fight for these homes!"

My mother stirred in her chair, but she made no speech, only looked at
my father.

"You forget, Colonel," said my father in his low, deep voice, "that this
man Lincoln has not yet been elected, and that even if elected he may
prove a greater figure than we think. He has not yet had chance to learn
the South."

Orme had been standing silent, his face indifferent or faintly lighted
with an habitual cynicism. Now he broke in. "He will never be elected,"
he said emphatically. "It would ruin the entire industry of the South. I
tell you Lincoln is thinking of his own political advancement and caring
nothing for this country. The South _must_ secede, gentlemen--if you
will allow me as a stranger to venture an opinion."

My mother turned her gaze to him, but it was Sheraton who spoke.

"It goes back to the old Articles of Federation, our first compact," he
said. "From the very first the makers of this country saw that by reason
of diverse industries the South was separated from the North. This
secession has been written in the sky from the beginning of the world."

"Nay, brother Sheraton," broke in my mother eagerly "it was the union of
brothership that was written first in the sky."

He turned to her with the bow of a gentleman. "It is you ladies who knit
the world together with kindness," he said. "Alas, that men must rend it
with fighting."

"Alas!" whispered she.

Sheraton's own face was sad as he went on with the old justification.
"Jefferson would turn over in his grave if he saw Virginia divided as it
is. Why, Cowles, we've all the world we need here. We can live alone
here, each on his own acres, a gentleman, and all he needs of government
is protection and fair laws. Calhoun was right. Better give us two
peaceful countries, each living happily and content, than one at war
with itself. Clay was a great man, but both he and Webster were fighting
against the inevitable."

"That is true," interrupted Orme; "unquestionably true. Texas came near
becoming a colony of England because this country would not take her.
She declared for slavery, and had that right. The Spaniards had made
California a slave state, but the gold seekers by vote declared her
free. They had that right to govern themselves. As to the new lands
coming in, it is their right also to vote upon the question of slavery,
each new state for itself."

"The war has already begun on the border," said my father. "My friend
and