st come, it must be on Northern, not on Southern, soil. A
glorious future is before us. The grass will grow in Northern cities
where the pavements have been worn off by the tread of commerce. We will
carry war where it is easy to advance, where food for the sword and
torch await our armies in the densely populated cities."

Ex-President Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire made use of nearly the
same language when he wrote to Davis, assuring him that, "If there is
any fighting it will be within our own borders and in our own streets."
Turn to your history if you want to see how these confident predictions
were fulfilled.

"Well, if those Yankee flags are not brought to light until the Yankees
themselves come marching through this State, you will never see them
again," said Rodney, with emphasis. "If the Northern people fool with us
we will keep them so busy on their own ground that they will never think
of coming down here. But what's the use of talking about war! They'll
not fight. I only wish they would, so that we might show them how easy
it would be for us to whip them. But is that our flag up there? And what
is the meaning of those ribbons?"

"Oh, haven't you heard? Well, you'll know all about it when you get your
paper. The president has been empowered to call for an immense army of
our gallant--"

"Bosh!" sneered Rodney; and then he apologized for the interruption and
for the expression he had used.

"But we need an army to hold possession of our coast defences, do we
not? All the government property in the Confederacy has been seized, and
now that we have got it, we must hold fast to it."

"Certainly; but we don't need an army to do that. Our school battalion,
if the boys were only united, could do it and not half try."

"If they were united?" repeated one of the girls. "You do not mean to
say that there are traitors in that school?"

Rodney replied that was just what he did mean to say. He declared that
the academy was a hotbed of treason, and Cole and Billings confirmed his
words. The girls were surprised to hear it.

"And even the colonel hasn't the pluck of a cat or a mind of his own,"
continued Billings. "He doesn't seem to know where he stands."

"Every one in town wonders why that flag has been permitted to float so
long, and now I know," said one of the girls. "The colonel is friendly
to it; but still, if you young gentlemen had half the courage we have
given you credit for, you would have pulled