s and other objects which were
effective as producers of bedlam, but Joe sent a friend forth with a
bill of high denomination and the suggestion that the "boys" break it
at Bill Williams's saloon, which had the desired effect.

[Illustration: Joseph A. Ferris.]

[Illustration: Joe Ferris's store.]

The "boys" took the greatest interest in the wife whom Joe (who was
popular in town) had taken to himself out in New Brunswick, and there
was real trepidation lest Joe's wife might be the wrong sort.
Other men, who had been good fellows and had run with the boys, had
married and been weaned from their old companions, bringing out women
who did not "fit in," who felt superior to the cowboys and did not
take the trouble to hide their feelings. The great test was, whether
Joe's wife would or would not like Mrs. Cummins. For Mrs. Cummins, in
the minds of the cowpunchers, stood for everything that was
reprehensible in the way of snobbery and lack of the human touch. If
Mrs. Ferris liked Mrs. Cummins, it was all over; if she properly
disliked her, she would do.

Mrs. Cummins called in due course. Merrifield was on the porch of the
store when she came and in his excited way carried the news to the
boys. As soon as she left by the front steps, Merrifield bounded up by
the back. His eyes were gleaming.

"Well, now, Mrs. Ferris," he cried, "how did you like her?"

Mrs. Ferris laughed.

"Well, what did she say?" Merrifield pursued impatiently.

"Why," remarked Mrs. Joe, "for one thing she says I mustn't trust any
of you cowboys."

Merrifield burst into a hearty laugh. "That's her!" he cried. "That's
her! What else did she say?"

"She told me how I ought to ride, and the kind of horse I ought to
get, and--"

"Go on, Mrs. Ferris," cried Merrifield.

"Why, she says I never want to ride any horse that any of you cowboys
give me, for you're all bad, and you haven't any consideration for a
woman and you'd as lief see a woman throwed off and killed as not."

Merrifield's eyes sparkled in the attractive way they had when he was
in a hilarious mood. "Say, did you ever hear the like of that? You'd
think, to hear that woman talk, that we was nothing but murderers.
What else did she say?"

"Well," remarked the new bride, "she said a good many things."

"You tell me, Mrs. Ferris," Merrifield urged.

"For one thing she said the cowboys was vulgar and didn't have any
manners. And--oh, yes--she said that refined folks who knew the