In a moment Sylvia had unfastened the rope,
pushed the boat clear of the landing, and rudder in hand was steering
the boat out toward the channel.
Two or three men in uniform watched the little "darkies," as they
supposed both the girls to be, with amusement. Negro children were
always playing about, and no attention was paid to them.
"My landy," whispered Estralla, "dat was jes' as easy. W'at Uncle Pete
do w'en he fin's de boat gone?"
But it happened that Uncle Peter had been sent on an errand to a distant
part of the town, and before he returned the Butterfly was well down the
harbor.
Once or twice a guard-boat passed them closely enough to make sure that
there were only two colored children in the boat, and they came up under
the walls of Fort Sumter without a hindrance. The sentries at the fort
had watched the little craft with anxious eyes, wondering if it could be
bringing any message. But when the soldiers looked down at the two
little negro girls they laughed, in spite of their disappointment. When
Sylvia said that her name was Sylvia Fulton, and that she had come to
see Captain Carleton, a sentry exclaimed: "That girl has blacked her
face. She is white."
But Captain Carleton could hardly believe that it was his little friend
Sylvia. And he was eager to hear all that she could tell him. Estralla
held the cake and cookies, which she had carefully wrapped in a
newspaper, and the Captain seemed as much pleased with the paper as with
the cake.
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