CHRISTMAS DAY. 207 



side. Shoals of bon-bons, and " Christmas cakes " of 

 ever}^ imaginable kind, bearing all sorts of tender 

 mottoes, come out of their tin cases, setting off' pro- 

 spective indigestion against glad hearts. 



Everybody has been busy to-day getting ready to 

 celebrate the morrow and to keep the holidays. To 

 this praiseworthy purpose I give, of course, every en- 

 couragement. The ship's stores contain nothing that 

 is too good for the Christmas feast, which McCor- 

 mick promises shall outdo that of his birthday. Un- 

 fortunately he will be unable to give it his per- 

 sonal attention, for he is laid up with a frosted foot 

 which he got while hunting, in some manner known 

 only to himself. As no one at home likes to confess 

 that he has been run away with and thrown from his 

 steed, so no one here cares to own to the power of 

 Jack Frost over him. To be frostrbitten is the one 

 standing reproach of this community. 



December 26th. 

 Christmas has come and gone again, and has left 

 upon the minds of all of us a pleasant recollection. 

 To me it would have been a day of unalloyed pleas- 

 ure, had it not been that my thoughts followed Sonn- 

 tag, and dwelt upon the sad loss that I have suffered 

 in the death of my dogs ; for the peoj)le were gay 

 and lively, and to see them thus is now my first con- 

 cern. Aside from all sentiment connected with wish- 

 ing people happy, to me it has another meaning, for 

 it is the guaranty of health. 



; The ship's bell was hoisted to the mast-head, and 

 while the bells of other lands were pealing through 

 the sunlight, and over a world of gladness, ours sent 

 its clear notes ringing through the darkness and the 



