forest on one
side or the other of the opening through which we looked.

After studying the city for ten minutes, and wondering a little at its
apparent defenselessness, we pushed on down the western slope of the
ridge to the camp of the Rough Riders, which we found about half a mile
from the Sevilla house, in an open glade, or field, on the right-hand
side of the road. The long grass had been beaten down into such trails
as a bear would make in wandering hither and thither among the dirty
shelter-tents; and following one of these devious paths across the
encampment, we found Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt standing with two or
three other officers in front of a white-cotton rain-sheet, or tent-fly,
stretched across a pole so as to protect from rain, or at least from
vertical rain, a little pile of blankets and personal effects. There was
a camp-chair under the tree, and near it, in the shade, had been slung a
hammock; but, with these exceptions, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt's
quarters were no more comfortable than those of his men. He was dressed
in the costume which he wore throughout the Santiago campaign--a coarse
blue-flannel shirt, wide open at the throat; brown-canvas trousers and
leggings; and a broad-brimmed felt hat put on over a blue polka-dot
handkerchief in such a way that the kerchief hung down, like a havelock,
over the nape of his neck. As he cordially shook hands with me there
flashed into the field of my mental vision a picture of him as I had
seen him last--in full evening dress, making a speech at the Fellowcraft
Club in New York, and expressing, in a metaphor almost pictorially
graphic, his extremely unfavorable opinion of the novels of Edgar
Saltus. In outward appearance there was little resemblance between the
Santiago Rough Rider and the orator of the Fellowcraft Club; but the
force, vigor, and strength of the personality were so much more striking
than the dress in which it happened, for the moment, to be clothed, that
there seemed to be really no difference between my latest recollection
and my present impression of the man.

We were presented to Colonel (now General) Wood, who seemed to me to be
a man of quiet manner but great reserve power, and for twenty minutes we
discussed the fight at Guasimas,--which Roosevelt said he would not have
missed for the best year in his life,--the road, the campaign, and the
latest news from the United States. Then, as it was getting late in the
afternoon and w