C&e Hiftrarp of m (tlmtiersitg of K3ort& Carolina . of the passengers and stamping them. Mr. George waited a moment until it came his turn, and then handed his passport too. The officer looked at it, and then stamped an impression from a sort of seal on one corner of it. He also wrote Mr. George's and Rollo's name in a big book, copying them for this purpose from the passport. He then handed the passport back again, and Mr. George and Rollo went out, passing by a sol- dier who guarded the door. They found them- selves now on the railway platform. " Now," said Rollo, " I suppose that we may go and take our seats again." " Yes," said Mr. George. " We are fairly en- tered within the dominions of his majesty the king of Holland." " And no duty to pay on my music box," said Rollo. Rollo took a seat by a window where he could look out as the train went on, and see, as he said, how Holland looked. The country was one im- mense and boundless plain, and there were no fences or other close enclosures of any kind. And yet the face of it was so endlessly varied with rows of trees, groves, farm houses, gardens, wind mills, roads, and other elements of rural scenery, that Rollo found it extremely beautiful. The Entering Holland. 73 The beautiful scenes which Hollo saw. Dikes. Road ways. fields were very green where grass was growing, and the foliage of the trees, and of the little or- namental hedges that were seen here and there adorning the grounds of the farm houses, was very rich and full. As Rollo looked out at the window, a continued succession of the most bright and beautiful pictures passed rapidly before his eyes, like those of a gayly painted panorama, and they all called forth from him continually repeat- ed exclamations of delight. Mr. George sat at his window enjoying the scene perhaps quite as much as Rollo did, though he was much less ar- dent in expressing his admiration. " See these roads, uncle George," said Rollo ; " they run along on the tops of the embankment like railroads. Are those dikes ? " " No," said Mr. George. " The dikes are built along the margin of the sea, and along the banks of rivers and canals, to take the water out. These are embankments for the roads, to raise them up and keep them dry.' 7 There were rows of trees on the sides of these raised roads, which formed beautiful avenues to shelter the carriage way from the sun. These avenues could sometimes be seen stretching for miles across the country. " Now, pretty soon," said Rollo, " we shall come to the water, and then we shall take a steamboat." 74 Rollo in Holland. The reason why Rotterdam is approached by steamers. " Then we do not go all the way by the train, ' said Mr. George. "No," said Rollo. "The railroad stops at a place called Moerdyk, and there we take a steam- er and go along some of the rivers. " But I can't find out by the map exactly how we are to go," he continued, " because there are so many rivers." Rollo had found, by the map, that the country all about Rotterdam was intersected by a com- plete network of creeks and rivers. This system was connected on the land side with the waters of the Rhine, by the immense multitude of branch- es into which that river divides itself towards its mouth, and on the other side by innumerable creeks and inlets coming in from the sea. This network of channels is so extensive, and the wa- ter in the various branches of it is so deep, that ships and steamers can go at will all about the country. It would be as difficult to make a rail- road over such a tract of mingled land and water as this, as it is easy to navigate a steamer through it ; and, accordingly, the owners of the line had made arrangements for stopping the trains at Moerdyk, and then transferring the passengers to a steamer. " I have great curiosity," said Rollo, " to see whether, when we come to the water, we shall go up to it, instead of down to it." Entering Holland. 75 The train arrives at Moerdyk. The steamer. " Do you think that we shall go up to it ? r asked Mr. George. " I don't know," replied Rollo. " We do in some parts of Holland. In some places, accord- ing to what the guide book says, the land is twenty or thirty feet below the level of the wa- ter, and so when you come to the shore you go up an embankment, and there you find the water on the other side, nearly at the top of it." When at length the train stopped at Moerdyk, the conductor called out from the platform that all the passengers would descend from the carriages to embark on board the steamer. Rollo was too much interested in making the change, and in hurrying Mr. George along so as to get a good seat in the steamer, to make any observation on the comparative level of the land and water. There was quite a little crowd of passengers to go on board ; and as they walked along the pier towards the place where the steamer was lying, all loaded with as many bags, cloaks, umbrellas, or parcels of some sort, as they could carry, Rol- lo and Mr. George pressed on before them, Rollo leading the way. The steamer was a long and narrow boat, painted black, in the English fash- ion. There was no awning over the deck, and most of the passengers went below. "I don't see what they are all going below 76 Rollo in Holland. Mr. George and Rollo find a seat. George and Emily. for," said Rollo. "I should think that they would wish to stay on deck and see the scenery." So Rollo chose a seat by the side of a small porch which was built upon the deck over the entrance to the cabin, and sat down immediately upon it, making room for Mr. George by his side. There was a little table before him, and he laid down his guide book and his great coat upon it. " Now," said he, " this is good. We have got an excellent seat, and we will have a first rate time looking at Holland as we go along." Just then a young man, dressed in a suit oi gray, and with a spy glass hanging at his side, suspended by a strap from his shoulder, and with a young and pretty, but rather disdainful looking lady on his arm, came by. " Now, Emily," said he, "which would you pre- fer, to sit here upon the deck or go below ? " "0, George," said she, "let us go below. There's nothing to be seen on the deck. The country is every where flat and uninteresting." " We might see the shores as we go along," suggested her husband. " 0, there's nothing to be seen along the shores," said she ; " nothing but bulrushes and willows. We had better go below." So Emily led George below. " Rollo," said Mr. George, " if you would like Entering Holland. 