f of the White House, which was perfectly safe, being
surrounded by a strong balustrade. There they built a cabin, and the
roof was in turn a quarter-deck, or a fort, and they used to raise and
lower the flag with proper ceremony, and look off through a spy-glass
for a "strange sail," and Budd's sister tells how one day when she
ascended to the stronghold with a stern demand for her scissors, which
had been missing for several days she was received at the "side" with
such strict naval etiquette that she meekly retreated without the
scissors.

That first year when President Lincoln was in office was a happy one
for his boys and their companions, but all too soon the pleasures came
to an end, for Willie Lincoln was stricken with typhoid fever, of which
he died. Then the Tafts left Washington and moved to the north, so of
the merry group of boys, "Tad" alone remained to enliven the White
House, and to amuse himself as best he could in the long days which
seemed so quiet in comparison to those which he and his companions had
spent together.

But Tad, who was now ten years old, was equal to any emergency, and as
resourceful as a dozen ordinary boys, and after the first bitter
loneliness had worn off, he made as much commotion by himself as all
four boys had made together, and soon became an object of popular
attention, as he galloped madly around the grounds on his pony, driving
him at break-neck speed, or training his team of dogs on the lawn, or
urging his goats to do some impossible feat.

One of the stories told about him at that time was that on a certain
day a party of dignified ladies were solemnly and with due reverence
inspecting the famous East room, when they heard a deafening clatter at
the end of the corridor where the Lincolns' private apartments were,
then came a shout of "Get out of the way there!" and Tad the
irrepressible, galloped into the room driving a tandem team of goats
harnessed to a chair! Up the room and down again and out of the front
entrance went the goats and Tad like a flash of lightning, leaving the
ladies aghast at a spectacle to which they had found no reference in
their guide books.

To his mother's great distress, an interested but not over-thoughtful
friend, gave Tad a tool chest, which of course delighted him, and which
at once suggested to him the idea of opening a cabinet shop to
manufacture furniture for hospital use, but he fortunately discovered
an old wagon to experiment on,