A Yankee Girl at Fort Sumter

								

"I don't know what you mean," she answered bravely, "but I know one
thing: my father would want what was right."
"That's real Yankee talk," said Elinor. "They say slavery isn't right."
There was a little murmur of laughter among the other girls. For in
1860 the people of South Carolina believed they were quite right in
buying negroes for slaves, and in selling them when they desired; so
these little girls, some of whom already "owned" a colored girl who
waited upon them, had no idea but what slavery was a right and natural
condition, and were amused at Elinor's words.
"Why do you want to be so hateful, Elinor?" demanded Grace, before
Sylvia could reply. "Sylvia has not said or done anything to make you
talk to her this way," and Grace linked her arm in Sylvia's, and stood
facing the other girls.
"Well, Grace Waite, you can associate with Yankees if you wish to. But
my mother says that Miss Patten ought not to have Sylvia Fulton in her
school. Come on, girls; Grace Waite can do as she pleases," and Elinor,
followed by two or three of the older girls, went scornfully down the
street.
"Sylvia! Wait!" and a little girl about Sylvia's age came running down
the path. It was Flora Hayes; and, next to Grace Waite, Sylvia liked
her the best of any of her new companions.
"Don't mind what Elinor Mayhew says. She's always horrid when she dares
to be," said Flora.
Flora's father was a wealthy cotton planter, and their Charleston home
was in one of the historic mansions of that city. Beside that there was
the big old house on the Ashley River ten miles from the city, where
the family stayed a part of the time.
Flora's eyes were as blue as Sylvia's, and her hair was very much the
same color. She was always smiling and friendly, and was better liked
than Elinor Mayhew, who, as Flora said, was always ready to tease the
younger girls.
"I don't know what she meant," said Sylvia as, with Grace on one side
and Flora on the other, they started toward home.
"She is just hateful," declared Grace. "I wish I had not asked Miss
Rosalie about the forts. But I did want to know. It would be dreadful
not to see them where they have always been."
"Oh, Grace! You didn't think they were going to move the forts to
Washington, did you?" laughed Flora. "I know better than that. Taking
the forts means that the Government of the United States would own them
instead of South Carolina."
Grace laughed good-naturedly. She was always as ready to laugh at her
own mistakes as at those of others; and in the year that Sylvia had
known her she had never seen Grace vexed or angry.
Both Grace and Flora advised Sylvia not to tell her mother of Elinor's
unkindness, or of her taunting words. But it was rather difficult for
Sylvia to keep a secret from her mother.
"You see, it will make your mother sorry, and she will fret about it,"
Flora had said; and at this Sylvia had decided that no matter what
happened at school she would not tell her mother about it. She almost