ompelled to surrender. News so startling brought all
the people into the streets. They assembled around the telegraph office,
where Mr. Magnet read the despatch; how the attack had been made at
daybreak on Friday, the 12th of April, all the batteries which General
Beauregard had erected opening fire upon the half-starved garrison; how
shot and shell were rained upon the fort, from Moultrie, from the guns
on Morris Island, and from the floating battery which the Rebels had
built; how Major Anderson coolly ate his breakfast; how Captain
Doubleday fired the first gun in reply; how the cannonade went on all
day, the great guns roaring and jumping; how the fight commenced again
next morning; how the barracks were set on fire by the shells from the
Rebel guns; how manfully the garrison fought against the flames, rolling
kegs of powder into the sea to prevent their exploding; how the soldiers
were scorched by the heat and almost suffocated by the smoke; how the
flag-staff was shot away; how the flag was nailed to the broken mast;
how the brave little band held out till their powder was almost
exhausted, and till there was nothing to eat but raw salt pork; how at
last, after thirty-six hours' fighting, Major Anderson surrendered the
fort, saluting his flag as he hauled it down, carrying it away with him,
being permitted to sail with his company to New York; and how the
President had called for seventy-five thousand men to suppress the
rebellion. The people held their breath while Mr. Magnet was reading,
and when he had finished looked at one another in mournful silence. The
flag of their country was trailed in the dust, and dishonored in the
sight of the nations. They could not have felt worse if they had lost a
dear friend by death.

"The country is gone, gone, gone," said Judge Adams, wiping the tears
from his eyes.

"I reckon not, Judge," said Colonel Dare, "the people will have
something to say about this insult to the flag. They will wipe out the
disgrace by sweeping those scoundrels into the sea." The Colonel usually
looked on the bright side of things. He recalled the trainings of other
days, when his regiment paraded on the green and had a sham-fight. He
wished that he were once more in command; he would march to Charleston,
burn the city, and sow it with salt.

"The question is, whether a sovereign State has not a right to secede if
she chooses," said Mr. Funk,--for he and Philip were the only persons in
New Hope wh