Boston before the week is out. You can inform her so from me!

KATE (eyebrows up): I, Captain?

KELLER: She's a hireling. Now I want it clear, unless there's an apology and complete change of manner, she goes back on the next train! Will you make that quite clear?

KATE: Where will you be, Captain, while I am making it quite—

KELLER: At the office!

(He begins off left, finds his napkin still in his irate hand, is uncertain with it, dabs his lips with dignity, gets rid of it in a toss to JAMES, and marches off. JAMES turns to eye KATE.)

JAMES: Will you?

(KATE'S mouth is set, and JAMES studies it lightly.)

JAMES: I thought what she said was exceptionally intelligent. I've been saying it for years.

KATE (not without scorn): To his face?

(She comes to relieve him of the white napkin, but reverts again with it.)

KATE: Or will you take it, Jimmie? As a flag?

Chunk 1

VINEY: Breakfast ready!

(VINEY comes down into the sunlight beam and pumps a pitcherful of water. While the pitcher is brimming, we hear conversation from the dark; the light grows to the family room of the house where all are either entering or already seated at breakfast, with KELLER and JAMES arguing the war. HELEN is wandering around the table to explore the contents of the other plates. When ANNIE is in her chair, she watches HELEN. VINEY reenters, sets the pitcher on the table; KATE lifts the almost empty biscuit plate with an inquiring look. VINEY nods and bears it off back, neither of them interrupting the men. ANNIE, meanwhile, sits with fork quiet, watching HELEN, who, at her mother's plate, pokes her hand among some scrambled eggs. KATE catches ANNIE'S eyes on her, smiling with a wry gesture. HELEN moves on to JAMES'S plate, the male talk continuing, JAMES deferential and KELLER overriding.)

JAMES: —No, but shouldn't we give the devil his due, Father? The fact is we lost the South two years earlier when he outthought us behind Vicksburg.

KELLER: Outthought is a peculiar word for a butcher.

JAMES: Harness maker, wasn't he?

KELLER: I said butcher. His only virtue as a soldier was numbers, and he led them to slaughter with no more regard than for so many sheep.

JAMES: But even if in that sense he was a butcher, the fact is he—

KELLER: And a drunken one, half the war.

JAMES: Agreed, Father. If his own people said he was, I can't argue he—

KELLER: Well, what is it you find to admire in such a man, Jimmie, the butchery or the drunkenness?

JAMES: Neither, Father, only the fact that he beat us.

KELLER: He didn't.

JAMES: Is it your contention we won the war, sir?

KELLER: He didn't beat us at Vicksburg. We lost Vicksburg because Pemberton gave Bragg five thousand of his cavalry, and Loring, whom I knew personally for a nincompoop before you were born, marched away from Champion's Hill with enough men to have held them. We lost Vicksburg by stupidity verging on treason.

JAMES: I would have said we lost Vicksburg because Grant was one thing no Yankee general was before him—

KELLER: Drunk? I doubt it.

JAMES: Obstinate.

KELLER: Obstinate? Could any of them compare even in that with old Stonewall? If he'd been there, we would still have Vicksburg.

JAMES: Well, the butcher simply wouldn't give up. He tried four ways of getting around Vicksburg, and on the fifth try, he got around. Anyone else would have pulled north and—

KELLER: He wouldn't have got around if we'd had a Southerner in command instead of a half-breed Yankee traitor like Pemberton—

Chunk 2

(While this background talk is in progress, HELEN is working around the table, ultimately toward ANNIE'S plate. She messes with her hands in JAMES'S plate, then in KELLER'S, both men taking it so for granted they hardly notice. Then HELEN comes groping with soiled hands past her own plate to ANNIE'S. Her hand goes to it, and ANNIE, who has been waiting, deliberately lifts and removes her hand.)

(HELEN gropes again, ANNIE firmly pins her by the wrist and removes her hand from the table. HELEN thrusts her hands again, ANNIE catches them, and HELEN begins to flail and make noises; the interruption brings KELLER'S gaze upon them.)

KELLER: What's the matter there?