77 Mr. George's bet. Rollo exploring the cabin. Co take a bet, I will bet you the prettiest Dutch coy that you can find in Amsterdam, that that ia another Mrs. Parkman." "I think it very likely she is," said Rollo. "But, uncle George, what do you think they have got down below ? I've a great mind to go down and see." " Yery well," said Mr. George. "And will you keep my place while I am gone ? " asked Rollo. " Yes," said Mr. George, " or you can put your cap in it to keep it." So Rollo put his cap in his seat, and went down below. In a few minutes he returned, saying that there was a pretty little cabin down there, with small tables set out along the sides of it, and different parties of people getting ready for break- fast. " It is rather late for breakfast," said Mr. George. " It is after twelve o'clock." " Then perhaps they call it luncheon," said Rol- lo. " But I'd rather stay on deck. We might have something to eat here. Don't you think we could have it on this table ? " " Yes," replied Mr. George, " that is what the table is put here for." " Well ! " said Rollo, his eye brightening up at the idea. 78 Rollo in Holland. The travellers conclude to dine in Rotterdam. The sail. " We can ha\ e it here, or we can wait and Lave it at the hotel in Rotterdam," said Mr. George. " You may decide. I'll do just as you say." Rollo finally concluded to wait till they arrived at Rotterdam, and then to have a good dinner all by themselves at some table by a window in the hotel, and in the mean time to devote himself, while on board the steamer, to observing the shores of the river, or arm of the sea, whichever it might be, on which they were sailing. The steamer had before this time set sail from the pier, and after backing out of a little sort of creek or branch where it had been moored, it en- tered a broad channel of deep water, and began rapidly to move along. The day was pleasant, and though the air was cool, Rollo and Mr. George were so well sheltered by the little porch by the side of which they were sitting, that they were very comfortable in all respects. Before long the channel of water in which the steamer was sailing became more narrow, and the steamer passed nearer a bank, which Rollo soon perceived was formed by a dike. " See, see ! uncle George," said he. " There are the roofs of the houses over on the other side of the dike. We can just see the tops of them. The ground that the houses stand upon must be a great deal below the water/ Entering Holland. 79 The Dutch vessels that Hollo saw. The pier and boat stairs. "Yes," said Mr. George, "and see, there arc the tops of the tall trees." The dike was very regular in its form, and it wis ornamented with two rows of trees along the top of it. There were seats here and there under the trees, and some of these seats had people sit- ting upon them, looking at the passing boats and steamers. The water was full of vessels of all kinds, coming and going, or lying at anchor. These vessels were all of very peculiar forms, be- ing built in the Dutch style, and not painted, but only varnished, so as to show beautifully the natural color of the wood of which they were made. They had what Rollo called fins on each side, which were made to be taken up or letdown into the water, first on one side and then on the other, as the vessel was on different tacks in beat- ing against the wind. Opposite to every place where there was a house over beyond the dike, there was a line of steps coming down the face of the dike on the hither side, towards the water, with a little pier, and a boat fastened to it, below. These little flights of steps, with the piers and the boats, and the seats under the trees on the top of the dike, and the roofs of the houses, and the tops of the trees beyond, all looked extremely pretty, and present- ed a succession of very peculiar and very charm- SO Rollo in Holland. The scene along the dike. The wind mills. ing scenes to Mr. George and Rollo as the steam- er glided rapidly along the shore. In some places the dike seemed to widen, so aa to make room for houses upon the top of it. There were snug little taverns, where the cap- tains and crews of the vessels that were sailing by could stop and refresh themselves, when wind or tide bound in their vessels, and now and then a shop or store of some kind, or a row of pretty, though very queer-looking, cottages. At one place there was a ferry landing. The ferry house, together with the various buildings appertaining to it, was on the top of the dike, and a large pier, with a snug and pretty basin by the side of it, be- low. There was a flight of stairs leading upfrom the pier to the ferry house, and also a winding road for carriages. At the time that the steamer went by this place, the ferry boat was just com- ing in with a carriage on board of it. There were a great many wind mills here and there along the dike. Some were for pumping up water, some for sawing logs, and some for grinding grain. These wind mills were very large and exceedingly picturesque in their forms, and in the manner in which they were grouped with the other buildings connected with them. Rollo wished very much that he could stop and go on shore and visit some of these wind mills, so as to see how they looked inside. Entering Holland. 81 Rollo and Mr. George come in sight of Dort. At length the vessels and ships seemed to in- crease in numbers, and Mr. George said that he thought that they must be approaching a town. Rollo looked upon the map and found that there was a large town named Dort, laid down on the shores of the river or branch on which they were sailing. " It is on the other side," said he. " Let us go and see." So they both rose from their seats and went round to the other side of the boat, and there, there suddenly burst upon their view such a maze of masts, spires, roofs, and wind mills, all mingled together in promiscuous confusion, as was wonderful to behold. In the centre of tho whole rose one enormous square tower, which seemed to belong to a cathedral. This was Dort, or Dortrecht, as it is often called. As the steamer glided rapidly along the shores, and Mr. George and Rollo attempted to look into the town, they saw not streets, but canals. Indeed, the whole place seemed just level with the surface of the water, and far in the in- terior of it the masts of ships and the roofs of tho houses were mingled together in nearly equal proportion. The steamer threaded its way among the fleet? ft 82 Rollo in Holland, Kollo proposes to go ashore at Dortrecht. Too Into. of boats and shipping that lay off the town, and at length came to a stop at a pier. The passen- gers destined for this place began to disembark. Mr. George and Rollo stood together on the deck, looking at the buildings which lined the quay, and wondering at the quaint and queer forms which every thing that they saw assumed. " I should really like to go ashore here," said Mr. George, " and see what sort of a place it is." " Let us do it, uncle George ! " said Rollo, eagerly. " Let us do it ! " " Only we have paid to Rotterdam," said Mr. G eorge. " Never mind," said Rollo. " It will not make much difference." But before Mr. George could make up his mind to go on shore, the exchange of passengers was effected, and the plank was pulled in, the ropes were cast off, and the steamer once more began to move swiftly along over the water. " It is too late," said Rollo. " Yes," said Mr. George, " and on the whole it is better for us to go on." In about an hour more the steamer began to draw near to Rotterdam. The approach to the town was indicated by the multitude of boats and vessels that were passing to and fro, and by 'llip'' Entering Holland. S5 The travellers arrived at Rotterdam. the numbers of steamers and wind mills tbat lined respectively the margins of the water and of the land. The wind mills were prodigious in size. They towered high into the air like so many lighthouses ; the tops of the sails, as Mr. George estimated, reached, as the vanes revolved, up to not less than one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet into the air. It was necessary to build them high, in order that the sails might not be becalmed by the houses. At length the steamer stopped at a pier. Two policemen stood at the plank, as the passengers landed, and demanded their passports. Mr. George gave up his passport, as he was directed, and then he and Rollo got into a carriage and were driven to the hotel. 