first thought the snakes were
wooden ones, and there was some perceptible recoil when they realized
that they were alive. Then the king snake went up Quentin's sleeve--he
was three or four feet long--and we hesitated to drag him back because
his scales rendered that difficult. The last I saw of Quentin, one
Congressman was gingerly helping him off with his jacket, so as to let
the snake crawl out of the upper end of the sleeve.

In the fall of 1907 the President made a tour through the West and
South and went on a hunting-trip in Louisiana. In accordance with
his unvarying custom he wrote regularly to his children while on his
journeyings.

TRIALS OF A TRAVELLING PRESIDENT

On Board U. S. S. _Mississippi_, October 1, 1907.

DEAREST ETHEL:

The first part of my trip up to the time that we embarked on the river
at Keokuk was just about in the ordinary style. I had continually to
rush out to wave at the people at the towns through which the train
passed. If the train stopped anywhere I had to make a very short speech
to several hundred people who evidently thought they liked me, and whom
I really liked, but to whom I had nothing in the world to say. At Canton
and Keokuk I went through the usual solemn festivities--the committee of
reception and the guard of honor, with the open carriage, the lines of
enthusiastic fellow-citizens to whom I bowed continually right and left,
the speech which in each case I thought went off rather better than I
had dared hope--for I felt as if I had spoken myself out. When I got
on the boat, however, times grew easier. I still have to rush out
continually, stand on the front part of the deck, and wave at groups
of people on shore, and at stern-wheel steamboats draped with American
flags and loaded with enthusiastic excursionists. But I have a great
deal of time to myself, and by gentle firmness I think I have succeeded
in impressing on my good hosts that I rather resent allopathic doses of
information about shoals and dykes, the amount of sand per cubic foot of
water, the quantity of manufactures supplied by each river town, etc.

CHANGES OF THREE CENTURIES

On Board U. S. S. _Mississippi_, October 1, 1907.

DEAR KERMIT:

After speaking at Keokuk this morning we got aboard this brand new
stern-wheel steamer of the regular Mississippi type and started
down-stream. I went up on the texas and of course felt an almost
irresistible desire to ask the pilot about Mark Twain. It