KATE: Miss Annie. You see, she's accustomed to helping herself from our plates to anything she—

ANNIE (evenly): Yes, but I'm not accustomed to it.

KELLER: No, of course not. Viney!

KATE: Give her something, Jimmie, to quiet her.

JAMES (blandly): But her table manners are the best she has. Well.

(He pokes across with a chunk of bacon at HELEN'S hand, which ANNIE releases; but HELEN knocks the bacon away and stubbornly thrusts at ANNIE'S plate. ANNIE grips her wrists again, the struggle mounts.)

KELLER: Let her this time, Miss Sullivan. It's the only way we get any adult conversation. If my son's half merits that description.

(He rises.)

I'll get you another plate.

ANNIE (gripping HELEN): I have a plate, thank you.

KATE (calling): Viney! I'm afraid what Captain Keller says is only too true. She'll persist in this until she gets her own way.

KELLER (at the door): Viney, bring Miss Sullivan another plate—

ANNIE (stonily): I have a plate. Nothing's wrong with the plate. I intend to keep it.

(Silence for a moment, except for HELEN'S noises as she struggles to get loose. The KELLERS are a bit nonplussed, and ANNIE is too darkly intent on HELEN'S manners to have any thoughts now of her own.)

JAMES: Ha. You see why they took Vicksburg?

KELLER (uncertainly): Miss Sullivan, one plate or another is hardly a matter to struggle with a deprived child about.

ANNIE: Oh, I'd sooner have a more—

(HELEN begins to kick. ANNIE moves her ankles to the opposite side of the chair.)

—heroic issue myself, I—

KELLER: No, I really must insist you—

(HELEN bangs her toe on the chair and sinks to the floor, crying with rage and feigned injury. ANNIE keeps hold of her wrists, gazing down, while KATE rises.)

KELLER: Now she's hurt herself.

ANNIE (grimly): No, she hasn't.

Chunk 3

KELLER: Will you please let her hands go?

KATE: Miss Annie, you don't know the child well enough yet. She'll keep—

ANNIE: I know an ordinary tantrum well enough when I see one, and a badly spoiled child—

JAMES: Hear, hear.

KELLER (very annoyed): Miss Sullivan! You would have more understanding of your pupil if you had some pity in you. Now kindly do as I—

ANNIE: Pity?

(She releases HELEN to turn equally annoyed on KELLER across the table. Instantly, HELEN scrambles up and dives at ANNIE'S plate. This time, ANNIE intercepts her by pouncing on her wrists like a hawk, and her temper boils.)

For this tyrant? The whole house turns on her whims. Is there anything she wants she doesn't get? I'll tell you what I pity—that the sun won't rise and set for her all her life, and every day you're telling her it will. What good will your pity do her when you're under the strawberries, Captain Keller?

KELLER (outraged): Kate, for the love of heaven, will you—

KATE: Miss Annie, please, I don't think it serves to lose our—

ANNIE: It does you good, that's all. It's less trouble to feel sorry for her than to teach her anything better, isn't it?

KELLER: I fail to see where you have taught her anything yet, Miss Sullivan!

ANNIE: I'll begin this minute, if you'll leave the room, Captain Keller!

(Silence. Then, KELLER marches out, followed by KATE and JAMES. ANNIE locks the doors behind them, turning to face HELEN, who still kicks and cries on the floor.)

Chunk 4

(ANNIE stands over HELEN, who continues to kick and struggle on the floor. ANNIE is determined, her grip firm but not cruel. The sounds of the family talking outside the door fade as she focuses entirely on HELEN. The struggle continues, but ANNIE does not relent.)

(HELEN, realizing her usual tactics are failing, pauses, breathing heavily. ANNIE takes this moment to kneel beside her, gently but firmly taking her hands. HELEN tries to pull away, but ANNIE holds on.)

ANNIE (softly but firmly): No. We’re going to start understanding each other. Right now.

(HELEN, frustrated, tries once more to pull free, but ANNIE maintains her grip. Slowly, methodically, ANNIE places one of HELEN’S hands on her own plate, then spells out the word "plate" into HELEN'S palm. HELEN jerks her hand back, confused, but ANNIE does not give up. She takes HELEN’S hand again and repeats the motion, spelling "plate" again and again.)

