silently joined with all their hearts in the petitions which
the clergyman was offering to the dear Lord, Father of all mankind,
Ruler of heaven and earth. Some of them softly whispered "Amen" as he
asked protection for their homes and their beloved country. Did they
know anything about the danger which even then hung over them? Perhaps
they did.

In many of the churches the prayer was over, the morning hymn had been
sung, when a stir and bustle at the door might have been noticed, as the
messenger boys, excited and out of breath, handed their yellow envelopes
to the ushers who stood near the door ready to show the late comers to
unoccupied seats. First one and then the other ushers read the message,
and from some one of them escaped in a hushed whisper, the words, "Oh
God! Has it come to this!"

And all looked white and awe-struck. The head usher hurried tremblingly
down the aisle, and without waiting for the clergy man to finish reading
the announcements of the week, laid the telegram upon the pulpit desk.

The clergyman, somewhat surprised at such an interruption, glanced at
the paper, stopped, gasped, picked it up, and re-read the words written
upon it, as though he could not believe his own eyes. Then he advanced a
step forward, holding on to the desk, as if he had been struck a blow by
some unseen hand. The congregation knew that something terrible had
happened, and their hearts seemed to stop beating as they leaned forward
to catch his words.

"My people," said he in a slow, deliberate tone, as if it were an effort
to steady his voice, "I hold in my hand a message from the President of
the United States." Then his eyes dropped to the paper which he still
held, and now his voice rang out clear and loud as he read, "_Our Flag
has been fired upon! Seventy-five thousand troops wanted at once._
Abraham Lincoln."

* * * * *

I could not make you understand all that took place the next week or two
any more than the little children who heard what the telegram said,
understood it. Men came home, hurried and excited, to hunt up law
papers, or to straighten out deeds, saying in constrained tones to the
pale-faced women, "I will try to leave all business matters straight
before I go." There was solemn consultations between husbands and wives,
which usually ended in the father's going out, stern-faced and silent,
and the mother, dry-eyed but with quivering lips, seeking her own room,
loc