. With a cry
they gathered up their presents and made a dash for him.

"Just see what Santa Claus brought us," they cried, hugging him warmly.

"How did you tum?" asked Evelyn, in a pause.

"Oh, don't you know 't Santa Claus brought him to mamma?" said Charlie,
arrogantly. "Papa, did he let you drive the reindeer?"

Presently Bob and Ran burst in, their eyes fairly dancing.

"Christmas-gift! It's a real one--real gold!" cried Bob, holding up a
small gold watch, while Ran was shouting over a silver watch of the
same size.

That evening, after dinner, General Denby was sitting by the fire in
the Holly Hill parlor, with Evelyn nestled in his lap, her dolly
clasped close to her bosom, and, in the absence of Colonel Stafford,
who had walked out, with the older boys, the General told Mrs. Stafford
the story of the opening of the package by the camp-fire. The tears
welled up in Mrs. Stafford's eyes and ran down her cheeks.

Charlie suddenly entered, in all the majesty of his new breeches, and
sword buckled on hip. He saw his mother's tears. His little face
flushed. In a second his sword was out, and he struck a hostile
attitude.

"You sha'n't make my mamma cry!" he shouted.

"Charlie! Charlie!" cried Mrs. Stafford, hastening to stop him.

"My papa said I was not to let anyone make you cry," insisted the boy,
stepping before his mother, and still keeping his angry eyes on the
General.

"Oh, Charlie!" Mrs. Stafford took hold of him. "I am ashamed of
you!--to be so rude!"

"Let him alone, madam," said the General. "It is not rudeness; it is
spirit--the spirit of our race. He has the soldier's blood, and some
day he will be a soldier himself, and a brave one. I shall count on
him for the Union," he said, with a smile.

Mrs. Stafford shook her head. But the General nodded again, and,
drawing the little boy to his knees, told him of his father's showing
him the sword by the camp-fire when he himself was a prisoner.

A few days later, Colonel Stafford, in accordance with an
understanding, went over to General Denby's camp, and reported to be
sent on to Washington as a prisoner of war. The General was absent on
the lines at the time, but was expected soon, and the Colonel waited
for him at his head-quarters. There had been many tears shed when his
wife bade him good-by.

About an hour after the Colonel left home, the General and his staff
were riding back to camp along the road which ran by the Holl