A Yankee Girl at Fort Sumter Part 22

Mrs. Carleton had a roll of crimson silk in her work-bag and before supper time the new doll was dressed and ready for Estralla.

"This is for you, Estralla," Sylvia said, when Estralla came up to her room, as she often did in the late afternoon.

"Fer me, Missy! He, he, I knows w'en you's jokin'; but 'tis a fine lady doll," responded the little girl, wis.h.i.+ng with all her heart that the beautiful doll in the gorgeous silken dress which Sylvia was holding toward her might really be hers.

"Take it, Estralla! It is for you. Truly it is," and Sylvia's tone was so serious that Estralla came slowly forward and took the doll.

For a moment the two little girls stood looking at each other in silence, Sylvia smiling, but Estralla with a surprised, half-anxious expression.

"Don't be afraid of it. Can't you have a doll of your own?" said Sylvia.

"Mebbe I can," replied Estralla, and then two big tears ran down her black cheeks.

"I'se got so much now, Missy Sylvia, dat I dunno as 'tis safe fer me to hev a doll," she whispered; but in a moment she was all smiles, and ran off to show her new treasure to her mother.

The pictures and the lockets proved all that Sylvia had hoped, and on New Year's day, when Grace came in for her daily visit, Sylvia gave her a small package.

"Please open it, Gracie!" she said, all eagerness to see her friend's delight.

Mr. Fulton had purchased a slender chain for each locket, and as Grace held up the pretty gift she exclaimed delightedly: "Oh, Sylvia! It is lovely, and I'll always wear it," and looked at the tiny picture of her friend with smiling satisfaction.

Sylvia had written a letter to Flora, and Grace promised to see that the locket and letter should reach her safely.

Every day Mr. Robert Waite or his brother escorted Mr. Fulton upon any errand of business to which he was obliged to attend. News had reached Charleston that a steamer with supplies and reinforcements for Major Anderson was on its way, and Mr. Robert Waite declared that the Confederates would never permit it to reach the fort.

Mrs. Carleton was very anxious. She had not received any message from her husband.

"If I could sail a boat I would go to Fort Sumter myself," she said one morning as she and Sylvia stood at a window overlooking the harbor.

"I can sail a boat," responded Sylvia.

Mrs. Carleton turned and looked at the little girl.

"If all this trouble ends in war, if the Confederates really dare fire upon the flag of the United States, I do not know how I can get any word from my husband," she said.

Sylvia thought that her friend's voice sounded as if she were about to cry, and the little girl slipped her hand into Mrs. Carleton's. She wished there was something she could say to comfort her. Then she thought quickly that there was something.

"I'll sail you over to the fort to see him whenever you ask me to," she said impulsively.

"Dear child, I may have to ask you, but I hope not. 'Twould be a dangerous undertaking," she said, leaning over to kiss Sylvia's cheek.

That was the sixth of January, 1861, and on the ninth a steamer, The Star of the West, with supplies and reinforcements for Major Anderson, entered Charleston harbor and was fired upon by a Confederate battery concealed in the sand-hills at Sullivan Island.

And now for many days the Fultons heard only discouraging news.

Everywhere there was great activity among the Confederates. Mrs.

Carleton became more and more anxious for news of Captain Carleton, but she did not remind Sylvia of her promise.

Grace and Sylvia were together a great deal, and every morning Sylvia would run out to the front porch to wave a good-bye to Grace on her way to school. Then there was Estralla's lesson hour, her own studies, and Mrs. Carleton was teaching her to crochet a silk purse as a gift to Mr.

Robert Waite, so that Sylvia did not think very much about the soldiers at Fort Sumter.

"What do you think about starting for Boston with us, Mrs. Carleton?"

Mr. Fulton said one night just as Sylvia was going up-stairs. "I really think the time has come for me to take Sylvia and her mother to Boston, and I am sure Captain Carleton would want you to go with us."

"And Estralla and Aunt Connie will go, too; won't they, Father?" said Sylvia, running back to her father's side.

"Yes, child. But I thought you were upstairs," responded Mr. Fulton.

"Do not speak of our leaving Charleston to anyone. Remember. Not to Grace or Estralla, until your mother or I give you permission."

Sylvia promised. It seemed to her the best of good news that they would soon see Grandmother Fulton, and she went happily off to bed thinking of all she would have to tell her grandmother, and of the long letters she would write to Flora and Grace. "And when summer comes they must both come and make me a visit," she thought, little knowing that when summer came no little southern girl would be allowed to visit a Boston girl.

CHAPTER XX

"TWO LITTLE DARKY GIRLS"

"When will Mr. Lincoln be President?" Sylvia asked a few mornings after her father's announcement of his intention to return to Boston.

"He was inaugurated yesterday," replied her mother.

"Then can't Captain Carleton go north with us?" asked Sylvia, who had convinced herself that when Mr. Lincoln was in charge of the Government that all the troubles over Charleston's forts would end.

But Mrs. Fulton shook her head.

"Captain Carleton must stay and perhaps fight to defend the flag," she replied. "I wish we could leave at once, but we must stay as long as we can."

Sylvia listened soberly. She wondered what her mother would say if she knew of her promise to Mrs. Carleton to take a message to Fort Sumter if Mrs. Carleton should ask her to do so.

The warm days of early March made the southern city full of fragrance and beauty. Many flowers were in bloom, the hedges were green, and the air soft and warm. Sylvia and Grace often spoke of Flora, and wished that they could again visit the plantation.

Philip had brought Sylvia a letter from Flora, thanking her for the locket, and hoping that they would see each other again. Philip had not come into the house. He seemed much older to Sylvia than he did on her visit to the plantation in October. He said that Ralph was in the Confederate army. "I'd be a soldier if I was only a little older," he declared; and Sylvia did not even ask him about d.i.n.kie, or the ponies.

She wished that she could tell him that very soon she was going to Boston, but she knew that she must not; so she said good-bye, and Philip walked down the path, and waved his cap to her as he reached the gate.

It had been many weeks since the b.u.t.terfly had sailed about Charleston harbor. But the little boat was in the charge of an old negro who took good care of it. The negro knew Sylvia, and he knew that it was through her interest in Estralla that the little negro girl and her mother had been given their freedom. Now and then he appeared at Aunt Connie's kitchen, and one warm day toward the last of March, when Sylvia was wandering about the garden, she saw Uncle Peter going up the walk to the rear of the house.

"Oh, Uncle Peter! Wait!" she called and ran to ask him about the boat.

Uncle Peter had a great deal of news to tell. He said that unless Major Anderson and his soldiers left Fort Sumter at once that all the forts, and the new batteries built by the Confederates, would open fire upon Sumter and destroy it.

"I hears a good deal, Missy, 'deed I does," he declared, "but I doan'

let on as I hears. Ma.s.sa Link.u.m he's gwine to send a lot o' big s.h.i.+ps down here 'fore long. Yas, indeed."

"I wish I could have a sail in the b.u.t.terfly again," said Sylvia, a little wistfully.

"Do you, Missy? Well, I reckons you can. I doan' believe any body'd stop me a-givin' yo' a little sail 'roun' de harbor," said Uncle Peter.

"I 'spec's Major Anderson is a-waitin' an' a-watchin' fer dem s.h.i.+ps of Ma.s.sa Link.u.m to come a-sailin' in," continued the old negro; for it was a time when the colored people were eager and hopeful for some news that might promise them their freedom.