(HELEN stops struggling. Her brow furrows as she tries to make sense of what is happening. ANNIE, sensing the shift, spells "plate" one more time, then releases HELEN'S hand and lets her process it. HELEN touches the plate tentatively, then frowns and turns away. The moment is small, but significant.)

(ANNIE sighs, exhausted but determined. She knows this is just the beginning.)

(The scene fades to black as the sound of the family murmuring outside the door continues, unaware of the breakthrough happening inside.)

(He marches to the front door. Kate and JAMES follow him. Simultaneously ANNIE releases HELEN'S wrists, and the child again sinks to the floor, kicking and crying her weird noises. ANNIE steps over her to meet VINEY coming in the rear doorway with biscuits and a clean plate, surprised at the general commotion.)

VINEY: Heaven sakes—

ANNIE: Out, please.

(She backs VINEY out with one hand, closes the door on her astonished mouth, locks it, and removes the key. KELLER meanwhile snatches his hat from a rack, and Kate follows him down the porch steps. JAMES lingers in the doorway to address ANNIE across the room with a bow.)

JAMES: If it takes all summer, general.

(ANNIE comes over to his door in turn, removing her glasses grimly; as KELLER outside begins speaking, ANNIE closes the door on JAMES, locks it, removes the key, and turns with her back against the door to stare ominously at HELEN, kicking on the floor. JAMES takes his hat from the rack and, going down the porch steps, joins Kate and KELLER talking in the yard, KELLER in a sputter of ire.)

KELLER: This girl, this—cub of a girl—presumes! I tell you, I'm of half a mind to ship her back to Boston before the week is out. You can inform her so from me!

KATE (eyebrows up): I, Captain?

KELLER: She's a hireling. Now I want it clear, unless there's an apology and complete change of manner, she goes back on the next train! Will you make that quite clear?

KATE: Where will you be, Captain, while I am making it quite—

KELLER: At the office!

(He begins off left, finds his napkin still in his irate hand, is uncertain with it, dabs his lips with dignity, gets rid of it in a toss to JAMES, and marches off. JAMES turns to eye KATE.)

JAMES: Will you?

(KATE'S mouth is set, and JAMES studies it lightly.)

JAMES: I thought what she said was exceptionally intelligent. I've been saying it for years.

KATE (not without scorn): To his face?

(She comes to relieve him of the white napkin, but reverts again with it.)

KATE: Or will you take it, Jimmie? As a flag?

Chunk 1

VINEY: Breakfast ready!

(VINEY comes down into the sunlight beam and pumps a pitcherful of water. While the pitcher is brimming, we hear conversation from the dark; the light grows to the family room of the house where all are either entering or already seated at breakfast, with KELLER and JAMES arguing the war. HELEN is wandering around the table to explore the contents of the other plates. When ANNIE is in her chair, she watches HELEN. VINEY reenters, sets the pitcher on the table; KATE lifts the almost empty biscuit plate with an inquiring look. VINEY nods and bears it off back, neither of them interrupting the men. ANNIE, meanwhile, sits with fork quiet, watching HELEN, who, at her mother's plate, pokes her hand among some scrambled eggs. KATE catches ANNIE'S eyes on her, smiling with a wry gesture. HELEN moves on to JAMES'S plate, the male talk continuing, JAMES deferential and KELLER overriding.)

JAMES: —No, but shouldn't we give the devil his due, Father? The fact is we lost the South two years earlier when he outthought us behind Vicksburg.

KELLER: Outthought is a peculiar word for a butcher.

JAMES: Harness maker, wasn't he?

KELLER: I said butcher. His only virtue as a soldier was numbers, and he led them to slaughter with no more regard than for so many sheep.

JAMES: But even if in that sense he was a butcher, the fact is he—

KELLER: And a drunken one, half the war.

JAMES: Agreed, Father. If his own people said he was, I can't argue he—

KELLER: Well, what is it you find to admire in such a man, Jimmie, the butchery or the drunkenness?

JAMES: Neither, Father, only the fact that he beat us.

KELLER: He didn't.

