426 The IVildeimess Httntei\ 



form of wild savagery, of mere uncouthness, or of an odd 

 combination of genuine humor with simple acceptance of 

 facts as they are. On one occasion I expressed some 

 surprise at learning that a certain Mrs. P. had suddenly 

 married, though her husband was alive and in jail in a 

 neighboring town ; and received for answer : " Well, you 

 see, old man Pete he skipped the country, and left his 

 widow behind him, and so Bob Evans he up and married 

 her ! " — which w^as evidently felt to be a proceeding 

 requiring no explanation whatever. 



In the cow-country there is nothing more refreshing 

 than the light-hearted belief entertained by the average 

 man to the effect that any animal which by main force 

 has been saddled and ridden, or harnessed and driven a 

 couple of times, is a "broke horse." My present foreman 

 is firmly wedded to this idea, as well as to its comple- 

 ment, the belief that any animals with hoofs, before any 

 vehicle with wheels, can be driven across any country. 

 One summer on reaching the ranch I was entertained with 

 the usual accounts of the adventures and misadventures 

 which had befallen my own men and my neighbors since 

 I had been out last. In the course of the conversation 

 my foreman remarked : "We had a great time out here 

 about six weeks ago. There was a professor from Ann 

 Arbor came out with his wife to see the Bad Lands, and 

 they asked if we could rig them up a team, and we said 

 we guessed we could, and Foley's boy and I did ; but it 

 ran away with him and broke his leg ! He was here for 

 a month. I guess he did n't mind it though." Of this I 

 was less certain, forlorn little Medora beino- a "busted" 



