m both, his mother knew. But why did not his
laugh sound high like that of his friend? Her eyes followed her son
daily, hourly, until at last she surrendered him to his duty when he
declared he could no longer delay his journey to Washington.

Spick and span, cap-a-pie, pictures of splendid young manhood, the two
captains rode one afternoon up to the great gate before the mansion
house of the nation. Lewis looked about him at scenes once familiar;
but in the three years and a half since he had seen it last the raw
town had changed rapidly.

Workmen had done somewhat upon the Capitol building yonder, certain
improvements had been made about the Executive Mansion itself; but the
old negro men at the gate and at the door of the house were just as he
had left them. And when, running on ahead of his companion, he knocked
at Mr. Jefferson's office door--flinging it open, as he did so, with
the freedom of his old habit--he looked in upon a familiar sight.

Thomas Jefferson was sitting bent over his desk, as usual littered
with a thousand papers. The long frame of his multigraph
copying-machine was at one side. Folded documents lay before him,
unfinished briefs upon the other side; a rack of goose quills and an
open inkpot stood beyond. And on the top of the desk, spread out long
and over all, lay a great map, whose identity these two young men
easily could tell--the Lewis and Clark map sent back from the Mandan
country! Thomas Jefferson had kept it at his desk every day since it
had come to him, more than two years before.

He turned now toward the door, casually, for he was used to the
interruptions of his servants. What he saw brought him to his feet. He
spread out his arms impulsively--he shook the hand of each in turn,
drew them to him before he motioned them to seats. Never had
Meriwether Lewis seen such emotion displayed by his chief.

"I could hardly wait for you!" said Mr. Jefferson. He began to pace
up and down. "I knew it, I knew it!" he exclaimed. "Now they will
call us constitutional, perhaps, since we have added a new world to
our country! My son, that was our vision. You have proved it. You
have been both dreamer and doer!"

He came up and placed a half playful hand on Meriwether Lewis's
shoulder.

"Did I know men, then?" he demanded.

"And did I, Mr. Jefferson? Captain Clark----"

"You do not say the title correctly! It is not Captain Clark, it is
not Captain Lewis, that stand before me now. You are t