 The Mutual Broadcasting System in cooperation with Family Theater Incorporated presents Violets for Courage starring Jane Wyatt. Robert Ryan is your host. Things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. This is a season for giving thanks. This is a time to count the gifts we have received and humbly to thank the one who gave them. We give thanks to God for our food and our shelter in a world that is hungry and cold. We give thanks that we can live and speak and worship as free men in a world that knows hatred and oppression. Above all are we thankful for our homes and our families and for the spirit of faith that makes them strong. In this Thanksgiving season, we pray to God that these blessed gifts may never be taken from us. Robert Ryan returns for another brief word following this Family Theater presentation starring Jane Wyatt in Violets for Courage. Winter is coming to the little town of Dinsdale. Winter with its gay promise of ice skates and snowmen, Thanksgiving turkeys and fat Santa Clauses, games and dances, and long cozy evenings by the fire. Yes, it looks as if there'd be a jolly time for all, except perhaps the little house at 38 popular street. It's a shabby little house. The paint has long since begun to crack and peel, and one of the yellow shutters hangs loose and bangs every now and then in the wind. Inside, Lucy Curtis seated at the dining table with a pencil and paper, sighs at the familiar sound, and says for the thousandth time. Oh, Bobby, we must get that shutter fixed. Yes, Mother. Now, now where was I? I think it was the electric bell. Oh, yes. That's $3.15, and $3.15 for $32.74 leaves, oh dear, why couldn't that have been a night round number? Well, I never could subtract when I have to borrow. Now let me see, it leaves, um, five for... $29.59. Well, that's right. Bobby, you should get an A in it with particular semester. I will. Miss Payne's already told me. Now, the gas bill. $2.61. Mother, where's my sweater? I wanna... Oh, be quiet, Lynn. The mother's busy. Is it the budget? Yes. Well, it's all done. We'll be breaking even again. Mother, are we really awfully poor? Well, we don't have a lot of money, if that's what you mean. But we've got each other and we're healthy. We've got a house to live in, as long as we can pay the rent. Now, there are lots of men in Asland and not nearly as rich as we are. Well, that's not what I meant exactly. Now, what did you mean, dear? Well, I saw Mrs. Tuttle down at Mr. Fritz's sweet shop. And she was talking to Mary Hardy's mother, and I heard her say she didn't see how that poor Lucy Curtis and those two children would get through the winter. And then... Then what? She said that we really ought to be put in a home. A home? Oh, mother, can they do that to us? Can they take us away and... Well, of course not. Nobody's gonna take you anywhere. I don't pay any attention to Mrs. Tuttle. She's just a lonely old woman who likes to mind other people's business. She's an old busybody. I don't like her. Well, now, Bobby, if it weren't for Mrs. Tuttle bringing me sewing you do, I don't know what we'd do. And that reminds me, she's coming over for a fitting this afternoon. Are we finished with the bells, mother? Yes. There's a quarter left to put in the sugar jar. Oh, and just because it's a nice day, you each get 15 cents allowance instead of a dime. Oh! Gee, thanks, mother. Now I've got a quarter with what I have from last time. I can treat the fellas. You mean you're gonna spend it? Sure. We take turns treating when we get extra money. Last Friday, Tubby Starnes' dad gave him 50 cents. He bought the whole gang ice cream. I think that was very nice of him. I think it's silly. Spend a whole quarter and you don't have a thing to show for. Well, Linda, aren't you forgetting it is more blessed to give than to receive? We get a lot of pleasure from sharing what we have with others. Well, if you've got a lot of money, maybe. But I'm gonna save mine. I'm gonna put it right in my piggy bank. You whiz, Linda. You don't spend any of your allowance anymore. Now, Linda's thrifty and it's a very good habit. She's saving her money for something very special, aren't you, dear? Oh, no. I'm just saving it. Well, aren't you gonna do something with it? I'm gonna get all the money I can and just keep it. And I bet you someday I'll be richer in old Mrs. Tuttle or Mary Hardy or anybody in Dinsdale, I bet you. Linda. I'm gonna have a million dollars. But, honey, you don't understand. It's fine to put money aside for a rainy day. Everybody ought to do that. But just hoarding it, just to have it. Well, that isn't right. I don't care. When I grow up, I'm not ever gonna be poor. Oh, oh, I see. So you better go out and play, both of you. I want a chance to think. Sorry, I'm late, Lucy, but I simply couldn't get here a minute sooner. Well, let me take your coat, Mrs. Tuttle. This is the one I made for you, isn't it? Yes, it is. How do you like it? Well, it's very satisfactory for the homemade coat. Oh. You'll have to be brief with his fitting. I've got to go to Mr. Fritz's shop before he closes. I have the dress basted. You can