Fair Land, Fair Land Read Online Free PDF Page B

what the hell. No goods to
sell. I contracted for two wagonsful, and they was long comin'. I'll
do me better next season."
    " Bound to be a crowd, I"m thinkin',"
Summers said.
    " Bein' green," Newton went on, "I
stocked a heap of the wrong things. Powder and ball for one. What did
a passel of farmers want with that in peaceable country? Heavy
clothes for another. Should have stocked slickers. Live and learn,
they say, and I'm learnin'."
    " Yeah. I reckon you might as well tell your
woman to be makin' that tasty sauce."
    Newton disappeared through a door, and they heard him
giving directions. When he came back, he asked, "Would it be
fittin' to ask where you're bound?"
    " East," Summers said and didn't add to it.
    " Well, good luck. I sure hope you make it. It's
comin' on to the second half of August, you taken note?"
    " We'll make it."
    Newton didn't hear him, for he was saying as the
outer door opened, "How there, stranger? We been talkin' about
you."
    The man who entered was short, swarthy and dressed in
buckskins. He wore his hair in braids. He answered, " Comment
portez-vous ?"
    "Cut out the Frenchy act," Newton said.
Then to Higgins and Summers, "He means how are you?"
    The man took a seat, and Summers told Newton, "I'll
buy a round."
    Before he drank the man said, " Merci .
I be Christian."
    " I be Dick. Here's to you, Chris."
    The man sipped at his whiskey, put the mug down and
answered, "No. No. My name it is Antoine. Christian my
medicine."
    " My mistake." Summers gestured with his
left hand. "Whitman Mission?"
    Again the man shook his head. "Not so. True
faith for me. Book of Heaven. The big medicine."
    For an instant Summers looked puzzled, but only for
an instant. "The black robes?"
    " Oui. Oui," Antoine answered, his smile
pleased. "On Racine Amére."
    " He means Bitter Root country," Summers
said to Higgins.
    " That's over the mountains." He turned back
to Antoine.
    " You're a long way from home."
    Antoine nodded. "See my friends. What you call
the Umatilla, the Nez Perce, even Cayuse. Ask them come see the black
robes. Find out truth."
    " I take it you're a Flathead."
    " White man's talk. We no flatten heads."
    " Heap sorry," Summers answered. "When
you go home?"
    " Moon of wild rose, maybe. Many to see."
    " I'm headin' that way myself."
    " Ah, to see black robes?"
    " Find out the truth," Summers answered, not
smiling. "Not sure how to go. Think so, but not sure. You tell
me?"
    " Oui. Oui. Say you saw Antoine, yes?"
    "Sure. Sure."
    Summers turned his head toward Newton. "Would
you ask your woman to please put another name in the pot?"
    " Figured he'd be here. On you?"
    " On me."
    Summers and Antoine began talking sign language. It
made no sense to Higgins, that waving and pointing and playing with
their fingers. He paid them little mind until Summers said,
    "Hig, get one of them lamps, will you?"
    At Summers' signal Higgins put the lamp on the floor.
Summers and Antoine squatted there, and Antoine began drawing lines
in the dust, explaining with more sign language. In between gestures
Summers called to Newton, "We could stand another dose of that
good whiskey."
    " On the house this time," Newton told him.
    Higgins didn't want another drink. He was liquored up
plenty as it was. He put one hand over his mug, to be told by Newton,
    " When Joe Newton buys, everybody drinks."
The damn man was still touchy. Higgins removed his hand.
    Summers and Antoine talked some more, by tongue and
hand. By and by Newton said, "You boys want to neaten up, I put
a bucket of water and a basin and towel out on the bench. Grub's
about ready."
    Higgins hadn't even seen him go out.
    Antoine was the first to go wash. While he was gone,
Summers told Higgins, "I figured my nose was pointed right, but
now I sure God know how to go."
    " Just so it gets us to yonder."
 

    7
    TO HIGGANS, looking backward, it seemed the days and
nights were all one, each different in the doing and seeing but
still, taken together, all the same. Get up before