Fair Land, Fair Land Read Online Free PDF Page A

she took up
with a circuit-ridin' preacher. Pleased my maw all to hell. Out of
sin into the arms of the Lord. That's what she said, not knowin' that
the preacher was a bed-pounder, too."
    " A heap of 'em are."
    " Like you maybe made out, my maw was hell on
religion. That's how come I got my first name."
    " I never heerd it."
    " I never tolt you, but, by God, if it ain't
Hezekiah."
    Summers had to laugh. "Hezekiah Higgins. Takes
some breath to say."
    " Now just forgit it, huh?"
    " Sure, Hig."
    Looking up, Summers could see stars, but not at the
sides, at the sides only tall trees, the trees boxing him in. Not too
long, though. Not forever. "Hig," he said, "you feel
like playin' your fiddle a little?"
    " Sure thing."
    Higgins went to a pack and got it and the bow out. He
had to tune up and rosin the bow before playing.
    " No jiggety stuff, please, Hig, and no holler
music. Just somethin' easy."
    With the fiddle under his chin Higgins said, "Call
me crazy, Dick, but I make up songs for myself. Ridin' along I
thought up one that fits you and maybe me, too. Want to hear it?"
    " Play away."
 
The country's my mistress.
Why
need me a wife?
My country's my mistress.
I lead a free life.
    The music waved to the edge of silence. Out of Hig's
broken mouth came a voice that was clean and pure and fetching.
No one to nag me.
I
just go along.
No one to nag me
So
join me in song.
O-do-lee, o-do-lay,
o-do-lee, o-do-lay.
My country's my mistress.
Why need me a wife?
    6
    TWAS THE EDGE of dusk when they rode down to the
smoother water of the Dalles and the Deschutes River. Where all had
been bustle and worry and wagons just a spell ago, there were now
only a few cast-off wagons, some past repair, and the odds-and-ends
leavings of travelers bound down the river. There were, to boot, a
canoe and a couple of rowboats, one water-logged, on the river's lip
and a couple of cabins on the bank.
    It beat hell, Higgins thought, how things could
change, how folks could come and go, leaving behind them as junk what
they had prized once, like a cherry chest there was no cargo space
for, like a rusted anvil not worth more sweat. And where were the
horses and cattle that the owners had worried about? One cabin looked
empty and deserted, but the other might have something in it besides
mice. It had a hitch rack in front of it and a slab lean-to at one
side. They tied up.
    " My butt's bounced enough for one day,"
Higgins said, getting off his horse. He had to hang on to the saddle
horn for a minute to ease his legs.
    " We'll see what's inside," Summers
answered. "A drink would go good." But for an instant he
stood there, considering. "Seems to me these cabins was just
going up when we took off."
    " I didn't take notice."
    The door opened before they reached it, and a voice
said, "Welcome, y'all." Dark as it was getting to be,
Higgins could still see a chesty man, half bald, who wore an
unbuttoned town vest. He showed them in, saying, "Best hold up
until I can make some light." His shape moved to a mud-and-stick
fireplace where a fire flickered. He put a twig in it until it caught
and then lighted the wicks of a couple of oil lamps without chimneys.
    "Now move up, gents. Place ain't too tidy, you
can see. I was just fixin' to neat up when you showed."
    As Higgins" eyes adjusted, he saw that the cabin
had been divided. In the half they entered there was a bar made out
of half a log with three stools in front of it. The floor was dirt.
    " Stand up or sit down, whichever pleases you,"
the man said.
    " Nice day today. Faired off good. But I look for
it to rain tomorrow. Somethin' tells me it's fixin' to."
    " First time I've heerd your kind of talk in a
coon's age," Higgins said, meaning to be pleasant.
    " Southern mountains, ain't it?
    That where you hail from?"
    The man stiffened and gave him a long look. "What
business is it of yours?"
    " Can't a man ask a question?"
    The man pushed up against the bar, his face set.
"Makin' fun, huh? I'll tell you no one