Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-07-20

infant goblin asleep under his table or roast.
ing his curly head by the open hre-p place; and
tbe tall chief would pick up the child and
,rudge off to bed with the drowsy little bur-
dan on his shoulders, STOPPING under the
doors and lodging the chandeliers. The
President took infinite comfort in the childs
rude health, fresh fun and uncomfortable
lboisterousness. He was pleased to see him
growing up in ignorance of books, but with
singularly accurate ideas of practical matters.
He was fearless rider, while yet so small
that his legs stuck out horizontally from the
| saddle. He had that power of tanning and
attaching animals to himself which seems the
especial gift of kindly and unlettered ma
lures. '.Let him run" the easy going Presi-
dent would say; che has time enough left to
learn his letters and get pokey. Bob was
Just such little rascal, and now he is a very
decent boy"
1t wa. evident that with all his insubordi-
nation and reckless mischief the spoiled child
was at heart of truthful and generous ma
ture. He treated fatterers and office seek
ers, with curious GOODNESS and contempt
but he often espoused the cause of some poor
widow or tatterea soldier whom he found
waiting in the ante-rooms, and ii was most
amusing to see the hearty little fellow drag
ging his shabby proteges into the Executive
presence, ordering the ushers out OF the way,
and demanding immediate action from head
quarters. The President rarely refused
grace of this kind, and the demands were not
so frequent as to lose the charm of novelty.
One of the tricks into which his idleness
and his enterprise together drove him was the
occasion of much laughter to the judicious,
and much horror to the respectable in Wash
ington. He invested, one morning, all his
pocket money in buying the stock in trade of
an old woman who sold gingerbread near the
Treasury. He made the government carpent-
ers give him a board and some trestles, which
he set up in the imposing porte-cochere Of the
White House, and on this rude counter dis
played his wares. Every office-seeker who
entered the house that morning bought a
toothsome luncheon of the keen little mer-
chant and when an hour after the opening of
the booth member of the household discov-
cred the young pastryman the admired centre
of group of grinning servants and toadies,
he had filled his pockets and his hat with cur
rency, the spoil of the American public. The
juvenile operator made lively work of his ILL.,
gotten gains, however, and before night was
penniess again.
Although still mere child at the death of
his father, this terrible shock greatly sobered
and steadied him. His brother Robert at
once took charge of his education, and he
made rapid progress up TO the time of his sail
ing for Europe with his mother. He has ever
since remained with her, displaying thought |
FOL devotion and tenderness beyond his years,
md strangely at variance with the mischiev- |
rus thoughtlessness of his childhood. He
came back short while ago, greatly improv-
ed by his residence abroad but always the
same cordial, frank, warm hearted boy. In
his loss the already fearfully bereaved family
will spffar n new and deem affection, and the