86 Rollo in Holland, Tl»c hotbl ■>« ..-mtu *n iwtterdam understand English. Chaptsk V. Walks about Rotterdam. The hotel where Mr. George and Rollo were set down was a very magnificent edifice standing on the quay opposite to a line of steamers. On entering it, both our travellers were struck with the spaciousness of the hall and of the staircase, and with the sumptuous appearance in general of the whole interior. They called for a cham- ber. The attendants, as they soon found, all un- derstood English, so that there was no occasion at present to resort to the language of signs, as Mr. George had supposed might be necessary. In answer to Mr. George's request to be shown to a room, the servant showed him and Rollo a very large and lofty apartment, with immense windows in front looking down upon the piei . On the back side of the room were two single beds. " This will do very well for us," said Mr. George. Walks about Rotterdam. 87 The table d'hote. Mr. George orders dinner. " Will you dine at the table d'hote ? " * asked the waiter. The table d'hote is the public table. 11 At what time is the table d'hote ? " asked Mr. George. " At half past four," said the waiter. " No/' said Mr. George, " we shall want to be out at that time. We will take something now as soon as we can have it. Can you give us a beefsteak ? " " Yes, sir," said the waiter. "Very well. Give us a beefsteak and some coffee, and some bread and butter." " Yes, sir," said the waiter. " Will you have two beefsteaks, or one beefsteak ? " "Two," said Rollo, in an under tone to Mr. George. " Yes," said Mr. George, " and coffee for two, also." So the waiter left the travellers in their room, and went down stairs. In about ten minutes Mr. George and Rollo went down too. At the foot of the grand staircase they turned into the dining room, where they saw several tables set, and at one of them, near a window, were the prepara- tions for their meal. * Pronounced tahble dote. 88 Rollo in Holland. A curious contrivance at the window. The valet de j/lace. The window looked out upon the quay, and Rollo could see the men at work getting out hogsheads and bales of goods from a steamer that was moored there. Besides looking across to the quay, Rollo could also look up and down the street without putting his head out of the window. The way in which he was enabled to do this, was by means of looking glasses placed outside. These looking glasses were attached to an iron frame, and they were placed in an inclined po- sition, so as to reflect the whole length of the street in through the window. Thus a person sitting at his ease within the room, could look up and down the street, as well as across it, at his pleasure. Rollo afterwards observed such looking glasses attached to the windows of almost all the houses in town. The dinner was soon brought in, and Mr. George and Rollo ate it with excellent appetites. Just as they had finished their meal, a neatly- dressed young man came to the table and asked them if they wished for some one to show them about the town. " Because," said he, " I am a valet de place, and I can take you at once to all the places of interest, and save you a great deal of time." " How much do you ask to do it ? " asked Mr. George. Walks about Rotterdam. 89 Mr. George and Rollo decide to go alone " Five francs a day," said the man. " That's right," said Mr. George. " That's the usual price. But we shall not want you, at least for this afternoon. We may want you to-morrow. We shall stay in town a day or two." The young man said that he should be very happy to serve them if they should require his services, and then bowed and went away. After having finished their meal, Mr. George and Rollo set out to take a ramble about the town by themselves. " We will go in search of adventures," said Rollo. " Yes," said Mr. George, " and if we lose our way, we shall be likely to have some adventures, for we cannot speak Butch to inquire for it." ." Never mind," said Rollo, " I'm not afraid. We will be careful which way we go." So they went out and took quite a long ramble through tne town. The first aspect of the streets struck them with astonishment. The space was now more than half filled with docks and basins, and with canals in which ships and boats of every kind were moving to and fro. In fact almost every street consisted one half of canal, and one half of road way, so that in going through it you could have your choice of going in a boat or in a car* riage. The water part of the streets was crowd yO Rollo in Holland. In Rotterdam many merchants reside over their warehouses. ed densely with vessels, some of them of the largest size, for the water was so deep in the canals that the largest ships could go all about the town. It was curious to observe the process of load- ing and unloading these vessels, opposite to the houses where the merchants who owned them lived. These houses were very large and hand- some. The upper stories were used for the rooms of the merchant and his family, and the lower ones were for the storage of the goods. Thus a merchant could sit at his parlor window with his family about him, could look down upon his ship in the middle of the street before his house, and see the workmen unlading it and stowing the goods safely on his own premises, in the rooms below. In some of the streets the canal was in the centre, and there was a road way along by the houses on each side. In others there was a road way only on one side, and the walls of the houses and stores rose up directly from the water's edge on the other. It was curious, in this case, to see the men in the upper stories of these stores, hoisting goods up from the vessels below by means of cranes and tackles projecting from the windows. There was one arrangement in the streets which Walks about Rotterdam. 9t The sidewalks in Rotterdam. Rollo's criticism. "Rollo at first condemned, as decidedly objection- able in his mind, and that was, that the sidewalks were smooth and level with the pavement of the street, differing only from the street by being paved with bricks, while the road way was paved with stone. " I think that that is a very foolish plan," said Rollo. "I should not have expected so crude a re- mark as that from so old and experienced a trav eller as you," said Mr. George. " Why, uncle George," said Rollo. " It is plain- ly a great deal better to have the sidewalk raised a little, for that keeps the wheels of the carts and carriages from coming upon them. Besides, there ought to be a gutter." " People that have never been away from home before," said Mr. George, "are very apt, when they first land in any strange country, and observe any strange or unusual way of doing things, or of making things, to condemn it at once, and say how much better the thing is in their country. But I thought that you had travelled enough to know better than that." "How so? "asked Rollo. " Why, you