away. The young men roared with
laughter, and the spectators roared with them, and even the abolitionist
laughed. All laughed but Little Compton. The procession was marched to
the court-house enclosure, and there the prisoner was made to stand on
the sale-block so that all might have a fair view of him. He was kept
there until the stage was ready to go; and then he was given a seat on
that swaying vehicle, and forwarded to Rockville, where, presumably, the
"boys" placed him on the train and "passed him on" to the "boys" in
other towns.

For months thereafter there was peace in Hillsborough, so far as the
abolitionists were concerned; and then came the secession movement. A
majority of the citizens of the little town were strong Union men; but
the secession movement seemed to take even the oldest off their feet,
and by the time the Republican President was inaugurated, the Union
sentiment that had marked Hillsborough had practically disappeared. In
South Carolina companies of minutemen had been formed, and the entire
white male population was wearing blue cockades. With some
modifications, these symptoms were reproduced in Hillsborough. The
modifications were that a few of the old men still stood up for the
Union, and that some of the young men, though they wore the blue
cockade, did not aline themselves with the minutemen.

Little Compton took no part in these proceedings. He was discreetly
quiet. He tended his store, and smoked his pipe, and watched events. One
morning he was aroused from his slumbers by a tremendous crash--a crash
that rattled the windows of his store and shook its very walls. He lay
quiet a while, thinking that a small earthquake had been turned loose
on the town. Then the crash was repeated; and he knew that Hillsborough
was firing a salute from its little six-pounder, a relic of the
Revolution, that had often served the purpose of celebrating the
nation's birthday in a noisily becoming manner.

Little Compton arose, and dressed himself, and prepared to put his store
in order. Issuing forth into the street, he saw that the town was in
considerable commotion. A citizen who had been in attendance on the
convention at Milledgeville had arrived during the night, bringing the
information that the ordinance of secession had been adopted, and that
Georgia was now a sovereign and independent government. The original
secessionists were in high feather, and their hilarious enthusiasm had
its effect on all