hat he had not brought down the elk, but a black-tail deer
instead. In the meantime, the elk got away, and it proved impossible to
pick up the trail again.

There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this hunting trip, and one
that all young readers should take to heart. It shows what sticking at a
thing can accomplish. Mr. Roosevelt had determined to get at least a
portion of that game, no matter what the labor and hardship involved.
Many a hunter would have given up in disgust or despair after the first
few shots were fired and it looked as if the elk were out of range and
intended to keep out. But this determined young man did not give up
thus easily. Hard as was that run up hill and down, and regardless of
the tumbles taken, and that he was so tired he could scarcely stand, he
kept on until two elk were brought down, and it was firmly settled that
the third could not be captured.

The way to accomplish anything in this life is to _stick at it_.
Theodore Roosevelt understood this truth even when he went to college,
for in the Harvard journal of which he was an editor he wrote, speaking
of foot-ball practice, "What is most necessary is that every man should
realize the necessity of faithful and honest work, _every afternoon_."
He put "every afternoon" in italics himself, and he meant that every
foot-ball player who hoped to win in the inter-collegiate foot-ball
games should _stick at it_ until he had made himself as perfect a player
as possible. A victory worth gaining is worth working for, and usually
the hardest-earned victories are the sweetest.

CHAPTER VIII

BRINGING DOWN A GRIZZLY BEAR--BACK TO NEW YORK--APPOINTED A CIVIL
SERVICE COMMISSIONER--THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION

It was while in the Bighorn Mountains that Theodore Roosevelt got his
first shot at a bear. He had been wanting such a chance for a good many
years, but up to that date the bears had kept well out of his sight.

In his writings he has said much about bears, both common and grizzly,
and told of their habits, and how they have been tracked down and shot
at various times of the year. He holds to the opinion that the average
bear would rather run away than fight, yet he tells the story of how one
bear faced the hunter who had shot him, and gave the man one blow with
his powerful paw that proved fatal.

One day his companion of the hunt came riding in with the carcass of a
black bear killed in a network of hollows and ravines some m