- [first lines]
- Harry (Son): [running to injured dog] Gracie!
- Ben: One of my bravest. Scars from 14 battles, if a one.
- August King: I see 'em.
- Ben: Father was a huntin' hound. Mother a German dog, Tan.
- August King: Might live, you doctor it.
- Ben: Eh, never get the courage back.
- [reloading his rifle]
- Ben: I know dogs.
- August King: [feeds the dog some bread]
- Ben: He's mangled her innards. Can't digest bread.
- August King: Can chew it any way.
- Boy: Come away, Rebekah. They're gonna have to send him up to the fields.
- Little Girl: Why they have to do that?
- Boy: 'Cause he can't walk anymore.
- Narrator: In the North Carolina mountains, the early settlers traveled the roads taking their stock down to the market, and trekking back up again with supplies, and new stock for the months ahead. Among them was a man named August King. He had been waiting his turn most of his life, never doing anything much different from one day to the next. He was alone on his journey, walking at his own gate, slow and steady, making his fate home.
- Annalees: I ate leaves this mornin'. They went through me like a fire.
- August King: [tosses her some bread, which she gobbles down]
- Annalees: No one ever teach you how to chew?
- August King: No one teach me how to starve.
- [last lines]
- August King: [watching his property burn] I was right well-to-do. All in a day or two, I've lost everything. But I've never been so proud.