Life at the ranch house was of the most primitive nature. Though they had a couple of cows and some chickens, which supplied them with milk and eggs, they lived for the most part on canned fare. At the roundups and during his long rides over the range, and on many hunting trips, Roosevelt had his favorite horse as companion--Manitou. This horse was so fond of him that it used to come up of its own accord to the ranch house and put its head into the door to beg for bread and sugar. When it was not a question of roundup or herding cattle, or driving them to new grazing lands, the men at the ranch house broke in horses, mended their saddles and practised with the rope. Hunting trips broke into regular ranch life. The primitive little sitting-room of the Elkhorn Ranch was adorned with buffalo robes and bearskins of Roosevelt’s own killing; and in winter there was always to be found good reading and a cheery fire. A MAN AMONG MEN Roosevelt brushed elbows in Medora with newly arrived hunters from the plains and mountains, clad in buckskin shirts and fur caps--greasy and unkempt, yet strong and resolute men. Then there were teamsters, in slouch hats and great cowhide boots; stage-drivers with faces like leather; Indians wrapped in blankets; cowboys galloping through the streets. These men had all come to town to obtain relief from the monotony of their occupations or from long periods of peril and hardship, and the only entertainment that awaited them were “flaunting saloons and gawdy hells of all kinds,” to borrow Roosevelt’s own description. Among them moved the “bad men,” professional thieves and man-killers, who owed their lives to their ability to draw their weapons before other men could draw theirs. Roosevelt was deeply interested in these unusual characters and scenes. Indeed, it was to drink in this frank, self-reliant spirit that he had come West. He met these men on their own ground, fearlessly. They saw that, in spite of his eyeglasses, he was a man after their own kind. Often he found himself in places of danger and saw men killed beside him in drunken brawls, yet there was something about him that made bad men pause before they challenged him. Among Roosevelt’s cowboys was a Pueblo Indian who was a bad lot, a Sioux who was faithful and a mulatto who was one of his best men. The men would carry the “brand” of their ranch even in their own nicknames. Thus it would be said that “Bar Y” Harry had married the “Seven Open A” girl. It was when he was thrown into contact day after day with the men of his own ranch that the most severe test of Roosevelt as a “good fellow” came. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD ROOSEVELT IN THE BEAR COUNTRY]