- Margaret Carey: It's Julia. She's coming to live with us.
- Gilly Carey: Oh, no!
- Nancy Carey: Oh, please! Not Julia!
- Margaret Carey: I want you two out of those dying gladiator attitudes! Julia is your cousin and a Carey and I don't want you to forget that, ever. Try to remember that Julia's story is rather a sad one. She never even knew her mother! And after her dear father died, the Fergusons very kindly took her in and raised her.
- Nancy Carey: Kindly took her in? George Ferguson had a guilty conscience. He knew those stocks he sold Julia's father were as worthless as ours.
- Osh Popham: [Picks up a caterpillar] That's a mighty handsome critter.
- Peter Carey: He has a very ugly face.
- Osh Popham: Maybe he's thinking the same thing about you.
- Digby Popham: I remember the night before I left Beulah, I was talking to Pa about seein' the city and the gals and all, and he said: "Amid pleasures and palaces, wherever you may roam, be it ever so humble there's no place like home."
- Gilly Carey: He sang it?
- Digby Popham: No, he said it. He made it right up! You know, if he ever wanted to I think Pa could've made a great poet.
- Nancy Carey: Oh, Gilly, you can't take everything. There's just not gonna be room in our horrid new house, and we can't afford to pay storage on junk.
- Gilly Carey: Why is my stuff always junk and your stuff always priceless? Here, you can have it, Peter.
- Peter Carey: Thanks! I'll put it with my junk.
- Nancy Carey: A lot of good that did.
- Digby Popham: Pa, do you realize the furthest I've ever been from Beulah is Four Corners and I was too young to even remember?
- Osh Popham: Whatcha gettin' at, son?
- Digby Popham: Pa, you realize I ain't never seen nothin' or done nothin'? You yourself said a fella never gets anywhere just standin' in one place.
- Osh Popham: How much am I payin' you, Digby?
- Digby Popham: Three dollars a week. But a fella can make that much in one day in the city! Ain'tcha gonna stop me, Pa?
- Osh Popham: Might as well get it out of your system. It seems to be comin' 'bout the right time, too. That boy Gilly seems like he oughta be able to handle your job.
- Lallie Joy Popham: That Gilly boy, he's awful nice, Pa.
- Osh Popham: He's all right, Lallie Joy. I have a feeling the money might come in handy for the Careys, too. Wonderful folks, even if they ain't got the rickets.
- Osh Popham: Mariah, why don't you get back to them strawberry preserves?
- Mariah Popham: Mr. Popham, just answer yes or no, have you written Mr. Hamilton advisin' him that you took it upon yourself to rent his yellow house?
- Osh Popham: I told you, I have written him.
- Mariah Popham: Has he written you?
- Osh Popham: No, but he's a busy man. No news is good news. Besides, he's off in them foreign parts. Heathens mighta had him.
- Mariah Popham: And you're lettin' them Careys tear his house apart! Redoin', plantin', young'uns runnin' all over the place! Sellin' 'em wallpaper for less than it costs you!
- Osh Popham: That lot never did move.
- Mariah Popham: That family's bewitched you, and I know why. You wore out the people in this town with your stories, and now you got new ears to listen to you! But you'll be bewitchin' when Mr. Hamilton lands in Beulah and wants his house back. I'm warnin' you, Mr. Popham, if you don't get a letter from Mr. Hamilton soon, I'm takin' matters into my own hands!
- Osh Popham: Mariah, your pot's boilin' over.
- Julia Carey: Oh, Nancy, it's all been my fault. I'll do my share of the chores from now on, and I'll never mention the Fergusons again. Oh, and my dresses weren't even imported, I made them myself!
- Nancy Carey: You did? Oh, Julia, if I do all the dishes, will you help me with my dress for the housewarming? When it comes to sewing, I'm all thumbs!
- Nancy Carey: [singing] Be radiant
- Julia Carey: But delicate.
- Nancy Carey: Memorize the rules of etiquette.
- Nancy Carey, Julia Carey: Be demure/Sweet and pure/HIDE the real you!
