e seas at the end of the nineteenth century. The winning of all
these islands was an event of the greatest importance to the United
States. It gave this country a broad foothold on the seas and a new
outlook over the earth. Some of the proud nations of Europe had looked
on this country as an American power only, with no voice in world
affairs. But when Uncle Sam set his left foot on the Hawaiian Islands,
in the Central Pacific, and his right foot on the Philippine Islands,
near the coast of Asia, these powers of Europe opened their eyes and
began to get new ideas about the great republic of the West. It was
plain that the United States had become a world power, and that when
the game of empire was to be played the western giant must be asked to
take a hand.

This was seen soon after, when China began to murder missionaries and
try to drive all white people from its soil. For the first time in
history the United States joined hands with Europe in an Old World
quarrel, and it was made evident that the world could not be cut up and
divided among the powers without asking permission from Uncle Sam. But
fortunately Uncle Sam wants to keep out of war.

And now we are near the end of our long journey. We have traveled
together for more than four hundred years, from the time of Columbus to
the present day, looking at the interesting facts of our country's
history, and following its growth from a tiny seed planted in the
wilderness to a giant tree whose branches are beginning to overshadow
the earth. We have read about what our fathers did in the times that are
no more. We have learned something of what has been taking place during
our own lives. There is a new history before us in which we shall live
and act and of which our own doings will form part. A new century, the
twentieth, has opened before us, and it only remains to tell what our
country has done in the few years that have passed of this century.

CHAPTER XXVII

HOW A HUNTER BECAME PRESIDENT

I THINK it very likely that all, or nearly all, who read this book were
born before the new century--the one we call the twentieth--began. It is
a young century still. Yet there has been time enough for many things to
take place in the country we call our own. Some of these you may
remember. Others many of you were too young to know much about. So it is
my purpose here to bring the story of our country up to the present
time.

[Illustration: ROOSEVELT SURPRISED BY A