CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT 41 



At some point in the Dakotas we picked up the 

 former foreman of his ranch, and another cowboy 

 friend of the old davs, and they rode with the Presi- 

 dent in his private car for several hours. He was as 

 happy with them as a schoolboy ever was in meeting 

 old chums. He beamed with delight all over. The life 

 which those men represented, and of which he had 

 himself once formed a part, meant so much to him; 

 it had entered into the very marrow of his being, and 

 I could see the joy of it all shining in his face as he sat 

 and lived parts of it over again with those men that 

 day. He bubbled with laughter continually. The 

 men, I thought, seemed a little embarrassed by his 

 open-handed cordiality and good-fellowship. He him- 

 self evidently wanted to forget the present, and to live 

 only in the memory of those wonderful ranch days, — • 

 that free, hardy, adventurous life upon the plains. It 

 all came back to him with a rush when he found him- 

 self alone with these heroes of the rope and the stirrup. 

 How much more keen his appreciation was, and how 

 much quicker his memory, than theirs! He was con- 

 stantly recalling to their minds incidents which they 

 had forgotten, and the names of horses and dogs which 

 had escaped them. His subsequent life, instead of 

 making dim the memory of his ranch days, seemed 

 to have made it more vivid bv contrast. 



When they had gone, I said to him, " I think ycur 

 affection for those men very beautiful." 



"How could I help it?" he said. 



"Still, few men in your station could or would go 

 back and renew such friendships." 



" Then I pity them," he replied. 



He said afterwards that his ranch life had been the 



