"I can sail a boat," responded Sylvia.
Mrs. Carleton turned and looked at the little girl.
"If all this trouble ends in war, if the Confederates really dare fire upon the flag of the United States, I do not know how I can get any word from my husband," she said.
Sylvia thought that her friend's voice sounded as if she were about to cry, and the little girl slipped her hand into Mrs. Carleton's. She wished there was something she could say to comfort her. Then she thought quickly that there was something.
"I'll sail you over to the fort to see him whenever you ask me to," she said impulsively.
"Dear child, I may have to ask you, but I hope not. 'Twould be a dangerous undertaking," she said, leaning over to kiss Sylvia's cheek.
That was the sixth of January, 1861, and on the ninth a steamer, The Star of the West, with supplies and reinforcements for Major Anderson, entered Charleston harbor and was fired upon by a Confederate battery concealed in the sand-hills at Sullivan Island.
And now for many days the Fultons heard only discouraging news.
Everywhere there was great activity among the Confederates. Mrs.
Carleton became more and more anxious for news of Captain Carleton, but
she did not remind Sylvia of her promise.
Grace and Sylvia were together a great deal, and every morning Sylvia would run out to the front porch to wave a good-bye to Grace on her way to school. Then there was Estralla's lesson hour, her own studies, and Mrs. Carleton was teaching her to crochet a silk purse as a gift to Mr. Robert Waite, so that Sylvia did not think very much about the soldiers at Fort Sumter.
"What do you think about starting for Boston with us, Mrs. Carleton?" Mr. Fulton said one night just as Sylvia was going up-stairs. "I really think the time has come for me to take Sylvia and her mother to Boston, and I am sure Captain Carleton would want you to go with us."