Read "A Captured Santa Claus" by Thomas Nelson Page online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The approach of Christmas was marked even in the Federal camps, and / many a song and ringing laugh were heard around the camp-fires glowing / along the hills and in the tents and little cabins used as / winter-quarters, over the boxes which were pouring in from home.
The troops in the camps near General Denby's head-quarters on Christmas / Eve had been larking and frolicking all day like so many boys, / preparing for the festivities of the evening, when they proposed to / have a great entertainment; and the General, as he sat in the smoky / front room in the old farm-house used as his head-quarters, writing / official papers, had more than once during the afternoon half-frowned / at the noise and shouting outside. It disturbed him. A holiday / occasion was not the easiest time for a general in command, especially / when the enemy lay in force scarcely five miles away. The men were apt / to think that at such a time discipline should be relaxed, and they be / allowed to take it easy. And such an occasion was just the moment when / his opponent, a general as watchful as he was able, was likely to make / an attack. News had reached him through his scouts that such an attack / was probable. Moreover, the General had been working all day answering / despatches from men in Washington, telling him to do things that were / either impossible or had been done long ago. And, to crown it all, the / chimney smoked badly.