the swirl of the dance could be seen in a kaleidoscopic glow of color,
and whence the glad music came forth in a mellow gush of sound; but
stood at some little distance watching the progress of the corporal of
the guard, who with the relief was on his way to the posts of the
sentinels; then Stuart disappeared within one of the block-houses,
evidently ascending to the tower; after an interval he came out and
again traversed the parade, going diagonally across the whole enclosure
without doubt to the block-house at the further bastion; thus from these
two coigns of vantage he could survey the whole of the region on the
four sides of the fort.

"I'll go bail, ould Foxy," said Corporal O'Flynn, apostrophizing his
superior officer under his breath, "that there's nothin' that your sharp
eyes doesn't see--if it's just a snake takin' advantage o' the privacy
o' the dark hour to slough his skin. But I'd give ye," he hesitated, "me
blessin', if you'd tell me what 'tis ye're lookin' for. I want to know,
not from a meddlesome sphirit, but jist from sheer curiosity--because my
mother was a woman an' not a witch."

For Captain Stuart had encountered a difficulty in these simple
backwoods Christmas festivities which was altogether unexpected. He had
diligently considered the odds against success, in which, however, the
chief seemed the lack of appropriate refreshment, for one could not
serve venison and buffalo and wild fowl to hunters as luxuries, and the
limited compass and utilitarian character of the goods sent from the
base of supplies over the mountains rendered even the accumulation of
the requisite materials for the punch-bowl a matter of forethought and
skilled strategy. After the wheat-bread had been secured to make the
ramequins this feature came near to being dropped because of the
difficulty of obtaining the simple ingredients of eggs and cheese to
compound the farce wherewith they should be spread. But this too had
been accomplished. The method of providing for the safety and
entertainment of the children of the settlers, without whom they could
not leave home yet whose presence would have hindered if not destroyed
the enjoyment of the elders, seemed a stroke of genius. The soldiers and
non-commissioned officers were satisfactorily assigned a share in the
entertainment appropriate to their military rank and in consonance with
their taste, and were even now carousing gayly in their quarters, where
there was more Christma