Cherokee by Giles Tippette Read Free Book Online Page A

gathered them cattle by the thousands, there wasn’t no market for ’em. They was payin’ four dollars a head delivered in Galveston, an’ there wasn’t no two men could have driven ten of them cattle, let alone fifty or a hundred, all the way to Galveston. Would of taken a drover for every head. Only thing left was the hide-and-tallow business, and I’ll give you some advice right now, son. Don’t ever go to work in the hide-and-tallow business. Prison is better wages, I hear, and the work ain’t as hard.”
    â€œYou gonna tell me about Charlie Stevens or am I gonna get up and go on about my own work? I have heard this story before, only it was Buttercup in it. You still ain’t explained how that worked out.”
    He looked away. “One night Charlie told me right after evening grub that he was pulling out. He said he’d just take one horse, leave his other one, and leave me most of the powder and shot. He said he didn’t mind the work, said he didn’t mind living burrowed up in the mud like some animal, said he didn’t mind the good chance of getting killed by the Mexican banditos or the Comanches. Said he didn’t mind having to haul water and wood four miles. Said he didn’t even really much mind starving to death as we surely were. But he said what he couldn’t take no more was the loneliness.”
    Howard stopped talking and looked off in the distance again.
    I let him think on it a moment, and then I said, “Bad?”
    He just shook his head. “Sometimes we’d go weeks without seeing another human face. An’ then most likely it would be some Mexican with a herd of stolen horses heading for the border. Nearest neighbors was about a four-day ride away, and they was just a couple of ol’ sourdoughs like me an’ Charlie. Only time we ever saw anything in a skirt was when we took a load of hides and tallow into Galveston, an’ them was the ugliest, filthiest women you ever wanted to get away from. Whores they was. An’ they done a lively trade, which will tell you how bad things was. Course me an’ Charlie never had more than five cents left by the time we got through buying supplies. So even if we’d of wanted to associate with such, we didn’t have the coin for it.” He stopped and thought, seeming to be looking for a way to explain how it was. He said finally, “Son, it was just lonely. You and your partner have both told each other every story you know and then told them again and again. And ain’t nothin’ happening that’s current that’s worth talkin’ about. Finally you just ain’t got nothing left to say. You’re just by yourself without kith or kin for comfort. Stuck it out damn near nine years, Charlie and me.”
    â€œPa, I never understood how come sodbusters didn’t settle the country? Land was clear, good soil. I’d of thought there’d have been a farmer every half mile.”
    He shook his head. “Land wouldn’t grow nothing on account of the soil was brackish. From the saltwater.” He waved his hand in the general direction of the gulf. “That old saltwater has been soaking its way into this soil for millions of years. It’ll grow grass and trash trees like mesquite and willow and huisache, but you couldn’t make a crop of potatoes or corn or wheat or such. An’ there ain’t no running water. Think how many creeks and rivers there are within fifty miles of here. Ain’t that many. We got windmills now, but there wasn’t no windmills then. Nobody had ever heard of boring for water. And no timber to build a proper cabin. Just wild animals and banditos an’ Comanches. Them kind of conditions don’t draw many settlers, ’specially the kind with womenfolk. Too hard a life. This country killed women and horses. Course it’s civilized now.”
    That wasn’t what Nora thought, but I