The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

96 LIFE IN THE WEST
to the prairie; and after hovering round a short time they
rode off, while I followed suit, but in the opposite direction.
It had all passed too quickly for me to have time to get fright-
ened; but during the rest of my ride I was exceedingly uneasy,
and pushed tough, speedy old Manitou along at a rapid rate,
keeping well out on the level. However, I never saw the
Indians again. They may not have intended any mischief
beyond giving me a fright; but I did not dare to let them
come to close quarters, for they would have probably taken
my horse and rifle, and not impossibly my scalp as well."
THE ROUGH RIDER
But there is something more interesting in Mr. Roosevelt's
books than his wonderful stories of the chase. From them
the reader will obtain a correct idea of the West as it was
twenty years ago and as it is to-day. In his work entitled
"Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail," from which the fore-
going extract is taken, one is brought face to face with the
Western cattle country—the excitement and danger of "riding
herd," the mysteries of the round-up, the terrors of "broncho
busting," and all the interesting details that go to make up the
life of a cowboy or ranchman. In one of the most interesting
chapters in the book, Mr. Roosevelt pays the following tribute
to the wild rough rider of the plains: "Brave, hospitable,
hardy and adventurous, he is the grim pioneer of our land; he
prepares the way for the civilization from before whose face
he must himself disappear. Hard and dangerous though his
existence, it has yet a wild attraction which plainly draws to it
his bold, free spirit."