imes. Mississippi followed South
Carolina; then United States' forts and arsenals were seized in North
Carolina and Georgia and Alabama, one after the other. The tone of the
press was very threatening, at least of the Southern press. And not
less significant, to my ear, was the whisper I occasionally heard
among a portion of our own little community. A secret whisper, intense
in its sympathy with the seceding half of the nation, contemptuously
hostile to the other part, among whom they were at that very moment
receiving Northern education and Northern kindness. The girls even
listened and gathered scraps of conversation that passed in their
hearing, to retail them in letters sent home; "they did not know,"
they said, "what might be of use." Later, some of these letters were
intercepted by the General Government, and sent back from Washington
to Madame Ricard. All this told me much of the depth and breadth of
feeling among the community of which these girls formed a part; and my
knowledge of my father and mother, Aunt Gary and Preston, and others,
told me more. I began to pray that God would not let war come upon the
land.

Then there was a day, in January, I think, when a bit of public news
was read out in presence of the whole family; a thing that rarely
happened. It was evening, and we were all in the parlour with our
work. I forget who was the reader, but I remember the words: "'The
steamer, _Star of the West_ with two hundred and fifty United States
troops on board for Fort Sumter, was fired into' (I forget the day)
'by the batteries near Charleston.' Young ladies, do you hear that?
The steamer was fired into. That is the beginning."

We looked at each other, we girls; startled, sorry, awed, with a
strange glance of defiance from some eyes, while some flowed over with
tears, and some were eager with a feeling that was not displeasure.
All were silent at first. Then whispers began.

"I told you so," said Sally.

"Well, _they_ have begun it," said Macy, who was a native of New York.

"Of course. What business had the _Star of the West_ to be carrying
those troops there? South Carolina can take care of her own forts."

"Daisy Randolph, you look as solemn as a preacher," said another.
"Which side are you on?"

"She is on the right side," said another.

"Of course," said Sally. "She is the daughter of a Southern
gentleman."

"I am not on the side of those who fire the first shot," I said.

"There is no other