see that after people have travelled more, they get their ideas somewhat enlarged, and they learn that one way of doing things may be 92 Rollo in Holland. Mr. George's reply to Rollo. Reason of the peculiar sidewalks. best in one country, and another in another, on account of some difference in the circumstances or the wants of the two countries. So. when they see any thing done in a new or unusual manner, they don't condemn it, or laugh at it, until they have had time to find out whether there may not be some good reason for it." " But I don\ see," said Rollo, " what possible good reason there can be for having the sidewalks made so that every cart that comes along can run over you." " And because you don't in a moment see every reason, does that make it certain that there can- not be any ? " said Mr. George. " Why, no," replied Rollo. " Then if you had travelled to much purpose," said Mr. George, " you would suspend your judg- ment until you had inquired." It was not long before Rollo saw what the rea- son was for making the sidewalks in this way. Indeed, with a little reflection, he would probably have thought of it himself. The object was to make it easy to wheel and convey the goods from the ships across to the warehouses. For, as the ships and boats go into almost all the streets in the town, goods have to be wheeled across every where, from the margin of the quay tc the warehouses of the merchants, Walks about Rotterdam. 93 Why there ought not to be any gutters in Rotterdam. A moral. and a range of curbstones and gutter would make an obstacle that would be very much in the way. Besides, contrary to Rollo's hastily formed opinion, there ought not to be any gutters in such a town as this, as far as the streets are perfectly level, from end to end ; if gutters were made the water would not run in them. The only way to have the rain water carried off, is to form a gen- tle slope from the houses straight across the quay to the margin of the canal, and this requires that the connection between the sidewalk and the road way should be continuous and even. So that on every account the plan adopted in Rotterdam is the best for that town. I advise all the readers of this book, whether old or young, if they have not yet had an oppor- tunity to learn wisdom by actual experience in travelling, to remember the lesson that Rollo learned on this occasion ; and whenever, in their future travels, they find any thing that appears unusual or strange, not to condemn it too soon, simply because it is different from what they have been accustomed to at home, but to wait till they have learned whether there may not be some good cause for the difference. Rollo wished to stop continually, as he and his uncle walked along, to watch the operations of loading and unloading that were going on be 91 Rollo in Holland. The sail lofts. Unlading goods at the waiehouses. tween the ships and the warehouses. At one place was a boat loaded with sails, which had ap- parently come from a sail maker's. The sails were rolled up in long rolls, and some people in a loft of a warehouse near were hoisting them up with tackles, and pulling them in at the win- dows. At another place two porters were engaged wheeling something in wheelbarrows across from a slip to the warehouse, stopping by the way at a little platform to have every wheelbarrow load weighed. One of the porters wheeled the loads from the ship to the platform, and the other, after they were weighed, wheeled them to the ware- house. At the platform sat a man with a little desk before him and a big book upon it, in which he entered the weight of each load as it came. As soon as the load was weighed the warehouse porter would take it from the platform, wheel it across the street to the warehouse, empty it there, and then bring back the empty wheelbarrow and set it down by the side of the platform. In the mean time the ship porter would have wheeled another load up to the platform from the ship, and by the time that the warehouse porter had come back, it would be weighed and all ready for nim. The ship porter, when he brought the load- ed wheelbarrow, would take back to the ship the Walks about Rotterdam. U5 The process of tobacco inspection described. empty one. The whole operation went on with so much regularity and system, and it worked so well in keeping all the men employed all the time, without either having to wait at all for the other, that it was a pleasure to witness it. At another place Mr. George himself, as well as Rollo, was much interested in seeing the pro- cess of tobacco inspection. There were a number of hogsheads of tobacco, with a party of porters, coopers, inspectors, and clerks examining them. It was curious to see how rapidly they would go through the process. The coopers would set a hogshead up upon its end, knock out the head, loosen all the staves at one end, whisk it over upon the platform of the scales, and then lift the hogshead itself entirely off, and set it down on one side, leaving the tobacco alone, in a great round pile, on the platform. Then when it was weighed they would tumble it over upon its side, and separate it into its layers, and the inspectors would take out specimens from all the different portions of it. Then they would pile up the lay- ers again, and put the hogshead on over them, as you would put an extinguisher on a candle ; and, finally, after turning it over once more, they would put it on the head, and bind it ail up again tight and secure, with hoop poles which they nailed in and around it. The porters would then roll the 96 Rollo in Holland. Celerity of the inspectors. East Indiamen. Queer signs. hogshead off, in order to put it on a cart and take it away. The whole operation was performed with a degree of system, regularity, and prompt- ness, that was quite surprising. The whole work of opening the hogshead, examining it thorough- ly, weighing it, selecting specimens, and putting it up again, was accomplished in less time than it has taken me here to describe it. There were a great many other operations of this sort that arrested the attention of Mr. George and Rollo, as they walked along the streets. Much of the merchandise which they saw thus landing from the ships, or going on board of them, was of great value, and the ships in which it came were of immense size, such as are engaged in the East India trade. Mr. George said that they were the kind that he had often read about in history, under the name of Dutch East Indiamen. Rollo was very much amused at the signs over the doors of the shops, in those streets where there were shops, and in the efforts that he made to interpret them. There was one which read Scheep's Yictualij, which Mr. George said must mean victualling for ships. He was helped, how- ever, somewhat in making this translation by ob- serving what was exhibited in the windows of the shop, and at the door. There was another in which Rollo did not require any help to en- Walks about Rotterdam. 