navy, and he would have entered the Academy at
Annapolis, but that could not be arranged and he threw his whole
energies into the military work.

Now it chanced that Jack's room mate and intimate friend was the son
of a prominent ship builder in the East. This youth was as fond of the
sea as the young Californian. In one respect he was more fortunate,
for his father had presented him with a superb yacht, with which he
had cruised up and down the Atlantic coast and made a trip or two to
the West Indies. I may as well add that this same yacht was placed at
the disposal of our government at the opening of the war with Spain
and did good service in scouting in Cuban waters.

The cadets at West Point have only one vacation during their four
years' course; that comes at the end of two years and lasts for a
couple of months. Jack Starland made a flying visit home and then
accepted the invitation of his room mate to go on a cruise with him in
his yacht. It being in the summer time, the craft headed northward and
visited Newport, Bar Harbor and several other noted resorts on the
Atlantic seaboard.

The excursion was a continual delight to both young men, who, as you
are aware, must have been fine specimens of physical vigor, or they
would not have been in the Military Academy. Jack wrote such a glowing
account of his holiday that his father's heart was touched. He read
the letter to his partner who remarked:

"A good sailor was spoiled when Jack became a soldier."

"I never knew a lad with a stronger liking for a nautical life.
Nothing would have delighted him more than to become a sailor. What
makes me respect Jack, is that with all this overwhelming fondness for
a sailor's life, he has had too much good sense to yield to it. He has
never asked me to allow him to go to sea, but has always placed my
wishes first. Do you know, Teddy, that even when a headlong, impetuous
youngster, he must have withstood temptation with Roman firmness. Of
course for the last year or two no thought of going contrary to my
desires has ever entered his mind."

(Ah, fond parent, you are but a single example of multitudes of
fathers, who have kept their eyes closed to what was going on within
touch of their hands.)

"A father is a poorer judge of his children than others. My love for
Jack is hardly second to yours, but I am not blind to his faults. I am
glad to say that he hasn't any more of them than he is entitled to
have. No father ever ha