JAMES: Is it your contention we won the war, sir?

KELLER: He didn't beat us at Vicksburg. We lost Vicksburg because Pemberton gave Bragg five thousand of his cavalry, and Loring, whom I knew personally for a nincompoop before you were born, marched away from Champion's Hill with enough men to have held them. We lost Vicksburg by stupidity verging on treason.

JAMES: I would have said we lost Vicksburg because Grant was one thing no Yankee general was before him—

KELLER: Drunk? I doubt it.

JAMES: Obstinate.

KELLER: Obstinate? Could any of them compare even in that with old Stonewall? If he'd been there, we would still have Vicksburg.

JAMES: Well, the butcher simply wouldn't give up. He tried four ways of getting around Vicksburg, and on the fifth try, he got around. Anyone else would have pulled north and—

KELLER: He wouldn't have got around if we'd had a Southerner in command instead of a half-breed Yankee traitor like Pemberton—

Chunk 2

(While this background talk is in progress, HELEN is working around the table, ultimately toward ANNIE'S plate. She messes with her hands in JAMES'S plate, then in KELLER'S, both men taking it so for granted they hardly notice. Then HELEN comes groping with soiled hands past her own plate to ANNIE'S. Her hand goes to it, and ANNIE, who has been waiting, deliberately lifts and removes her hand.)

(HELEN gropes again, ANNIE firmly pins her by the wrist and removes her hand from the table. HELEN thrusts her hands again, ANNIE catches them, and HELEN begins to flail and make noises; the interruption brings KELLER'S gaze upon them.)

KELLER: What's the matter there?

KATE: Miss Annie. You see, she's accustomed to helping herself from our plates to anything she—

ANNIE (evenly): Yes, but I'm not accustomed to it.

KELLER: No, of course not. Viney!

KATE: Give her something, Jimmie, to quiet her.

JAMES (blandly): But her table manners are the best she has. Well.

(He pokes across with a chunk of bacon at HELEN'S hand, which ANNIE releases; but HELEN knocks the bacon away and stubbornly thrusts at ANNIE'S plate. ANNIE grips her wrists again, the struggle mounts.)

KELLER: Let her this time, Miss Sullivan. It's the only way we get any adult conversation. If my son's half merits that description.

(He rises.)

I'll get you another plate.

ANNIE (gripping HELEN): I have a plate, thank you.

KATE (calling): Viney! I'm afraid what Captain Keller says is only too true. She'll persist in this until she gets her own way.

KELLER (at the door): Viney, bring Miss Sullivan another plate—

ANNIE (stonily): I have a plate. Nothing's wrong with the plate. I intend to keep it.

(Silence for a moment, except for HELEN'S noises as she struggles to get loose. The KELLERS are a bit nonplussed, and ANNIE is too darkly intent on HELEN'S manners to have any thoughts now of her own.)

JAMES: Ha. You see why they took Vicksburg?

KELLER (uncertainly): Miss Sullivan, one plate or another is hardly a matter to struggle with a deprived child about.

ANNIE: Oh, I'd sooner have a more—

(HELEN begins to kick. ANNIE moves her ankles to the opposite side of the chair.)

—heroic issue myself, I—

KELLER: No, I really must insist you—

(HELEN bangs her toe on the chair and sinks to the floor, crying with rage and feigned injury. ANNIE keeps hold of her wrists, gazing down, while KATE rises.)

KELLER: Now she's hurt herself.

ANNIE (grimly): No, she hasn't.

Chunk 3

KELLER: Will you please let her hands go?

KATE: Miss Annie, you don't know the child well enough yet. She'll keep—

ANNIE: I know an ordinary tantrum well enough when I see one, and a badly spoiled child—

JAMES: Hear, hear.

KELLER (very annoyed): Miss Sullivan! You would have more understanding of your pupil if you had some pity in you. Now kindly do as I—

ANNIE: Pity?

(She releases HELEN to turn equally annoyed on KELLER across the table. Instantly, HELEN scrambles up and dives at ANNIE'S plate. This time, ANNIE intercepts her by pouncing on her wrists like a hawk, and her temper boils.)