97 Rollo and Mr. George interpreting Dutch signs. able him to translate it. It was Tabak, Koffy, und Thee. Another at first perplexed him. It was this : Huis und Scheep's Smedery. But by seeing that the place was a sort of blacksmith's shop, Rollo concluded that it must mean house and ship smithery, that is, that it was a place for blacksmith's work for houses and ships. Over one of the doors was Oosterhouts und Breda's Bier Huis. Mr. George said that Breda was a place not far from Rotterdam, and that the last part of the sign must mean house for selling Breda beer. Rollo then concluded that the first word must mean something connected with oys- ters. There was another, Koffer en Zadel Makeru. At first Rollo could not make any thing of this ; but on looking at the window he saw a painting of a horse's head, with a handsome bridle upon it, and a saddle on one side. So he concluded it must mean a trunk and saddle makery. He was the more convinced of the cor- rectness of this from the fact that the word for trunk or box, in French, is coffre. Rollo amused himself a long time in interpret- ing in this way the signs that he saw in the streets, and he succeeded so well in it that he told Mr. George that he believed he could learn the Putch language very easily, if he were going to stay for any considerable time in Holland. 08 Rollo in Holland. Woodon shoes. Canal bridges. Collecting toll. Another thing that amused Rollo very much, was to see the wooden shoes that were worn by the common people in the streets. These shoea appeared to Rollo to be very large and clumsy ; but even the little children wore them, and the noise that they made, clattering about the pave- ments with them, was very amusing. In a great many places where the streets inter- sected each other, there were bridges leading across the canals. These bridges were of a very curious construction. They were all draw bridges, and as boats and vessels were continually passing and repassing along the canals, it became fre- quently necessary to raise them, in order to let the vessels go through. The machinery for rais- ing these bridges and letting them down again, was very curious ; and Rollo and Mr. George were both glad, when, in coming to the bridge, they found it was up, as it gave them an oppor- tunity to watch the manoeuvre of passing the ves- sel through. Every boat and vessel that went through had a toll to pay, and the manner of collecting this toll was not the least singular part of the whole procedure. While the bridge was up, and when the boat had passed nearly through, the helmsman, or helmswoman, as the case might be, — for one half the boats and vessels seemed to be steered by WiLKS about Rotterdam. 99 Tollmen fishing for money. The narrow draw. The ferry. women, — would get the money ready ; and then the tollman, who stood on the abutment of the bridge, would swing out to the boat one of the wooden shoes above described, which was sus- pended by a long line from the end of a pole, like a fishing pole. The tollman would swing out this shoe over the boat that was passing through, as a boy would swing his hook and sink- er out over the water if he were going to catch fish. The helmsman in the boat would take hold of it when it came within his reach, and put the money into the toe of it. The tollman would then draw it in, and, taking out the money, would carry it to his toll house, which was a small build- ing, not much bigger than a sentry box that stood on the pier close by. In one case Rollo came to a bridge, which, in- stead of being made to be raised entirely, had only a very narrow part in the centre, just wide enough for the masts and rigging of the ship to go through, that could be moved. When this part was lifted up to let a vessel pass, it made only a very narrow opening, such as a boy might jump across very easily. In some places where the passing and repass- ing of ships was very great, there was a ferry instead of a bridge. In these cases there was a flat-bottomed boat to pass to and from one side 100 Rollo in Holland. A sheet of water. Attractive scenes in Rotterdam. to the other, with a pretty little landing of stone steps at each end. Rollo was much entertained by these ferries. He said it was crossing a street by water. And it was exactly that, and no more. The place where he first crossed one of these ferries was precisely like a broad street of wa- ter, with ships and boats going to and fro upon it, instead of carriages, and a very wide brick sidewalk on each side. The ferry was at the crossing, at the place where another street in- tersected it. As the houses on each side of these streets were very large and handsome, and as there were rows of beautiful trees on the margin of the water, and as every thing about the water, and the ships, and the quays, and the sidewalks, was kept very neat and clean, the whole view, as it presented itself to Rollo and Mr. George while they were crossing in the boat, was ex- ceedingly attractive and exciting. Mr. George and Rollo remained in Rotterdam several days before they were satisfied with the curious and wonderful spectacles which it pre- sented to view. In one of their walks they made the entire circuit of the town, and Mr. George agreed with Rollo in the opinion that this was one of the most interesting walks thej? had ever taken. Walks about Rotterdam. 103 What the travellers saw in making the circuit of the town. The way led along a smooth and beautiful road, which was neatly paved, and kept very nice and clean. On the right hand side there ex- tended along the whole length of it a wide ca- nal, with boats all the time going to and fro. This canal looked brimming full. The water, in fact, came up within a few inches of the level of the road. The line of the road was formed by a smooth and straight margin of stone, — like the margin of a fountain, — with little platforms extending out here and there, where neatly- dressed girls and women were washing. On the other side of the road, down ten feet or more below the level of it, was a range of houses, with yards, gardens, and fields about them. The way to these houses was by paths leading down from the dike on which the road was built, and across little bridges built over a small canal which extended between them and the dike. This small canal was for the draining of the land on which the houses stood. The water in this canal had a gentle flow towards the end of the street, where there was a wind mill to pump it up into the great canal on the other side of the street. As Rollo and Mr. George walked along thia road, it was very curious to them to see the wa- ter on one side so much higher than the land on 104 Rollo in Holland. Glimpses of the country. Fences of water. The square ferry. the other. At the intervals between the houses they obtained glimpses of the interior of the country, which consisted of level fields lying far below where they were standing, and intersected in every direction by small canals, which served the purpose at the same time of fences, roads, and drains. There seemed to be no other di- visions than these between the lands of the dif- ferent proprietors, and no other roads for bring- ing home the hay or grain, or other produce which might be raised in the fields. In pursuing their walk around the town, our travellers were continually coming to objects so curious in their construction and use, as to ar- rest their attention and cause them to stop and examine them. At one place they saw a little ferry boat, which looked precisely like a little floating room. It was square, and had a roof over it like a house, with seats for the passen- gers below. This boat plied to and fro across the canal, by means of a rope fastened to each shore, and running over pulleys in the boat. " We might take this ferry boat," said Mr. George, " and go across the canal into the town again. See, it lands opposite to one cf the streets." " Yes," said Rollo, " but I would rather keey on, and go all around the town outside." Walks about Rotterdam. 