Mary: I agree. Your answer was clever. Long enough to reach his torso.
Lincoln: To reach the ground.
Mary: No, you said it the other way.
Lincoln: No. What's funny about that?
Mary: To me it's a lot funnier.
Lincoln: That's funnier?
Mary: Sure.
Lincoln: Mary, you don't know what you're talking about.
Mary: The image of legs rising to a torso…
Lincoln: Forget it! Can we forget it! Where's the bourbon?
Mary: (Withholding the bottle) No, Abe, You won't drink tonight! I won't allow it!
Lincoln: Mary, what's happened to us? We used to have such fun.
Mary: (Tenderly) Come here, Abe. There's a full moon tonight. Like the night we met.
Lincoln: No, Mary. The night we met there was a waning moon.
Mary: Full.
Lincoln: Waning.
Mary: Full.
Lincoln: I'll get the almanac.
Mary: Oh Christ, Abe, forget it!
Lincoln: I'm sorry.
Mary: Is it the question? The legs? Is it still that?
Lincoln: What did he mean?
(The cabin of Will Raines and his wife. Haines enters after a long ride. Alice puts down her quilting basket and runs to him.)
Alice: Well, did you ask him? Will he pardon Andrew?
Will: (Beside himself) Oh, Alice, I did such a stupid thing.
Alice: (Bitterly) What? Don't tell me he won't pardon our son?
Will: Ididn't ask him.
Alice: You what!? You didn't ask him!?
Will: Idon't know what came over me. There he was, the President of the United States, surrounded by important people. His cabinet, his friends. Then someone said, Mr. Lincoln, this man has ridden all day to speak to you. He has a question to ask. All the while I was riding I had gone over the question in my mind. 'Mr. Lincoln, sir, our boy Andrew made a mistake. I realize how serious it is to fall asleep on guard duty, but executing such a young man seems so cruel. Mr. President, sir, couldn't you commute his sentence?'
Alice: That was the correct way to put it.
Will: But for some reason, with all those folks staring at me, when the President said, 'Yes, what is your question?' I said, 'Mr. Lincoln, how long do you think a man's legs should be?'
Alice: What?
Will: That's right. That was my question. Don't ask me why it came out. How long do you think a man's legs should be?
Alice: What kind of question is that?
Will: I'm telling you, I don't know.
Alice: His legs? How long?
Will: Oh, Alice, forgive me.
Alice: How long should a man's legs be? That's the stupidest question I've ever heard.
Will: Iknow, I know. Don't keep reminding me.
