'"
What a winter of uncertainty and gloom to Americans, both at home and
abroad, was that of 1860-'61. Each mail brought to our anxious friends in
Naples news calculated to depress them more and more in view of the
calamities that seemed to await their loved land.
State after State was seceding and seizing upon United States property
within its limits--forts, arsenals, navy-yards, custom-houses, mints,
ships, armories, and military stores--while the government at Washington
remained inactive, doubtless fearing to precipitate the civil strife.
Still Mr. Travilla, Rose, and Elsie, like many lovers of the Union, both
North and South, clung to the hope that war might yet be averted.
At length came the news of the formation of the Confederacy: Davis's
election as its president; then of the firing upon the Star of the West,
an unarmed vessel bearing troops and supplies to Fort Sumter.
"Well, the first gun has been fired," said Mr. Dinsmore, with a sigh, as
he laid down the paper from which he had been reading the account.
"But perhaps it may be the only one, papa," remarked Elsie hopefully.
"I wish it may," replied her father, rising and beginning to pace to and
fro, as was his wont when excited or disturbed.
The next news from America was looked for with intense anxiety.
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