fellows, who were
almost beside themselves with exultation and excitement, made a rush for
the stairs that led to the tower. On the way Rodney stopped to exchange
a few words with his cousin.

"You didn't think it would come, did you?" he exclaimed, walking up to
Marcy and snatching away the paper on which the latter's eyes were
fastened. "But you see it has, don't you? It seems that those furious
threats about secession were not all talk, don't it? But seriously,
Marcy, I know you stand where every other Southern boy stands, and that
you are with us heart and soul. All I ask of you is to say so. Why don't
you speak? Which side are you on, any way?"

But Marcy did not utter a word. Although he looked straight at his
cousin he did not appear to know that Rodney was talking to him, for his
mind was busy with other matters.

"Tell him you're neutral," suggested Dick Graham, whose home was in
Missouri, and whom we may meet again under different circumstances.
"That's what I am going to be, for I don't think my State will follow in
South Carolina's lead."

"But I am not neutral." replied Marcy, arousing himself at last. "I am
for the Union all over, and I'm sorry we haven't a Jackson in Washington
at this moment to say that it must and shall be preserved. I hope
Buchanan will send ships enough into Charleston harbor to blow that
miserable State out of water."

"Let him try it, and see how quickly the other Cotton States will arm to
help her," exclaimed Bob Cole, who was one of Rodney's friends and
followers. "Coerce a sovereign State? The President can't do it. The
Constitution does not give him the power."

Bob Cole did not know it, and neither did any of the other boys who were
standing around listening to his fiery words, but that was the very
argument the frightened chief magistrate was going to put forth in his
next message to Congress.

"The President will only make a bad matter worse if he tries any fool
thing like that," continued Bob, who, like most of the boys of that
section of the country, had heard these matters discussed so often that
he had them at his tongue's end. "I tell you that the events of
yesterday are an entering wedge. We are tired of the company of those
Yankees up North, and now we are going to get rid of them and have a
government of our own; see if we don't. Why should we not? The people up
there do not belong to the same race we do. They are regicides and
Roundheads--plodding, stingy f