DearTIME-Reader:

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 18 (UP)--President Eisenhower turned truant officer today while seeing Vice President Nixon off on a campaign trip . . .

NEWSMEN at the National Airport were surprised to see the President gripping a small boy's shoulder as he asked: "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Most surprised of all was TIME's White House Correspondent John L. Steele, for the boy was his nine-year-old son Larry (John L. Jr.). Larry, tagging after his father, has been looking at Presidents for years. As a wide-eyed infant he watched Harry Truman's triumphal return to Washington after his 1948 election victory, and got so excited he dropped a toy from the balcony of the Senate Office Building almost into Truman's lap. But last week was the first time he ever talked to a President.

When Larry's father asked him to repeat his conversation with President Eisenhower, the boy said stiffly that he considered it "private and off the record." But after a little fatherly persuasion Larry explained that he told the President he had a note from his mother to Mrs. Frances Berard, fourth-grade teacher at John Eaton School, asking that he be excused for tardiness on this special occasion. That seemed to satisfy the President. He released the boy, grinned and said goodbye before he walked away.

When Larry presented his note to Mrs. Berard (25 minutes late), she had him give a five-minute newscast on his experience to his classmates. Their comment on Larry's adventure: "Pretty nifty."

On hand to document Larry's meeting with the President (see cut) was the son of another TIME Inc. staff member, Noel Clark, 17, whose father is LIFE Photographer Ed Clark.

Cordially yours,

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