slip right into it. All right. You look worried today, Lucy. Didn't your check from the government come? Oh, yes, this morning. A hundred and fifteen dollars for you and the children, isn't it? Yes, and fifty of that goes for rent. Oh, it's a shame, that's what it is. When a man gives his life for his country, his widow and orphan should be assured of enough to live on without becoming a community responsibility. I'm sure none of us wants to be a community responsibility. Well, goodness knows we pay enough in taxes to more than take care of you, but I suppose those of us who are able will always take care of the rest. As I used to say to the date, Mr. Tuttle, the poor are always with us. A little tighter in the waist. Yes, Mrs. Tuttle. Just a minute, would you please? There. Now, look in the mirror and see if it's right. Hmm, well, it does look right nice. Of course, you can't tell to the stress. I realize you always take a chance on homemade clothes. If you aren't satisfied, you don't have to pay me, Mrs. Tuttle. Oh, now, my dear, I didn't mean that. Why, I was just telling Mrs. Weatherby this morning, I said that Lucy Curtis, poor thing, does the nicest sewing in Dinsdale, and she's got the good sense to be reasonable in her prices, too. You can take it off now. Speaking of prices, Lucy, you didn't tell me how much you want to make this dress. It'll be $10. $10? Well, you've never charged me more than $7.50. I know, Mrs. Tuttle, but the pattern's awfully complicated, and it's hard to sew on black material. Well, I suppose I can do anything about it since you've gone this far. I don't know what I'm going to tell Mrs. Weatherby. I just about persuaded her to let you do all the sewing for her daughter's baby. All right. $7.50. Well, I'm glad you'll be insensible. It won't do to get a reputation for high prices. Not when you need the work so badly. Oh, dear, look at the time. I have to go buy the bakery. Now, you'll have that by Saturday, won't you, Lucy? Yes, Mrs. Tuttle. I'll have it by Saturday. Good morning, Mrs. Tuttle. Such a lovely day, isn't it? I'm in a hurry, Mr. Fritz, and I haven't time to discuss the weather. I want two of your cinnamon buns with lots of icing. How much are they? $0.05. I hope you don't mind pennies. Well, they spend, don't they? By the way, Mrs. Tuttle, that is a new coat you are wearing, no? Well, yes. Do you like it? Beautiful. Wait, let me get my glasses. Just as I thought. Hand stitching. You do this yourself. Oh, dear me, no. That young widow down the street, Mrs. Curtis, made it for me. I gave her all, Miss Owen. Her husband was killed in the war, you know, and I feel it's my duty to help her out. Such stitches I do not see since the old country. I am a tailor in the old country, you know. No, I didn't. Once I make suit for the archduke, that day I always remember. Mr. Fritz, I'm in a hurry. Oh, dear me, but you know it's my treat. Well, well, what have we here? Hi, Mr. Fritz. Hello. Give us two milkshake candy bars, a package of lifesavers, and some gum drops on me. Well, we take care of you right away. Just a minute, Mr. Fritz. You Bobby Curtis, come here to me. Yes, ma'am. Where might I ask did you get that quarter? My mother gave it to me. Well, I'll bet she didn't give it to you to throw away. But, gee, Mrs. Tully. Oh, the very idea, spending a whole quarter for candy with your mother living on charity. Charity? But that's not true. And the rest of you, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves taking a treat from this poor little boy. What's the matter with you, tubby stance, that you can't buy your own candy? Gee whiz, we didn't know. Did we, fellas? Uh-uh, let's go. But wait a minute, fellas. Listen, Tully. I guess we better go, Bobby. Yeah. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Hey. Is he gone? And good riddance. You take that quarter right back to your mother, young man. Things are too high to go squandering. Good money and foolishness. Uh-uh-uh, Bobby, how about a lollipop on the house? Thanks just the same, Mr. Fritz. I guess I'll just go on home. Oh, for a whole wheat bread. Anything else, Mrs. Curtis? Oh, let's see, Mr. Fritz. Well, I think I'll take a dozen of those little strawberry muffins. Bobby likes them so. Oh, by the way, I don't see Bobby for several days now. Well, he's been keeping to himself lately. Uh, I want to tell you, I am sorry about what happened last week. That Mrs. Tuttle, she should bite her tongue. Oh, I'm sure she meant well, but I can't forgive her for humiliating Bobby. He tries so hard to be one of the gang, and now he thinks they all feel sorry for him. Some people's got to mind other people's business. That money was really his own. Each week I try to give my children a few pennies to do with as they please, even if I have to skimp on something else. Oh, that is a very good thing. Teach them the value of money. Well, with the help of Mrs. Tuttle, Bobby feels sorry for himself, and Linda's become a miser. How do you mean? Well, she thinks that money is the solution to everything in life. Every penny she gets, she pops into her piggy bank, and she's determined to