, etc.
Frontiersmen are often as original as their 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.
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