A

RCHIE HIGGINS inspected himself admiringly in the full-length mirror in his mother's room. Today, his fifteenth birthday, he had been permitted to put on his first pair of long trousers, and today the President of the United States was to come to town.

He was rather glad that these momentous occasions came together; for, he thought, in their excitement over the President the people of Sandfleet would not focus too much discussion upon his long trousers-"pants," his father called them.

He strutted across the room and back, his eyes turning alternately from mirror to trousers, and imagined he was a man. However, his father, Zenos Higgins, disillusioned him when a few minutes later Archie descended the stairs, walking stiff-legged in an effort not to spoil the creases. His father was in the "front parlor" of the Higgins cottage, which, high on a sandbluff, overlooked the beautiful bay.

"Son," said Mr. Higgins, "you may thank your mother

for those pants. I was against your wearing them until you had decided to stand up for yourself when fellows impose on you. You are a cry-baby. Every time a boy hits you

"Zenos!" Archie turned to mother entering the room.

see his "Ellen," said Mr. Higgins, "Archibald is fifteen today, and it is high time he learned a little independence."

He looked solemnly at his wife, and continued:

"Ellen, what do you think the President of the United States would say of our boy if he knew how Archibald is afraid to fight his own battles, and cries at every little hurt, and is careless about his appearance, and idles away his spare time, and—?"

"If I'm so bad as all that-" It was Archie who interrupted, and he was on the point of sobbing, "-you-you'd better get yourself another son!"

"There you go againwhimpering!" said Mr. Higgins impatiently. "Sit down! Sit down! Stop crying!"

Archie caught a new note in the other's voice and he obeyed promptly, staring curiously at his father.

"Son," the voice went on, "you have faults which at fifteen you should be ashamed of. The President of the United

States who is coming to Sandfleet today is a fighting President-he had battles all his life long in order to rise above men of superior physical strength. Do you think he went home crying to his mother when another boy slapped his

face? No; he did not! He doubled up his fists and punched the other fellow's jaw, and after that the other fellow kept out of his way! I don't mean that I approve of you fighting; but please, please, Archibald, don't come home yelping every time Piggy Lombard hits you! Hit him back-hit him hard and often. You are as strong as he is-let him know it!"

Piggy was the town bully and it was his particular delight to annoy Archie.

"Also," continued Mr. Higgins, "you seldom have spending money, and that is because you are not inclined to work. Archibald, I want you to promise me that the next time you get a chance to earn a few cents you will take advantage of it."

"I promise," said Archie, not daring to do otherwise.

"Yes, 'I promise'!" exclaimed Mr. Higgins. "How many, many times I have heard you agree to do things. Keep this in mind: when you promise, never forget that promise! Do you think the President would have become President if he had forsaken his obligations?"

Mr. Higgins paused. He had intended to say more, but now he softened before the pleading look in his wife's eyes, and spoke to his son in more kindly tones:

"Archibald, I hope you will see this President of ours today. Study his face, and try to imagine that he ever ran home crying to his parents!" He smiled. "One thing more, son: don't, especially with your long pants on, sit down on everything you see. Long pants cost money. Be more careful of your personal appearance."

"Yes, sir," said the boy, grateful to have the lecture concluded.

II

Archie went to his room. From the window he looked out over the bay. There lay a dozen of his country's mighty battleships. The blue waters of the harbor and the metal on the war vessels sparkled in the sunshine. But he closed his eyes to this scene and, as he gave thought to his father's words, five admonitions rose before him:

Fight your own battles! Don't be a cry-baby at fifteen! Improve your spare time by earning a little pin-money! When you make promises keep them! Be careful of your personal appearance! "I'll try!"

"I'll

try!" he exclaimed honestly.

BOOM!

Archie opened his eyes, and across the bay he saw a puff of white smoke floating lazily. Presently a second puff left the deck of a battleship and a moment later he heard another booming sound. He saw a small white craft enter the lane between two rows of fighting-ships, and then smoke belched from another of the vessels and there was another detonation.

Now the boy understood, and he forgot his father's lecture and his birthday, forgot even the long trousers, and gazed out upon this wonderful panorama-a harbor of United States battleships saluting the country's President. The small vessel which was steaming slowly in was the Mayflower, the President's yacht.

For the first time in the history of this sleepy Massachusetts village a President of the United States was to pay Sandfleet a visit. Nearly a century ago a native son, Jeremiah Paine, had fallen in battle for his country. Today Jeremiah Paine's memory was to be honored by the laying of the cornerstone of a monument which would bear his name and an ac

count of his heroism in graven letters upon its tall stone shaft. And the President of the United States was come to talk of patriotism. The battleships had been holding maneuvers off the Atlantic coast, and the President had chosen this occasion to review the fleet.

This was why the war-vessels were now in Sandfleet Bay, and why Archie Higgins, fifteen, heard the booming of his country's guns.

