eculiar
circumstances into which they had plunged, by the lowing of cattle, the
crowing of cocks, and the furious barking of collie dogs, as the
household of Donald McAllister commenced the labours of a new day.

Of course every member of the Sudberry Family, with the exception of
"mamma," rushed to his or her respective window.

"Oh! how beautiful!" gushed from the heart and lips of Lucy, as she
gazed in wonder through the casement, and a shriek burst from Jacky, as
he stared in wild delight upon the gorgeous scene that met his view.

We have said that the White House was embedded among the blue hills. It
was an old and extremely simple building, having an oblong front, two
sides, and a back; two stories, six windows, and one door; which last,
imbued, apparently, with a dislike to being shut, was always open. The
house appeared to have an insatiable thirst for mountain air, and it was
well supplied with this fresh and exhilarating beverage; for it stood in
an elevated position on the slope of a mountain, and overlooked a wide
tract of flood and fell, on which latter there was little wood, but a
luxuriant carpet of grass and heather.

The weather had evidently resolved to make amends for its surly
reception of the strangers the previous evening, by greeting them with
one of its sweetest Highland smiles in the morning.

When Mr Sudberry, in the exuberance of his delight, ran without hat or
coat to a neighbouring knoll, accompanied by all his children, the scene
that met his eye was one of surpassing grandeur and beauty. The mists
of early morning were rolling up from the loch in white, fleecy clouds,
which floated over and partly concealed the sides of the mountains. The
upper wreaths of these clouds, and the crags and peaks that pierced
through them were set on fire by the rising sun. Great fissures and
gorges in the hills, which at other times lay concealed in the blue haze
of distance, were revealed by the mists and the slanting rays of the
sun, and the incumbent cliffs, bluff promontories, and capes, were in
some places sharply defined, in others luminously softened, so that the
mountains displayed at once that appearance of solid reality, mingled
with melting mystery, which is seen at no period of the day but early
morning. The whole scene--water, earth, and sky--was so involved, that
no lines of demarcation could be traced anywhere; only bold startling
points, melting into blue and white masses that mingl