o Mrs. Lincoln
accepting the invitation for Budd and Hally, provided the truants
should be found! While Budd and Hally were excitedly helping to pack
their clothes in a small valise, for the visit, in walked the
wanderers. They carried a very large and much dilapidated umbrella
which Tad said they had borrowed from the cook--doubtless a Southern
mammy who took an endless delight in the boys' pranks, and aided them
all she could in their mischievous plans. Tad's pockets were bulging
with marbles, which showed how successfully he had played his game with
the pages earlier in the day, and both boys had entirely forgotten that
they had bad colds. All four soon set out in high glee together, while
Tad gave a whoop of joy as they left the house.

"You bet we'll have a good time!" he exclaimed, and from all
descriptions of that visit, they certainly must have had it.

On the following day there was a review, and the boys all rode in the
President's carriage, looking as severe and dignified as if they had
never had a mischievous idea, but, with a feeling of mistrust that such
dignity might be only skin deep, a member of the Taft family went to
the White House to find out what was going on. To her relief she saw
that the building was still standing, but on being ushered in, she
noticed that all the orderlies, soldiers and doorkeepers wore broad
grins. Asking where the boys were, and being ushered upstairs she came
upon Tad, who instantly called out:

"Oh, say, we've got a circus in the attic. We're minstrels. I've got to
be blacked up and Willie can't get his dress on--it's too big. Pin it
up, will you? Hurry!"

The horrified question, "Does the President know it?" was answered
impatiently by Tad.

"Oh, yes, he knows it," said Tad. "He doesn't care. He's got some
general or other in there. Come on--hurry!"

Willie was meanwhile struggling with the long, flowered skirt of a
lilac silk reception dress of Mrs. Lincoln's, and Budd was getting into
one of her ruffled morning wrappers, while Tad began to sing at the top
of his voice:

"Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness----"

"Hush," cautioned Budd, "the President will hear you."

"I don't care if pa does hear, and he don't care either," said Tad.
"We're going to sing that in the show." And sing it they did!

Another day when Tad was shouting out a campaign song at the Tafts'
about "Old Abe splitting rails," Willie asked Mrs. Taft if she did not
think it was disre