Most scenes together: Jeremiah Johnson & Del Gue (12), Jeremiah Johnson & Bear Claw Chris Lapp (6)
Can you skin Griz, pilgrim?
I can skin most anything.
You sure are cocky for a starvin' pilgrim.
Well there she be. Go inside get yourself warm, get yourself something to eat. I've got a chore to finish. Now boy, are you sure that you can skin Griz?
I can skin'em as fast as you can catch'em.
Skin that pilgrim, and I'll get you another!
You've come far pilgrim.
Feels like far.
Were it worth the trouble?
What trouble?
Ain't that Hatchet Jack's rifle?
Yep.
How did you get it?
Found him froze to a tree.
Damn! Hatchet Jack was a wild one. He was livin' two years up in in a cave on the Musselshell with a female panther. She never did get used to him.
I ain't never seen 'em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb! Keep good care of your hair! These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here! And there ain't no priests excepting the birds. By God, I are a mountain man, and I'll live 'til an arrow or a bullet finds me. And then I'll leave my bones on this great map of the magnificent . . .
Jeremiah, maybe you best go down to a town, get outta these mountains.
I've been to a town Del.
Which way you headed, Jeremiah?
Canada, maybe. I hear there is land there a man has never seen.
Well, keep your nose in the wind, and your eyes along the skyline.
I will do that, Del Gue.
Ain't that hair I see on your head, Del?
I figured that when I depart this life I'd like to leave something behind even if just to be remembered on some man's lodge pole.
Sound wisdom.
Just where is it I could find bear, beaver, and other critters worth cash money when skinned?
Robidoux Ride due west till the sun sets. Turn left at the Rocky Mountains.
Where you headed?
Same place you are, Jeremiah: hell, in the end.
Who are they?
Probably Crow. If'n they catch us, they'll steal our horses.
Why?
It's their territory, they figure we're tresspassin'.
Yep, Crow. A fella by the name of Paints-His-Shirt-Red. That's his sign. Just stand still.
[Paints His Shirt Red approaches. Bear Claw pulls arrow from tree and hands it back]
Y'ever get lonesome?
Fer what?
Woman?
Full time night woman? I never could find no tracks on a woman's heart. I packed me a squaw for ten year, Pilgrim. Cheyenne, she were, and the meanest bitch that ever balled for beads. I lodge-poled her at Deadwood Creek, and traded her for a Hawken gun. But don't get me wrong; I loves the womens, I surely do. But I swear, a woman's breast is the hardest rock that the Almighty ever made on this earth, and I can find no sign on it. Now these coals will simmer till sunrise. You best go do likewise.
Didn't put enough dirt down. Saw it right off.
You will do well, Del. You will do well, if you don't get in too much trouble with all that hair.
Ain't this somethin'? I told my pap and mam I was coming to the mountains to trap and be a mountain man. Acted like they was gut-shot. Says, "son, make your life go here. Here's where the peoples is. Them mountains is for animals and savages." I said, "Mother Gue, the Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world." And by God I was right.
What's on the spit?
Grown particular?
Not about feedin' just the company I keep. [Jeremiah tosses him a rabbits leg] Thank you, kindly.
You've come far, pilgrim.
Feels like far.
Were it worth the trouble?
You cook good rabbit pilgrim. Cold up here.
What brings you up so high?
Grizz!
Uh, Grizz.
Avalanche took the cabin, lost my mule. We swum out of it. No matter, there weren't no Grizz left anyway.
You wouldn't happen to know what month of the year it is?
Why no, I truly wouldn't. I'm sorry, pilgrim. Winter's a long time going?
Stays long this high.
March. Maybe, April.
March maybe. I don't believe April. [rising to depart] March is a green muddy month down below, some folks like it, FARMERS mostly. You've done well to keep so much hair when so many's after it. I hope that you fare well.
You understand what he's sayin'?
Paints-His-Shirt speaks English, he just does this to aggravate me.
He wants to know if you are the great warrior who avenges the crazy women that lives in the Wolf Tail Valley. She's big medicine. You are too, if you be that man.
Scared of ya.
