d people,
whose peace of mind had a firmer foundation than their earthly goods
alone; contented people, too, with plenty of occupation for mind and
body. Sad--and in the nursery this was held to be past all
reason--though the children were performing that ancient and most
entertaining play or Christmas mystery, known as "The Peace Egg," for
their benefit and behoof alone.

The play was none the worse that most of the actors were too young to
learn parts, so that there was very little of the rather tedious
dialogue, only plenty of dress and ribbons, and of fighting with the
wooden swords. But though Robert, the eldest of the five children,
looked bonny enough to warm any father's heart, as he marched up and
down with an air learned by watching many a parade in barrack-square and
drill ground, and though Nicholas did not cry in spite of falling hard,
and Dora, who took the part of the Doctor, treading accidentally on his
little finger in picking him up, still the Captain and his wife sighed
nearly as often as they smiled, and the mother dropped tears as well as
pennies into the cap which Tom, as the King of Egypt, brought round
after the performance.

II.

Many, many years back the Captain's wife had been a child herself, and
had laughed to see the village mummers act "The Peace Egg," and had been
quite happy on Christmas Eve. Happy, though she had no mother. Happy,
though her father was a stern man, very fond of his only child, but with
an obstinate will that not even she dared thwart. She had lived to
thwart it, and he had never forgiven her. It was when she married the
Captain. The old man had a prejudice against soldiers, which was quite
reason enough, in his opinion, for his daughter to sacrifice the
happiness of her future life by giving up the soldier she loved. At last
he gave her her choice between the Captain and his own favor and money.
She chose the Captain, and was disowned and disinherited.

The Captain bore a high character, and was a good and clever officer,
but that went for nothing against the old man's whim. He made a very
good husband too; but even this did not move his father-in-law, who had
never held any intercourse with him or his wife since the day of their
marriage, and who had never seen his own grand-children.

Amid the ups and downs of their wanderings, the discomforts of shipboard
and of stations in the colonies, bad servants, and unwonted sicknesses,
the Captain's tenderness never fa