midnight
`` Take care of yourself , Alice , and bless you ! '' And , underneath its happiness , his boyish face was unusually grave , as he mounted and rode away at Weldon 's side . Christmas morning found the camp at Lindley wakening to a general atmosphere of peace and good will to man . Scarcely fifty miles away at Tweefontein , De Wet 's midnight charge had left behind it sixty men sleeping their last grim sleep in defiance of the peace ordained for the Christmas dawn . And , midway between the camp of the living and the line of the dead , there lay the little town of Bethlehem . After the frosty night , the day came , hot and clear , with the sun beating down from a cloudless sky and the mirage dancing upon the distant horizon . To the men from the north , it was a bit of a shock to exchange Christmas greetings , while the thermometer went sliding up to the mark of one hundred degrees .