Southern people by their wholesale abuse and
denunciations, that all thought of emancipation was given up.

"It is human nature to cling the tighter to anything another attempts to
force from you; even though you may have felt ready enough to give it up
of your own free will."

"Very true," said Travilla, "and Garrison and his crew would have been at
better work repenting of their own sins, than denouncing those of their
neighbors."

"But, papa, you don't think it can come to war, a civil war, in our dear
country? the best land the sun shines on; and where there is none of the
oppression that makes a wise man mad!"

"I fear it, daughter, I greatly fear it; but we will cast this care, as
well as all others, upon Him who 'doeth according to His will, in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.'"

What a winter of uncertainty and gloom to Americans, both at home and
abroad, was that of 1860-'61. Each mail brought to our anxious friends in
Naples news calculated to depress them more and more in view of the
calamities that seemed to await their loved land.

State after State was seceding and seizing upon United States property
within its limits--forts, arsenals, navy-yards, custom-houses, mints,
ships, armories, and military stores--while the government at Washington
remained inactive, doubtless fearing to precipitate the civil strife.

Still Mr. Travilla, Rose, and Elsie, like many lovers of the Union, both
North and South, clung to the hope that war might yet be averted.

At length came the news of the formation of the Confederacy: Davis's
election as its president; then of the firing upon the Star of the West,
an unarmed vessel bearing troops and supplies to Fort Sumter.

"Well, the first gun has been fired," said Mr. Dinsmore, with a sigh, as
he laid down the paper from which he had been reading the account.

"But perhaps it may be the only one, papa," remarked Elsie hopefully.

"I wish it may," replied her father, rising and beginning to pace to and
fro, as was his wont when excited or disturbed.

The next news from America was looked for with intense anxiety. It was
delayed longer than usual; and at length a heavy mail came, consisting of
letters and Capers of various dates from the twelfth to the twentieth of
April, and bringing news of the most exciting character in the fall of
Fort Sumter: the call of the president for seventy-five thousand troops to
defend the capital, the seizure of