Sylvia wondered what she could do to protect the little
girl. "I might hide her," she thought; but what place would be secure?
Suddenly she remembered something that she had heard Captain Carleton
say when she was eating luncheon on that unlucky trip to Fort Sumter.
"This fort could make South Carolina give up slavery," he had said. Why,
then, of course Estralla would be perfectly safe if she was only at Fort
Sumter, concluded the little girl, with a long sigh of relief. "I must
get her there just as soon as I get home," she decided.
Then suddenly Sylvia sat straight up in bed. The closet door had swung
softly open, and a figure with a big hat and trailing dress stepped out.
Sylvia was not frightened. "It's the ghost," she whispered; and leaning
across poked Grace, exclaiming: "Grace! Look quick! here is Lady
Caroline!"
In an instant Grace was wide awake.
"Where?" she demanded, in a frightened voice, clutching Sylvia's hand.
"Right there! By the closet door," said Sylvia. "Oh! she's gone!"
For as she looked toward the closet the figure had disappeared.
"There, you waked me up for nothing. You dreamed it," declared Grace.
"Oh, I didn't! Truly, I didn't. I haven't been asleep," Sylvia insisted.
"It is just as Flora said. There is a ghost." Just then both the girls
heard a startled cry, and a sound as if something had fallen in the room
under them.
"What's that?" whispered Grace. "Oh, Sylvia, do you suppose there really
is a ghost?"
"Yes, I saw it," declared Sylvia, with such evident satisfaction in her
tone that Grace forgot to be frightened.
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