Sylvia smiled back.
"Estralla, I want you to be sure to come up-stairs to-night after the
house is all quiet. Don't tell your mother, or anybody," she said very
soberly.
"All right, Missy," agreed Estralla, sure that whatever Missy Sylvia
asked was right.
Sylvia said nothing more, but dressed and went down to breakfast. She
heard her father say that he feared that South Carolina would secede
from the United States, and she repeated the word aloud: "'Secede'? What
does that mean?" She began to think the world was full of difficult
words.
"In this case it means that the State of South Carolina wishes to give
up her rights as one of the States of the Union," Mr. Fulton explained,
"but we hope she will give up slavery instead," he concluded.
Grace was at the gate as Sylvia came out ready for school, and called
out a gay greeting.
"What are you so sober about, Sylvia?" she asked as they walked on
together.
CHAPTER X
THE PALMETTO FLAG
When Sylvia had told Estralla to come to her room that night, she had
determined to find a way to get the little negro to a place of safety.
Sylvia did not know that a negro was, in those far-off days, the
property of his master as much as a horse or a dog, and that wherever
the negro might go his master could claim him and punish him for trying
to escape. Any person aiding a slave to escape could also be punished by
law.
All Sylvia thought of was to have Estralla protected, and she was quite
sure that a United States fort could protect one little negro girl.
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