105 Mr. George and Rollo cross the ferry. Making change. " We might go over in the ferry boat just for the fun of it," said Mr. George, " and then come back again." " Well," said Rollo. " How much do you sup pose the toll is ? " " I don't know," said Mr. George. " It can't be much, it is such a small boat, and goes such a little way ; and then, besides, I know it must be cheap, or else there could not so many of these girls and women go back and forth." For while they had been looking at the boat, as they gradually approached the spot, they had seen it pass to and fro with many passengers, who, though they were very neatly dressed, were evidently by no means wealthy or fashionable people. So Mr. George and Rollo went to the margin of the road where the ferry boat had its little landing place, and when it came up they stepped on board. The ferryman could only talk Dutch, and so Mr. George could not ask him what was to pay. The only thing to be done was to give him a piece of silver, and let him give back such change as he pleased. Mr. George gave him a piece of money about as big as half a franc, and he got back so much change in return that he said he felt richer than he did before. At another place they came to a bridge that 106 Rollo in Holland. The canal boat and its occupants. led across the canal. This bridge turned on a pivot placed out near the middle of the canal, so that it could be moved out of the way when there was a boat to go by. A man was turning it when Mr. George and Rollo came along. They stopped to witness the operation. They were quite amused, not merely with the ma- noeuvring of the bridge, but with the form and appearance of the boat that was going through. It seemed to be half boat and half house. There was a room built in it, which rose somewhat above the deck, and showed several little win- dows with pretty curtains to them. There was a girl sitting at one of these windows, knitting, and two or three children were playing about the deck at the time that the boat was going through the bridge. Farther on the party came to an immense wind mill, which was employed in pumping up water. This wind mill, like most of the others, was built of brick. It rose to a vast height into the air, and there its immense sails were slowly revolv- ing. The wind mill was forty or fifty feet in diameter at the base, and midway between the base and the summit was a platform built out, that extended all around it. The sails of the mill, as they revolved, only extended down to this platform, and the platform itself was above Walks about Rotterdam. 107 The wind mill. The walk in the environs. The avenue. the roofs of the four-story houses that stood near. At the foot of this wind mill Mr. George and Rollo could see the water running in under it, through a sluice way which led from a low canal, and on the other side they could see it pouring out in a great torrent, into a higher one. Besides making this circuit around the town, Mr. George and Rollo one evening took a walk in the environs, on a road wtiich led along on the top of a dike. The dike was very broad, and the descent from it to the low land on each side was very gradual. On the slopes on each side, and along the margin on the top, were rows of immense trees, that looked as if they had been growing for centuries. The branches of these trees met overhead, so as to exclude the sun en- tirely. They made the road a deeply-shaded avenue, and gave to the whole scene a very sombre and solemn expression. On each side of the road, down upon the low land which formed the general level of the country, were a succession of country houses, the summer res- idences of the rich merchants of Rotterdam. These houses were beautifully built ; and they were surrounded with grounds ornamented in the highest degree. There were winding walks, 108 Rollo in Holland. Mr. George and Rollo upon the dike. and serpentine canals, and beds of flowers, and pretty bridges, and summer houses, and groves of trees, and every thing else that can add to the beauty of a summer retreat. All these scenes Mr. George and Rollo looked down upon as they sauntered slowly along the smooth sidewalk of the dike, under the majestic trees which shaded it. The place where they were walking on the dike was on a level with the second story windows of the houses. Doing the Hague. 109 Why Mr. Goorge did not wish to stay long at the Hague. Chapter VI. Doing the Hague. " And now what is the next place that we shall 'jome to ? " said Rollo to Mr. George one morn- ing after they had been some days in Rotterdam. " The Hague," replied Mr. George. " Ah, yes," said Rollo, " that is the capital. We shall stop there a good while I suppose, be- cause it is the capital." "No," said Mr. George, "I shall go through it just as quick as 1 can for that very reason. I have a great mind not to stop there at all." " W hy, uncle George I " exclaimed Rollo, sur- prised, " what do you mean by that ? " " Why, the Hague," rejoined Mr. George, " is the place where the king lives, and the princes, and the foreign ambassadors, and all the fashion- able people ; and there will be nothing to see there, I expect, but palaces, and picture galleries, and handsome streets, and such things, all of which we can see more of and better in Paris or London." 110 Rollo in Holland. Leaving Rotterdam. Rollo engages a boat. " Still we want to see what sort of a place the Hague is," said Rollo. " Yes," said Mr. George, " and I expect to do that in a very short time, and then I shall go on to Haarlem, where they have had such a time with their pumping." Mr. George and Rollo packed up their valise, paid their bill at the hotel, and set off for the station. " Let's go to the station by water," said Rollo. " Well," said Mr. George, " if you will engage a boat." " I know a place not far from here where there is a boat station," said Rollo. So Rollo led the way until they came to a bridge, and there, by the side of the bridge, were some stairs leading down to the water. There were several boats lying at the foot of the stairs, and boatmen near, who all called out in Dutch, " Do you want a boat ? " At least that was what Rollo supposed they said, though, of course, he could not understand their language. Rollo walked down the steps, and got into one of the boats, and Mr. George followed him. 4 I can't speak Dutch," said Rollo to the boat- man, "but that is the way we want to go." So saying, Rollo pointed in the direction which led towards the station. The man did not under- Doing the Hague. Ill How Kollo, from his map, directed the boatman b}' signs. stand a word that Rollo had said ; but still, by hearing it, he learned the fact that Rollo did not speak the language of the country, and by his signs he knew that he must go the way that he pointed. So he began to row the boat along. " We cannot go quite to the station