But he
had trained himself long ago to do with a very moderate portion of
sleep, and he was up and dressed while the dawn was still slowly
creeping along the edges of the hills. He went quietly down to the hall,
took one of the bamboos from a collection of canes and mountain sticks,
and set out upon a morning ramble over the snowy slopes. The snow
showers of yesterday had only sprinkled the greensward upon the lower
ground, but in the upper regions the winter snows still lingered, giving
an Alpine character to the landscape.
John Hammond was too experienced a mountaineer to be deterred by a
little snow. He went up Silver Howe, and from the rugged breast of the
mountain saw the sun leap up from amidst a chaos of hill and crag, in
all his majesty, while the grey mists of night slowly floated up from
the valley that had lain hidden below them, and Grasmere Lake sparkled
and flashed in the light of the newly-risen sun.
The church clock was striking eight as Hammond came at a brisk pace down
to the valley. There was still an hour before breakfast, so he took a
circuitous path to Fellside, and descended upon the house from the Fell,
as he had done that summer morning when he saw James Steadman sauntering
about in his garden.
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