William McKinley, with whom, sixteen years later, he was to run on the
same ticket. The records of that convention show that on one occasion
McKinley spoke directly after Roosevelt. Thus were these two drawn
together at that early day without knowing or dreaming that one was to
succeed the other to the Presidency.

But though Theodore Roosevelt was disappointed over the nomination made
at Chicago, he did not desert his party. Instead he did all he could to
lead them to victory, until the death of his mother caused him to
withdraw temporarily from public affairs.

[Illustration: Signature: Alice Lee Roosevelt]

CHAPTER V

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS A RANCHMAN AND HUNTER IN THE BAD LANDS--BRINGING
DOWN HIS FIRST BUFFALO--RATTLESNAKES, AND A WILD GOOSE

Theodore Roosevelt had now published his "Naval History of the War of
1812," and it had created a decidedly favorable opinion among those
critics who were best able to judge of the production. It is an
authoritative work, and is to-day in the library of nearly every
American war-ship afloat, as well as in numerous government libraries in
this country, as at Washington, West Point, and Annapolis, and also in
leading libraries of England.

Being out of politics the young author thought of taking up his pen once
more. But he was restless by nature, and the loss of his wife and his
mother still weighed heavily upon him. So he took himself to the West,
to where the Little Missouri River flows in winding form through what
are called the Bad Lands of North Dakota.

Here, on the edge of the cattle country, Theodore Roosevelt had become
possessed of two ranches, one called the Elkhorn and the other Chimney
Butte. Both were located by the river, which during the dry season was
hardly of any depth at all, but which during the heavy rains, or during
the spring freshets, became a roaring torrent.

At one of these ranches Theodore Roosevelt settled down for the time
being, to rough it in hunting and raising cattle. When the weather would
not permit of his going abroad, or when the mood of the author seized
him, he wrote. As a result of these experiences he has given us a
delightful work called "The Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," first
published in 1885, giving his adventures among the cattle and while on
the hunt, sometimes alone and sometimes in company with the rude but
honest cow punchers and plainsmen who surrounded him.

Mr. Roosevelt has described the ranch at which he