keep it out when she gets a million dollars. It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. Well, you've listened long enough to me. Oh, I want to tell you, I see the coat you make for Mrs. Tuttle. Such needlework, such tailoring. You do a very fine job. Well, thank you. My sewing is the only thing that helps make ends meet at our house, but I really enjoy it. Even if some of my customers are a little hard to please. In all country, I am tailor. Really? Yeah, once I make a suit for them... Is it okay if I put this poster in your window? What kind of a poster, Tubby? A circus poster. It's the giant Comstock and Wagner tent show, and they're coming to town next Saturday. I'm going to get a free ticket if I get all these posters and store windows. Well, in that case, you put two posters in my window. Gee, thanks. All the fellas are going to be to the circus. They're going to have three rings and a death-defying tightrope walker and everything. My, that sounds wonderful. Oh, it's swell, Mrs. Curtis. Tell Bobby we're all going to meet at the circus ground Saturday afternoon. That is... if he's going. Why, of course he's going, Tubby. You save him a place. You bet. Well, thanks, Mr. Fritz. Yeah, goodbye. Small boys in the circus. There's nothing like it. Well, here's your order, Mrs. Curtis. You'd better cancel the strawberry muffins, Mr. Fritz. I think I'll just take the loaf of bread today. Oh, of course, Mrs. Curtis. Bobby, you hardly touched your dinner. I guess I'm just not hungry, Mother. I'm not, either. You know, I'm surprised at both of you. Here, we've sat all the way through dinner and neither one of you has said a word about the circus. Well... Oh, what's an old circus? We couldn't go anyway. I don't know, why not? Well, the tickets cost a dollar and three cents. With tax. Where would we get the money? I bet you got that much in your pocket. I'm not going to spend that, not ever. Well, I think a circus is just what we all need. Linda, hand me the sugar jar from the sideboard. But, Mother, that's just for emergencies. You said so. And since when is a circus not an emergency? All right. Let's see how much there is. 50, 75, 1, 2, 3, 40, 52. Two dollars and 65 cents. Well, I tell you, there's not enough. Well, of course there is. There's enough for two tickets in car fare both ways and a couple of bags of popcorn. That's just two tickets. What about yours? Oh, I don't think I could go anyway, Bobby. Saturday is an awfully busy day. Oh, but it won't be any fun, Mother. Not without you. Oh, yes it will. Bobby will be sitting with his gang and our bet Mrs. Hardy and Mary will be going. They will be glad to have you go with them, Linda. Now, let's clear the table and get the dishes done. Maybe we'll have time for a story before bed. Linda! Linda, I thought you were in bed. May I come in a minute? Oh, well, of course, dear. I just got to talk with you, Mother. I'll sit here on the side of the bed. What's troubling you, dear? I've been thinking about the circus. Now, what about the circus? Oh, it won't be any fun if you don't go, Mother. You've just got to go. Oh, but Linda, I've seen lots of circuses. I figured out a way you can go. I can buy your ticket. You? I've got the money right here. There's a dollar and 73 cents. I counted it. Oh, Linda, not your piggy bank. It's enough, isn't it? Oh, but darling, I can't take your money. You've saved it so long. But I want you to take it. Please, I want it more than anything in the world. More than I want a million dollars, even. Oh, Linda. You will let me buy your ticket, won't you? Or won't you? Yes, dear. Yes. My handkerchief, will you? I seem to have something in my eye. Are we? No, it's just 12.30. We've got lots of time. I have to stop at Mr. Fritz's for a minute. You and Linda wait outside and tell me when you see the bus coming. All right. Oh, Mrs. Curtis, good afternoon. Hello, Mr. Fritz. This is the big day, no? It's the big day, all right. They're so excited. It's like having two wild Indians in tow. Oh, I stopped in to ask you to save me a loaf of butter bread. I'll pick it up on the way home tonight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One loaf of butter bread. You see, as I took an incident, I was just on my way to your house. Hello, Mrs. Tuttle. I wanted you to let the hem out of this skirt. Well, I really don't have time to talk about it now, Mrs. Tuttle. I'm taking the children to the circus. The circus? Well, you see, Curtis, I never heard of such a thing. And why shouldn't I take them? Well, my dear, I should think in your circumstances you'd have better sense and squander your money on such foolishness. If I had my way, they wouldn't be allowed in town. All the other children are going to the circus, Mrs. Tuttle. My children are going too, even if we have to do without something else. Well, I shouldn't be surprised. As I recall, Jim Curtis never had any sense about money either. Jim did a lot of things, you'd call foolish. But somehow, their things we'll never forget. There was an old Persian proverb he used to quote. It went like this. If thou hast but two pennies, spend one on them