"You see me and Idaho never had any education beyond reading and doing "if John had three apples and James five" on a slate. We never felt any special need for a university degree, though we had acquired a species of intrinsic intelligence in knocking around the world that we could use in emergencies. But, snowbound in that cabin in the Bitter Roots, we felt for the first time that if we had studied Homer or Greek and fractions and the higher branches of information, we'd have had some resources in the line of meditation and private thought. I've seen them Eastern college fellows working in camps all through the West, and I never noticed but what education was less of a drawback to 'em than you would think. Why, once over on Snake River, when Andrew McWilliams' saddle horse got the botts, he sent a buckboard ten miles for one of these strangers that claimed to be a botanist. But that horse died."


Bots \Bots\, n. pl. [Cf. Gael. botus belly worm, boiteag
maggot.] (Zo["o]l.)
The larv[ae] of several species of botfly, especially those
larv[ae] which infest the stomach, throat, or intestines of
the horse, and are supposed to be the cause of various
ailments. [Written also botts.]
Note: See Illust. of Botfly.