ll to try and keep up what was good and cheerful and bound us together,
and to remember that Christmas was not only a time for merry-making, but
was the time when the Saviour of the world came among men to bring peace
and good-will, and that we should remember all our friends everywhere.
'And, gentlemen,' he said, 'there are two toasts I always like to
propose at this time, and which I will ask you to drink. The first is
to my wife.' It was drunk, you may believe. 'And the second is, "My
friends: all mankind."' This too, was drunk, and just then someone
noticed that the old fellow had nothing but a little water in his glass.
'Why, Captain,' he said, 'you are not drinking! that is not fair.'
'Well, no, sir,' said the old fellow, 'I never drink anything on duty;
you see it is one of the regulations and I subscribed them, and, of
course, I could not break my word. Nick, there, will drink my share,
however, when you are through; he isn't held up to quite such high
accountability.' And sure enough, Nick drained off a glass and made a
speech which got him a handful of quarters. Well, of course, the old
Captain owned not only the car, but all in it by this time, and we
spent one of the jolliest evenings you ever saw. The glum fellow who had
insisted on his rights at Washington made a little speech, and paid the
Captain one of the prettiest compliments I ever heard. He said he had
discovered that the Captain had given him his own lower berth after he
had been so rude to him, and that instead of taking his upper berth as
he had supposed he would have done, he had given that to another person
and had sat up himself all night. That was I. The old fellow had given
the grumbler his 'lower' in the smoking-room, and had given me his
'upper'. The fellow made him a very handsome apology before us all, and
the Captain had his own berth that night, you may believe.

"Well, we were all on the 'qui vive' to see the Captain's wife when we
got to New Orleans. The Captain had told us that she always came down to
the station to meet him; so we were all on the lookout for her. He told
me the first thing that he did was to kiss her, and then he went and
filed his reports, and then they went home together, 'And if you'll come
and dine with me,' he said to me, 'I'll give you the best dinner you
ever had--real old Virginia cooking; Nick's wife is our only servant,
and she is an excellent cook.' I promised him to go one day, though I
could not go the