"And so you would not tell, or complain about your schoolmates?" Then
without waiting for a reply, she leaned over and kissed Sylvia. "That is
right, dear child. I am proud to have you as a pupil. Now," and she
turned to Estralla, "you run home as fast as you can go. Your young
mistress is not being punished, and will not be. But you did just right
in coming to tell me. But the next time you come remember to come in at
the door!" and Miss Rosalie smiled pleasantly at the little darky, whose
face now was radiant with delight.

"Yas'm. I sho' will 'member," and with a smile at Sylvia, Estralla
tiptoed toward the open door and disappeared.

It was a very grave teacher who watched her pupils return to their seats
that morning. It was a time when all the people in the southern city
were anxious and troubled. There had always been slaves in South
Carolina, and now the Government of the United States was realizing that
the black people must not be kept in servitude; that they had the same
rights as white people; and it was difficult for the Charleston people
to acknowledge that this was right.

Miss Rosalie was a South Carolinian, and she was sure that Charleston
people did right to insist on keeping their slaves, even if it meant
war. And it now seemed likely that the North and South might come to
warfare. The word "Yankee" was as hateful to Miss Rosalie as it was to
Elinor Mayhew, and for that very reason she determined that Elinor
should make a public apology for calling one of her schoolmates a
"Yankee." To the Carolinians the name meant the name of their enemies,
and it seemed to Miss Rosalie a very dreadful thing to accuse this
little northern girl of being an enemy.