noon
`` Yo ' see , Missy , I feels jes ' as if you was my true fr ` en ' . '' `` I 'll try to be , '' Sylvia promised . Estralla went off happy with her new possessions , and Sylvia turned to the window , and looked off across the beautiful harbor toward the forts . She had heard her father say , that very noon , that South Carolina would fight to keep its slaves , and she wondered if the soldiers in Fort Moultrie would not fight to set the black people free . She remembered that her father had said that Fort Sumter was the property of the United States ; and , for some reason which she could not explain even to herself , she was sure that Estralla would be safe there . If Mr. Robert Waite really meant to sell her , Sylvia again resolved to find some way to get the little slave girl to Fort Sumter . When Estralla brought the hot water the next morning she found a very sober little mistress .