add to their troubles, the weather went through "a gamut of changes,"
as Roosevelt wrote subsequently, "with that extraordinary and
inconsequential rapidity which characterizes atmospheric variations on
the plains." The second day out, there was a light snow falling all
day, with a wind blowing so furiously that early in the afternoon they
were obliged to drive the cattle down into a sheltered valley to keep
them overnight. The cold was so intense that even in the sun the water
froze at noon. Forty-eight hours afterwards it was the heat that was
causing them to suffer.

The inland trail which they were following had its disadvantages, for
water for the stock was scarce there, and the third day, after
watering the cattle at noon, Roosevelt and his men drove them along
the very backbone of the divide through barren and forbidding
country. Night came on while they were still many miles from the
string of deep pools which held the nearest water. The cattle were
thirsty and restless, and in the first watch, which Roosevelt shared
with one of his cowboys, when the long northern spring dusk had given
way at last to complete darkness, the thirsty animals of one accord
rose to their feet and made a break for liberty. Roosevelt knew that
the only hope of saving his herd from hopeless dispersion over a
hundred hills lay in keeping the cattle close together at the very
start. He rode along at their side as they charged, as he had never
ridden in his life before. In the darkness he could see only dimly the
shadowy outline of the herd, as with whip and spur he ran his pony
along its edge, turning back the beasts at one point barely in time to
wheel and keep them in at another. The ground was cut up by numerous
gullies, and more than once Roosevelt's horse turned a complete
somersault with his rider. Why he was not killed a half-dozen times
over is a mystery. He was dripping with sweat, and his pony was
quivering like a quaking aspen when, after more than an hour of the
most violent exertion, he and his companion finally succeeded in
quieting the herd.

I have had hard work and a good deal of fun since I came out
[Roosevelt wrote to Lodge on the fifteenth of May].
To-morrow I start for the round-up; and I have just come in
from taking a thousand head of cattle up on the trail. The
weather was very bad and I had my hands full, working night
and day, and being able to take off my clothes but once
du