“At 7:30 on the following morning the newspaper man at Oyster Bay rang the bell at Sagamore Hill. The Colonel came to the door. There was no need to speak. The two walked to the old-fashioned veranda of the Roosevelt house. And there, with the early morning breezes sweeping from the Sound, the Colonel heard the positive confirmation of the tragedy of the trenches--that the previous night’s cablegrams had been too cruelly verified. For a long space the Colonel walked in silence, his brow furrowed. Then, turning to his companion, he said: “But--Mrs. Roosevelt! How am I going to break it to her?” It was of his wife and not of himself that the Colonel thought and pondered. Abruptly he turned back to the house--to face the hardest task of his life. For the first time death had entered the intimate Roosevelt family circle. A few hours later the newspaper man saw the Colonel again. With him was Mrs. Roosevelt, with eyes bright and voice steady. Yet it was plain that she had been told. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD ROOSEVELT’S SERVICE STARS] Thus, with telegrams and cablegrams of sympathy flooding the little Oyster Bay office by thousands, the father and mother of the boy who had given his life above the lines--received the news that their youngest born would never return.” The only public statement Colonel Roosevelt made concerning Quentin’s death was in every way typical of the man: “Quentin’s mother and I are very glad that he got to the front and had a chance to render some service to his country and show the stuff that was in him before his fate befell him.” Quentin lies buried in France. There his body will remain. No formal treaty our country could make with France would be as eloquent of the good will that exists and will continue to exist between these two great republics as the fact that in French soil lie the bodies of Americans who fought and died in the common cause of humanity. Thus Quentin’s father thought; thus the world thinks. The following letter from Colonel Roosevelt to General March, while respecting the wishes of those parents who want the bodies of their boys brought home, carried a message of comfort and agreement to those parents who desired their dead soldier sons to remain in the resting places prepared for them near the field of battle by their comrades: My Dear General March: The inclosed clipping states that all the American dead will be taken home after the war, according to orders received by the army chaplains. I do not know whom to write to in the matter, so I merely ask that you turn this over to whomever has charge of it. Mrs. Roosevelt and I wish to enter a most respectful but most emphatic protest against the proposed course so far as our son Quentin is concerned. We have always believed that Where the tree falls, There let it lie.