Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/248

218 Do you think"—his eyes twinkled—"you're up to introducing the President of the United States to an audience?"

"He's coming?" Harry cried.

"Yes, he's coming," answered the rector. "We shall expect you to put him at his ease before the audience."

He laughed in his merry, noiseless way at his little joke, laid a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder for a moment, and then walked on.

Harry hastened exultantly to his room and wrote a letter to his mother, in which he gave her the accumulation of good news. "And now you must be sure to come up to the school for that day," he wrote. "It would spoil it all for me if you did n't come. Besides, just think, it may be your only chance to see one of your sons standing up with the President of the United States."

He did not communicate the news to his mother alone. When he had anything interesting in his mind, he was lavish in sharing it; and before nightfall every boy in the school knew that the President was really coming to