Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen. 1904.
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toward the hill with the cedars, where the soil is warm and full of white pebbles, and it is nice to lie in the grass when strawberries are ripe.
Roses were blooming still, and heliotrope and sweet alyssum, in Mrs. Roosevelt’s garden, and down at the foot of the long lawn a wild vine crept caressingly over the stone that marks the resting-place of the children’s pets. “Faithful Friends” is hewn in its rough face, with the names of “Susie,” “Jessie,” and “Boz.” How many rabbits, rats, and guinea-pigs keep them company in their ghostly revels I shall not say. No one knows unless it be Kermit, who has his own ways and insists upon decent but secret burial as among the inalienable rights of defunct pets. It was his discovery, one day in the White House, that a rabbit belonging to Archie lay unburied in the garden a whole day after its demise, which brought about a court-martial in the nursery. Ted, the oldest brother, was Judge-Advocate-General, and his judgment was worthy of a Solomon.
“It was Archie’s rabbit,” he said gravely, when all the evidence was in, “and it is Archie’s funeral. Let him have it in peace.”
