discussed, the children plead to go also; and after due consideration, the parents decided that one of the boys should accompany the father-they thought Frank, inasmuch as he could more readily make up for lost lessons at school than his brother.

"But Roger's the younger, he ought to be more favored than I," said Frank, half relenting at his own importunity.

"No, that's why you ought to go, because you're the older," answered Roger. "Oh, I wish you could take us both, father," he added, with a face for once really sober.

"Never mind, Roger, our turn will come next," said Maedy, mingling a caress or two with her comfortings. "He'll bring us home a present, won't you papa? Roger wants a new sled, because he lends me his for coasting, and a pair of skates, because his are too small and I wear them, and”. it was wonderful how many articles were really necessary when one began to recount them. However, after the father and

Frank had started, and the disappointment had been cheerfully borne, Roger affirmed that he had 'a real jolly second Christmas,' for on coming from school, what should they find but the desired sled and skates, and the prettiest of little work-boxes for Maedy. In the enjoyment of these new acquisitions, all disappointment was forgotten and the days passed quickly till the travellers' return.

Meantime a budget arrived from Aunt Ellen, who was more busy than ever with the exchanged prisoners.

"Well men, they are termed by their former keepers," she wrote. What then must be the condition of the ill ones?

"Last week we received a boat load of breathing skeletons, hatless, shoeless, almost naked; many of them hopelessly shattered in mind and body by starvation and other ingenious torture of their jailors. One of these patients is a Methodist minister, who languished for nearly two years in Southern prisons, now in an iron cage, now in a stockade, keeping body and soul together by means of a few spoonfuls of corn meal-daily. If one speaks to him he bursts into tears, 'for I haven't heard a kind

word for so long,' he says. Another veteran plead for more than the prescribed allowance of food, because the soup is 'right peart,' he'd like a 'right smart chance of it,' for he's 'had no dinner in twenty-one months.' Some there are who call for food no more, but are lying on the river's brink, waiting to be borne across to the Shining Shore, where the marriage supper is continually spread. 'My country is worth suffering for;' 'I can trust all with the Saviour, he is with me;' 'all is well,' they murmur as they drift away from our watchings. At nightfall we read aloud to such as are able to be gathered in one ward for service, which is opened by our fervent Methodist, Sergeant M., generally with the hymn, 'Sweet Hour of Prayer,' and an appeal to God's throne for the sufferers.

"One of my patients, a brave godly captain, rescued from death in a prison pen, refers with real pleasure to his last night on the battle-field. 'Spite of the suffering,' he says-for he was wounded—' I was never happier in my life, for heaven seemed close at hand. Near my elbow the rain had formed a little pool, which I tried long and vainly to reach with my lips. The hours began to seem very long after nightfall, but as I lay trying to keep hope alive, repeating in whispers, 'I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me,' the thought that ere the morning dawned I might be relieved of my pain, resting in heaven, filled me with such joy that I broke

forth into singing, 'When I can read my title clear? A Christian brother lying in the brush took up the strain, and soon from all parts of the field rose the inspiring sound. That night we were borne above our suffering. Like Lazarus of old, we seemed to be carried heavenward by the angels.'

"Do you think gayety or rejoicing impossible in such a place as this? If you do, some time when I have a leisure hour I must write you about our holidays-of the wards trimmed with evergreens and hollyberries, of the nurses' tents inscribed with the soldiers' greetings, A merry Christmas for Miss and others of similar import; of a remarkable young lady, styled the Goddess of Liberty, who appeared in grand toilet this day -of the carols blithely sung in chapel, of the dinner sent by Philadelphia Quakers. Peace on earth is their creed,' is it? said one grim fellow who sat up in bed to enjoy a 'drumstick'—'yes, a piece of something good for every Yank that'll take it.' For a time a delightful illusion was cast over the pain and weariness of hospital life. Surrounded by so many honest, happy faces, as greeted me on that day, I can truthfully affirm that this Christmas, if not the merriest, was among the very happiest of my life."

CHAPTER XIV.

A GLIMPSE OF ARMY

QUARTERS-THE

SUMMARY OF THE YEAR.

WHEN the travellers returned, what long descriptions were given of Aunt Ellen's hospital, of Daniel's quarters, of the good regiment chaplain, and Christian Commission agents, of the evening meetings held among the soldiers-of the vast throngs gathered in the cantonments, in such numbers that Frank wondered that any men were left elsewhere in the nation; of railroads, rivers, stores of supplies and ammunition, of great guns and small arms, of camps, and camp life. As mementoes of the journey, the broken musket of some greyback, and the fragment of a Palmetto flag, together with a few specimens of the