master is willing, if we have no objections," Sylvia heard her mother
say.

"Oh, let the child come," Mr. Fulton responded; "how old is she?"

"Just Sylvia's age. Her name is Estralla," replied Mrs. Fulton.

"You'll have a little darky for a playmate, Sylvia. How will you like
that?" her father asked. But before Sylvia could answer, the boat swung
alongside the landing-place at the fort and she saw her father's friend,
Captain Carleton, waiting to welcome them.

The band was playing, and a few people were on the parapet.

"Not many visitors to-day," said the Captain, as they all walked on
together. "I am afraid the Charleston people resent the fact that the
United States is protecting its property."

As they walked along the Captain pointed to the sand which the wind had
blown into heaps about the sea-front of the old fort. "A child of ten
could easily come into the fort over those sand-banks," he said.

"Whose fort is this?" asked Sylvia, so earnestly that both the Captain
and her father smiled.

"It belongs to the United States, of which South Carolina is one,"
replied the Captain.

Sylvia gave a little sigh of satisfaction. Even Elinor Mayhew could not
find any fault with that, she thought, and she was eager to get home and