his temper becomes more cheerful, and the walk there and back again, and the hour's play he gets with his three little companions, add to his stock of health and enjoyment. Our hours have become unwontedly early, and we reverse the usual order of things, and rise earlier in winter than in summer. I am up always at half-past six, and get myself, Sabine and Sissy dressed by half-past seven, at which time we all assemble in the parlour, and breakfast is over in time for Sabine to reach school at eight.
"Our last two days have been partly devoted to a fair, which in continental countries is quite an event, when shops are turned out into the street, and booths for the sale of every description of article are set up. The three children had five batz (value about 6d.) a piece, which they had earned at different times, and were now to lay out as they fancied, and they are just returned in full glee, the boys with a new paint-box each, whose merits they are already essaying, while Sissy, who preferred a doll, is most industriously twisting some rose-coloured ribbon into black lace to form a cap à la mode for her little Georgina. . . . The winter seems to have begun in this part of the world, and although the cold is not considerable, yet the mountains which environ us on all sides but that of the lake are covered with snow, and look very picturesque, tho' somewhat chilly and cheerless. The last two days have been warm, and Miss Richardson has brought in two early primroses, of somewhat stunted growth, but actually in flower. The wind, however, has been tremendous, and drives the smoke down the chimneys, so that we are driven from one room to take refuge in the other, and when the latter is full, retire again to the former, which had, by means of open windows been purifying for our reception. Such is, we find, the Vevey fashion, so that there are few hopes that affairs will be much amended during our stay, notwithstanding that pipes and chimneys have been added and heightened to try and cure the evil. There is scarcely a house in Vevey that is not surmounted by two, three or more long tin pipes, which crown the chimneys and look like thin scraggy necks stretching far up into empty space, and terminated by queer twisted heads of all descriptions, bearing evidence from their variety that one form or another has been unsuccessfully tried, and recourse has been had to a third."
