Chester Alan, Jr., in his teens, was sent away to school, while little eight-year-old Nellie became the especial care of Mrs. McElroy, who had two young daughters of her own to rear. When Mr. Arthur found himself in a few short months the head of the nation, it fell upon his sister’s shoulders to preside over the White House for him. She had the same gift of grace and charm of manner that made her handsome brother so popular, and had been given all the advantages that means and the educational facilities of the day afforded. President Arthur returned from the funeral of President Garfield confronted with the great mass of executive business that had accumulated during the late President’s illness. He decreed that out of respect to Garfield’s memory, all correspondence and documents issued from the White House should bear mourning for six months, and that the mansion should be closed to residence and visitors until Congress assembled. He would not install his family until the house was put in better condition, since he was not at all pleased with its appearance. The furniture was worn and soiled, the china chipped and marred and mismatched. Hangings and carpets needed cleaning and replacing. The storerooms, basement rooms, and attics were filled with the accumulation of odds and ends of discarded household goods and the leftovers of personal belongings of all past administrations--outgrown and forgotten toys, the vast and amazing assortment of “gifts” with which each succeeding president had been deluged by an admiring public, cast-off clothing, old umbrellas, and junk of every description. President Arthur possessed a beautiful home in New York, where the best of art and literature that his means and taste could provide found a congenial setting. To him, the condition of the home of the presidents was such as to call for drastic action, although to intrude upon the treasures of the attics with an intent to remove them was to break precedents of as great an antiquity as the mansion itself. But precedent-breaking had started with President Grant, and continued vigorously under the winsome Mrs. Hayes, and even without the support of their procedure, President Arthur would not have hesitated to rid the White House of the fire trap, as the years’ accumulation was sometimes termed. He notified the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds of his wishes. This official, Colonel Rockwell, reported that he had no money for repair and renewals. Mr. Arthur, however, demanded that the mansion be cleaned and renovated, declaring that he would not live in a house looking as it did, and if the government could not or would not pay for it he would do so himself.