Freaks on the Fells | Page 6

arms, carried him to the extremity
of the pass, set him down, and, pointing to the white house in the blue
distance, said--
"Yonder's ta hoose; let her see how she can rin."

Jacky fixed his eyes on the house with the stare of one who regarded it
as his last and only refuge, and ran as he had never done before, roaring
while he ran.
"She's a clever callant," observed the drover with a grim smile, as he
turned to follow his cattle.
Meanwhile the Sudberry Family reached the White House in the midst
of increasing rain and mists and muttering thunder. Of course Jacky's
absence was at once discovered. Of course the females screamed and
the males shouted, while they turned the mail-coach entirely inside out
in a vain search for the lost one. The din was increased by nine
shepherd dogs, which rushed down the mountain-side, barking
furiously with delight, (probably), and with excitement, (certainly), at
the unwonted sight of so many strangers in that remote glen. Presently
the coach was turned round, and the distracted father galloped back
towards the pass. Of course he almost ran over his youngest son in less
than five minutes! Five minutes more placed the recovered child in its
mother's arms. Then followed a scene of kissing, crying, laughing,
barking, and excitement, which is utterly indescribable, accompanied
by thunder, lightning, and rain, in the midst of which tempestuous
mental and elemental commotion, the Sudberry Family took possession
of their Highland home.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 3.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
Next morning the Sudberrys were awakened to a sense of the peculiar
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 mingled with each other
in golden and pearly greys of every conceivable variety. Having said
thus much, we need scarcely add that the scene cannot be adequately
described.
A light fragrant air met the stout Englishman as he crested the hill, and

filled his unaccustomed nostrils with sensations that could not have
been excelled had he been greeted by one of "Afric's spicy gales." The
same air, with telegraphic speed, conveyed to the collie dogs of the
place the information that the Sudberrys were abroad; whereupon the
whole pack--nine in number--bounded open-mouthed up the hill, with
noise and ferocity enough to have alarmed the bravest of the brave. No
wonder