for bread. But with the other, buy violets for thy soul. A very beautiful thought. I never in all my life heard such utter tommy rot. Oh, I shouldn't have expected you to understand. When you can humiliate a little boy in front of his friends and terrify a little girl by suggesting she be put in a home and make me beg for your piddling little handouts, I know you for what you really are, a smug, self-righteous busybody. How dare you speak to me like that after all I've done for you. Oh, you've done a lot for me, all right. You've made me and my children objects of public pity. And I want to tell you, Mrs. Tuttle, it just isn't worth it. Well, I never. I never. Well, I've just bitten the hand that fed me. And you know something, Mr. Fritz. I feel better than I felt in years. You know what, Mother? What? I'm going to be a lion to him when I grow up. Oh, I'm not. I'd rather wear pink tights with rhinestones and plumes in my hair and ride an elephant. Wouldn't you, Mother? Oh, I didn't hear what you said, Linda. You weren't listening. What are you looking in the want-ads for? A job. A job? Not far. Oh, just something between nine and three to keep me busy while you're in school. But when would you do your sewing? I don't think I'll be doing any more sewing. Why not? Well, I lost my temper with Mrs. Tuttle this afternoon, I'm afraid. Well, I'm glad. I never did like her. Oh, well. Now, who could that be at this time of night? I'll see. It's Mr. Fritz. It's your mother at home, Bobby. Oh, of course. Come in, Mr. Fritz. Oh, thank you. I am walking down this way and I remember something you forget. The butter bread you asked me to save. Oh, oh, thank you for bringing it. I forgot all about it. So much excitement this afternoon, huh? I'm afraid I'll live to regret this afternoon. Things will not be good, huh? Oh, I'll manage somehow. You won't mind if I sit down for a little while? Oh, please do. Oh, take off your coat. Thank you. You know, some things you say this afternoon make me think of when I was young. What's that? Well, the things you want for your children, the silly little things that mean so much. If my own father had believed that I might not have left home at 14 to make my own way. That young? Yeah. This afternoon, I watch you. I watch your children. I start to think, Mrs. Curtis, I come to ask you to help me. I don't understand. Well, in the old country, I am a tailor. Very fine tailor, too. Once I make a suit for the arched Duke, English bullet was with herringbones. I never forget making clothes with me is an art, a creation. But when I come to America, my eyes, they are bad. I open a sweet shop. I can see lollipops, but not hemstitches. It's a good business, your shop. Yeah, but my heart, it is not in it. Cinnamon buns, chocolate sticks, they are food for the stomach, but not for the soul. What you say this afternoon about the soul, it is true. Why did you come to see me, Mr. Fritz? Well, I want you to go into business with me. I want to open a tailor shop. You and me, partners. Oh, Mr. Fritz. I pay for everything. Pay you a salary, a good salary. Plenty money for circuses, what do you say? Why, well, it's like Christmas and the Marines landing all at once. And you accept? Oh, yes, yes, I don't know how to thank you. I should thank you. You make it possible for me to do what I want to do for a long time. When do we start? Come down tomorrow. We talk it over. Oh, I can hardly wait. Oh, one thing more. I almost forget. A little present for you. Oh, Mr. Fritz. Oh, how lovely. Violets. This is Robert Ryan again. You know, I've been thinking about the title of our little play, Violets for Courage. I'd say that's an award many a father and mother should receive. Courage always deserves a prize. Especially the courage that spans a lifetime and bridges the difficulties that come to every family. Courage like that, the courage to build a home and fill it with love and understanding. Well, I know you're sure to find it in people who have faith in God and make daily family prayer of practice in their homes. They're the people too who make every day a Thanksgiving day by saying thank you for the help they have received. They've found out that the family that prays together stays together. Thank you for being with us and God bless you. Our grateful thanks to Jane White and Bob Ryan for their appearance and to Beth Barnes and Mrs. Emmett Barnes for writing tonight's play. Max Ter scored and conducted the music. This production of Family Theatre Incorporated was directed by David Young. The cast and support of Miss Wyatt included Henry Blair, Norma Jean Nielsen, Jack Krushen, Ruth Perret, Gilbert Barnett and Howard Jeffery. Next week our Family Theatre star will be Robert Stack in World with a Fence. Your host will be Frank Leahy, coach of Notre Dame. This series of the Family Theatre broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who felt the need for this kind of program and by the mutual broadcasting system which has responded to this need. Be with us next week at the same time when Robert Stack and Frank Leahy will star on Family Theatre. Tony LaFranco speaking.