“I tell you, Cowles,” said Colonel Sheraton, grinding his stick into the turf, “you do not talk like a Virginian.  If the North keeps on this course, then we Southerners must start a country of our own.  Look, man—­” He swept about him an arm which included his own wide acres and ours, lying there shimmering clear to the thin line of the old Blue Ridge—­“We must 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 partner, Colonel Meriwether of Albemarle, who is with the Army in the West, says that white men are killing white men all across the lands west of the Missouri.”