AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 39 
madly round the stampeding herd, at times checking their horses so 
sharply as to bring them to their haunches or even throw them to the 
ground, until finally they got the beasts corralled and made a mad 
break for the wagons. 
‘Though there is much work and hardship, rough fare and 
monotony and exposure connected with the round-up/' writes Mr. 
Roosevelt, “yet there are few men who do not look forward to it and 
jback to it with pleasure. It is superbly health-giving and is full of 
excitement and adventure, calling for the exhibition of pluck, self- 
reliance, hardihood and daring horsemanship; and of all forms of 
physical labor the easiest and pleasantest is to sit in the saddle." 
Certainly the late legislator found exhilaration and enjoyment in 
it, and when he came back from this wild life to New York it was with 
a fresh stock of sturdy health. 
When winter came life on the plains lost much of its attraction. 
Grim desolation replaced the genial summer climate. From the north 
blew furious gales, driving blinding snows before them. Or if the 
howling winds ceased for a season, a merciless cold hooded over the 
land, turning the earth to stone, the rivers to sheets of crystal ice. In 
this season there was less work for the ranchmen. The horses shifted 
for themselves and needed no care. The cattle demanded some looking 
after, but much of the time was spent in the ranch-house before the 
huge fireplaces filled with blazing logs. During this period Roosevelt 
spent much time with his pen, describing his experience in his “Hunt¬ 
ing Trips of a Ranchman." Another book dealing with this period of 
his life was his “Ranch Life and Hunting Trail." About this time 
also he wrote two works of biography, “Life of Thomas Hart Benton" 
and “Life of Gouverneur Morris." 
x As may well be supposed, a man of Theodore Roosevelt's character 
made himself felt in the West as he had done in the East. The cowboys 
looked on him as a true comrade, a man who led instead of following, 
who could ride and shoot with the best of them and gave no sign of 
considering himself better than they. Certain anecdotes of his doings 
are among the fireside lore of the plains. 
Here is the story of the frontier “bad man," who took the “four¬ 
eyed" stranger for a tenderfoot and set out to have some sport with 
