When word came to Washington that Fort Sumter had fallen, the excitement was intense. Everybody looked to President Lincoln, who had succeeded Buchanan in March, for he was the head of the nation, and must decide in a crisis like this. This was on Sunday. On Monday came a proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand men to go to the war. The proclamation aroused the nation as never before. It was published in the newspapers and scattered broadcast, and inside of three days companies were forming in all of the Northern States and getting ready to march to Washington. Old uniforms were brushed up, old guns cleaned and oiled, old drums re-headed, and nearly every man and boy began to study Hardee’s Tactics, a soldier’s manual. What the effects of this proclamation were in the South we will see later on, when we follow the daring career of Andy Arlington. It was Mr. Rockford who brought home the news to Louis and the others that the President wanted seventy-five thousand men, and wanted them immediately. He had been down to Goreville and came back stating that the citizens were going half-crazy. “Paulding has already issued an address, calling on the men of this neighborhood to join a company he is forming,” said Mr. Rockford. “Harley, the miller, is going, and so is that young Bingham, the clerk in the grocery store, and Umbleton and Dilks. You never heard such spouting and shouting in your life.” “Will you join, father?” asked Louis, quickly, and his usually grave face lit up with sudden earnestness. “I don’t know. Paulding urged me, but I said I wouldn’t commit myself until I had talked matters over at home.” “Oh, John!” cried Mrs. Rockford, and then stopped short. She did not want her husband to leave her, and yet she wanted to see him do his duty as a citizen. “If you don’t go, father, I’ll go--if they’ll take me,” went on the son, but in rather a low tone. “You, Louis!” burst from mother and both sisters. “Yes. Why not, mother? I am as tall and strong as some of the men. I really think one or the other of us ought to go.” “If either of us go it will be I,” said Mr. Rockford, decidedly. “But we will talk it over in the morning,” he went on, as he saw his wife was on the verge of tears. Fate decided for Mr. Rockford before he had a chance to decide for himself, although secretly he was much in favor of going, if matters around the dairy could be arranged. That evening, when passing among the cows, one particularly vicious animal turned upon him and jammed him into a corner of the barn, breaking his collar bone and otherwise injuring him. The accident frightened the others of the family very much, and a hired man was sent post-haste for the village doctor. It was after midnight before Mr. Rockford was pronounced out of danger, and then the doctor announced that he would not be able to leave his bed for many weeks and perhaps months to come.