path we had about twenty yards of water in front of us. The water was
not very deep, certainly not above our knees, but I had not intended
that there should be any wading in our walk nor had I prepared for it. I
asked if he would mind going through the water, to which, of course, he
replied that he would not. So we went through, got wet, and in the
course of the afternoon got dry again as we walked. Nothing of the same
kind had happened there before; nothing has happened since. I think
there was some magnetism about Colonel Roosevelt's personality which
created incidents.

After going a few miles down the valley we got into our motor, which was
waiting at a village inn, and drove to what is called the New Forest,
though it is more than eight hundred years old. We were now in a country
of wild heath, quite uncultivated, and the part we went through was
mostly natural forest. Here we heard some birds different from any we
had heard in the valley of the Itchen, and got to a little inn standing
on the open heath about nine o'clock in the evening. We had dinner, and
next morning we breakfasted together and went to Southampton, whence
Colonel Roosevelt returned to America.

I am not attempting here a full appreciation of Colonel Roosevelt. He
will be known for all time as one of the great men of America. I am only
giving you this personal recollection as a little contribution to his
memory, as one that I can make from personal knowledge and which is now
known only to myself. His conversation about birds was made interesting
by quotations from poets. He talked also about politics, and in the
whole of his conversation about them there was nothing but the motive of
public spirit and patriotism. I saw enough of him to know that to be
with him was to be stimulated in the best sense of the word for the
work of life. Perhaps it is not yet realised how great he was in the