Letters to His Children | Page 7

the third week in August or the last week in July, or would you rather
wait until you come back when I can find out something more definite
from Mr. Post?
We very much wished for you while we were at the (Buffalo)
Exposition. By night it was especially beautiful. Alice and I also
wished that you could have been with us when we were out riding at
Geneseo. Major Wadsworth put me on a splendid big horse called
Triton, and sister on a thoroughbred mare. They would jump anything.
It was sister's first experience, but she did splendidly and rode at any
fence at which I would first put Triton. I did not try anything very high,
but still some of the posts and rails were about four feet high, and it
was enough to test sister's seat. Of course, all we had to do was to stick
on as the horses jumped perfectly and enjoyed it quite as much as we
did. The first four or five fences that I went over I should be ashamed
to say how far I bounced out of the saddle, but after a while I began to
get into my seat again. It has been a good many years since I have
jumped a fence.
Mother stopped off at Albany while sister went on to Boston, and I
came on here alone Tuesday afternoon. St. Gaudens, the sculptor, and
Dunne (Mr. Dooley) were on the train and took lunch with us. It was
great fun meeting them and I liked them both. Kermit met me in high
feather, although I did not reach the house until ten o'clock, and he sat

by me and we exchanged anecdotes while I took my supper. Ethel had
put an alarm clock under her head so as to be sure and wake up, but
although it went off she continued to slumber profoundly, as did
Quentin. Archie waked up sufficiently to tell me that he had found
another turtle just as small as the already existing treasure of the same
kind. This morning Quentin and Black Jack have neither of them been
willing to leave me for any length of time. Black Jack simply lies
curled up in a chair, but as Quentin is most conversational, he has
added an element of harassing difficulty to my effort to answer my
accumulated correspondence.
Archie announced that he had seen "the Baltimore orioles catching
fish!" This seemed to warrant investigation; but it turned out he meant
barn swallows skimming the water.

The President not only sent "picture letters" to his own children, but an
especial one to Miss Sarah Schuyler Butler, daughter of Dr. Nicholas
Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, who had written to
him a little note of congratulation on his first birthday in the White
House.
White House, Nov. 3d, 1901.
DEAR LITTLE MISS SARAH,
I liked your birthday note /very/ much; and my children say I should
draw you two pictures in return.
We have a large blue macaw--Quentin calls him a polly-parrot--who
lives in the greenhouse, and is very friendly, but makes queer noises.
He eats bread, potatoes, and coffee grains.
The children have a very cunning pony. He is a little pet, like a dog, but
he plays tricks on them when they ride him.
He bucked Ethel over his head the other day.

Your father will tell you that these are pictures of the UNPOLISHED
STONE PERIOD.
Give my love to your mother.
Your father's friend,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

UNCLE REMUS AND WHITE HOUSE PETS
(To Joel Chandler Harris)
White House, June 9, 1902.
MY DEAR MR. HARRIS:
Your letter was a great relief to Kermit, who always becomes
personally interested in his favorite author, and who has been much
worried by your sickness. He would be more than delighted with a
copy of "Daddy Jake." Alice has it already, but Kermit eagerly wishes
it.
Last night Mrs. Roosevelt and I were sitting out on the porch at the
back of the White House, and were talking of you and wishing you
could be sitting there with us. It is delightful at all times, but I think
especially so after dark. The monument stands up distinct but not quite
earthly in the night, and at this season the air is sweet with the jasmine
and honeysuckle.
All of the younger children are at present absorbed in various pets,
perhaps the foremost of which is a puppy of the most orthodox puppy
type. Then there is Jack, the terrier, and Sailor Boy, the Chesapeake
Bay dog; and Eli, the most gorgeous macaw, with a bill that I think
could bite through boiler plate, who crawls all over Ted, and whom I
view with dark suspicion; and Jonathan, the piebald rat, of most
friendly