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Updated: June 14, 2025
And she was not well pleased to see her young mistress disappear from her watchful eyes. "What a funny name 'Estralla' is," laughed Flora, as Sylvia called back a good-bye. "Oh, that isn't her name, really," explained Grace. "You know my Uncle Robert owns her, and Auntie Connie named her after Aunt Esther and Cousin Alice. Her name is really Esther Alice.
Sylvia heard them speak of Aunt Connie, the good- natured black cook, who lived in a cabin behind the Fultons' kitchen. "Aunt Connie wants to bring her little girl to live with her. Their master is willing, if we have no objections," Sylvia heard her mother say. "Oh, let the child come," Mr. Fulton responded; "how old is she?" "Just Sylvia's age. Her name is Estralla," replied Mrs. Fulton.
But Sylvia's own thoughts were so filled by the mysterious letter which was pinned inside her dress, with wondering how she could safely deliver it without the knowledge of anyone, that she hardly thought of school. For the time she had even forgotten Estralla.
He welcomed Sylvia with his usual cordiality, and told Aunt Connie that he wished her good fortune, and sent her and Estralla home. "I will walk back with your young mistress," he said, and Sylvia felt that it was the proudest day of her life when she walked up King Street beside the friendly southerner. "He talks just as if I were grown up," thought Sylvia gratefully, when Mr.
"Whar' is Missy Sylvia?" asked Estralla, who had been asleep in a sunny corner of the veranda for the last hour. "Where is Sylvia?" echoed Mrs. Carleton, who came in at that moment. "Has she gone to the boat?" "Why, I don't know. Perhaps she has. Mr. Fulton said for us to come right to the landing," said Grace, her thoughts still full of the faithful Sancho Panza of whom she had been reading.
"I was jes' a-takin' a little sleep on de big rug side of your door, Missy. I'se been a-sleepin' dere dis long time. My mammy lets me. An' when you opens de door I mos' calls out, but didn't. I jes' stan's up quick, so's you nebber know I was thar," and Estralla chuckled happily. Sylvia wondered to herself why Estralla should choose such a hard bed.
Please whar' is my missy?" replied the little darky eagerly. "Safe in the cabin," nodded the good-natured man. Estralla slipped behind a pile of boxes, and watched for a chance to get on board the vessel without being seen.
I knows jes' how slaves are ketched. Yas'm, I does. My mammy tole me. They gits folks in ships and carries 'em off an' sells 'em to folks. An' I ain' gwine to let 'em have you, Missy." There were tears in Estralla's eyes. She knew that her own brother had been sold the previous year and taken to a plantation in Florida. She had heard her mother say that she, Estralla, might be sold any time.
I am going to ask my mother to put a nice little bed for you in your mammy's cabin." "Don' yo' do that, Missy. I likes sleepin' on de rug," pleaded Estralla. "Hush, we must creep in without making any noise," responded Sylvia, in a whisper, for they were now directly in front of Sylvia's home. Noiselessly Estralla led the way.
"You see I couldn't do that, because it would mean that I believed that Estralla ought to be a slave, and of course I don't believe such a dreadful thing," she explained. So then Mr. Doane heard all about Estralla and Aunt Connie. Sylvia decided that she liked Mr. Doane even better than Captain Carleton.
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