t does get in,
am afraid there will be a shortness somewhere. The men that
furnish the money are not many of them here themselves and
the fellows that run the business and are supposed to know,
all look for a very prosperous future, consider the troubles
and discouragements, losses, etc., _temporary_. They are
like us--_getting good and sure pay_.

Roosevelt recognized the possibility of great losses; but he would
have been less than human if in that youthful atmosphere of gorgeous
expectation he had not seen the possibilities of failure less vividly
than the possibilities of success. Sylvane and Merrifield were
confident that they were about to make their everlasting fortunes;
George Myers invested every cent of his savings in cattle, "throwing
them in," as the phrase went, with the herd of the Maltese Cross. In
their first year the Maltese Cross "outfit" had branded well over a
hundred calves; the losses, in what had been a severe winter, had been
slight. It was a season of bright hopes. Late in April, Roosevelt sent
Merrifield to Minnesota with Sewall and Dow and a check for twelve
thousand five hundred dollars to purchase as many more head of stock
as the money would buy.

Roosevelt, meanwhile, was proving himself as capable as a ranchman as
he was courageous as an investor. The men who worked with him noted
with satisfaction that he learned quickly and worked hard; that he was
naturally progressive; that he cared little for money, and yet was
thrifty; that, although conferring in all matters affecting the stock
with Sylvane and Merrifield, and deferring to their experience even at
times against his own judgment, he was very much the leader. He was
never "bossy," they noted, but he was insistent on discipline, on
regularity of habits, on prompt obedience, on absolute integrity.

He was riding over the range one day with one of his ablest
cowpunchers, when they came upon a "maverick," a two-year-old steer,
which had never been branded. They lassoed him promptly and built a
fire to heat the branding-irons.

It was the rule of the cattlemen that a "maverick" belonged to the
ranchman on whose range it was found. This particular steer,
therefore, belonged, not to Roosevelt, but to Gregor Lang, who
"claimed" the land over which Roosevelt and his cowboy were riding.
The Texan started to apply the red-hot iron.

"It is Lang's brand--a thistle," said Roosevelt.

"That's all right, boss,"