“That’s right,” chimed in Nell.  “Sometimes we see the President and his wife in a carriage, like now, and sometimes in a big auto.”

By this time the carriage, containing the President of the United States, was passing through the gate.  A crowd of curious persons, who had seen what was going on, as had the Bobbsey twins, came hurrying up to catch a glimpse of the head of the nation.  The police officers and the men from the White House ground kept the crowd from coming too close to the President’s carriage.

The Chief Executive, as he is often called, saw the crowd of people waiting to watch him pass.  Some of the ladies in the crowd waved their hands, and others their handkerchiefs, while the men raised their hats.

Billy put his hand to his cap, saluting as the soldiers do, and Bert, seeing this, did the same thing.  Nell and Nan, being girls, were not, of course, expected to salute.  As for Flossie and Freddie they were too small to do anything but just stare with all their eyes.

As the President’s carriage drove along he smiled, bowed, and raised his hat to those who stood there to greet him.  The President’s wife also smiled and bowed.  And then something in the eager faces of the Bobbsey twins and their friends, Nell and Billy, attracted the notice of the President’s wife.

She smiled at the eager, happy-looking children, waved her hand to them, and spoke to her husband.  He turned to look at the Bobbseys and their friends, and he waved his hand, He seemed to like to have the children watching him.

And then Flossie, with a quick little motion kissed the tips of her chubby, rosy fingers and fluttered them eagerly toward the President’s wife.

“I threw her a kiss!” exclaimed Flossie with a laugh.

“I’m gin’ to throw one too,” exclaimed Freddie.  And he did.

The President’s wife saw what the little Bobbsey twins had done, and, as quick as a flash, she kissed her hand back to Flossie and Freddie.

“Oh, isn’t that sweet!” exclaimed a woman in the throng, and when, afterward, Nan told her mother what had happened, Mrs. Bobbsey said that when Flossie and Freddie grew up they would long remember their first sight of a President of the United States.

“Well, I guess that’s all we can see now,” remarked Billy, as the President’s carriage rolled off down the street and the crowd that had gathered at the White House gate began moving on.  The gates were closed, the policemen and guards turned away, and now the Bobbsey twins and their friends were ready for something else.

“Where do you want to go?” asked Billy of Bert.

“Oh, I don’t know.  ’Most anywhere, I guess.”

“Could we go to see the Washington Monument?” asked Nan.  “I’ve always wanted to see that, ever since I saw the picture of it in one of daddy’s books at home.”

“I don’t believe we’d better go out there alone,” said Nell.  “It’s quite a way from here.  We’d better have our mothers or our fathers with us.  But we can walk along the streets, and go in the big market, I guess.”