Twenty-nine years later my four friends of that night were delegates to the First Progressive National Convention at Chicago.

They were among my most constant companions for the few years next succeeding the evening when the bobcat interrupted the game of old sledge.

I lived and worked with them on the ranch, and with them and many others like them on the round-up; and I brought out from Maine, in order to start the Elkhorn ranch lower down the river, my two backwoods friends Sewall and Dow.

My brands for the lower ranch were the elkhorn and triangle.
I do not believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous young fellow than life on a cattle ranch in those days.

It was a fine, healthy life, too; it taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision--in short, the virtues that ought to come from life in the open country.