I particularly insisted upon the latter clause--in the East. This
formula is applicable in any situation. I never should have gotten
through my Western experiences without it, and I advise you, my dear
Woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband, to take a large stock of it made
up and ready for use. There is one other rule for your conduct, if you
want to be a success: think what you like, but unless it is pleasant,
_don't say it_.

Is it better to ride astride? I will not carry the battle ground into the
East, although even here I have my opinion; but in the West, in the
mountains, there can be no question that it is the _only way_. Here is an
example to illustrate: Two New York women, mother and daughter, took a
trip of some three hundred miles over the pathless Wind River Mountains.
The mother rode astride, but the daughter preferred to exhibit her
Durland Academy accomplishment, and rode sidesaddle, according to the
fashion set by an artful queen to hide her deformity. The advantages of
health, youth and strength were all with the daughter; yet in every case
on that long march it was the daughter who gave out first and compelled
the pack train to halt while she and her horse rested. And the daughter
was obliged to change from one horse to another, while the same horse was
able to carry the mother, a slightly heavier woman, through the trip. And
the back of the horse which the daughter had ridden chiefly was in such a
condition from saddle galls that the animal, two months before a
magnificent creature, had to be shot.

I hear you say, "But that was an extreme case." Perhaps it was, but it
supports the verdict of the old mountaineers who refuse to let any horse
they prize be saddled with "those gol-darned woman fripperies."