elyn.

III

MAJOR STAFFORD GETS THE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

When Major Stafford galloped away next day, on his return to his
command, the little group at the lawn-gate shouted many messages after
him. The last thing he heard was Charlie's treble, as he seated
himself on the gate-post, calling to him not to forget to make Santa
Claus bring him a pair of uniform breeches and a sword; and Evelyn's
little voice came to him long after he could distinguish the words but
he knew she was reminding him of her "dolly that can go to sleep."

Many times during the ensuing year, amid the hardships of the campaign,
the privations and the fatigues of the march, and the dangers of
battle, the Major heard those little voices calling to him.

In the autumn he won the three stars of a Colonel for gallantry in
leading a desperate charge on a town in the heart of the enemy's land.
A perilous raid had been made deep into the country. An overwhelming
force had been met which defeated the object of the raid, and
threatened the destruction of the entire force. The day was saved by
Major Stafford. But none knew, when he dashed into the town at the
head of his regiment, under a hail of bullets, that his mind was full
of toyshops and clothing-stores, and that when he was so stoutly
holding his position he was guarding a little boy's suit, a small sword
with a gilded scabbard, and a large doll with flowing ringlets and blue
eyes that could "go to sleep."

Some of his friends during that year charged the Major with growing
miserly, and rallied him upon hoarding up his pay and carrying large
rolls of Confederate money about his person; and when, just before the
raid, he invested his entire year's pay in four or five ten-dollar
gold-pieces, they vowed he was mad.

"I shall report him as a hopeless case," said Dr. Graham, the Surgeon.
"A man might have reason to do this in time of peace; but when a man
hoards money on his person and then exposes himself as the Major does
every time we have a battle, it's proof of insanity."

The Major, however, always met these charges with a smile.

"Doctors are like other men," he said. "They think whatever they
cannot understand, madness." And as soon as his position was assured
in the captured town he proved his sanity.

The fight had been a sharp one, and the town had only been seized after
a desperate charge. The shopkeepers had put up their shutters and were
barricaded within their houses, w