Rupert Crosse: Butler

Quotes 

• Butler : Are you all right, Mr. Shepherd?

  Adam Shepherd : Oh fine, thanks. I just thought I'd look around a litlte.

  Butler : If it's stories you're after, you'd better look down at the old cemetery. Every one of those Civil War epitaphs reads like a novel.

  Adam Shepherd : I know, I read them. Tell me - this marker out by the front gate. Why isn't that in the cemetery with the others?

  Butler : I wouldn't know, Mr. Shepherd. Folks livin' around here - families livin' through the war and all - they get fact and legend pretty mixed up.

  Adam Shepherd : I think I'll take another look at that marker. You want to keep me company or are you too busy right now?

  Butler : Well, bein' how I'm with the honored guest, I'm sure they'll excuse me.

• Adam Shepherd : [reading the gravestone]  "A Civil War Dead / His Life in Vain / April 10th, 1865." Anyone around here no anything about him? Who he was?

  Butler : No, except he was a Yankee. Folks around here honor the dead. They take care of this grave like it was one of their own.

  Adam Shepherd : April 10th? That doesn't make sense.

  Butler : What doesn't make sense, Mr. Shepherd?

  Adam Shepherd : That date: April 10th...

  Adam Shepherd : [thinking to himself]  And why here, next to this gate? Wonder what happened on April the 10th, 1865? April 10th, 1865. April the 10th...

• [last lines] 

  Butler : Mr. Shepherd. Mr. Shepherd!

  Adam Shepherd : Yes?

  Butler : What did you mean?

  Adam Shepherd : About what?

  Butler : Well, you said it didn't make sense... that date - April the 10th.

  Adam Shepherd : Oh. Well, the Civil War ended on April the 9th. He was killed the day after it was all over.

  Butler : Nothing makes sense in a war, does it?

  Adam Shepherd : Just that epitaph - "His death in vain."