Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Sister Rita Story (1959)

Vera Miles: Sister Rita

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sister Rita : WHOA, WHOA.

  Flint McCullough : Hang on, Ma'am.

  Sister Rita : WHOA. I'd let go if I could. WHOA.

  Flint McCullough : You all right, Ma'am?

  Sister Rita : My father warned me never to twist a rope like that.

• Sister Joseph : Mr McCullough, you were like St Michael himself after the dark angels the way up you came riding down from that hill.

  Flint McCullough : [Countless Indian children spill out of a wagon]  Navajo?

  Sister Joseph : Poor little things. They're the only survivors of an entire village.

  Sister Rita : Massacred by another tribe. We found this little lad

  [the only one with a feather in his headband] 

  Sister Rita : in the mountains, half-starved and lost.

  Flint McCullough : You mean you headed into this country knowing there was Indian trouble.

  Sister Rita : Our mission is to help the Indians, Mr McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : They don't seem to know it, Ma'am.

• Sister Rita : Don't look so worried, Mr McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : I'm not so sure you can keep up.

  Sister Rita : Well, you can be very sure I won't be left behind.

• Flint McCullough : You must have quite a way with horses. He's

  [Little Buck] 

  Flint McCullough : usually pretty skittish around strangers.

  Sister Rita : I grew up around skittish horses.

  Flint McCullough : Did you? Ma'am?

  Sister Rita : Why don't you call me 'Sister' as you do the others?

  Flint McCullough : Oh, I don't know. I guess you just seem different than the others.

  Sister Rita : Oh, I hope not.

  Flint McCullough : Well, you don't expect a nun to handle the wagon and drive a team like a man. Or capture the heart of a one-man horse.

  Sister Rita : One isn't born into a convent, Mr McCullough.

• Sister Rita : And I challenged my brother and his friends to a race. And I won. not one of them would dance with me. I had the fastest horse in the state.

  Flint McCullough : You just carry the lightest load. That's plain to see even in that outfit you wear.

• Flint McCullough : You're a woman. Giving up family and friends for a lonely and desolate country that could turn deadly in a minute.

  Sister Rita : A lot of places have been lonely and deadly. People have changed them.

  Flint McCullough : Sometimes the places change the people.

• Flint McCullough : You might think they might understand. Then, all of a sudden, in a minute, they revert to their old ways. You'll be wasting your life out here. You think you can change these people, you're in for a heartache, besides hardship.

  Sister Rita : Mr McCullough, if we can just plant a few seeds of faith in a few souls, hardship is a small price to pay

  Flint McCullough : Yeah, but seeds have to planted in fertile soil.

• Flint McCullough : Don't worry about me Ma'am, I've got strong medicine.

  Sister Rita : Perhaps this will make it even stronger. My brother wore it through the war. He said it brought him safely to his home and sweetheart. May it bring you back to yours.

  Flint McCullough : Well, I don't have a sweetheart to come home to but I'll be glad to wear it.

• Sister Rita : Oh, be careful.

  Flint McCullough : I've got very powerful medicine.

• Sister Rita : Oh, I'm not afraid to die. I wish I had the courage to live.

  Sister Joseph : Oh, don't struggle alone, Little Sister. Pray, pray for strength and enlightenment. God has seen fit to test you.

  Sister Rita : And I've failed him, Sister.

  Sister Joseph : It takes courage to acknowledge doubts, to face and resolve them. And in the end your faith will be even stronger.

• Flint McCullough : One thing you should know. I'm saving three bullets. You and the Sisters won't be taken alive.

  Sister Rita : Poor Mr McCullough.

  Flint McCullough : On a night like this, a man gets to thinking about things he might have done differently. Any regrets, Ma'am?

  Sister Rita : No. And you?

  Flint McCullough : Two. One that I can't get you out of this.

  Sister Rita : And the other?

  Flint McCullough : That we didn't meet a long time ago. Being in the war and riding alone a lot like I do, a man builds a picture of a woman, a kind of an image that he keeps in his heart like a shrine. Some men go their whole lives and never find it. I found it in you. Our few days here have been among the best days of my life. I'm sorry. I just wish things could have been, well, worked out differently. I didn't mean to offend you.

  Sister Rita : Offend me, Mr McCullough? You paid me a very beautiful compliment.

• Sister Rita : Nuns and scouts, Mr McCullough, their work is never done.

  Major Seth Adams : Work? Why, Sister, haven't you heard. That fella's going off on a week's vacation. A whole week. Nothing but pleasure.

• Flint McCullough : I'd like you to keep it, Mr McCullough. So that you know wherever you go, our prayers are with you.

  Flint McCullough : Via con Dios, Sister.

  Sister Rita : Via con Dios, Mr McCullough. Go with God my Friend.

• Sister Rita : [She is tending to knife wounds on Flint's lower arm]  Please don't think that I'm afraid.

  Flint McCullough : After what you did tonight, how could I? You know, the Chinese believe when you save a person's life, you're responsible for it after that. I guess if that's so, we're responsible for each other from here on out.

  Sister Rita : From here on out- How long will that be?