In Cowboy Land 267 



her husband was alive and in jail in a neigh- 

 boring 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 was 

 evidently felt to be a proceeding requiring 

 no explanation whatever. 



In the cow-country there is nothing more 

 refreshing than the light-hearted belief enter- 

 tained by the average man to the effect that 

 any animal which by main force has been sad- 

 dled and ridden, or harnessed and driven a 

 couple of times, is a "broke horse." My pres- 

 ent foreman is firmly wedded to this idea, as 

 well as to its complement, the belief that any 

 animal with hoofs, before any vehicle with 

 wheels, can be driven across any country. 

 One summer on reaching the ranch I was en- 

 tertained with the usual accounts of the ad- 

 ventures and misadventures which had befal- 

 len my own men and my neighbors since I 

 had been out last. In the course of the con- 

 versation 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 



