heir names; and the originality
may take the 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 in 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 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 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 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
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 come 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 didn't mind it though." Of this I was less
certain, forlorn little Medora being a "busted" cow-town, concerning
which I once heard another of my men remark, in reply to an inquisitive
commercial traveller: "How many people lives here? Eleven--counting the
chickens--when they're all in town!"

My foreman continued: "By George, there was something that professor
said afterwards that made me feel hot. I sent word up to him by Foley's
boy that seein' as how it had come out we wouldn't charge him nothin'
for the rig; and that professor he answered that he was glad we were
showing him some sign of consideration, for he'd begun to believe he'd
fallen into a den of sharks, and that we gave him a runaway team a
purpose. That made me hot, calling that a runaway team. Why, there was
one of them horses never _could_ have run away before; it hadn't never
been druv but twice! And the other hor