I had hoped that the Senator would ask me to dinner, but the coming of the President had upset the chance of it. It was eleven o'clock. Mrs. Hacket had put a cold bite on the table for me. I ate it--not to keep it waiting--and sat down with my eyes on my book and my mind at the Dunkelbergs'--where I heard in a way what Sally was saying and what "Mr. and Mrs. Horace Dunkelberg" were saying. At twelve-thirty Mr. Dunkelberg came for me, with a high-stepping horse in a new harness and a shiny still-running buggy. He wore gloves and a beaver hat and sat very erect and had little to say. "I hear you met the President," he remarked. "Yes, sir. I was introduced to him this morning," I answered a bit too proudly, and wondering how he had heard of my good fortune, but deeply gratified at his knowledge of it. "What did he have to say?" I described the interview and the looks of the great man. Not much more was said as we sped away toward the deep woods and the high hills. I was eager to get home but wondered why he should be going with me to talk with Mr. Grimshaw and my uncle. Of course I suspected that it had to do with Amos but how I knew not. He hummed in the rough going and thoughtfully nicked the bushes with his whip. I never knew a more persistent hummer. What a thrill came to me when I saw the house and the popple tree and the lilac bushes--they looked so friendly! Old Shep came barking up the road to meet us and ran by the buggy side with joyful leaps and cries. With what affection he crowded upon me and licked my face and hands when my feet were on the ground at last! Aunt Deel and Uncle Peabody were coming in from the pasture lot with sacks of butternuts on a wheelbarrow. My uncle clapped his hands and waved his handkerchief and shouted "Hooray!" Aunt Deel shook hands with Mr. Dunkelberg and then came to me and said: "Wal, Bart Baynes! I never was so glad to see anybody in all the days o' my life--ayes! We been lookin' up the road for an hour--ayes! You come right into the house this minute--both o' you." The table was spread with the things I enjoyed most--big brown biscuits and a great comb of honey surrounded with its nectar and a pitcher of milk and a plate of cheese and some jerked meat and an apple pie. "Set right down an' eat--I just want to see ye eat--ayes I do!" Aunt Deel was treating me like company and with just a pleasant touch of the old company finish in her voice and manner. It was for my benefit--there could be no doubt of that--for she addressed herself to me, chiefly, and not to Mr. Dunkelberg. My absence of a few days had seemed so long to them! It had raised me to the rank of company and even put me above the exalted Dunkelbergs although if Mrs. Horace Dunkelberg had been there in her blue silk and gold chain "big enough to drag a stone boat," as Aunt Deel used to say, she might have saved the day for them. Who knows? Aunt Deel was never much impressed by any man save Silas Wright, Jr.