somewhat disappointed, for at the very beginning of luncheon Uncle Ted leaned across me to Mr. Burroughs and said: ‘John, this morning I heard a chippy sparrow, and he sang twee, twee, right in my ear.’ Mr. Burroughs, with a shade of disapproval on his face, said: ‘Mr. President, you must be mistaken. It was not a _chippy_ sparrow if it sang twee, twee. The note of the _chippy_ sparrow is twee, twee, twee.’ From that moment the great affairs of our continent, the international crises of all kinds were utterly forgotten, while the President of the United States and his esteemed guest, the great naturalist, discussed with a good deal of asperity whether that chippy sparrow had said ‘twee, twee,’ or ‘twee, twee, twee.’ We rose from the table with the question still unsettled.” My brother always loved to hear my daughter tell this story, although his face would assume a somewhat sheepish expression as she dilated on the difference between her mother’s prognostications of what a luncheon at the White House would mean from an intellectual standpoint, and what the realization actually became! In spite of my daughter’s experience, however, I can say with truth that there never were such luncheons as those luncheons at the White House during my brother’s life there. The secretary of state, Mr. Elihu Root, with his unusual knowledge, his pregnant wit, and quiet, brilliant sarcasm; the secretary of war, Mr. Taft, with his gay smile and ready response; Mr. Moody, the attorney-general with his charming culture and universal kindliness, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the brilliant scholar and statesman, my brother’s most intimate friend and constant companion, were frequent members of the luncheon-parties, and always, the most distinguished visitor to Washington, from whatever country or from whatever State of our own country, would be brought in with the same informal hospitality and received for the time being by President and Mrs. Roosevelt into the intimacy of family life. The whole cabinet would occasionally adjourn from one of their most important meetings to the lunch-table, and then the President and Mr. Root would cap each other’s stories of the way in which this or that question had been discussed during the cabinet meeting. I doubt also if ever there were quite such cabinet meetings as were held during those same years!