Your Coca-Cola Bottler presents Claudia. Based on the famous play and novels by Rose Franken. Brought to you transcribed Monday through Friday by your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. Relax and while you're listening refresh yourself. Have a Coke. And now, Claudia. It's getting to be a warm day. I'm not climbing this hill too fast for you, am I darling? Oh, I'm doing fine. Oh David, look. What? There's a mist line on the road. Just like smoke. Is there every morning at this hour? Every warm morning. Really? I never noticed. Well, we're not usually up and out at this hour. Quarter after eight. Still very early. Nice to be up early. Yeah. Let's stop and catch our breath. Oh darling, you're so tactful. Catch my breath, you mean. Oh, say how much time have I got to catch it in? When are we supposed to meet Matthew Warren? Oh, in about five minutes. Oh, I don't want to keep him waiting. It'd be terrible to get up this early and still be late. We'll see him coming across the fields. His fields are ready for planting, aren't they? I think some of them are planted already. There is smooth and rich as good brown velvet. Don't frown, David. Ours will look like that some day. Sure they will. Look over in the far pasture. Mr. Warren's cows. How many has he, I wonder? A pretty fair herd for this part of Connecticut. Looks about like, ooh, 18 and 20. All brown and white. Must be jerseys. They're the best for cream. I know. Maybe some of them will wander into our pasture. Be nice to have something grazing in our pasture. Besides crows. Warren's cows won't wander into our pasture after this morning. Oh, what a shame. Why not? Good darling, why do you think we're up so early? I don't know. Why do you think I'm taking a later train to New York? What do you think we're meeting Matthew Warren for at the edge of our property? Don't you remember? I give up. Matthew Warren called you and said, the winter has made the wall break down in many places, and you and he better get together this morning and repair it. David, how long do you think it'll take? What? What are we talking about? The men, the wall, of course. I don't know. Depends on how much damage the winter has done. Half an hour, maybe? Half an hour. At least a few hours. That long? That's not so long. Well, it's hours. Every other morning you can't wait to rush off, catch your train and start being an architect again. This morning, just because you're going to repair a boundary wall, you don't care how late you're going to New York. Well, this is different. How different? If we're friends with Mr. Warren, whether his cows do come through a break in the wall or whether his cows do graze in the lower pasture, what's the difference? I don't think Mr. Warren would like it. Why not? If we don't mind, it's our property. But it's his cows. Mr. Warren has pastures of his own for them. Oh, you're not making any sense. I'm not here. I think you're being very stuffy. Not stuffy, just practical. I say stuffy. And I think stuffiness and walls make life unfriendly and unnebrily. Darling, why do you think the New Englanders, who first settled here, bothered to clean their fields of stone and build walls with them? Well, it's obvious they couldn't farm or plant their land when it was scattered with stones. Why, David, even you know that. Anyway, that was 300 years ago, darling. Oh, but that's not a long time. Long enough for me. Longer than we'll ever... Well, I've caught my breath again. We better start walking. Okay. Now, watch where you're going. It's awfully brambly around here, isn't it? Someday I'd like to get this side of the hill cleared. The beautiful walk to the top. My ankles come home scratched to the bone. You have to keep after her every minute, don't you? After who? Nature. Oh, her. You coming? Yup. Right behind you. Just a little ways and we'll be at the top of the hill. I wish you had stayed home. That sounds as if you were trying to get rid of me. I wonder that my feelings don't get hurt. Well, you shouldn't be climbing around these hills. Who says I'm climbing? Besides, we're there. And we're going to go home by the road. No more of this mountain goat stuff for you. Just because you're not as young as you were, you want your future son's mother to spend the rest of her life in a rocking chair? Mike. Oh, it's a lovely warm breeze up here. Nice to put your face into it. There. There's Matthew Warren coming across the lower pasture. We better start down to him. Now, wait a minute, darling. What, David? See the wall between our two properties? Between the elms? Yes. And it follows all the way out until it meets the road. Yes, I see it. But I still don't see what difference it makes if a few stones have fallen down. But I don't care. It's a lovely day to be out meeting a neighbor. If you want to mend a wall, darling, it's fine by me. You know, I'm starting to think that you don't like the idea of having a wall around our land. Maybe I don't. That's a fine attitude coming from a woman who's always cleaning out her closets. Closets and walls. I don't get the connection. You will. You are fundamentally a very neat person. So come on. We'll meet Warren at the bottom of the hill. Much easier going down, isn't it? Hey, no running. Who's running? Here, give me your hand. Oh, that's a nice invitation. Well, it's a nice hand. Oh, David, I'm glad our land has a hill on it. It makes the place seem so much bigger to have a hill. How do you figure that? You can see so far around, way beyond our land, there's no end to things when you have a hill. There's no end to things anyway, darling. Yes, there is. When you have walls and things end. Oh, so serious on such a nice day. Hello, Mr. Warren. Take your time. The ground is treacherous. He has a nice deep voice. I like his face. It matches his voice. That's good. Very. Your face matches your voice. That's one of the reasons I married you. I'll put that away to understand later. Hope we didn't keep you waiting, Mr. Warren. I just got here myself. I was held up this morning. One of my cows has pneumonia. Cows? Can