For this tyrant? The whole house turns on her whims. Is there anything she wants she doesn't get? I'll tell you what I pity—that the sun won't rise and set for her all her life, and every day you're telling her it will. What good will your pity do her when you're under the strawberries, Captain Keller?

KELLER (outraged): Kate, for the love of heaven, will you—

KATE: Miss Annie, please, I don't think it serves to lose our—

ANNIE: It does you good, that's all. It's less trouble to feel sorry for her than to teach her anything better, isn't it?

KELLER: I fail to see where you have taught her anything yet, Miss Sullivan!

ANNIE: I'll begin this minute, if you'll leave the room, Captain Keller!

(Silence. Then, KELLER marches out, followed by KATE and JAMES. ANNIE locks the doors behind them, turning to face HELEN, who still kicks and cries on the floor.)

Chunk 4

(ANNIE stands over HELEN, who continues to kick and struggle on the floor. ANNIE is determined, her grip firm but not cruel. The sounds of the family talking outside the door fade as she focuses entirely on HELEN. The struggle continues, but ANNIE does not relent.)

(HELEN, realizing her usual tactics are failing, pauses, breathing heavily. ANNIE takes this moment to kneel beside her, gently but firmly taking her hands. HELEN tries to pull away, but ANNIE holds on.)

ANNIE (softly but firmly): No. We’re going to start understanding each other. Right now.

(HELEN, frustrated, tries once more to pull free, but ANNIE maintains her grip. Slowly, methodically, ANNIE places one of HELEN’S hands on her own plate, then spells out the word "plate" into HELEN'S palm. HELEN jerks her hand back, confused, but ANNIE does not give up. She takes HELEN’S hand again and repeats the motion, spelling "plate" again and again.)

(HELEN stops struggling. Her brow furrows as she tries to make sense of what is happening. ANNIE, sensing the shift, spells "plate" one more time, then releases HELEN'S hand and lets her process it. HELEN touches the plate tentatively, then frowns and turns away. The moment is small, but significant.)

(ANNIE sighs, exhausted but determined. She knows this is just the beginning.)

(The scene fades to black as the sound of the family murmuring outside the door continues, unaware of the breakthrough happening inside.)

(He marches to the front door. Kate and JAMES follow him. Simultaneously ANNIE releases HELEN'S wrists, and the child again sinks to the floor, kicking and crying her weird noises. ANNIE steps over her to meet VINEY coming in the rear doorway with biscuits and a clean plate, surprised at the general commotion.)

VINEY: Heaven sakes—

ANNIE: Out, please.

(She backs VINEY out with one hand, closes the door on her astonished mouth, locks it, and removes the key. KELLER meanwhile snatches his hat from a rack, and Kate follows him down the porch steps. JAMES lingers in the doorway to address ANNIE across the room with a bow.)

JAMES: If it takes all summer, general.

(ANNIE comes over to his door in turn, removing her glasses grimly; as KELLER outside begins speaking, ANNIE closes the door on JAMES, locks it, removes the key, and turns with her back against the door to stare ominously at HELEN, kicking on the floor. JAMES takes his hat from the rack and, going down the porch steps, joins Kate and KELLER talking in the yard, KELLER in a sputter of ire.)

KELLER: This girl, this—cub of a girl—presumes! I tell you, I'm of half a mind to ship her back to Boston before the week is out. You can inform her so from me!

KATE (eyebrows up): I, Captain?

KELLER: She's a hireling. Now I want it clear, unless there's an apology and complete change of manner, she goes back on the next train! Will you make that quite clear?

KATE: Where will you be, Captain, while I am making it quite—

KELLER: At the office!

(He begins off left, finds his napkin still in his irate hand, is uncertain with it, dabs his lips with dignity, gets rid of it in a toss to JAMES, and marches off. JAMES turns to eye KATE.)

JAMES: Will you?

(KATE'S mouth is set, and JAMES studies it lightly.)

JAMES: I thought what she said was exceptionally intelligent. I've been saying it for years.

KATE (not without scorn): To his face?

(She comes to relieve him of the white napkin, but reverts again with it.)

KATE: Or will you take it, Jimmie? As a flag?