Bully!

Reading Edmund Morris's exceptional Theodore Rex, which captures Theodore Roosevelt's two terms as President. More overall later. But I had to share one short exerpt that caused me to burst out laughing.

The passage begins at 2:00am at Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt's family estate on Oyster Bay, NY. Roosevelt and his War Secretary Elihu Root have just finished a meeting and are smoking cigars:

Below them, Root's naval transport lay black on the moonlit water. Father off floated another recent arrival...Roosevelt's own official vessel, USS Mayflower...with its twelve guns and white-and-gold reception rooms. He looked forward to a tour of inspection in the morning.

About five hours later, sailors were swabbing the Mayflower's decks, and its officers were dressing below, when a rowboat began to splash across the bay. Pulling the oars was a stocky man in a sleeveless swimsuit. The sailors paid no attention until there was a creaking of the gangway ladder, and the President appeared beaming in their midst.

"Bully! Bully!" Roosevelt exclaimed, as he rushed around admiring fixtures and fittings. By the time the officers came on deck in their hastily buttoned tunics, he was already rowing back to Sagamore Hill for breakfast.