B M Bower

Valeria had come to Montana to marry a cowboy named Manley, expecting a future full of companionship and bracing freedom, lodges with great fireplaces and bearskin rugs, manageable cattle and sleek horses, and dazzling sunrises. If Val had known what was really waiting for her, she simply wouldn't have gotten off the train. Oh, the country was impressive, but it could be cruel in winter and lonesome for a woman stuck on a ranch miles from the nearest neighbor. Val is cast into circumstances that test her temper, strength, and sanity. Married to an alcoholic, she is forced to revise her back-East notions about men and women, duty, and the West itself. She goes from romanticization to "blind unreasoning terror of the empty land" to decisive action.

Life at the Flying U Ranch in the Bear Paw country of Montana was pleasant—until thousands of sheep invaded the coulee. B. M. Bower casts the ancient enmity between cattlemen and sheepmen in her own robust and slyly humorous style. Flying U Ranch brings back the Happy Family of cowboys introduced in Chip of the Flying U. Bertha Muzzy Bower, a Montanan herself, understood the joshing, boasting, and thoroughly decent young hands who worked at the Flying U—Andy, Pink, Slim, Big Medicine, Happy Jack, and the other members of the Happy Family. Here they must confront defiant sheepherders just when Chip and the Old Man are in Chicago. Bower delights in showing how they deal with rage and frustration without resorting to violence. The witty and nervy Flying U bunch gets satisfaction from a difficult situation justly ended.

The boisterous and bow-legged Happy Family of Montana rides high in this sequel to Chip of the Flying U. Originally published in 1910, The Happy Family is, like Chip, cinematic in its fast action, unusual in its emphasis on human relationships, unique in its warmth and humor. Here are the cowpokes who endeared themselves to generations of readers—Andy, Weary, Irish, Pink, Happy Jack, Big Medicine, and the rest. They were so popular that their creator devoted a series of novels to their wrangling on the rangeland and in the ranchhouse. These stories play out in the badlands, on the edge of the Rockies. Andy Green, "not famous ever for clinging to the truth," encounters Miss Verbena Martin, who is dedicated to the self-improvement of cowboys and is a character worthy of Mark Twain. Riding a red roan at a contest in Great Falls, Andy hangs on to his honor and pride by the seat of his pants. In another story, there is a crisis concerning the French cook Patsy, whose specialty is heavy pie and not floating island. All this fun has a western flavor, the smell of sage, and the feel of cowhide.