vely, and with, certainly, very great justice, that
early Puritanism "must have been darned rough on the kids."
He evidently sympathized keenly with the feelings of the
poor little "examples of original sin."

Roosevelt spent all his time at the Maltese Cross and went to Medora
only for his mail. The quiet of winter had descended upon the wild
little town. The abattoir was closed for the season, the butchers (who
did their part in enlivening the neighborhood) had gone East, the
squad of carpenters was silent. There was nothing for anybody to do
except to drink, which the citizens of Medora did to the satisfaction
of even the saloon-keepers.

Roosevelt had planned all the autumn to go on a hunting trip with
Merrifield after mountain sheep, but his departure had been delayed by
Sylvane's return with the horses, and the need for all hands in the
"outfit" in the arduous undertaking of preparing their free spirits
for the obligations of civilization. It was well toward the middle of
December before they were able to make a start. Roosevelt sent George
Myers ahead with the buckboard and himself followed on horseback with
Merrifield. It was a savage piece of country through which their
course took them.

There were tracts of varying size [Roosevelt wrote later
describing that trip], each covered with a tangled mass of
chains and peaks, the buttes in places reaching a height
that would in the East entitle them to be called mountains.
Every such tract was riven in all directions by deep chasms
and narrow ravines, whose sides sometimes rolled off in
gentle slopes, but far more often rose as sheer cliffs, with
narrow ledges along their fronts. A sparse growth of grass
covered certain portions of these lands, and on some of the
steep hillsides, or in the canyons, were scanty groves of
coniferous evergreens, so stunted by the thin soil and bleak
weather that many of them were bushes rather than trees.
Most of the peaks and ridges, and many of the valleys, were
entirely bare of vegetation, and these had been cut by wind
and water into the strangest and most fantastic shapes.
Indeed, it is difficult, in looking at such formations, to
get rid of the feeling that their curiously twisted and
contorted forms are due to some vast volcanic upheavals or
other subterranean forces; yet they are merely caused by the
action of