He leaned from the window and untangled a flag which a fitful current had wrapped around the pole. A breeze swept the folds out until the bunting stood stiff against the wind, and Archie wondered if the President was looking toward shore and if he saw the flag.

From the countryside people had come to Sandfleet, to see the President and to hear him speak and to gaze upon the battlefleet. A special train had brought the Governor of the State, and the Secretary of the Navy was with the President on the Mayflower.

The shaft of the monument was to rise from the summit of Town Hill, and around the site had been constructed a grandstand which would hold several thousand spectators. In the center of this amphitheater was a platform; and here, where he could look down upon the gray ships at anchor in the harbor, the President would make his speech.

The building of the platform had fascinated Archie, who, curious to learn the reason for the placing of a long row of seats and tables directly in front of the spot where the President would stand, had questioned the carpenter, and had received this reply: "Those seats, Archie, are for the reporters the newspaper men."

Later the boy had learned that on the same train which brought the Governor of the State a score of these newspaper

men arrived. They were quartered at the quaint hotel which lay at the end of a wide pier jutting out into the bay.

III

At noon, on his way home from an errand for his mother, Archie felt a hand touch his shoulder, and he looked up into the eyes of a tall young man whose bronze face was shaded by a Panama hat.

"Like to earn a dollar?" the young man asked, smiling. "I knew you would!" he exclaimed, although Archie had not answered the question. "Do you want to hear the President speak?"

Archie nodded eagerly. "Every fellow in town is going to," he said.

"One fellow in town is not going to hear all that he says," contradicted the tall young man. "And that one will earn my dollar. Do you want the chance?"

Now Archie did not wish to miss hearing any of the President's speech, and he was about to decline the offer when he recalled his father's admonition about earning spending money.

"What must I do?" he asked.

The stranger pointed toward the summit of Town Hill, visible from the corner where the two stood.

"You," he said impressively, "to earn my dollar, are to take up your stand here a half-hour before the President begins speaking, about two o'clock, and remain here until you see a signal from the top of the grandstand. Then you are to rush to the railroad depot and hand to the telegraph operator there a message which I shall meanwhile write out for you."

Here was excitement! To meet a stranger who offered him a dollar to run fifty yards and file a telegraph message as soon as the President of the United

States began making a public speech, was rather mysterious, thought Archie.

"Here's the dollar," the stranger continued, "and I know that you won't fail to make good. The signal will be myself waving a handkerchief-like this!" He drew out a large square of linen and whirled it around his head. "When you see that-sprint!"

"For the depot-with your message!" nodded Archie.

"That's the idea! Now, my name is Cary Chalmers. I'm with The Associated Press."

"You're here with the President?" ventured Archie.

"Yes, I came on from Washington," the other admitted; and he took from a pocket a sheet of paper and wrote rapidly on it-only a few words-and handed it to Archie.

"This says to release the President's speech. You hand it to the telegraph operator, and he sends it to The Associated Press office in Boston, and our office there sends it on, over our telegraph wires, to all The Associated Press newspapers in the country. That means that they are permitted to print the President's speech -immediately."

"It's wonderful!" exclaimed Archie. Mr. Chalmers smiled, pleased with Archie's interest.

"But," he warned, "there are other news services-rivals of The Associated Press. And these organizations have correspondents right in Sandfleet today, and you and I do not know what arrangements they are making in order to send their release notices. One may use the telegraph; another the telephone. So don't waste any time between the corner and the depot when you get my signal. I want you to get my release message off first."

"I will," said Archie earnestly. "I promise!"

IV

When the hour drew near for the President to climb Town Hill, Archie was passing the depot. The day was warm and the station windows were wide open, and as he strolled along the wooden platform he overheard his name mentioned. Involuntarily he paused, for the voice was that of his tormentor, Piggy Lombard.

"Did the druggist say it was Archie Higgins?" he heard Piggy ask.

"I saw

"Yes," said another voice. Chalmers talking for quite a while with the boy. They stood at the corner just outside the drugstore, and I questioned the proprietor."

"Well, if this Mr. Chalmers has picked out Archie Higgins, why I'm sorry for Mr. Chalmers," exclaimed Piggy's voice with deep contempt. "Archie's nothin' but a cry-baby. I calc'late to lick him. 'bout once a month. You leave it to me, Mr. Greene. I'll see that your message gets off before Archie's if I have to stop 'n' give Archie a black eye. I'm Piggy Lombard, that's who I am!"

"You look like a scrapper, Piggy," said the other voice. "But don't let your enmity interfere with my message getting started."

"I won't, Mr. Greene," Piggy's voice replied.

Archie, Histening, grew sick at heart. The President would speak, Archie would miss hearing some and perhaps all of what he had to say, and Piggy probably would thrash Archie and be the first to get to the depot with a release message. The boy wished he had not taken the dollar payment in advance. He crept silently away, that Piggy might not discover him there. Then he ran home, went to his room,