well as biscuits and cornbread. To my pleasure Mother greatly enjoyed
the fried chicken and admitted that what you children had said of the
way I fried chicken was all true. In the evening we sat out a long
time on the piazza, and then read indoors and then went to bed. Sunday
morning we did not get up until nine. Then I fried Mother some beefsteak
and some eggs in two frying-pans, and she liked them both very much. We
went to church at the dear little church where the Wilmers' father and
mother had been married, dined soon after two at "Plain Dealing," and
then were driven over to the station to go back to Washington. I rode
the big black stallion--Chief--and enjoyed it thoroughly. Altogether we
had a very nice holiday.

I was lucky to be able to get it, for during the past fortnight,
and indeed for a considerable time before, I have been carrying on
negotiations with both Russia and Japan, together with side negotiations
with Germany, France and England, to try to get the present war stopped.
With infinite labor and by the exercise of a good deal of tact and
judgment--if I do say it myself--I have finally gotten the Japanese and
Russians to agree to meet to discuss the terms of peace. Whether they
will be able to come to an agreement or not I can't say. But it is worth
while to have obtained the chance of peace, and the only possible way to
get this chance was to secure such an agreement of the two powers that
they would meet and discuss the terms direct. Of course Japan will want
to ask more than she ought to ask, and Russia to give less than she
ought to give. Perhaps both sides will prove impracticable. Perhaps one
will. But there is the chance that they will prove sensible, and make a
peace, which will really be for the interest of each as things are now.
At any rate the experiment was worth trying. I have kept the secret very
successfully, and my dealings with the Japanese in particular have been
known to no one, so that the result is in the nature of a surprise.

QUENTIN'S QUAINT SAYINGS

Oyster Bay, N. Y., Aug. 26, 1905.

DEAR KERMIT:

Mr. Phil Stewart and Dr. Lambert spent a night here, Quentin greeting
the former with most cordial friendship, and in explanation stating that
he always liked to get acquainted with everybody. I take Hall to chop,
and he plays tennis with Phil and Oliver, and rides with Phil and
Quentin. The Plunger (a submarine) has come to the Bay and I am going
out in it this aftern