56 CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT 



our next camping-place, at Tower Falls, a band of 

 elk containing a hundred or more started along the 

 side of the hill a few hundred yards away. I was some 

 distance behind the rest of the party, as usual, when 

 I saw the President wheel his horse off to the left, and, 

 beckoning, to me to follow, start at a tearing pace on 

 the trail of the fleeing elk. He afterwards told me 

 that he wanted me to get a good view of those elk at 

 close range, and he was afraid that if he sent the major 

 or Hofer to lead me, I would not get it. I hurried along 

 as fast as I could, which was not fast; the way was 

 rough, logs, rocks, spring runs, and a tenderfoot 

 rider. 



Now and then the President, looking back and see- 

 ing what slow progress I was making, would beckon 

 to me impatiently, and I could fancy him saying, " If 

 I had a rope around him, he would come faster than 

 that ! " Once or twice I lost sight of both him and the 

 elk ; the altitude was great, and the horse was laboring 

 like a steam-engine on an upgrade. Still I urged him 

 on. Presently, as I broke over a hill, I saw the Presi- 

 dent pressing the elk up the opposite slope. At the 

 brow of the hill he stopped, and I soon joined him. 

 There on the top, not fifty yards away, stood the elk 

 in a mass, their heads toward us and their tongues 

 hanging out. They could run no farther. The Presi- 

 dent laughed like a boy. The spectacle meant much 

 more to him than it did to me. I had never seen a wild 

 elk till on this trip, but they had been among the not- 

 able game that he had hunted. He had traveled hun- 

 dreds of miles, and undergone great hardships, to get 

 within rifle range of these creatures. Now here stood 

 scores of them, with lolling tongues, begging for mercy. 



