ine of what had happened since he saw them, a story which filled
them with astonishment and some little envy.

"I will tell you all about it fully, later on," Jack said, "but it
would take me till night to give you the full yarn now. But first you
must tell me what has happened here. You know I have heard nothing,
and only know that Sebastopol is not yet taken."

The recital was a long one, and Jack was fain to admit that the
hardships which he had gone through were as nothing to those which had
been borne by our soldiers in the Crimea during the six months he had
been away from them. The trials and discomforts of the great storm had
been but a sample of what was to be undergone. After Inkerman, it had
been plain to the generals in command that all idea of taking
Sebastopol must be abandoned until the spring, and that at the utmost
they could do no more than hold their position before it. This had
been rendered still more difficult by the storm, in which enormous
quantities of stores, warm clothing, and other necessaries had been
lost.

It was now too late to think of making a road from Balaklava to the
front, a work which, had the authorities in the first place dreamt
that the army would have to pass the winter on the plateau, was of all
others the most necessary. The consequence of this omission was that
the sufferings of the troops were terrible.

While Balaklava harbor was crowded with ships full of huts, clothing,
and fuel, the men at the front were dying in hundreds from wet, cold,
and insufficient food. Between them and abundance extended an almost
impassable quagmire, in which horses and bullocks sank and died in
thousands, although laden only with weights which a donkey in ordinary
times could carry. Had the strength of the regiments in front been
sufficient, the soldiers might have been marched down, when off duty,
to Balaklava, to carry up the necessaries they required. But so
reduced were they by over-work and fatigue, that those fit for duty
had often to spend five nights out of seven in the trenches, and were
physically too exhausted and worn-out to go down to Balaklava for
necessaries, even of the most urgent kind. Many of the regiments were
almost annihilated. Large numbers of fresh troops had come out, and
drafts for those already there, but the new-comers, mostly raw lads,
broke down under the strain almost as fast as they arrived, and in
spite of the number sent out, the total available strength d