Camp at Tampa, May 6th, '98.

BLESSED BUNNIES,

It has been a real holiday to have darling mother here. Yesterday I
brought her out to the camp, and she saw it all--the men drilling,
the tents in long company streets, the horses being taken to water, my
little horse Texas, the colonel and the majors, and finally the mountain
lion and the jolly little dog Cuba, who had several fights while she
looked on. The mountain lion is not much more than a kitten as yet, but
it is very cross and treacherous.

I was very much interested in Kermit's and Ethel's letters to-day.

We were all, horses and men, four days and four nights on the cars
coming here from San Antonio, and were very tired and very dirty when we
arrived. I was up almost all of each night, for it happened always to be
at night when we took the horses out of the cars to feed and water them.

Mother stays at a big hotel about a mile from camp. There are nearly
thirty thousand troops here now, besides the sailors from the war-ships
in the bay. At night the corridors and piazzas are thronged with
officers of the army and navy; the older ones fought in the great Civil
War, a third of a century ago, and now they are all going to Cuba to war
against the Spaniards. Most of them are in blue, but our rough-riders
are in brown. Our camp is on a great flat, on sandy soil without a tree,
though round about are pines and palmettos. It is very hot, indeed, but
there are no mosquitoes. Marshall is very well, and he takes care of my
things and of the two horses. A general was out to inspect us when we
were drilling to-day.