To Forgive

To Forgive
Part VII

After running away from home, Dan meets President Abraham Lincoln by the side of the road. The President offers the boy unlimited entrance to the White House. Upon his return home, Dan finds that his beloved brother Will is scheduled for execution because he was caught sleeping on guard duty.

"Run where?" asked his mother.
"To the White House, mother. He said, anytime I can do anything for you, just drop in."
"Who?" cried his parents.
"Why, the President, Mr. Lincoln!"
"But the President is busy, dear."
" He'll see me, I know that he will!" said Dan. "Look, we have a secret together; the President and I have a secret together." The boy showed the card and poured out the story.
The mother saw a break in the gray heaven, saw the bright blue of hope.
"We must go at once," she said. " Father, you cannot come with us; pray here for us."
"Please take my horse and wagon," said the officer.
"Yes, said Dan, "Let's hurry. Oh! I am glad, so glad," and the joy shone in his face as he helped his mother into the vehicle.

"May God help you!" said the officer.
"Oh, He does," murmured the boy.
It was high noon when the doorkeeper of the White house, hardened into a very stony guard by the daily onslaught of Lincoln-seekers, saw an impetuous youth leap from his carriage and help a woman up the portico steps toward him.
"In which room is the President?" asked Dan. "He is very busy," said the doorkeeper, probably for the five-hundredth time that day. "Have you an appointment?"
"No, but he said I could drop in anytime I wanted to, and, furthermore, here is my latchkey," and trembling with haste, Dan, showed him the card Mr. A. Lincoln had written.
"In that case you had better step into the waiting room over there," the man said dryly after looking quizzically at the card.
There must have been forty or fifty people crowded into the anteroom, each on some urgent errand. Some were in uniform; all looked tired, impatient, important. Dan saw the situation, and knew that Lincoln could never see them all. He whispered to his mother and showed her to a chair, then went up to the door boy and asked if the President was in the next room. The boy admitted the fact, but would not admit anything further, including Dan.

The annoyed looks on the faces of the waiting people deepened. "Does this urchin,"said their looks, "expect to see the President today."
Dan, not caring for etiquette when his brother might be shot at any moment, slipped under the arm of the door boy and bolted into the room.