50 ROOSEVELT'S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 



At the age of eleven years, yoiiug Roosevelt made a vo3^age 

 across the Atlantic with his father. A boyhood friend, by name 

 George Cromwell, tells several amusing incidents of the Euro- 

 pean voyage. It was a great event in 1869 to cross- the Atlantic, 

 particularly for youngsters, all of them under eleven years of age. 



"As I remember Theodore," recalls Mr. Cromwell, "he was 

 a tall, thin lad, with bright e3^es and legs like pipe-stems. 



"One of the first things I remember about him on that 

 voyage was, that after the ship had got out of sight of land he 

 remarked, half to himself, as he glanced at th(; water, ' I guess 

 there ought to be a good many fish here.' Then an idea sud- 

 denly struck him, and turning to me he said : ' George, go get 

 me a small rope from somewhere, and we'll play a fishing game.' 

 I don't know why I went at once in search of that line, without 

 asking why he didn't go himself; but I went, and it never 

 occurred to me to put the question. He had told me to go, and 

 in such a determined way that it settled the matter. 



A MASTERLY LEADER FROM BOYHOOD. 



" Bven then he was a leader — a masterful, commanding little 

 fellow — who seemed to have a peculiar quality of his own of mak- 

 ing his playmates obey him, not at all because we were afraid, but 

 because we wanted to, and somehow felt sure we would have a good 

 time and get lots of fun if we did as he said. 



" Well, I went after the line and brought it to him. While I 

 was gone on the errand he had thought out all the details of the 

 fishing game, and had climbed on top of a coiled cable ; for, of 

 course, he was to be the fisherman, 



"'Now,' he said, as I handed him the line, 'all you fellows 

 lie down flat on the deck here, and make believe to swim around 

 like fishes. I'll throw one end of the line down to you, and the 

 first fellow that catches hold of it is a fish that has bit my hook. 

 He must just pull as hard as he can, and if he pulls me 

 down off this coil of rope, why, then he will be the fisherman and 

 I will be a fish. But if he lets go, or if I pull him up here off the 

 deck, why I will still be the fisherman. The game is to see how 



