Annabel laughed. “Well, I swanee, I’m going to leave the speeches and fighting to the men and just enjoy things while I can. In spite of the rain, last Tuesday, I and Ann-Elizabeth and Margaret-Ella got into my carriage and went out to the camp grounds where Captain Buck Jordan is drilling his company. It’s just the most amusing thing you ever saw, those men marching back and forth. You must go too, Auntie Sarah.” Sarah shook her head. “You mean you don’t plan to? Oh, I’m certain it would take your mind off things and make you laugh, as it did us!”

Edna said, “You were a silly child, and you are a silly woman.”

Nearby the men talked: Bruce and Leon, James and Blair. After a glance at his wife Blair said, “If it comes to war, and it surely will, I’ll not wait to be called. I’ll go on the instant, won’t you, James?”

James said, “I’ll go only when I have to go.”

Blair flushed. “That’ll set the wrong example to others, you know. They look to us to see what we’ll do because of our position. I had reckoned you’d be exactly of my mind about it.”

James shook his head. “I’ll only go if there’s no other way.”

Blair turned stiffly to Leon and Bruce. “At your age you won’t be expected to march off at the head of a column, but James can surely be spared from the plantation.”

Looking pointedly at Annabel who was laughing merrily because she couldn’t open her umbrella, James said, “I don’t have the strong incentive you do to run off to war.”

By the end of January, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia had voted in legislature to follow South Carolina out of the Union. Nell and Penelope drove to the camp grounds with Selma and Pauline one day, and all four returned to Beulah Land full of excitement. “If only I were a man!” Selma exclaimed, and Pauline nodded vigorous sympathy. After that the older women, Nell now using a cane to help her about the grounds, attended the marching drills in which Selma and Pauline led the children. When their enthusiasm for the martial spirit spilled over at meal times and they tried to engage Sarah in the conversation, Sarah said, “It’s all for nothing, for nothing will happen here. We’re not big enough, thank the Lord. We’re just a dot on the map between Atlanta and Savannah. What I’m going to do is try to live as we’ve always lived at Beulah Land.” As she looked down the table at Leon, he gave her one of his rare, happy smiles.

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