the
politicians were after him, at Oyster Bay where he was building a new
house, and at Chestnut Hill near Boston, which was closely connected
with the memories of his brief married life. Everywhere the reporters
tried to extract from him some expression on the political campaign,
but on that subject he was reticent. He issued a statement in Boston,
declaring his intention to vote the Republican ticket, but further
than that he refused to commit himself. But he talked of the Bad Lands
to any one who would listen.

I like the West and I like ranching life [he said to a
reporter of the New York _Tribune_ who interviewed him at
his sister's house a day or two before his return to
Dakota]. On my last trip I was just three weeks at the ranch
and just twenty-one days, of sixteen hours each, in the
saddle, either after cattle, taking part in the "round-up,"
or hunting. It would electrify some of my friends who have
accused me of representing the kid-gloved element in
politics if they could see me galloping over the plains, day
in and day out, clad in a buckskin shirt and leather
chaparajos, with a big sombrero on my head. For good,
healthy exercise I would strongly recommend some of our
gilded youth to go West and try a short course of riding
bucking ponies, and assist at the branding of a lot of Texas
steers.

There is something charmingly boyish in his enthusiasm over his own
manly valor and his confidence in its "electrifying" effect.

Roosevelt wrote to Sewall immediately after his arrival in the East,
telling him that he would take him West with him. Toward the end of
July, Sewall appeared in New York with his stalwart nephew in tow. The
contract they entered into with Roosevelt was merely verbal. There was
to be a three-year partnership. If business were prosperous, they were
to have a share in it. If it were not, they were to have wages,
whatever happened.

"What do you think of that, Bill?" asked Roosevelt.

"Why," answered Bill in his slow, Maine way, "I think that's a
one-sided trade. But if you can stand it, I guess we can."

That was all there was to the making of the contract. On the 28th the
three of them started westward.

In the cattle country, meanwhile, things had been happening. Shortly
after Roosevelt's departure for the East, Granville Stuart had
gathered his clans, and, suddenly and without warning, his bolt from
the blu