Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/262

232 in front of her, the little girl looked wonderingly up at the President, who gazed straight ahead with a faint smile.

Rupert took a step forward. He did not look like a great athlete. His clothes hung loose upon his shrunken figure, his face was pale, and as he spoke his voice was thin and rather tremulous.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and boys of St. Timothy's School," he said, "I have the great honor of presenting to you the President of the United States."

The applause lasted only a moment. Every one was too eager to hear the President speak. He turned first to Rupert.

"Mr. President," he said, and bowed, "ladies and gentlemen, and boys. I was very much impressed this afternoon with a little story that your rector told me while I was looking on at your sports. It was the story of a boy who might, if all had gone well, have been a leader in these sports,—a boy who was perhaps the best athlete in this school, which has, as I have seen to-day, so many athletes,—but a boy who