an those eaten out on the prairie."

Dinner over, the work of branding and selecting could be done.
Sometimes Mr. Roosevelt spent twenty-four hours at a stretch in the
saddle, dismounting only to get a fresh pony. He did everything that
his men did, and endured the hardship as well as the pleasure of
ranch life. Often during the round-up he slept in the snow, wrapped in
blankets, with no tent to shield him from the freezing cold.

Although he kept Elkhorn Ranch for twelve years he gradually quit the
cattle business and spent more and more time in New York City where he
entered political life.

But his vacations always found him in the West where his greatest
pleasure was hunting. He hunted all over his ranch and through the
Rocky Mountains beyond. Frequently he would go off alone with only a
slicker, some hardtack, and salt behind his saddle, and his horse and
rifle as his only companions. Once he had no water to drink for
twenty-four hours and then had to use some from a muddy pool. But such
adventures were sport for him, and he liked to see how much exposure
he could stand. Then he would return to the East, rested and
refreshed.

When war between Spain and the United States was declared in 1898, Mr.
Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned this
office, saying, "I must get into the fight myself. It is a just war
and the sooner we meet it, the better. Now that it has come I have no
right to ask others to do the fighting while I stay at home."

He decided to raise a regiment made up of men he had known in the
West, together with adventure loving Easterners, and call them his
"Rough Riders." He borrowed the name from the circus. The idea set
the country aflame, and within a month the regiment was raised,
equipped, and on Cuban soil. There was never a stranger group of men
gathered together. Cowboys and Indians rode with eastern college boys
and New York policemen. They were all ready to follow their leader,
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt. They were full-blooded Americans. They
believed in their country, and they obeyed their leader, not because
they had to do so but because it was right that they should obey.

The most important battle in which the Rough Riders engaged was that
of San Juan Hill, July 1 and 2, 1898. This helped to decide the war.
Roosevelt led the charge. His horse became entangled in a barb wire
fence, but he jumped off, ran ahead, and still kept in front of his
men. He lived up to