"Little boy. 'And then they steamed bang into the monitor.'
"Little girl. 'Brother, don't you sink my monitor!'
"Little boy (without heeding and hurrying toward the climax). 'And
the torpedo went at the monitor!'
"Little girl. 'My monitor is not to sink!'
"Little boy, dramatically; 'And bang the monitor sank!'
"Little girl. 'It didn't do any such thing. My monitor always goes
to bed at seven, and it's now quarter past. My monitor was in bed
and couldn't sink!'" [Footnote: "Autobiography," p. 367.]
CHAPTER XVI
THE GREAT AMERICAN
Death closes all; but something ere the end, Some work of noble
note, may yet be done. ... Tho' much is taken, much abides; and
tho' We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth
and heaven, that which we are, we are,--One equal temper of
heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To
strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
TENNYSON'S Ulysses.
Not many months after Roosevelt came back from South America, the
Great War in Europe broke out. It is but dreaming now to surmise
what might have been done in those fearful days of July 1914, when
the German hordes were gathering for their attack upon the world.
Once before, and singlehanded, this country had made the German
Kaiser halt. Had there been resolution in the White House in 1914,
could all the neutral nations have been rallied at our side, and
could we have spoken in tones so decisive to the Hun that he would
have drawn back even then, have left Belgium unravaged, and spared
the world the misery of the next four years? It may be so; Germany
did not expect to have to take on England as an enemy.
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