Free Sarah's Ground (9781439115855) by Ann Rinaldi Page A

decided to send Dandridge to Alexandria with another load of cabbages to sell.
    On muster day a group of Northern officers came by. We greeted them, and I showed them the tomb. They adhered to my rules as to covering their signs of rank on their uniforms and setting their guns down. But then I got the feeling that, being officers, they wanted to be invited to dinner.
    I had just shown them the house when the smell ofcooking wafted in from the kitchen. They lingered.
    â€œGentlemen, I would invite you, but I am under command also,” I said, “to stay neutral and not show favor in this war. I know the people at Hollin Hall are prepared today for visitors,” I told them. “They are just half a mile from here.” I gave them directions.
    As luck would have it, Upton was not with us. He was out amongst the neighbors, vouching for those who had joined his Home Guard with the muster men from both North and South. For the North had decided to compete and send men into the area also, to recruit.
    I was just sitting down in the dining room by myself when there came a knock on our front door.
More officers,
I thought. But it wasn’t.
    It was Robert Harbinger. “Miss Tracy, can I please come in?”
    He had a blanket strapped onto his back, army fashion. “Are you here for something for your mother?” I asked.
    â€œNo. I’m hiding from my mother. I’ll explain if you let me in.”
    I know I shouldn’t have, but I did. After all, I’m hiding from my mother too, aren’t I? He stepped into the foyer. “I want to join the Northern army,” he said. “Today. And I know my mother won’t let me. So I’ve come here to hide until I see a muster man from the North.”
    â€œBut I can’t hide a soldier,” I said. “You know how I’m supposed to stay neutral.”
    â€œI’m not a soldier. Not yet. Miss Tracy, I’m sure a Northern recruiter will be by soon. I just ask you to let me stand here and peek out the windows until I see one. Then I’ll go. I promise.”
    I let him stay. I know I shouldn’t have. And soon a recruiter was sighted, across the bowling green in back, on the other side of our fence.
    â€œHe’s Northern!” Robert was ecstatic. “The man is from the North! He’s wearing a blue uniform. I’m going, Miss Tracy. And I thank you.”
    â€œJust like that?” I stared at him. “You’re going to war?”
    â€œYes. It’s the only way. Otherwise my mother will stop me.”
    And he went out the back door. I watched him stride masterfully across the bowling green in back and hail the recruiter. I watched them speak awhile. I saw him hand the recruiter a paper. And then they turned and walked back to the fence. And to the road that took them away from Mount Vernon.
    Well, General Washington,
I thought,
I know how badly you need men. You’ve got one more now. God bless him
.

Eleven
    S o now I am deemed a spy.
    This time it is a Philadelphia newspaper. They suggest I am “residing at Mount Vernon and entertaining friends there like a princess.”
    Like a princess, yes, especially when I help Upton scrape the wallpaper off the dining-room walls in its refurbishing. More especially when I weed my garden. Maybe somebody saw me talking to my pet crow and decided he was a member of my court.
    These same troublemakers say that Mount Vernon has been paid for by Northern money and that I now make frequent trips from here to Washington to “damage the free states and assist the armed traitors in the South.”
    Why must people be such meddlesome troublemakers? Don’t they know that if you leave trouble alone, it will find you?
    The article went on to say that I was seen talking to Professor Thaddeus Lowe in the field, “gathering information to give to the Southern traitors.”
    Whatever else they say of me,
I will not be construed as a spy!
I must write,