while the mother, exclaiming "Vi! is she gone again?" sprang out
upon the floor, and hastily threw on a dressing-gown.

"No, no, no, mamma; Vi's safe in bed, but look at that red light on the
wall yonder! it's fire, and the Ku Klux!"

In another moment all three were at the window overlooking the scene.

"The school-house!" exclaimed Mr. Travilla. "I am not surprised; for the
Klan is greatly opposed to the education of the negro, and has burned
down buildings used for that purpose in other places. Do you see them,
wife? those frightful looking horned animals."

"Yes," she said with a shudder, followed by a deep sigh, "and O Edward
what may they not be doing to our poor people? can we do anything to
save them?"

He shook his head sadly.

"No: they are out in considerable force, and I could do nothing,
single-handed, against twenty or thirty armed men."

"O papa, mamma, I am so frightened!" cried little Elsie, clinging to
them both. "Will they come here and hurt us?"

"I think not, daughter," her father said soothingly; "their raids have
hitherto been almost entirely confined to the blacks, and poor whites,
with now and then one of those from the North whom they style
carpet-baggers."

"Be calm, dearest, and put your trust in the Lord," the mother said,
folding the trembling, sobbing child to her breast. "'The beloved of the
Lord shall dwell in safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the
day long.' 'Not an hair of your head shall fall to the ground without
your Father.'"

"Yes, sweet words," said Mr. Travilla; "and remember what the Lord Jesus
said to Pilate, 'Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it
were given thee from above.'"

A short pause, in which all three gazed intently at the scene of
conflagration, then, "Do you see how the walls are tottering?" said Mr.
Travilla, and even as he spoke they tumbled together into one burning
mass, the flames shot up higher than before, burning with a fierce heat
and roar, while by their lurid light the Ku K

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

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