The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories

The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories is a 1904 collection of seven Western stories by B. M. Bower, set among the cowboys of the Flying U ranch and the group they call the Happy Family.

In the title story, Will "Weary" Davidson has learned to shy away from romance. His friends' teasing and the arrival of Miss Satterly, the local schoolteacher, draw him into a courtship conducted through misunderstandings, practical jokes, pride, and long rides across the Montana range.

The remaining stories put the same ranch community through sick cooks, difficult animals, amateur performances, rivalries, and sudden emergencies. Bower lets everyday work and danger share the page with flirtation and the rough companionship of the bunkhouse.

The collection is especially lively in its colloquial dialogue and affectionate comedy. Its cowboys posture as hard men, but their loyalties and embarrassments repeatedly expose a more generous side.

"A man is very much like a horse. Once thoroughly frightened by something he meets on the road, he will invariably shy at the same place afterwards, until a wisely firm master leads him perforce to the spot and proves beyond all doubt that the danger is of his own imagining; after which he will throw up his head and deny that he ever was afraid—and be quite amusingly sincere in the denial."