Part One Chapter 4 President and Secretary

The great system of boulevards and parks and circles of the new American capital was not yet apparent from the place where Mr. Thomas Jefferson's young secretary now stood. But the young man perhaps saw city and nation alike advanced in his vision; for he gazed long and lingeringly before he turned back at last and entered the door which the old house servant swung open for him.

His hat and crop and gloves he handed to this bowed old darky, Ben--another of Mr. Jefferson's plantation servants whom he had brought to Washington with him. Then--for such was the simple fashion of the ménage, where Meriwether Lewis himself was one of the President's family--he stepped to the door beyond and knocked lightly, entering as he did so.

The hour was early--he himself had not breakfasted, beyond his coffee at the mill--but, early as it was, he knew he would find at his desk the gentleman who now turned to him.

"Good morning, Mr. Jefferson," said Meriwether Lewis, in the greeting which he always used.

"Good morning, my son," said the other man, gently, in his invariable address to his secretary. "And how did Arcturus perform for you this morning?"

"Grandly, sir. He is a fine animal. I have never ridden a better."

"I envy you. I wish I could find the time I once had for my horses." He turned a whimsical glance at the piled desk before him. "If our new multigraph could write a dozen letters all at once--and on as many different themes, my son--we might perhaps get through. I vow, if I had the money, I would have a dozen secretaries--if I could find them!"