they have it too? Indeed they can. You must be Mrs. Norton. Hello. Glad to meet you, Mr. Warren. I've been looking forward to it. My new neighbors. And your eyes. You weren't joking? Cows can have pneumonia? Yes, ma'am. Cows can have pneumonia. Cows can have mostly anything people can. I hope she'll be all right. We'll try to pull her through. Going to farm your land, Mr. Norton? I'm looking forward to it, but I'm having quite some trouble getting started. Take your time about it. This land's going to be here a long time. David, Mr. Norton has been so anxious to have a farm. We just can't help being a little impatient. Impatience never hurts. But having no patience is bad. I never thought of it that way. Well, I know you'll be anxious to get back to your barn, Mr. Warren, so... Yes, the vet's coming, so we'd better get on to mending this wall. You've broken up pretty bad from the winter. It was a record snow this year, wasn't it? Yes, nature gave us quite a beating. She likes to show she's got the upper hand every now and then. It's a year-round fight, getting a living off the land. I guess it always will be. But we get along. Now, what say we walk along the wall and patch her up as we go? You pick up your stones and set them back. I'll do the same on my side. Good, good enough. Every year as I do this with Jared Tucker, now with you, I like to think back to the first year it was done. 300 years ago. This land was in my family then, on my mother's side. Putting up these walls meant quite a deal that first year. The land was ready to yield. The fields could be plowed and planted. More than that. My great-great-grandfather had won his first fight. He'd pushed nature back beyond his walls, and he found he could keep her there. Oh, but that was only the beginning. Yes, only the beginning. There it was before him, cleaned and marked off, farmbroken, so to speak. A square of tamed land in a world that didn't take kindly to law and order. And the walls your grandfather built are still these? Yes, with these same stones. That one there you're holding in your hand. He could have held it, and his sons held it, and I have. God willing, maybe my sons and yours will hold it someday. But these walls aren't keeping nature back anymore, Mr. Warren. They're between you and us. Same thing. You've heard good walls make good neighbors, Mrs. Norton. We'd be good neighbors without walls, I think. I think so, too. But a wall will never hurt. Because it's good to know that what's yours is yours, and what's mine is mine. And we'll never step on each other's toes. You think that without a wall we... Oh, yes, I do. But every year something comes. Snows and storms and trees that are spreading their roots. They all come and tear down our walls. Break them up so you and I might get to quarreling about our boundaries, suspicious of each other. Ready for a... greedy for a piece of the other's land, maybe. Keeping good neighbors takes a lot of care, doesn't it, David? Yes. Yes, it does. A lot of sweat, a lot of care. Darling, why don't you stand under the shade of that tree? We'll be here quite a while. Maybe I will. The sun's getting warm. Here, here's my coat, Mrs. Norton. Just throw it down and make yourself comfortable. Thank you. Some of these stones roll clear over here. Got a mind of their own, it'd seem. There's a great American poet who wrote about what Mr. Warren and I are doing today. What did he say, David? It was Robert Frost. And the line that haunts my memory runs, something there is that does not like a wall. I remember it. And that something isn't good, is it? It's disorder, confusion. In men it can be envy, avarice. And sometimes the lack of privilege and the withholding of every man's right to possess something of his own that he can protect and nurture that makes some men not like walls. I'd rather build a wall so I could cross it in friendship than not have a wall and know I needed it. I think we live beside a friend and we'll cross this one often. David, if I sit quietly under this tree while you and Matthew Warren mend the wall, can we walk home up by the hill instead of by the road? Darling, you want to climb to the top of the hill again? Yes. Then the crest will see a straight tall wall joining our land with Mr. Warren. All right, darling. Oh, David, such a beautiful warm day. I love you so much. Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. Dum, dum, da, da, da, da. When you're lunching at a fountain or counter, you enjoy a Coke with your sandwich or salad. Why not make lunchtime, refreshment time at home? All you have to do is to include a bottle of ice-cold Coca-Cola and a mere snack becomes a festive meal. Keep plenty of Coke on ice. Buy it by the carton or the case. Now that there's enough to go around again. Have you known the Norton's Long, Mr. King? Oh, quite a few months now, Mr. Warren. Quite a nice young couple. I welcome them as my neighbors. Mrs. Warren is looking forward to meeting them too. Well, I hope it'll be soon. I'll tell Mrs. Warren to get one of our chickens ready and bring up some of our best preserves. Then we'll have the Norton's cross the fence and come to dinner. Sounds like a mighty fine invitation. But it'll sound even better after tomorrow night. Tomorrow night? Uh, it's going to be a mighty hungry evening for Claudia and David, a beautiful chicken in the oven, and nothing for dinner but beans. How come? That's what we'll find out tomorrow. See you then, Mr. King. Goodbye, Mr. Warren. And as I was about to say, every day Monday through Friday, Claudia comes to you transcribed with the best wishes of your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. So listen again tomorrow at the same time. And now this is Joe King saying au revoir. And remember, whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment, think of Coca-Cola. For Coca-Cola makes any pause the pause that refreshes. And ice-cold Coca-Cola is everywhere. This broadcast of Claudia was supervised and directed by William Brown Maloney. And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola.