me for taking them. Now there I was with a
leaky boat and under the circumstances what was I
two do, two ask you for help, the answer I expected
two get was two look down the mouth of a
Winchester. I saw your boat and made up my mind two
get possession of it. I was bound two get out of
that country cost what it might, when people talk
lynch law and threaten a persons life, I think that
it is about time to leave. I did not want to go
back up river on the account that I feared a
mob.... I have read a good many of your sketches of
ranch life in the papers since I have been here,
and they interested me deeply. Yours sincerely.

&c.

P.S. Should you stop over at Bismarck this fall
make a call to the Prison. I should be glad to meet
you.]

XXIII

Oh, I am a Texas cowboy, light-hearted, brave, and free,
To roam the wide, wide prairie, 'tis always joy to me.
My trusty little pony is my companion true,
O'er creeks and hills and rivers he's sure to pull me through.

When threatening clouds do gather and herded lightnings flash,
And heavy rain drops splatter, and rolling thunders crash;
What keeps the herds from running, stampeding far and wide?
The cowboy's long, low whistle and singing by their side.

_Cowboy song_

By a curious coincidence the culmination of Roosevelt's dramatic
exposition of the meaning of government by law coincided in point of
time precisely with the passing of the Bad Lands out of a state of
primeval lawlessness into a condition resembling organized government.

Since the preceding summer, Packard had, in the columns of the
_Cowboy_, once more been agitating for the organization of Billings
County. The conditions, which in the past had militated against the
proposal, were no longer potent. The lawless element was still large,
but it was no longer in the majority. For a time a new and naive
objection made itself widely heard. The stock-growers protested that
if the county were organized, they would be taxed! The Mandan
_Pioneer_ explained that, according to the laws of Dakota Territory,
the nearest organized county was authorized to tax