- Gilly Carey: [Gilly startles Lallie Joy, making her drop the bags she was carrying] Gee, I'm sorry!
- [Picks up the bags for her]
- Gilly Carey: They're too heavy for a girl. Allow me.
- [Gilly holds open the door and smiles at her]
- Digby Popham: [Irritated] You don't have to be *nice* or nothin', she's my *sister*.
- [Rolls his eyes at Gilly and goes into the house]
- Ellen: And their poor mother. One minute a happy wife, and then the fates strike a cruel blow, and she's changed into a poor widowed woman.
- Peter Carey: Let me tell her, let me tell her!
- Margaret Carey: Tell me.
- Peter Carey: Well, with this piano, you don't need any hands! You use your feet to make the keys go up and down. And guess what! I played! I played with this leg, and nobody showed me how.
- Margaret Carey: That's your smartest leg.
- Margaret Carey: The real blow was those mining stocks we'd counted on. The ones George Ferguson got your father to invest in are completely worthless. Not worth the paper they're written on.
- Peter Carey: I'll be very happy to beg. I saw a beggar once with a tin cup full of money.
- Nancy Carey: We can't afford that horrible little house? Oh, Mother, that's wonderful! Mother, do you remember after Father - well, you remember how we all made ourselves feel better by talking about the things that had been fun with him? And the best thing we thought of was that time we were all in Maine.
- Margaret Carey: And we saw the yellow house in Beulah.
- Nancy Carey: And we peered into the windows, and wasn't it wonderful? And nobody lived there!
- Gilly Carey: Hey, that was years ago. You're wild.
- Peter Carey: I remember it.
- Gilly Carey: You weren't even born!
- Nancy Carey: Well, Mother, a few weeks ago, I decided to try and find out about that yellow house. So I wrote to the postmaster in Beulah, and he answered! His name is Ossium Popham - isn't it a beautiful name?
- Margaret Carey: Your father loved you and wanted the best for you. It was his dream to live in the country someday. So maybe, maybe he'd be happy to know that we were all together in the yellow house in Beulah.
- Gilly Carey: We're out in the sticks, all right.
- Nancy Carey: The sticks? It's lovely! Land of promise, land of opportunity!
- Gilly Carey: Opportunity for what?
- Digby Popham: Well, you got something there. You're the first folks to move into Beulah in more than five years. Most people move away to the city. That's where I'm gonna get as soon as I can.
- Osh Popham: That's my daughter, Lallie Joy. She'd be more like me, only her ma won't let her.
- Peter Carey: [climbing a tree] Look at me, Mother, look at me! Whee!
- Osh Popham: That must be the rickety baby.
- Nancy Carey: Oh, Mr. Popham, about that letter. I wrote it, and - oh, I don't know how to begin.
- Osh Popham: Well, Nancy, the way I figure it is this world's the only one we got till we move on to the next one, and there ain't nothin' wrong with tellin' somethin' that's a might off from the truth to make it more interestin'.
- Margaret Carey: Julia, dear!
- Julia Carey: Aunt Margaret!
- Margaret Carey: Welcome to the yellow house! How was your trip?
- Julia Carey: How, it was dreadful! No parlor car on the train, and this wilderness! When I think of last summer, of the glorious times Gladys Ferguson and I had! But I must remember the last thing dear Mrs. Ferguson said to me, "Don't let poverty drag you down, Julia. Keep high thoughts and try not to let them get soiled by the grime of daily living."
- Nancy Carey: Oh, lovely! Especially the part about the grime of daily living.
- Osh Popham: Mr. Hamilton wants a favor in return.
- Margaret Carey: A favor? From us?
- Osh Popham: Yes, he wants you to find a suitable place for his dear mother's picture.
- Nancy Carey: Of course! Portrait of a lady! Where is it, Osh?
- Osh Popham: Well, he hid it. He hid it away someplace safe. He wrote it down real clear, but it's just gone right out of my head.
- Nancy Carey: Well, if you'll bring the letter, we'll follow the instructions to the last detail. She'll have a place of honor!
