Supper at the Johnson boarding house was a very modest meal, and after it was over Barry and Joe went out, in order that the new boy might have some idea of the national capital in the evening. Barry found that the city was well paved and well lighted. It was all very interesting, but he had traveled a great distance that day and the excitement of the occasion served to add to the fatigue, so that when he heard a neighboring clock strike ten, he intimated a desire to go to bed. Joe was quite willing, and in a little while the two boys had retired for the night. Barry slept soundly, but his dreams were a strange mixture of trains, and boarding houses, and domes, and page boys, and Joe Harts. He arose early in the morning very much refreshed. He learned that the House of Representatives would not meet until noon, but at the suggestion of his friend and mentor, he decided to go to the Capitol early in the day, in order to take the oath of office and to get acquainted with the duties of a page boy. At nine o'clock he found himself in the office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The clerk was an elderly gentleman with a beard, and he treated Barry very kindly. "I've heard of you, Wynn," he said. "John Carlton says that he wants us to take good care of you, and you can wager all you're worth we are only too glad to do anything that Carlton desires." Barry bowed and blushed. He did not know exactly what to say to this tribute to his friend. "I suppose," resumed the clerk, "that you are ready to be sworn in?" "Yes, sir; I am." "By the way, how old are you?" asked the clerk. Barry looked at him in a startled way. Was he to run up against a snag? His lips trembled in spite of himself. "Is there an age limit for page boys?" he asked. "Yes," was the response; "under the law, they must be over twelve years old." Barry heaved a sigh of relief. "I have just celebrated my fifteenth birthday!" "Good," was the reply. "Now, if you will hold up your right hand I will administer the oath of office." Barry held up his right hand impressively. "Now," said the clerk, "repeat what I say." "All right, sir." Then the clerk recited, and Barry repeated the following form: "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter." "It sounds very solemn, doesn't it?" commented Joe Hart. "It sounds solemn and it is solemn," said the clerk. "It is the oath that everybody takes on entering the service of the United States Government. To break that oath, or to fail to fulfil its obligations would be little less than treason." As they were turning away, Barry suddenly remembered something.