om he had no liking, he cried out:

"Why are you here so early? What do _you_ want?" probably to the
chagrin of his father, who doubtless talked with him seriously later in
the day about showing such discourtesy to an elder.

Quick to take up a new interest, and as quick to throw it aside, one
day when the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, found Tad fussing around
his office, Mr. Stanton, just for the fun of it, commissioned Tad a
lieutenant of the United States Volunteers; this excited Tad so greatly
that he hurried off and on his own responsibility ordered a quantity of
muskets sent up to the White House at once, and then gathered together
the house-servants and gardeners, and organised them into a company,
drilled them for service, and then actually dismissed the regular
sentries on the premises, and ordered his new recruits on duty as
guards. Robert Lincoln, who was then at home, having discovered Tad's
scheme, thought that the men who had been at work all day, ought to be
free at night, and told Tad so, but Tad would not listen to him, so
Robert appealed the case to his father, who only laughed, as he
generally did at Tad's pranks, thought the whole thing a good joke, and
gave no orders to the refractory young lieutenant. Tad, however, soon
grew tired of being on watch himself, and went to bed, when his
recruits were quietly relieved from duty, and there was no guard over
the President's house that night.

While he sported his commission as lieutenant Tad looked the part,
having from some source got a uniform suitable for the occasion, and in
that proud costume he had himself photographed to the great delight of
his admiring circle of friends.

Tad's tenth birthday was celebrated by a visit which he made with his
father and a party of friends to the Army of the Potomac, which was
then encamped on the banks of the Rappahannock, opposite
Fredericksburg, the visit being made because the President thought a
glimpse of the Nation's Chief Executive might put fresh courage into
the weary soldiers. The visit was five days long and a more restless
member of a party than Tad was, cannot be imagined. By the end of the
first day he had exhausted all the resources of the encampment, and
begged to go home, but there were any number of reviews and parades for
which the President was obliged to stay, and these somewhat diverted
Tad, for a handsome young soldier was detailed as the boy's special
escort, and a little grey horse con