ing
room.

The offices of the President and his secretaries are on the second
floor at the eastern end. The President's room and Cabinet room are in
the executive office west of the White House, so the guide told them,
and a large force of watchmen including police officers are on duty
inside the mansion at all hours, and a continuous patrol is maintained
by the local police of the grounds immediately surrounding the
mansion.

Thinking they had seen as much as they could safely spare time for,
they hurried away back to the hotel, where they all hastily packed the
rest of their things and sent them at once to the station. They soon
started on their considerable journey, and almost nightly concerts
till they should reach Chicago.

CHAPTER XV.

THE LAKE CITY.

About a week later, they arrived one day, late in the afternoon, in
Chicago, and at once took a bus from the station to the hotel, the
Blackstone. They were to sing at the Auditorium that evening. The
concert they gave originally in Washington was to be repeated. As all
were now familiar with their task, they did not have to practice
unless so disposed.

Mr. Ludlow and his assistant hurried off to the Auditorium to see
about decorations and to meet the committee that had charge of selling
tickets there.

Mrs. Calvert, Dorothy, and Alfaretta hurried up to their rooms to get
their things straightened out. Alfy found, having packed hurriedly
that morning, that their dresses were badly wrinkled. She said to Mrs.
Calvert:

"Aunt Betty, what shall I do? My dresses are very much mussed, and I
guess Dorothy's are in the same condition."

"I have a little electric iron in my trunk that I always carry with me
for just that purpose, when I travel, because one's things are very
apt to get wrinkled no matter how much care one takes of them,"
answered Aunt Betty.

"May I have it?" questioned Alfaretta, eagerly, for she was always
very fond of ironing, and always was very proud of her skill in that
direction, for more than once Ma Babcock had praised her by saying
even she couldn't have done as well herself. "I would love to iron the
things all out nice, and make them look like new."

"Certainly, I will get it for you. You unscrew the electric light bulb
and take it out, and then put the small disk in place and screw it
tight. Then turn on the current, and place the piece with the wire
attached into the socket. Then in a few minutes the iron will be hot
en