nd relaxation which it had bought by toil and blood, a brilliant
assembly of officers sat over their wine discussing the operations of
the capture and indulging hopes of a speedy return to the United States.

"One among them rose to propose the health of the Captain of Engineers
who had found a way for the army into the city, and then it was remarked
that Captain Lee was absent. Magruder was despatched to bring him to the
hall, and, departing on his mission, at last found the object of his
search in a remote room of the palace, busy on a map. Magruder accosted
him and reproached him for his absence. The earnest worker looked up
from his labors with the calm, mild gaze which was so characteristic of
the man, and, pointing to his instruments, shook his head.

"'But,' said Magruder, in his impetuous way, 'this is mere drudgery.
Make somebody else do it, and come with me.'

"'No,' was the reply; 'no, I am but doing my duty.'"

This is very significant of Lee's subsequent character, in which the
demands of duty always outweighed any thought of pleasure or relaxation,
and in which his remarkable ability as an engineer was of inestimable
advantage to the cause he served.

_A CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE PLANTATION._

Shall we not break for a time from our record of special tales and let
fall on our pages a bit of winter sunshine from the South, the story of
a Christmas festival in the land of the rose and magnolia? It is a story
which has been repeated so many successive seasons in the life of the
South that it has grown to be a part of its being, the joyous festal
period in the workday world of the year. The writer once spent Christmas
as a guest in the manor house of old Major Delmar, "away down South,"
and feels like halting to tell the tale of genial merrymaking and
free-hearted enjoyment on that gladsome occasion.

On the plantation, Christmas is the beginning and end of the calendar.
Time is measured by the days "before Christmas" or the days "since
Christmas." There are other seasons of holiday and enjoyment, alike for
black and white, but "The Holidays" has one meaning only: it is the
merry Christmas time, when the work of the year past is ended and that
of the year to come not begun, and when pleasure and jollity rule
supreme.

A hearty, whole-souled, genial host and kindly, considerate master was
the old major, in the days of his reign, "before the war," and
fortunate was he who received an invitation to spen