The Happy Hunting-Grounds

Arab sheikhs who had ridden in, camel-back, from the desert to pay their respects
The Happy Hunting-Grounds
By Kermit Roosevelt Author of “War in the Garden of Eden”
Illustrated from Photographs by the Author
London Hodder & Stoughton 1920
Copyright, 1912, 1920, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, for the United States of America
Printed by the Scribner Press New York, U. S. A.
TO THE MISTRESS OF SAGAMORE
I The Happy Hunting-Grounds

There is a universal saying to the effect that it is when men are off in the wilds that they show themselves as they really are. As is the case with the majority of proverbs there is much truth in it, for without the minor comforts of life to smooth things down, and with even the elemental necessities more or less problematical, the inner man has an unusual opportunity of showing himself—and he is not always attractive. A man may be a pleasant companion when you always meet him clad in dry clothes, and certain of substantial meals at regulated intervals, but the same cheery individual may seem a very different person when you are both on half rations, eaten cold, and have been drenched for three days—sleeping from utter exhaustion, cramped and wet.
My father had done much hunting with many and varied friends. I have often heard him say of some one whom I had thought an ideal hunting companion: “He’s a good fellow, but he was always fishing about in the pot for the best piece of meat, and if there was but one partridge shot, he would try to roast it for himself. If there was any delicacy he wanted more than his share.” Things assume such different proportions in the wilds; after two months living on palm-tree tops and monkeys, a ten-cent can of condensed milk bought for three dollars from a rubber explorer far exceeds in value the greatest delicacy of the season to the ordinary citizen who has a varied and sufficient menu at his command every day in the year.