- Maggi Favor: Gosh! Aunt Eleanor, we left you a note.
- Eleanor Bradley: They left me a note: Dear Aunt Eleanor, we're running away. Thanks for everything.
- Maggi Favor: Well, you always said we should be polite.
- Eleanor Bradley: So you were politely running away.
- Wishbone: Simmer down. If there's gonna be any kind of fracas, let the Boss decide where he wants it.
- Maggi Favor: Gillian! Look! A buffalo!
- Eleanor Bradley: Maggie, please. Gillian is trying to sleep.
- Gillian Favor: What buffalo?
- Maggi Favor: It's there.
- Gillian Favor: It doesn't look like a buffalo to me.
- Maggi Favor: How would you know?
- Gillian Favor: Is that a buffalo, Aunt Eleanor?
- Eleanor Bradley: I don't see it.
- Maggi Favor: That was a buffalo, Mr Caldwell? That is a buffalo, isn't it, Mr Caldwall?
- Vance Caldwell: No, no. I'm afraid not. There are no buffaloes around here. Oh, that was just an ordinary maverick.
- Gillian Favor: See!
- Maggi Favor: What's a maverick?
- Vance Caldwell: Well, a maverick is a steer with no brand. That means it doesn't belong to anyone so it just drifts for itself.
- Vance Caldwell: I feel I know you quite well. You were an invisible passenger on our trip out here.
- Gil Favor: Huh?
- Vance Caldwell: Your daughters, they couldn't stop talking about you. Now as I understand it, you're not only the best shot, and the best rider, but you're the best trail boss of the biggest herd that's travelled the fartherest.
- Gil Favor: Well, well, they get a little carried away at times.
- Vance Caldwell: They were delightful. I'm sure you're very proud of them.
- Gil Favor: Sure am.
- Vance Caldwell: It's not much like Philadelphia, I'm afraid. Out here we settle our differences quickly and directly.
- Eleanor Bradley: And crudely. Come, girls, we have to look for your father.
- Maggi Favor: There he is!
- [Gil is one of the street brawlers]
- Maggi Favor: DADDY!
- Vance Caldwell: I intend to adopt the children.
- Gil Favor: Adopt? Gillian? Maggi?
- Vance Caldwell: Now is that thought so shocking to you, Mr Favor?
- Gil Favor: Well, they ain't exactly orphans! They do have a father.
- Vance Caldwell: And what kind of father? A stranger they see for a few days once a year. A man who comes into their lives just long enough to disrupt them and vanishes again, leaving them mixed up about their feelings, confused about who they are, where they belong.
- Gil Favor: They know I'm working for them so that we can be together. So it won't be visits just once a year.
- Vance Caldwell: How long has it been that way? Drovers are like sailors, there's always one last voyage. You'll never leave the trail. You wouldn't know how to live any other way.
- Jim Quince: We want to see the boss's kids.
- Wishbone: You can see 'em just as soon as I see you're fit and proper. Now, these are young ladies you're meeting. Now, let me take a look at yer. Can't you even shave?
- Jim Quince: I did shave.
- Wishbone: Looks like you did it with an old axe. Now tuck that shirttail in. Haven't you got a clean pair of pants?
- Joe Scarlet: I just got off night watch.