ilst we were there. I can hardly tell you anything of the rest of the
drive, for I was really frightened at my first experience of a "howling
nor'-wester" out of doors, and Mr. H---- made me sit down at the bottom
of the carriage and heaped over me all the cloaks and shawls we had
brought. It was delightful to find ourselves under shelter at last in
a pretty bright snug room, with lots of books and arm-chairs, and a
blazing fire; _this_, you must remember, in midsummer.

The next morning was perfectly calm, and the lake as serene as if no
storm had been dashing its water in huge breakers against the beach
only a few hours before. The view from the sitting-room was lovely: just
beneath the window there was a little lawn, as green as possible from
the spray with which the lake had washed it yesterday; beyond this a low
hedge, an open meadow, a fringe of white pebbly beach, and then a wide
expanse of water within one little wooded island, and shut in gradually
from our view by spurs of hills running down to the shore, sometimes in
bold steep cliffs, and again in gentle declivities, with little strips
of bush or scrub growing in the steep gullies between them. The lake
extends some way beyond where we lose sight of it, being twelve miles
long and four miles broad. A few yards from the beach it is over six
hundred feet deep. Nothing but a painting could give you any idea of the
blue of sky and water that morning; the violent wind of yesterday seemed
to have blown every cloud below the horizon, for I could not see the
least white film anywhere. Behind the lower hills which surround the
lake rises a splendid snowy range; altogether, you cannot imagine a more
enchanting prospect than the one I stood and looked at; it made me think
of Miss Procter's lines--

"My eyes grow dim,
As still I gaze and gaze
Upon that mountain pass,
That leads--or so it seems-- To some far happy land
Known in a world of dreams."

All this time, whilst I was looking out of the window in most unusual
idleness, Mr. H---- and F---- were making constant journeys between the
boat-house and the store-room, and at last I was entreated to go and put
on my hat. While doing this I heard cupboards being opened, and a great
bustle; so when I reached the shore I was not so much surprised as they
expected, to see in the pretty little sailing-boat (which was moored to
a primitive sort of jetty made out of a brok