They did play one joke on him, however, but it did not turn out at all as they expected.
Roosevelt's hunting proclivities were well known, for he never missed an opportunity, even on the round-up, to wander up some of the countless coulees with a rifle on his shoulder after deer, or to ride away over the prairies after antelope; and the cowpunchers decided that it would be rather good fun to send him on a wild-goose chase. So they told him with great seriousness of a dozen antelope they had seen five or six miles back, suggesting that he had better go and get one.
He "bit," as they knew he would, and, in spite of the fact that he had had a hard day on the round-up, saddled a horse and rode off in the direction which they had indicated. The cowboys speculated as to the language he would use when he came back.
He was gone several hours, and he had two antelope across his saddle-bow when he rode back into camp.
"I found them all right," he cried, "just a quarter-mile from where you said."
There was a shout from the cowboys. By general consent the joke was declared as not to be on the "four-eyed tenderfoot."
Most of the men sooner or later accepted Roosevelt as an equal, in spite of his toothbrush and his habit of shaving; but there was one man, a surly Texan, who insisted on "picking on" Roosevelt as a dude. Roosevelt laughed. But the man continued, in season and out of season, to make him the butt of his gibes.
It occurred to the object of all this attention that the Texan was evidently under the impression that the "dude" was also a coward. Roosevelt decided that, for the sake of general harmony, that impression had better be corrected at once.
One evening, when the man was being particularly offensive, Roosevelt strode up to him.
"You're talking like an ass!" he said sharply. "Put up or shut up! Fight now, or be friends!"