"Nor can I, Mr. President, express the gratification I feel in meeting and shaking the hand of the chief magistrate of this great nation, especially when that magistrate is ruling the country a hundred and forty years after my birth."
Cobb seemed proud of the fact that he, of all the world, could make such a statement.
A few moments later, the President and Cobb were sitting before a glowing, cheerful fire, engaged in earnest conversation.
Mr. Rawolle had been dismissed by the President, and had hastened to the welcome he knew awaited him from his wife and children.
"There, Mr. President," said Cobb, after a long recital of his life and the facts attending his entombment on Mt. Olympus, "you have the whole story. It is a remarkable one, is it not?"
"Stranger than any fiction I ever read," he exclaimed. "I can scarcely believe that I behold the intimate friend and contemporary of my great-grandfather in the person of one so young as you."
"And are you the great-grandson of Hugh Craft, my dear old friend of 1887?" cried Cobb with joy, as if a new tie had been found to bind him to this new world.
"Yes; here is our family history." He arose and went to the cabinet, and returned with a large book. "Read it;" opening it and handing it to the other; "you will there see the history of your friend." He placed his finger on the page.
Cobb read slowly, and like one in a dream, this page of the history of the dead--this chronicle of the life of his chum and bosom friend.
"First Lieutenant, Captain, Major," he read, "killed at the battle of Ottawa, August 5, 1917."
He read it over twice; then suddenly turning to the President, he cried:
"A soldier's death! A noble ending to a noble man! But what battle is this in which he died?"
"'Tis a long story--too long for to-night," the President replied; "but, in brief, it was the decisive termination of English power in North America. Canada desired annexation to the United States: England opposed it. British troops were massed on Canadian soil, and she endeavored to prevent the loss of her colonies. War between the Canadians and the mother country followed. We looked on, but offered no assistance. It was not until the cry for freedom became a wail of misery and a piteous appeal for succor, that we interfered. We offered England $500,000,000 for the whole of her possessions in North America. The offer was refused with contempt. Indignation prevailed throughout the United States, and public opinion demanded that assistance be given to the suffering people in their struggle for freedom. Great Britain was notified by joint resolution of Congress of March 22, 1917, to evacuate Canada and all territory between the boundaries of the United States and parallel fifty-one degrees of north latitude. The demand was refused; and on April 2, in full Congress, war was declared against England. For twenty-five years, or from about 1890, this country had been building first-class ships of war, fortifying its coast and putting the nation in a condition to enforce its demands."
