t, was one of a family of four.
He had a brother Elliott and two sisters. His brother was several years
younger than himself, but much more robust, and would probably have
lived many years and have distinguished himself, had he not met death in
a railroad accident while still a young man.

In the years when Theodore Roosevelt was a boy, New York City was not
what it is to-day. The neighborhood in which he lived was, as I have
already mentioned, a fashionable one, and the same may be said of many
other spots near to Union Square, where tall business blocks were yet
unknown. The boys and girls loved to play in the little park and on the
avenue, and here it was that the rather delicate schoolboy grew to know
Edith Carew, who lived in Fourteenth Street and who was his school
companion. Little did they dream in those days, as they played together,
that one day he would be President and she his loving wife, the mistress
of the White House.

Mr. Roosevelt was a firm believer in public institutions, and he did not
hesitate to send his children to the public schools, especially his
boys, that they might come in direct personal contact with the great
outside world. So to a near-by institution of learning Theodore and
Elliott trudged day after day, with their school-books under their arms,
just as thousands of other schoolboys are doing to-day. But in those
days there were few experiments being tried in the schools, and manual
training and the like were unknown. The boys were well grounded in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as spelling, history, and
geography, and there was great excitement when a "spelling-bee" was in
progress, to see who could spell the rest of the class or the gathering
down.

It is said upon good authority that Theodore Roosevelt was a model
scholar from the start. He loved to read Cooper's "Leatherstocking
Tales," and works of travel, and preferred books above anything else.
But when he found that constant studying was ruining his constitution,
he determined to build himself up physically as well as mentally.

In the summer time the family often went to the old Roosevelt "out of
town" mansion on Long Island. This was called "Tranquillity," a fine
large place near Oyster Bay, set in a grove of beautiful trees. The
journey to "Tranquillity" was in those days a tedious one, but the
Roosevelt children did not mind it, and once at the old place they were
certain of a good time so long as their vacati