by the boat," said Rollo, " but we can go pretty near it, and we can walk the rest of the way." 11 How will you find out the way," asked Mr. George, " through all these canals ? " " I can tell by the map," said Rollo. So Rollo sat down on a seat at the stern of the boat, and taking out his map, which was printed on a pocket handkerchief, he spread it on his knee, and began to study out the canals. "There," said he, "we are going along this canal, now ; and there, a little way ahead from here, is a bridge that we shall go under. Then we shall make a turn," continued Rollo, still studying his map. " We shall have to go a very round-about way ; but that is no matter." So they went on, Rollo at each turn pointing to the boatman which way he was to go. Some- times the boat was stopped for a time by a jam in the boats and vessels before it, as a hack might be stopped in Broadway in New York. Some- times it went under bridges, and sometimes through dark archways, where Rollo could hear 112 Rollo in Holland. The travellers arrive at the railway station. carriages rumbling over his head in the streets above. At length the boat reached the point which Rollo thought was nearest to the station ; and the man, at a signal which Rollo gave him, stopped at some steps. Rollo paid the fare by holding out a handful of money in his hand, and letting the man take what was right, watching him, however, to see that he did not take too Kiuch. Then Mr. George and Rollo both went ashore, and walked the rest of the way to the station. In the European railroad stations there are different waiting rooms for the different classes of travellers. Mr. George sometimes took sec- ond class carriages, and sometimes first. For short distances he generally went first class, and as it was only a few miles to the Hague from Rotterdam, he now went into the first class wait- ing room. There was a counter for refreshment in one corner of the room, and some sofas along the sides. Mr. George sat down upon one of the sofas, putting his valise on the floor at the end of it. Rollo said that he would go out and take a little walk around the station, for it was yet half an hour before the train was to go. In a few minutes after Rollo had gone, there came to the door, among other carriages, one Doing the Hague. 113 An unexpected meeting. What Mrs. Parkman thought of Holland. from which Mr. George, to his great surprise, saw Mr. and Mrs. Parkman get out. Mr. George's first thought was to go out by another door, and make his escape. But he checked this impulse, skying to himself, " It would be very ungenerous in me to aban- don my old friend in his misfortune ; so I wi r stay." Mr. Parkman seemed very much delighted, aa well as surprised, to see Mr. George again ; and Mrs. Parkman gave him quite a cordial greeting, although she half suspected that Mr. George did not like her very well. Mr. George asked her how she liked Holland, so far as she had seen it. "Not much," said she. "The towns are not pretty. The streets are all full of canals, and there is nothing to be seen but boats and ships. And what ugly wooden shoes they wear. Did you ever sen any thing so ugly in all your life ? " " They look pretty big and clumsy," said Mr. George, " I must admit ; but it amuses me to see them." "At the Hague I expect to find something worth seeing," continued Mrs. Parkman. " That's where the king and all the great people live, and all the foreign ambassadors. If William had only got letters of introduction to some of them 8 114 Rollo in Holland. Mr. Parkman makes a proposal to Mr. Gcoree. He might have got them just as well as not. Our minister at London would have given him some if he had asked for them. But he said be did not like to ask for them." "Strange!" said Mr. George. "Yes," rejoined Mrs. Parkman, "I think it ia not only strange, but foolish. I want to go to some of the parties at the Hague, but we can't stop. William says we can only give one day to the Hague." " 0, you can do it up quite well in one day," said Mr. George. "If you would only go with us and show us how to do it," said Mrs. Parkman. " Yes," said Mr. Parkman. " Do, George. Go with us. Join us for one day. I'll put the whole party entirely under your command, and you shall have every thing your own way." Mr. George did not know what to reply to this proposition. At last he said that he would go and find Rollo, and consult him on the subject, arid if Rollo approved of it they would consent to the arrangement. Mrs. Parkman laughed at hearing this. " Why," said she, " is it possible that you are under that boy's direction ?" "Not exactly that," said Mr. George. "But then he is my travelling companion, and it is not Doing the Hague. 115 Commit your travelling companions before yon change your plans. right for one person, in such a case, to make any great change in the plan without at least first hearing what the other has to say about it." "That's very true," replied Mrs. Parkman. " Do you hear that, William ? You must remem- ber that when you are going to change the plana without asking my consent." Mrs. Parkman said this in a good-natured way, as if she meant it in joke. It was one of those cases where people say what they wish to have considered as meant in a joke, but to be taken in earnest. Mr. George went out to look for Polio. He found him lying on the grass by the side of a small canal which flowed through the grounds, and reaching down to the water to gather some curious little plants that were growing upon it. Mr. George informed him that Mr. and Mrs. Parkman were at the station, and that they had proposed that he himself and Polio should join their party in seeing the Hague. " And I suppose you don't want to do it," said Rollo. " Why, yes," .said Mr. George, " I've taken a notion to accept the proposal if you like it. We'll then do the Hague in style, and I shall get oack into Mrs. Parkman's good graces. Then we will bid them good by, and after that you and t will travel on in our own way." lib Eollo in Holland. Dialogue between the travellers about their plans. " Well," said Rollo, " I agree to it." Mr. George accordingly went back into the station, and told Mr. and Mrs. Parkman that he and Rollo would accept their invitation, and join with them in seeing what there was in the Hague. " And then, after that," said Mr. George, " we shall come back to Delft, while you go on to Am- sterdam." " I wish you would go on with us," said Mr. Parkman. " We can't do that very well," said Mr. George. " We want to try a Dutch canal once, and a good place to try it is in going from the Hague to Delft. It is only about four or five miles. We are going there by the canal boat, and then com- ing back on foot." Mr. George had taken care in planning the course which he and Rollo were to pursue after leaving the Hague, to contrive an expedition which he was very sure Mrs. Parkman would not wish to join in. " 0, Mr. George ! " she exclaimed, " what pleasure can there be in going on a canal?" "Why, the canal boats are. so funny!" said Rollo. "And then we see such curious little places all along the banks of them, and we meet so many boats, carrying all sorts of things." " 1 don't think it would be very agreeable foi Doing the Hague. 