“Look, Andy, something is up!” cried Louis, as they drove up to the main street of Lee Run. “See what an excited crowd there is at the railroad station.” “Hurrah! Hurrah for South Carolina!” was the sudden cry which reached their ears. “She’s the State! Hurrah! and may gallant Virginia soon follow her!” “What is it, Mr. Deems?” cried Andy, as he drew rein in front of the general store fronting the depot. “What’s the shouting about?” “Didn’t you hear the news, Arlington? South Carolina has seceded from the Union. They are having the greatest jubilication ever heard of down there. ’T won’t be long afore we follow ’em, I reckon,” added the store-keeper. “Seceded from the Union!” repeated Louis. “Oh, that’s too bad!” “Bad? Didn’t ye say ‘bad’?” interrupted a tall mountaineer, who stood by, whittling a plug of tobacco with his jack-knife. “I reckon ye don’t know much, boy. Why, it’s jess the best all-fired news I heard tell on fer ten years.” “That is where our opinions differ,” answered Louis, coldly. “In fact, I don’t see how a State can leave the Union, unless all the other States agree to it.” “Don’t ye? Say, ain’t ye just a bit Northern-like now?” and the mountaineer squinted one eye suggestively. “I am from Pennsylvania, if that is what you mean.” “Thought so. An’ ye don’t agree with us? Think our ideas about slavery an’ sech ain’t o’ no account.” “I think this present difficulty ought to be settled without breaking up our Union and shedding blood.” “Waal--” the mountaineer paused long enough to transfer a whittling of hard tobacco to his mouth,--“all I’ve got to say is, we ain’t gettin’ on our knees to save this infernal Union, nohow, so thar!” “You ought to be ashamed to speak of our Union as an infernal one,” burst out Louis. “Our Union is the greatest and grandest on this globe, and I for one will help uphold it to the last.” “Oh, don’t talk so much, Louis!” put in Andy, with a swift rush of blood to his face. “The crowd around here is excited and may not like what you say.” “But he called our Union an infernal one--” “Don’t pay any attention to him. I know him. His name is Sam Jacks, and he never did an honest stroke of work in his life. Here comes the train. Let us go over and meet my father and see what he has to say.” Leaving the horse tied to a near-by tree, the two lads made their way through the crowd to the edge of the depot platform. Soon the train rolled in and the first man to hop down, upon his cork leg, was Hugo Arlington. “What’s the latest from Washington, Arlington?” cried half a dozen voices, and in a twinkling the veteran was surrounded, so that Andy and Louis could scarcely reach him. “South Carolina has seceded, that’s the main news--” began Mr. Arlington. “Yes, yes, we know that. But what do they say at the Capitol?” “Most of the people can’t believe it. The crowds around the telegraph and newspaper offices are tremendous, and there is a regular mob around the Capitol and the White House.”