- Osh Popham: Well, that's the idea. He wrote something about a simple little vase with flowers on her birthday.
- Nancy Carey: When is it?
- Osh Popham: Well, it seemed to me it was around the fall of the year. On Halloween.
- Margaret Carey: Halloween!
- Osh Popham: People are born on Halloween.
- Mariah Popham: You never can look on the dark side, livin' with Mr. Popham.
- Margaret Carey: Well, he certainly keeps our spirits up.
- Mariah Popham: That's because you don't get him steady. Hopefulness meals, hopefulness days, hopefulness nights, nothin' but one everlastin' stream of hopefulness! Even when he was a boy, Mr. Popham always looked on the bright side whether there was any or not. Oh, his ma and pa got terrible sick of it!
- Margaret Carey: It's mighty wonderful, seeing the bright side of everything.
- Mariah Popham: Mighty tiring! Now I believe in a cloud that's a first-class cloud, clean and black all the way through. I get mighty tired of Mr. Popham and his silver linings!
- Nancy Carey: Well, we all believe in silver linings and rainbows--
- Mariah Popham: Well, I don't! I expect the worst and I ain't never been disappointed!
- Mariah Popham: Mr. Popham! What are you doin' with them women? It's the Sabbath!
- Osh Popham: [looking at pictures of scantily-clad women] I'm looking for a work of art to take over to the Careys. Lotta wall space there. Hand me that apron.
- Mariah Popham: You can't take any of that junk!
- Osh Popham: [dusting off one picture] She had a kind face. Pity she kept liquor on her.
- Mariah Popham: [dusting off another picture] There's only one that's fit to hang. She wasn't much to look at, but she was a good woman. Spent her life on the opposin' side. If she hadn't went down with the wreck off Nantucket Light, the demon rum would've been chased off the New England coast. A real martyr. Insisted on goin' down the ship. Everyone else was saved, crew and captain.
- Osh Popham: That's a mighty inspirin' story. Mariah, relax and enjoy yourself at the Careys today. This is not time the time to be upsettin' 'em with cold hard facts.
- Mariah Popham: I'm warnin' you, Mr. Popham, one day the town constable will come in here and catch you at your sins, and you'll spend the rest of your life in the state prison!
- Osh Popham: Mariah, aren't you forgettin' the town constable happens to be named Ossium Popham?
- Gilly Carey: Gee, Dig, you liked the city, didn't you?
- Digby Popham: It's like Pa always said. Cities are for city folk. The minute I got there, I got to wishin' I was back in Beulah.
- Gilly Carey: Why?
- Digby Popham: Well, I was just standin' on the street, lookin' at all the people rushin' by me. They looked like ants, and I could no more talk to them than I could talk to an ant.
- Osh Popham: Tom Hamilton! Why I didn't know you for a minute! I didn't expect you'd be comin' back. Give me quite a shock.
- Tom Hamilton: I just drove by the yellow house. There are some people out there.
- Osh Popham: Yes, they're lovely folks named the Careys. They've been living there.
- Tom Hamilton: How long they been living there?
- Osh Popham: Oh, uh, not long. Wonderful folks, the Careys. You'll love them. They put in a new chain pump for that old wooden one.
- Tom Hamilton: Who gave them permission to live there?
- Osh Popham: Well, uh, you did.
- Tom Hamilton: I did? Oh no, I never even heard of them! Why didn't you write?
- Osh Popham: Well, I did. I wrote you every week and kept you abreast of everything that was happening.
- Tom Hamilton: Well, I didn't get any letters.
- Osh Popham: Well, you see, I never mailed them. I didn't know how you'd take the situation. You see, here were these folks who needed a house, and they fell plum in love with yours, and I let 'em have it. Wrote you all about it. Put 'em up here, where Mariah wasn't likely to be lookin'. Here are the letters, the ones I wrote and the ones Nancy Carey wrote. Hers are on top. I wrote you because Mariah was a-naggin' me. Nancy Carey wrote hers out of a grateful young heart. I hope you'll read hers before you make up your mind what to do.