- Lincoln Costain: Where are you going, Batten?
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Booton! Aw shucks, what's the use? I can't get the dang thing to work anyhow.
- Lincoln Costain: In my outfit we only quit when it's too dark to work or time to eat. I didn't hear the dinner bell, did you?
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Mr. Bryson tells me it's impossible to load cattle onto boats in these waters.
- Calvin Bryson: It was tried once on the big island. Two ships ran on reefs, and there's no anchorage further out.
- Lincoln Costain: Don't they have docks in Alleah?
- Calvin Bryson: Never needed them."
- Lincoln Costain: Well how do they load then?
- Calvin Bryson: Mostly by long boat. Can you imagine trying to load cattle by long boat?
- Lincoln Costain: Well, there's got to be a way, there always is, it's just a matter of finding it.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Mr. Costain says there ain't never been a horse that ain't been rode and there ain't never been a rider that ain't been throwed.
- Calvin Bryson: Is that what he says? Well, I won't challenge the statement but I will the grammar.
- Lincoln Costain: Grammar never was my strong suit.
- Calvin Bryson: Young man you are sprouting up like a weed.
- Lincoln Costain: At least he's got good rock candy.
- Lincoln Costain: Ten thousand acres, huh? That's a good size pea patch even where I come from.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Where's that?
- Lincoln Costain: Texas. There you can ride a month in any direction and never touch a fence.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: It must be beautiful.
- Lincoln Costain: Oh, it is.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Costain, do you think you could ever like it here?
- Lincoln Costain: Me? No, no. Nah, this fruit bowl ain't for me. Some people might like it just fine, though.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Suppose you're going back to Texas, huh?
- Lincoln Costain: You bet.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Got a wife there?
- Lincoln Costain: Haven't met the woman who could afford me.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Then you never did have one.
- Lincoln Costain: Nope. Had the small pox once though. Amounts to about the same thing.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Yeah, guess you never wanted to settle down with any woman no matter how nice she was, huh.
- Lincoln Costain: You got that right.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: But you can't have kids if you ain't married.
- Lincoln Costain: Yeh, ain't that a mercy?
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: What are you gonna you do when you get old?
- Lincoln Costain: Die, I guess.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: No, I mean before that. Who'll take care of you if you don't have a son?
- Lincoln Costain: I'll say one thing for you - you get a notion, you sure hang on to it, Burton.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Booton.
- Lincoln Costain: Oh yeah.
- Lincoln Costain: What is it boy? What's the matter?
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: It's one of the animals, a big one. He's eatin' up the vegetables again.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Get out of there. Get out of my garden, do you hear me? Get out!
- Lincoln Costain: One of the animals, woe doggey, you didn't tell me you had cattle around here, Button
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Booton. We don't that thing's wild but I sure hope he eats the turnips!
- Lincoln Costain: He may be wild, but he ain't no thing. That's about a thousand pounds of prime bull out there.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: You willful, worthless, misbegotten beast!
- Lincoln Costain: That's a right nice vocabulary Ms. McEvoy but you'll never talk him out of there...
- Lincoln Costain: Where are they?
- Kimo: Boys not tell me, boss. Maybe they go work someplace else, yes?
- Lincoln Costain: Yeah, yeah, maybe it'll snow this afternoon too, but I doubt it.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: You just can't expect to change a whole culture overnight.
- Lincoln Costain: I don't have the least notion of changing it. If you'll just give me my wages, I won't be troubling you any further.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: You know, this is Sunday. They're entitled to some recreation.
- Lincoln Costain: There just ain't any Sundays when it's roundup until the job gets done.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Well, maybe if you met them halfway, they would be able...
- Lincoln Costain: Ma'am there aren't any halfways in the cattle business. It would be easier to make a cherry pie out of barbed wire than to make a cowboy out of the best of the lot of them. They just ain't cut out for workin'.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Booton says they're really trying.
- Lincoln Costain: That's whats frightening. They are.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Well, if they're showing progress...
- Lincoln Costain: They're not showing progress, they're just trying. It ain't the same thing.
- Lincoln Costain: Hey, you know, I think I sold them boys short when I said they couldn't drive a hot nail in a snow bank. I think they could, I really think they could. Henrietta, what are you cryin' about?
- Henrietta MacAvoy: I don't know, I guess I never really believed it would happen.
- Capt. Cary: You made a believer out of me, Costain. Mrs., here's your money. Coin of the realm. I'm offering a mate's pay for anyone who'll nursemaid those cows back to California...
- Lincoln Costain: Well, that's my chance to get back to Texas. I don't know, Captain, that's right temptin' but I don't think I can leave Mrs. McEvoy with them pineapple cowboys. I mean they'd drive her dingy and I'm about the only one around who knows how to handle them.
- Capt. Cary: Well, suit yourself, lad, and I don't blame you but I've got to get them cattle to California. Thank you, both of you.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Good-bye. Then you are going to stay, at least for a while, Linc.
- Lincoln Costain: Well for a while, yeah, for a while, you know,till they get the hang of it then I'm gonna get off this flower pot.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Mamma! Mamma!
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Good heavens, we're right here
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Tarnation Mamma I swam one of those critters out just as smooth as butter. Did you see?
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Of course we did, dear, and nobody could have done it better.
- Lincoln Costain: Aww, well now that's a little thick don't you think? Ain't nobody gonna pin a rose on you just for doing your job. You remember that, Booton.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: Ma, Ma, he called me by my right name! Did you hear him? He said it for the first time!
- Lincoln Costain: Where are we?
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: In Mom's spare bedroom.
- Lincoln Costain: No. Where in the world are we?
- Lincoln Costain: When are you gonna stop calling me Mr. Costain, Ma'am.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: When you stop calling me Ma'am, Mr. Costain.
- Lincoln Costain: [upon winning enough money in a poker game to take a ship off the island] Captain, if you're ever in Fort Worth, you look me up. I'll give you a chance to get even.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: [as Costain is being taken out to the vessel in the middle of the ocean] Costain! I didn't hear the dinner bell ring, did you?
- Lincoln Costain: [to the boatman] Turn around and row for shore.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: I told you they could do it, Costain.
- Lincoln Costain: Well, if they can learn to punch cattle as well as they can learn to sing, they'll be alright.
- Lincoln Costain: [hauling cattle by the horns though the sea to the boat] Not so hearty when you can't get your feet planted are ya, huh?
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Yes, it's true they do like their fun.
- Lincoln Costain: They'd rather giggle than laugh, they'd rather laugh than eat they're like a bunch of kids out there. A school girl would be more sober mam'm.
- Booton 'Little Maca' MacAvoy: How do you feel?
- Lincoln Costain: Well, I've... I've felt worse. I just can't remember when.
- Henrietta MacAvoy: Mr. Costain, they'll never forget you for what you've done. They'll do anything for you now.
- Lincoln Costain: We'll see who forgets who when the going gets rough, Ma'am.
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