John Smith, who plays cowboy Utah, would star in his own TV show three years later playing a cowboy named Slim: Laramie (1959).
JIm recites what he calls a "Whimsical old adage" on how to handle panic. The adage is most often associated with the military. Herman Wouk employs it in the opening of chapter 10 from his 1951 novel that takes place aboard a navy ship during WWII: "The Caine Mutiny." Margaret's tongue-in-cheek admonishment to "batton down the hatches" fits nicely into this conceit of naval expressions.