soon after our arrival we were warming and drying ourselves before a
cheerful fire, while from the kitchen came most heartening sounds and
smells, as of fizzling ham and bubbling coffee.

Never was seen a prettier place than this as we beheld it by the
morrow's light. The house stands on a high bluff, worthy the name of
hill, which slopes steeply but greenly down to the South Prong of Black
Creek, better deserving the name of river than many a stream which
boasts the designation. We crossed it upon a boom, pausing midway in
sudden astonishment at the lovely view. A long reach of exquisitely
pure water, bordered by the dense overhanging foliage of its high
banks, stretched away to where, a mile below us, a sudden bend hid its
lower course from view, and on the high green bluff which closed the
vista were seen the white house and venerable overarching trees of some
old estate. The morning air was crisp and pure; every leaf and twig
stood out with clean-cut distinctness, to be mirrored with startling
clearness in the stream; the sky was cloudless: no greater contrast
could be imagined from the tender sweetness of yesterday. The birds,
exhilarated by the sparkle in the air, sang with a rollicking
abandonment quite contagious: the very kids and goats on the crags
above the road caught the infection and frisked about, tinkling their
bells and joining most unmelodiously in the song; while Barney,
crossing the creek upon a flatboat, lifted up a tuneful voice in the
chorus.

We turned aside from our route to visit Whitesville, the beautiful old
home of Judge B----. It is a noble great mansion, with broad double
doors opening from every side of a wide hall, and standing in the midst
of a wild garden luxuriant with flowers and shrubs and vines, and with
a magnificent ivy climbing to the top of a tall blasted tree at the