und to
lead the daring cowboys to a seat of war and no commander
would have more effective troops.

The war cloud blew over. Roosevelt evidently received a letter from
Lodge explaining that the Mexican incident was of a trivial nature,
for, on the 20th of August, he wrote him rather apologetically:

I wrote as regards Mexico _qua_ cowboy, not _qua_ statesman;
I know little of the question, but conclude Bayard is wrong,
for otherwise it would be phenomenal; he ought to be
idolized by the mugwumps. If a war had come off, I would
surely have had behind me as utterly reckless a set of
desperadoes as ever sat in the saddle.

It is no use saying that I would like a chance at something
I thought I could really do; at present I see nothing
whatever ahead. However, there is the hunting in the fall,
at any rate.

The season which began with Finnegan and Company was richer in varied
experiences than it was in financial returns. Roosevelt recognized
that there were already too many cattlemen in the business to make
large profits possible.

In certain sections of the West [he told a reporter of the
Mandan _Pioneer_ in July] the losses this year are enormous,
owing to the drought and overstocking. Each steer needs from
fifteen to twenty-five acres, but they are crowded on very
much thicker, and the cattlemen this season have paid the
penalty. Between the drought, the grasshoppers, and the late
frosts, ice forming as late as June 10th, there is not a
green thing in all the region I have been over. A stranger
would think a donkey could not live there. The drought has
been very bad throughout the region, and there is not a
garden in all of it.

Sewall was aware of that fact to his sorrow, for the garden he himself
had planted and tended with infinite care had died between dawn and
dusk on that memorable Fourth of July on which Roosevelt addressed the
citizens of Dickinson.

They say dry years are best for cattle [he wrote his
brother]. If so, this must be a nice one and they do seem to
be doing well so far, but if we have much snow next winter
it looks to me as if they would have short picking.

The prospect was not engaging. But, though Roosevelt was not getting
much financial return on his rather generous investment, he was
getting other things, for him at this time of far greater value. He