"No, Grace; it is for the best." And so it was fully decided. The time came for her to go. The parting with Helen Osborne was a tearful one, but Tilly was inconsolable. "All de sunshine will be gone frum de house," she moaned. "When Missy Grace goes, Tilly want to die." "Oh, no, Tilly; you want to be here to welcome me when I come back," said Grace. Grace was taken to St. Louis and placed in one of the most fashionable schools in the city. Lola Laselle and Dorothy Hamilton were members of the same school, but as they were day pupils, Grace did not become very well acquainted with them. Grace's gentle, unaffected ways soon made her a favorite, but there were a few of the pupils who looked down on the mountain girl as beneath them. But gentle as Grace was, there was the blood of a fiery and proud race in her veins, and she soon taught those girls she could not be snubbed with impunity. She was an apt pupil and soon became the most popular girl in the school, and the haughty ones were proud to be classed as her friends. The rules and restrictions of the school were irksome to her, and she became the leader of a bevy of girls who delighted in having a good time, and many were the little luncheons they enjoyed together after the teachers thought all good girls were in bed. One day Grace heard the girls discussing a book which at that time was creating a sensation. "It's dreadful," said one of the girls. "Every copy printed ought to be destroyed, and the woman who wrote it burned at the stake." "Have you read it?" asked one of the girls. The first girl raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Read it!" she exclaimed. "I would as soon touch a viper as that book." "How do you know it is bad, then?" persisted the second girl. "Because I have heard papa say so. It's all about slavery, and makes out that the people that own slaves are the wickedest people in the world. Papa says the book will cause a war yet." "My papa says," spoke up another, "that the South is going to secede, and when it does he says there may be war." "Pshaw! the Yankees will not fight," exclaimed a girl from Mississippi. "Brother Ned says they are a cowardly lot, and that one Southern gentleman can whip ten of them." The conversation now took a general turn over what would happen if war came, and it was the opinion of most of the girls that it would be just grand. Grace listened eagerly to the conversation, but took no part. So far she had given little attention to the strife which was agitating the country. Even the conflict which had raged along the borders of Missouri and Kansas had only come as a faint echo among the Ozarks. But now she asked, "What is the name of the book you girls are talking about?" "Uncle Tom's Cabin. It's a horrid book," replied one of the girls.