"Could we? Oh, Estralla, could we really?" she exclaimed.
Estralla looked at her little mistress with wondering eyes.
"Yas, course; nobody'd mind two leetle nigger gals. But you ain't black,
Missy."
"But, Estralla, listen. I could be black. You could rub soot from the
chimney all over my face and hands. And I could pin my hair close on top
of my head and twist one of your mammy's handkerchiefs tight over it.
Then nobody would know me." Sylvia had quite forgotten the fine cookies.
She was holding Estralla by the arm, and talking very rapidly. Estralla
was almost frightened at Sylvia's eagerness.
"Yas, Missy; but what for do you wanter go?" she asked.
"Oh, Estralla! If the men are hungry we could carry them something to
eat. But most of all I want to see Captain Carleton, and get some
message for his wife. She is so unhappy to go away without a word."
"Come 'long down in de garden," said Estralla, now as interested as
Sylvia herself, "an' tells me more whar' nobody'll be hearin'," and the
two little girls hurried off to a far corner of the pleasant garden.
"Uncl' Peter won' let us take the boat," Estralla objected as Sylvia
told her how easy the plan would be; "an' how be you gwine to get all
blacked up without folks knowin' it?"
But Sylvia had an answer for every objection.
"I'll come to your cabin and dress up there, and I will ask your mammy
to give me some food for a poor man. Some cookies and a cake," she said.
"We will start early to-morrow morning.
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