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

did the same.
    There was wind in the mountains, wind in the high
tree tops, but here they lay snug, hearing the long voice of it. Sure
enough, the coyotes started their hill-to-hill chorus, wind song and
coyote song and silence hanging over them both. And who was this
squaw, camping alone with her child? How come and why? It wasn't her
looks that had set her apart from her tribe. That was for sure. Had
she fled from it for reasons unknown? Would she go back? Would they,
he and Higgins, stay around for a while? There were questions and
questions and no answers that came to mind.
    Higgins said, "You reckon, Dick? You reckon now
that we've got acquainted?"
    " This nigger wouldn't try it. Just go to sleep."
    He drowsed off seeing the woman, seeing her slim and
big-eyed, her look puzzled, and seeing the blind child, too, the
red-headed child. Some white man had got to her all right. The hoarse
howls of wolves joined with the cries of coyotes.
    Higgins woke him up, Higgins breathing loud and
shuffling again into his bed. As if to himself Higgins said, "I
be good goddamned!"
    " Told you so."
    " I wasn't forcin' myself on her, Dick. You know
I wouldn't.
    I just stood by the tepee flap and made what I
thought was coaxin' sounds, and the flap flew open, and there was the
damn musket pointed at my belly button and her holdin' it. So I made
tracks."
    " I reckon you're wilted down."
    " Shrunk to nothin'."
    "So forget it and go back to sleep."
    Summers chuckled to himself. For no reason at all he
felt pleased.
 
    14
    SUMMERS was ready with two pack horses when the slow
sun came up. They had eaten at first light, and the woman had cleaned
up afterward and had turned to scraping the sheep hide while the
child sat sampling whatever smells the breeze brought. Now there was
nothing for him to do but take off.
    Higgins stepped to his side. "Any orders for me,
general?"
    Higgins was a knowing man. He understood without
being told that Summers wanted to be alone for a while. Still, it
seemed kind of unfair.
    " You could go down along the creek, I'm
thinkin', and shoot some ducks. Ought to be some teal and mallard in
the potholes. Bring back plenty meat, me."
    " You ain't talkin' to an Injun now."
    Summers smiled at him. "I aim to get us a
buffalo. The woman will dry some of it and maybe make pemmican and
have something to tide her over the winter." Summers mounted
Feather and got the outfit moving.
    The night had brought frost, but it was melting now,
and, touched by the sun, the tops of the grasses trembled with light.
Tiny pieces of mirrors, Summers thought, each flashing a message if a
man could read it.
    He rode down a long hill and up and down another, and
the plains spread before him, sharp in the sun, and a butte rose and
another, and a small bunch of antelope, taking silly fright, bucketed
a few yards and stopped, their rumps showing white. Once antelopes
were called goats, he remembered, which was a put-down on the breed.
An antelope was pretty fair eating, what there was of it. He knew he
could bring them within shooting distance. Just get away from the
horses, lie down, hold the rifle up with a tatter of flag on it, and
curiosity would do the rest.
    He went on, letting the air and the sky and the earth
sink into him. It was more than the lungs that this country filled.
It was the eye and the spirit and the whole of the body from topknot
on down. How many times had he just sat and looked? How many times,
seeing, had he felt part and partner of what he saw? Never enough
times. Each time was a new time, born fresh from the old, close kin
to it, showing likeness, but still new.
    He passed through a thin thicket. Off to his left was
an old buffalo bull, its beard touching the ground. An old bull,
standing alone, cast out from the herd, horned out by younger ones
and left to remember the cows he had covered and wouldn't again. The
bull raised its great head and stared at him, its eyes sullen and
sad. Soon enough the wolves would disable it