That invitation Ethel and the others were allowed to accept in the summer vacation. How much had happened meantime! the attack on the Massachusetts troops as they passed through Baltimore in response to the President’s call; the seizure of Harper’s Ferry and Norfolk Navy Yard, besides several battles, some in the East and some in the West.
And the very day of their arrival at Mr. Keith’s came the sad news of the battle of Bull Run, speedily followed by the President’s call for three hundred thousand more men to suppress the rebellion.
It was a time full of excitement, of almost heart-breaking distress, over the disaster, followed by the determination that the rebellion must and should be crushed, cost what it might.
Mrs. Rupert Keith was in sore anxiety and distress till the welcome news arrived that her husband, though in the battle, had been neither wounded nor taken prisoner. The other ladies, though in deep distress for the land they loved, were suffering less keenly than she, as they knew that Mr. Donald Keith was too far West to have been in the battle.
Ethel and Blanche wept bitterly, fearing that their cousins George and Albert had been in the fight and were killed or wounded. But in a day or two a letter from Dorothy brought the welcome news that though among the troops engaged, they had escaped unharmed.
CHAPTER XIV.
As the war went on and Ethel heard frequent allusions among the older people to its great expense and the rapid rise in the price of all the necessaries of life, she felt an increasing desire to be able to support herself, and her brother and sisters. Except to them she said nothing to any one of her relatives of that ardent wish, though constantly revolving plans in her mind and asking help of God to carry out some one of them.
She was so young, however, that for several years praying, thinking, and trying to learn every useful art that those about her could teach, was all she could do.
Every summer she, Blanche, Harry, and Nannette had the great pleasure of a visit to Mr. Donald Keith’s; and to the ladies there Ethel opened her heart, earnestly asking advice as to her future course.
Both replied, “You are too young yet to go into any kind of business, and are doing the right thing in trying to learn all you can.” That gave her great encouragement, though she felt it hard to wait, and often wished she could grow up faster.