uncher and is still riding the range in
northwestern Nebraska. When I knew him he was a tremendous fighting man,
but always liked me. Twice I had to interfere to prevent him from half
murdering cowboys from my own ranch. I had him at lunch, with a mixed
company of home and foreign notabilities.

Don't worry about the lessons, old boy. I know you are studying hard.
Don't get cast down. Sometimes in life, both at school and afterwards,
fortune will go against any one, but if he just keeps pegging away and
doesn't lose his courage things always take a turn for the better in the
end.

WINTER LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

White House, Dec. 17, 1904.

BLESSED KERMIT:

For a week the weather has been cold--down to zero at night and rarely
above freezing in the shade at noon. In consequence the snow has lain
well, and as there has been a waxing moon I have had the most delightful
evening and night rides imaginable. I have been so busy that I have been
unable to get away until after dark, but I went in the fur jacket Uncle
Will presented to me as the fruit of his prize money in the Spanish War;
and the moonlight on the glittering snow made the rides lovelier than
they would have been in the daytime. Sometimes Mother and Ted went with
me, and the gallops were delightful. To-day it has snowed heavily again,
but the snow has been so soft that I did not like to go out, and
besides I have been worked up to the limit. There has been skating and
sleigh-riding all the week.

The new black "Jack" dog is becoming very much at home and very fond of
the family.

With Archie and Quentin I have finished "The Last of the Mohicans," and
have now begun "The Deerslayer." They are as cunning as ever, and this
reading to them in the evening gives me a chance to see them that I
would not otherwise have, although sometimes it is rather hard to get
time.

Mother looks very young and pretty. This afternoon she was most busy,
taking the little boys to the theatre and then going to hear Ethel sing.
Ted, very swell in his first tail coat, is going out to take supper at
Secretary Morton's, whose pretty daughter is coming out to-night.

In a very few days now we shall see you again.

PLAYMATE OF THE CHILDREN

(To Mr. and Mrs. Emlen Roosevelt)

White House, Jan. 4, 1905.

I am really touched at the way in which your children as well as my own
treat me as a friend and playmate. It has its comic side. Thus, the last
day the boys were here