eodore Roosevelt often showed that self-reliance for
which he has since become famous. To every study that he took up he
applied himself closely, and if he was not at the head of the class, he
was by no means near the foot. When he was sure of a thing, no amount of
argument could convince him that he was wrong, and he did not hesitate
at times to enter into a discussion even with some of the professors
over him.

Although a close student, and also a good all-round athlete, Theodore
Roosevelt did not forget his social opportunities. Boston was but a
short distance from his rooms in Cambridge, and thither he often went to
visit the people he had met or to whom he had letters of introduction.
He was always welcome, for his manner was a winning one, and he usually
had something to tell that was of interest--something of what he had
seen or done, of the next foot-ball or base-ball game, of the coming
boat races, of his driving or exploring, or of how he had added a new
stuffed bird to his collection, or a new lizard, and of how a far-away
friend had sent him a big turtle as a souvenir of an ocean trip in the
South Seas. There is a story that this big turtle got loose one night
and alarmed the entire household by crawling through the hallway,
looking for a pond or mud-hole in which to wallow. At first the turtle
was mistaken for a burglar, but he soon revealed himself by his angry
snapping, and it was hard work making him a prisoner once more.

CHAPTER III

MARRIES MISS ALICE LEE--TRAVELS IN EUROPE--BOLD
MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING--STUDYING LAW IN NEW YORK--ELECTED TO THE
ASSEMBLY--PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE ENEMY

It was a proud and happy day for Theodore Roosevelt when, in the summer
of 1880, he was graduated from Harvard. He took scholarly as well as
social honors, and came forth a Phi Beta Kappa man. His fellow-students
wished him well, and his family greeted him most affectionately.

Yet with it all there was just a bit of melancholy in this breaking away
from a place that had been as a second home to him for four long years.
The students were scattering to the four points of the compass, and he
might never see some of them again. But others were there whom he was to
meet later, and who were destined to march under him up the bullet-swept
slopes of San Juan in far-away Cuba. But at that time there was no
thought of war and carnage, only good-fellowship, with addresses and
orations, music, flying flags, and huge bonf