ys could occasionally see the ships
of war of the allies as they cruised to and fro.

It was very cold, for the opening was of course unglazed. They had
each a heap of straw and two blankets, and these in the daytime they
used as shawls, for they had no fire, and it was freezing sharply.

Dick's leg had been examined and dressed by a surgeon upon his first
arrival; but as the wound was not serious, and the surgeons were
worked night and day with the enormous number of wounded at Inkerman,
and in the various sorties, with which the town was crowded, he did
not again come near his patient. The wound, however, healed rapidly.

As Jack remarked, the scanty rations of black bread and tough
meat--the latter the produce of some of the innumerable bullocks which
arrived at Sebastopol with convoys, too exhausted and broken down for
further service--were not calculated to cause any feverish excitement
to the blood, nor, had it been so, would the temperature have
permitted the fever to rise to any undue height.

Their guards were kind to them so far as was in their power, and upon
their using the word "tobacco," and making signs that they wanted to
smoke, furnished them with pipes and with tobacco, which, although
much lighter and very different in quality from that supplied on board
ship, was yet very smokable, and much mitigated the dulness from which
the boys suffered. A few days after their captivity the boys heard the
church bells of Sebastopol ringing merrily.

"I wonder what all this is about?" Dick said; "not for a victory, I'll
be bound."

"Why, bless me," Jack exclaimed, "if it isn't Christmas day, and we
had forgotten all about it! Now, that is hard, monstrously hard. The
fellows on the heights will just be enjoying themselves to-day. I know
they were talking about getting some currants and raisins from on
board ship, and there will be plum-duff and all sorts of things. I
wonder how they're all getting on at home? They're sure to be thinking
often enough of us, but it will never enter their minds that here we
are cooped up in this beastly hole."

The day, however, did not pass unnoticed, for a Russian officer who
spoke English called upon them, and said that he came at the request
of the governor himself to express to them his regret that their
quarters were so uncomfortable and their fare so bad. "But," he said,
"we cannot help ourselves. Every barrack in the town is crowded; every
hospital, every private house