Fair Land, Fair Land by A. B. Guthrie Jr. Page B

She would be good to eat. He killed her
with one shot from the Kentucky.
    " He went up to her, made his cuts and rolled
out the guts, saving the liver. He was ready for Higgins when Higgins
showed up with a pack horse.
    That night they ate trout and deer liver, and Higgins
said, cleaning up the last of it, "I swear it's better'n fat
pork and mustard greens."
    They scoured the pan, hung the carcass of the deer in
a tree beyond the reach of bears and sat down by the fire.
    Night had come on, clear and cold, and the stars
glittered like mirrors touched by the sun. Coyotes and wolves were
making their usual racket. Over a pipe Higgins said, "Nothin'
like bein' footloose, pointed at nowhere in particular. Dick, was you
always this way?"
    " It's the way I'm aimin' to be, here on out."
    Higgins took a pull on his pipe. It sucked in his
lips where no teeth were. "Footloose and fancy-free, that's the
sayin'. But I swear words is tricky things. What does it mean,
fancy-free? Free of fancy? Free to hitch on to whatever one comes
along? Free to follow what's already set in your mind?"
    " I never gave it much thought." Summers
drank from the jug and passed it. He put a stick on the fire,
thinking Higgins was talking just to be talking, talking because
there was somebody to talk to, talking against the great loneliness
that held and hurt a man.
    " I don't know as it makes any difference,"
Higgins went on, wiping his mouth. "But a body likes to
straighten things out in his mind. You wonder where the truth's at.
Live and learn they say but don't say that all the while you're
learnin' you're forgettin', too, until maybe at the last it"s
just a big forgettin'."
    " Christ sake, swaller some more of that joy
juice."
    The fire glowed red, for now sending out heat enough.
Overhead the cold stars danced as they had danced at Jackson's Hole,
the Popo Agie and Horse Creek. That was a long time ago to a man but
not to the stars. Their calendars were different. One star fell,
making a quick streak in the sky, its seeing time ended.
    " Quit beatin' your brain," Summers said.
"Think on this. We been lucky. Lucky in the weather. Lucky in
not bein' tormented and slowed up by Indians. Another time of year,
and the Flatheads would be comin' or goin' on their hunts on the
plains."
    " It don't make much sense. They got all that
pretty Bitter Root country to bang away in."
    " But no buffalo."
    " I know. You told me."
    " A heap of fightin'. The Blackfeet didn't like
that poachin' in the country they claimed."
    " Still don't, I reckon."
    " No, but smallpox took the starch out of them a
few years back. Maybe half of them went under. I hear tell they're
still mean but their pride's mostly gone."
    Higgins fell silent, maybe still thinking about words
and what they meant and all that. The whiskey wasn't doing what it
should to him.
    Summers sipped at the jug and went on. "I fell
in with a party of Flatheads once, down there on the plains."
    Higgins fed the fire.
    " It was the spring hunt, and they brought with
'em some camas root. Man, what fodder!"
    Higgins stirred himself enough to ask, "A treat,
huh?"
    " It tasted somethin' like a plum, but there they
split up. It blowed you up fearful, more'n beans ever do, and when
you broke wind the coyotes took off for fresh air. Magpies, comin'
too close, fell dead out of the sky. The camp dogs puked, them as
didn't give up the ghost."
    Higgins was grinning.
    " The Flatheads just laughed and kept fartin'."
    " They just let 'er rip, huh?"
    " Yup."
    " Squaws, too?"
    " These here was all men, but they wouldn't have
paid no" notice of squaws."
    " Eatin' or whatever, they just let go. Right?"
    " Feastin' and fartin'. They don't go together.
It ain't nice. It's downright uncivilized."
    " Natural, though." Summers took time to
think out how to say what he wished to say next. "But what do
you want, Hig, the fartin' few or the tight-assed many?"
    Higgins jumped to his feet and saluted. "Yes,
sir, general. I'm with you all the way, but