ROOSEVELT’S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 
51 
many fish each of us can land up here. The one who catches the 
most fish wins.’ 
“ The rest of us lay down fiat on our stomachs,” Mr. Crom¬ 
well says, in continuation of his narrative, “ and made believe to 
swim ; and Theodore, standing above us on the coiled cable, threw 
down one end of his line—a thin but strong rope. If I remember 
correctly, my brother was the first fish to grasp the line—and then 
commenced a mighty struggle. It seemed to be much easier for 
the fish to pull the fisherman down than for the fisherman to haul 
up the dead weight of a pretty heavy boy lying fiat on the deck 
below him—and I tell you it was a pretty hard struggle. My 
brother held on to the line with both hands and wrapped his legs 
around it, grapevine fashion. Theodore braced his feet on the 
coiled cable, stiffened his back, shut his teeth hard, and wound his 
end of the line around his waist. At first he tried by sheer mus¬ 
cle to pull the fish up—but he soon found it was hard work to lift 
up a boy about as heavy as himself. 
THE FISH CAUGHT BY STRATEGY. 
Then another bright idea struck him. He pulled less and 
less, and at last ceased trying to pull at all. Of course the fish 
thought the firshermaii was tired out, and he commenced to pull, 
hoping to get Theodore down on deck. He didn’t succeed at first, 
and pulled all the harder. He rolled over on his back, then on 
his side, then sat up, all the time pulling and twisting and yanking 
at the line in every possible way; and that was just what Theodore 
hoped the fish would do. You see, all this time, while my brother 
was using his strength, Theodore simply stood still, braced like 
steel, and let him tire himself out. 
“Before very long the fish was so out of breath that he couldn’t 
pull any longer. Besides, the thin rope had cut his hands and 
made them sore. Then the fisherman commenced slowly and 
steadily to pull on the line, and in a very few minutes he had my 
brother hauled up alongside of him on the coil of cable.” 
The elder Roosevelt was a firm believer in hard work, and 
made this a part of the science he knew so well—the science of 
