Nature wore a holiday aspect.

Every one seemed cheerful and in high spirits, and it needed the dull boom of the guns around Sebastopol to recall the fact that the work upon which they were engaged was one of grim earnest.
Upon arriving at the camp, Jack found that its aspect was not less changed than that of the surrounding country.

Many of the regiments were already in huts.

The roads and the streets between the tents were scrupulously clean and neat, and before many of the officers' tents, clumps of flowers brought up from the plain had been planted.

The railway was not yet completed quite to the front, and the last two miles had to be traversed on foot.
Upon presenting his written orders to the officer in command of the naval brigade, Jack was at once told off to a tent with two other midshipmen, and was told that he would not, for the present, be placed upon regular duty, but that he would be employed as aide-de-camp to the commander, and as interpreter, should his services in that way be required..