Fair Land, Fair Land Read Free Page B

lighting the shavings, Higgins said, "By
God, a slow fuse."
    It was dark now and clear of mist. Higgins built up
the fire started heating frying pans. The night was quiet except for
the crackling of the fire and now and then a sneeze from one of the
loose horses. Then came the sound of hooves and the creaking of gear.
    Botter and Insko slipped from their saddles and were
quick to unload the pack horses. Unloading, Botter said, "I
found the heart with the guts, all mangled to hell and not fit to
eat. A thinkin' man wouldn't have ruint the heart."
    " Yeah, Botter," Insko answered. "Was
it you, you'd have shot the elk in the asshole so's not to break the
skin. On'y you'd never have spotted game in the first place."
    It was good, their joking was, Mack thought. The
promise of a mere change of diet lifted all spirits. Small as it was
on any big scale, why shouldn't it? Men lived more by little things
than
big.
    Blotter was knifing and peeling the hide from a hind
quarter. "Keep your goddamn distance, Insko," he said.
"You'll taint the meat."
    " It's beyond taintin' with you workin' on it."
    Higgins took a fresh-cut steak and plopped it in a
hot pan. Then he passed out tin plates, knives and forks. Mack had
seen hungry men eat, but never, he thought, had he seen appetites
like these. One steak followed another onto plates and into mouths,
and still the men looked hungrily at the frying pans.
    " One of you feel like relieving Moss?" he
asked finally.
    Insko got up, saying, "He's probably fell off
his horse, smellin' the meat. I'll go see, but keep the irons hot."
    In his bedroll under the fly that night, only now and
then hearing the soft tone of a bell he had strapped on one of the
horses, Mack thought about Summers, Summers with his easy smile and
gray eyes and all-around competence. Without being pushy, he was too
damn good, that man, and here he was about to set out for God knew
where. What ate at him? What shoved him? Many a man would have
settled for what Summers was. That, he thought, again with the edge
of envy, included himself.
 
 
    4
    MACK LEFT THE LOOSE STOCK just as dawn was breaking.
To Botter, who was relieving him, he said, "They hardly need
watching." He had taken the early-morning shift, the one the men
disliked most, and even his presence hadn't been necessary. The
sore-footed animals had stayed put.
    For all the roaming they did, they might have been
under fence. The day gave promise of being clear for a change. Any
foresighted man, looking at the forest around the clearing, would
have seen opportunity, he thought. Some of the trees were as big as
tulip poplars, just one of which would and had supplied enough lumber
for a two-story house and a good barn. Settlements and settlers
needed wood. They needed planks, studs, shingles and all manner of
milled stuff. And here for the cutting and there for the cutting were
these conifers — pine, spruce and fir, he guessed — and down
toward the river bottoms were other great trees, their leafage
frondlike, which someone had supposed were westem cedar. He had the
capital for a start. He would go into the lumber business and grow
with it. He was arriving at the right time.
    You took Oregon or you left it. Rain or not, he would
take. He could see himself supplying lumber for great cities, for a
thousand towns, for farms to be.
    Riding through lush and strange vegetation, he could
see the campfire winking. Summers' work probably, or maybe Higgins'.
A good sight, and he breathed deep. Mount Hood rose yonder, as big as
ambition.
    Insko and Moss were coming out from under the fly and
making for the little stream to wash up. It was a good guess that
they would have slept longer but for the thought of red meat.
    " Seems like a nice, lazy day," Higgins said
to him as he climbed from his horse.
    " I think we've earned it." Mack let the
horse loose. It wouldn't go far with the reins trailing. The eastern
sky flushed before the upcoming sun.
    " Put some meat on for you?"
    " Wait