Peter Matthiessen - Killing Mister Watson

And of course, Mama is mildly interested in what he has to tell her of Fort Myers history, and so he brought her an account of our small "Eden" that appeared in the New Orleans Times-Democrat after its Everglades expedition of 1882, which had Captain Francis Hendry as its guide. Mama observed graciously that the Calusa Hatchee, with its banks of large wild trees set off by the bountiful coconuts and guavas, by the flowering species-planted, Frank says, before the Indian Wars were ended and the Civil War begun-must surely be the most beautiful river in all Florida. (Fact is, the river water is unhealthy, and both dysentery and malaria-"chillin and shakin," for which the approved remedy is Blue Mass pills and turpentine balls-are epidemic.)

"Yes, ma'am, this was a cattle town right from the start"-news we both found less astounding than our own sudden interest in the ways of cattle. Until this century, he said, there was no farming, nothing but cattle and a little citrus and some fishing on the coast. Immokalee was an Indian settlement, but pretty soon it became a cow town, too. "Immokalee, that means 'my home.'"

He paused to see if he had rustled up some interest in his Indian lore, then hurried on. "Indians are mostly gone," he said. "Hendrys and Langfords ran cattle in that area when there was no bridge over the creeks; pony carried your gear, and you piled your gun and grub and bedroll on your head and waded.

"Old Fort Thompson was a cow town, too. Captain Hendry had a ranch, got a county separated off from Lee, called it Hendry County, then renamed the town for his daughters, Laura and Belle. Fort Thompson is La Belle, Florida, today."

"Laura and Belle! You don't say so!"

"Yes, ma'am. Course cowboys are pretty much the same wherever you find 'em. Called us cow hunters around these parts because we had to hunt so many mavericks-some of them older riders called 'em hairy dicks, cause they wouldn't stick with all the others-"

"Heretics," Mama corrected him quickly, a rose-petal flush on her pale cheeks, and Mr. Tippins glared down at his boot tops as if he had half a mind to chop his feet off.

"Yes, ma'am! Your hairy ticks or whatever you'd want to call 'em, they'd lay low in the woods and hammocks, that's why we were known as cow hunters. Sometimes they called us cracker cowboys because we cracked long hickory-handled whips to run the herd. Besides his whip, every man carried rifle and pistol to take care of any two-legged or four-legged varmints we might have to deal with. A good cow hunter can snap the head clean off a rattler and cut the fat out of a steak-you can hear that whip pop two-three miles away. We rode what we call woods ponies, which is a tough small short-eared Spanish breed. Had us our cow dogs to run the herds, and at branding time we threw the steers by hand. Otherwise we weren't so much different from cowpokes you might come across in Texas or Montana."

I watched him, eyes wide, biting my lip in fond amusement. He knew I was teasing him but could not stop talking, like a show-off boy running downhill who gets himself going much too fast. But my heart went out to him all the same. His way of expressing some of the things that Walter never appreciated was almost beautiful, even when he couldn't find the words.

"Between the wolf howl and the panthers screaming, and the bull gators chugging in the spring, the nights were pretty noisy in the back country, and weekends were always noisy in Fort Myers. The boys would ride in on Saturday to gamble and get drunk, shoot up the town, just like cowboys were supposed to do, but we didn't have any houses of ill fame like the east coast, or at least none I was able to find out about."

I had to giggle at Mama's little hymph! and Mr. Tippins glared down at his boots again, convinced he had fatally offended the prim Watson ladies. But kind Mama cried, "I pray you, please continue, Mr. Tippins!"

"Well, the churches were pretty strong here, which means good strong women," Mr. Tippins said, to recapture some lost moral ground. "Maybe that's why some of the boys went so darn wild! Oh, this was a wild cow town, sure enough! One time the cowboys rode their horses right into a restaurant, shot up every bowl. Course the fact that the new owner was a Yankee might have had something to do with it. That restaurant closed down then and there, for good, and later the owner took work as a yard hand, and him a white man-never saw that before!"

"Were you one of those cowboys, Mr. Tippins?" I said, knowing he wasn't. And when he shook his head, I said, "But your friend Walter was, isn't that true?"

"I don't rightly know, Miss Carrie," Frank Tippins said.

"Well, you're certainly quite a talker, Mr. Tippins!" tactful Mama declared, at which I tittered and had to flee the room. Of course I stopped to listen at the door.

Our would-be sheriff was explaining, more and more desperate, how our town had made small progress since his youth, when he had drifted down here from Arcadia.

Mr. Tippins informed Mama that Arcadia was his birthplace. "Tater Hill Bluff, we called it then."

"Tater Hill Bluff! you don't say so!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Fort Myers was still a cow town, that was the trouble. "Course the Hendrys and Langfords-I mean, these days, ma'am, the cattlemen are making a hog-killing off the Spanish War, same as Summerlin made in the War Between the States."

"Dr. Langford was a wonderful man," Mama warned when he drew breath so he wouldn't come out with any criticism of her benefactor. "When I arrived so ill from Chatham River, Dr. Langford made me promise I would never return to those islands under any circumstances. He offered kind care and hospitality to a perfect stranger-"

"And the perfect stranger's daughter!" I said, popping back in with Delamene's tea and cookies from the kitchen. "You are perfect, dear Mama!"

"-until Mister Watson could prepare this house. When poor Dr. Langford became ill he was scarcely a year older than my husband! He certainly took me by surprise when he beat me to the grave!" Knowing how much that remark would delight Papa, she did her best to keep a straight face, but her funny little smile, self-mocking, twitched one corner of her mouth. "You could have knocked me over with a feather," she added, to amuse herself, closing her eyes so as not to see me giggle.

"Mama!" I murmured. "How silly you are!" And we burst out laughing merrily, having made Frank Tippins too uncomfortable to join in.

"What was your maiden name, ma'am?" he asked Mama, going red again over this loose talk of maidens. Maybe he knew that in another life he would have fallen hopelessly in love with my sweet mama, not just me.

"Jane Susan Dyal. From Deland," said Mama. Jane Susan Dyal from Deland spread her fingers on her shawl, smiling prettily in pantomime of her lost girlhood. "As a young woman I was known as Mandy, but there is no one left who calls me that." She smiled again, faintly annoyed by her own bittersweet flirting with the past.

"Except Daddy," I reminded her.

"Except Mister Watson."

When Frank Tippins said, "I reckon a visit to Deland would do you good," she shook her head. "No, I think not. I'd already escaped Deland when Mister Watson found me teaching in Fort White's new school."

"That was before Mister Watson got in trouble?" His innocent expression didn't fool us, and he knew it.

"That was before we went away to Arkansas."

After a cool pause that she let serve as a rebuke Mama looked up over her knitting. "Carrie's father is very generous, Mr. Tippins. He is not a small man. He takes good care of his family, helps his neighbors, pays his bills. How many of our civic leaders can say the same?" She resumed her work. "I don't think this color suits me, what do you think, Mr. Tippins?" She held up a swatch of the blue wool shawl. "I shall give it to Carrie."