On January 21, 1910, as he is nearing civilization once more, in a letter dated on the Upper Nile, he writes: “Certainly our trip has been a complete success. If we did not shoot another thing, it would still remain unique, for the great quantity of skins and other scientific specimens collected for the museum; and personally, I do not care if I do not fire off my rifle again. I have enjoyed the trip to the full and feel that it was well worth making. I am naturally overjoyed that I am to see Edith in less than eight weeks, and I shall never go away from her again if I can help it. The ‘Pigskin Library’ continues to be a wellspring of comfort. Darling sister, I love you very much. Your devoted brother.” On March 10, 1910, in another letter dated Upper White Nile, he says: “Darling sister mine: At Gondokoro I found your welcome letter; and on the steamer, descending the 1100 miles to Khartoum, bumping into sand banks, and doing various odd things, I send you this line of answer. “Joe Alsop [my only daughter had just become engaged to Joseph Wright Alsop, of Connecticut] represents to me what I like to think of as the ideal American citizen--pretty strong praise, and I mean every word of it. I should be overjoyed if Ethel married a man like him. He is the big, brave, strong, _good_ man of sound common sense, who works hard _in the country_, who does his duty in politics, who would make a fine type of soldier in civil war. I have always put him in the same class with Bob Ferguson, and with Pinchot, Garfield, Cooley, and the rest of the ‘Tennis Cabinet.’” His “Tennis Cabinet” shared the same warm corner of his heart in which his “Rough Riders” were firmly ensconced! His last letter from the White Nile, March 14, 1910, has in it the foreboding of what was to come. “Ugh!” he writes, “tell Douglas that I hate the prospect of being dragged into politics at home. I don’t like the political outlook.” Even then, although regretting the probability, he realized the imminence of being “dragged into politics at home.”