The birds interested him more, especially a tiny owl, the size of a robin, which we saw perched on the top of a tree, in mid-afternoon, entirely uninfluenced by the sun, and making a queer noise like a cork being pulled from a bottle. I was rather ashamed to find how much better his eyes were than mine, in seeing the birds and grasping their differences. _Theodore Roosevelt_ THE BIG STICK I saw in Roosevelt a strong man, who had taken early to heart Hamlet’s maxim, and had steadfastly practised it:-- “_Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When Honour’s at the stake._” He himself summed up this part of his philosophy in a phrase which has become a proverb:-- “_Speak softly; but carry a big stick._” More than once in his later years, he quoted this to me, adding, that it was precisely because this or that Power knew that he carried a big stick, that he was enabled to speak softly with effect. _William Roscoe Thayer_ (_Condensed_) A-HUNTING TREES WITH JOHN MUIR _From Roosevelt’s Autobiography_ When I first visited California, it was my good fortune to see the “big trees,” the Sequoias, and then to travel down into the Yosemite with John Muir. Of course, of all people in the world, he was the one with whom it was best worth while thus to see the Yosemite.... John Muir met me with a couple of packers and two mules to carry our tent, bedding, and food for a three days’ trip. The first night was clear, and we lay down in the darkening aisles of the great Sequoia grove. The majestic trunks, beautiful in colour and in symmetry, rose round us like the pillars of a mightier cathedral than ever was conceived even by the fervour of the Middle Ages. Hermit thrushes sang beautifully in the evening, and again with a burst of wonderful music at dawn. I was interested and a little surprised to find that, unlike John Burroughs, John Muir cared little for birds or bird songs, and knew little about them. The hermit thrushes meant nothing to him, the trees and the flowers and the cliffs, everything. The only birds he noticed or cared for, were some that were very conspicuous, such as the water-ousels--always particular favourites of mine too. The second night, we camped in a snow-storm on the edge of the cañon walls, under the spreading limbs of a grove of mighty silver fir. And next day, we went down into the wonderland of the Valley itself. I shall always be glad that I was in the Yosemite with John Muir, and in the Yellowstone with John Burroughs. _Theodore Roosevelt_ (_Condensed_) THE BEAR HUNTERS’ DINNER _From Roosevelt’s Autobiography_ When wolf-hunting in Texas, and when bear-hunting in Louisiana and Mississippi, I was not only enthralled by the sport but also by the strange new birds and other creatures, and the trees and flowers I had not known before.