Tommy gazed at it with respectful eyes as the car turned the corner and continued on past the building to the next block. There was another sharp turn, and in a moment they were passing what seemed to Tommy a great flower-garden, with a beautiful white mansion showing through the trees.
“That’s the White House,” said the motorman. “That’s where the President lives.”
As they passed in front of it, the trees opened into a wide vista, and the boy saw the stately portico with the wings on either side. Beyond the west wing extended a long glass structure which seemed crowded with flowers and whose use Tommy could not imagine. He had read somewhere that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, but he had very much doubted if any one really lived in a glass house. Yet here was unmistakably a glass house, so perhaps people did live in them, after all. But they were past before he could reason this out any farther, and another tremendous stone building loomed ahead.
“That’s the War Department and the Navy,” said the motorman. “It’s the largest office building in the world.”
Tommy looked, and with beating heart saw two cannon frowning at him. But he had only a glimpse of them and the car had whirled by. There were no more great buildings after this, but the avenue grew lovelier, with its lines of graceful shade-trees, and behind them the beautiful residences nestling amid broad lawns. They circled about a little park with a statue in the center, a man on horseback,—Washington, the motorman said,—and then on down the street again. The car crossed a little creek which marked the boundary between Washington and Georgetown, and at the end of a few minutes ran into a building where several other cars were waiting their turn to be sent back over the line.
Five minutes later they started back again, over the same route by which they had come. Tommy was careful this time to get a better look at the cannon and the big anchor in front of the War and Navy Building, and at the White House through the vista of trees that stretched in front of it. As the car swung around the corner of the Treasury Building, he saw for the first time the full sweep of the avenue. Away at the end, high up against the sky, stood a fairy dome, gilded by the last rays of the declining sun. He had no need to ask what it was, for he had seen it pictured too often. It was the dome of the Capitol. He kept his eyes fixed on it until the car turned into the side street and stopped again at the station.
Jim was on the lookout for him, and led him back into the waiting-room.
“Well,” he asked, “what do you think of Washington?”
Tommy looked up at him, his eyes dark with excitement.
“Oh,” he began, “oh!” and sank speechless into a seat.