My Brother, Theodore RooseveltRobinson, Corinne Roosevelt
History
My Brother, Theodore Roosevelt
Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
In that same home the spirit of the war permeated through the barriers
of love raised around the little children of the nursery, and my aunt
writes of the attitude of the small, yellow-haired boy into whose
childish years came also the distant din of battle, arousing in him the
military spirit which even at four years of age had to take some
expression. She says: “Yesterday Teedie was really excited when I said
to him that I must fit his zouave suit. His little face flushed up and
he said, ‘Are me a soldier laddie too?’ and when I took his suggestion
and said, ‘Yes and I am the Captain,’ he was willing to stand for a
moment or two to be fitted.” Even then Theodore Roosevelt responded
to his country’s call, and equally to the discipline of the superior
officer!
II
GREEN FIELDS AND FOREIGN FARING
From the nursery in 20th Street my early memories turn with even
greater happiness to the country place which my parents rented at
Madison, N. J., called Loantaka, where we spent several summers. There
the joy of a sorrel Shetland pony became ours--(Pony Grant was his
name)--a patriotic effort to commemorate the name of the great general,
still on the lips of every one, whose indomitable will and military
acumen had at that very moment been the chief factor in bringing the
Civil War to a close. I, however, labored under the delusion that he,
the general, was named after the pony, which seemed to me at the time
much the more important of the two personalities. The four-legged Grant
was quite as determined and aggressive as his two-legged namesake, and
he never allowed any of us to be his master. When my father first had
him brought to the front door of the country home at Madison, I shall
never forget the thrill of excitement in the breasts of the three
little children of the nursery. “Who will jump on his back?” called out
my father gaily.
It has always been the pride of my life that, although I was only about
four years old, I begged for the privilege before the “boys” were quite
ready to decide whether to dare the ferocious glance in his dark eyes.
Owing to my temerity he was presented to me, and from that time on was
only a loan to my brothers. Each in turn, however, we would climb on
his back, and each in turn would be repeatedly thrown over his head,
but having shown his ability to eject, he would then, satisfied by
thus proving his superiority, become gentle as a really gentle lamb.
I qualify my reference to lambs, remembering well the singularly
_ungentle_ lamb which later became a pet also in the family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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