THE PICKET OF THE 13TH HUSSARS IN DIFFICULTY (see page 236).] [Sidenote: Arrival of a balloon and traction engines.] With the additional guns came a tardy balloon. Even here there had been some miscalculation, as the balloon had been constructed for work at the altitude of Aldershot, and not for the high plateaux and rarified air of mountainous Natal. It was, in consequence, deficient in lifting power, though even with this defect it was able to render valuable service. Other adjuncts were a dozen powerful traction engines for use with the transport. They performed splendidly, climbing mountain sides and fording spruits with an agility not to be expected from their ponderous nature. "They require few attendants, don't gibe, and each can easily haul twelve tons," wrote Mr. Burleigh. The ox-waggon of South Africa carried only a quarter of a ton, so that one traction engine was equivalent to forty waggons. [Illustration: [_Sketched by a correspondent with the Boers._ HOW THE BOERS GOT THEIR HEAVY GUNS INTO POSITION.] [Sidenote: DEC. 25-30, 1899.] _Christmas at the Front._] [Sidenote: Christmas in camp.] In spite of the sad memories of Colenso, the army managed to spend a cheerful Christmas. "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die" is the spirit of the soldier--not in any irreligious sense, but in the sense that continued familiarity with death and the knowledge which all have that their turn may come on the morrow, mercifully assuages the bitterness of sorrow for the fallen. Were it not so a camp would indeed be a melancholy place. The bluejackets turned out with effigies of John Bull and Mr. Kruger, the latter somewhat battered--it was explained from "the effects of lyddite"; the soldiers diverted themselves with sports and pastimes; at night the camp fires resounded with familiar choruses; and had any Boer looked in upon the scene he would, doubtless, have wondered at the lightness of heart with which the British Army made war. Yet over all brooded the shadow of the coming battles and bloody conflicts which were at last to win the difficult way to Ladysmith; and to the north could be heard from time to time the thunder of the Boer guns bombarding the besieged town, and the thud of the Boer shells. [Illustration: A TRACTION ENGINE STUCK IN THE MUD.] [Sidenote: Disposition of relief force.] [Sidenote: [DEC. 1899.] [Sidenote: Boer positions.]