117 What Mr. George said to the officer. a lady," said Mr. George ; " but Rollo and 1 thought we should like to try it." Just at this moment the door leading to the platform opened, and a man dressed in a sort of uniform, denoting that he was an officer of the railroad, called out in Dutch that the train was coming. The ladies and gentlemen that were assembled in the waiting room immediately took up their bags and bundles, and went out upon the platform. As they went out, Mr. George, in passing the man in uniform, slipped a piece of money into his hand, and said to him in an under tone, first in French and then in English, — " A good seat by a window for this lady." The officer received the money, made a bow of assent, and immediately seemed to take the whole party under his charge. When the train arrived, and had stopped before the place, there was a great crowd among the new passengers to get in and procure seats. The officer beckoned to Mr. George to follow him, but Mrs. Parkman seemed disposed to go another way. She was loob'ng eagerly about here and there among the carriages, as if the responsibility of finding seats *br (he party devolved upon her. "What shall we do?" said she. ' The c?a?s are all full." "Leave it to me," said Mr. George to hi ••• n 118 Rollo in Holland. Mrs. Parkman is solicitous to get a good neat. an under tone. " Leave it entirely to me. You'll see presently." The officer, finding the carriages generally full, said to Mr. George, in French, " Wait a mo- ment, sir." So Mr. George said to the rest of the party — " We will all stand quietly here. He'll come to us presently." " Yes," said Mrs. Parkman, " when all the seats are taken. We shan't get seats at all, William." " You'll see," said Mr. George. In a moment more the officer came to the par- ty, and bowing respectfully to Mrs. Parkman, he said, " Now, madam." He took out a key from his pocket, and un- locked the door of a carriage which had not be- fore been opened, and standing aside, he bowed to let Mrs. Parkman pass. Mrs. Parkman was delighted. There was no- body in the carriage, and so she had her choice of the seats. She chose one next the window on the farther side. Her husband took the seat op- posite to her. " Ah ! " said she, with a tone of great satisfac- tion, " how nice this is I And what a gentleman* ly conductor ! I never had the conductor treat me so politely in my life." Doing the Hague. 119 Difference between Rollo's sight and Mrs. Parkniau's. Mrs. Parkman was put in excellent humor by this incident, and she said, towards the end of the journey, that she should have had a delight- ful ride if the country had not been so flat and uninteresting. To Mr. George and Rollo, who sat at the other window, it appeared extremely interesting, there was so much that was curious and novel to be seen. The immense green fields, with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep feeding every ^iiere, and separated from each other by straight and narrow canals instead of fences ; the boats passing to and fro, loaded with produce ; the little bridges built over these canals here and there, for the foot paths, with the gates across them to keep the cattle from going over ; the long road ways raised upon dikes, and bordered by quadruple rows of ancient and venerable trees, stretching to a boundless distance across the plains ; and now and then a wide canal, with large boats or vessels passing to and fro, — these and a multitude of other such sights, to be seen in no other country in the world, occupied their attention all the time, and kept them constantly amused. At length the train arrived at the station for the Hague, and the whole party descended from the carriage. "Now, William," said Mr. George, "give me 120 Rollo in Holland. Mr. George takes command of the party. the ticket for your trunk, and you yourself take Mrs. Parkman into the waiting room and wait till I come." "No," said Mr. Parkman, "I cannot let you take that trouble." " Certainly," said Mr. George. " You said that I should have the entire command. Give me the ticket." So Mr. Parkman gave him the ticket, and Mr. George went out. Hollo remained with Mr. and Mrs. Parkman. In a few minutes Mr. George returned, and said that the carriage was ready. They all went to the door, and there they found a carriage waiting, with Mr. and Mrs. Parkman's trunk upon the top of it. A man was holding the door open for the party to get in. As soon as they had all entered, Mr. George put a few coppers into the hand of the man at the door, and said to him, "Hotel Belview."* " Hotel Belview ! " shouted the man to the coachman. On hearing this command the coach- man drove on. The road that led into the town lay along the banks of a canal, and after going about half a * In French, Hotel Belle Vue ; but Mr. George gave it the Eng- lish pronunciation, because the pronunciation of words in Holland is much more like the English than like the French. Doing the Hague. 121 The party arrive at the Hotel Belle Yue. mile in this direction, the horses turned and went over a bridge. They were now in the heart of the town, but the party could not see much, foi the night was coming on and the sky was cloudy. It was cold, too, and Mrs. Parkman wished to have the windows closed. The carriage went along a narrow street, crossing bridges occasion- ally, until at length it came to a region of pal- aces, and parks, and grounds beautifully orna- mented. Finally it stopped before a large and very handsome hotel. The hotel stood in a street which had large and beautiful houses and gar- dens on one side, and an open park, with deer feeding on the borders of a canal, on the other. Two or three very nicely dressed servants came out when the carriage stopped, and opened the door of it in a very assiduous and deferential manner. 11 Wait here in the carriage," said Mr. George, "till I come." So saying, he himself descended from the car- riage, and went into the house, followed by two of the waiters that had come to the door. In about two minutes he came out again. " Yes," said he to Mrs. Parkman, " I think you will like the rooms." So saying, he helped Mrs. Parkman out of the carriage, and gave her his arm to conduct her 122 Rollo in Holland. The travellers escorted to the hotel parlor. into the house. At the same time he said to one of the waiters, — " See that every thing is taken out of the car- riage, and pay the coachman." " Very well, sir," said the waiter. Mr. George led Mrs. Parkman up a broad and handsome staircase. He was preceded by one waiter and followed by two others. These wait- ers had taken every thing from the hands of the party, especially from Mrs. Parkman, so that they were loaded with bags, cloaks, and umbrel- las, while the travellers themselves had nothing to carry. At the head of the staircase the waiter, who was in advance, opened a door which led to a large drawing room or parlor, which was very handsomely decorated and furnished. The win- dows were large, and they looked out upon a handsome garden, though it was now too dark to see it very distinctly. As Mrs. Parkman turned round again, after trying to look out at the window, she saw a sec- ond waiter coming into the room, bringing with him two tall wax candles in silver candlesticks. The candles had just been lighted. The waiter placed them on the table, and then retired. "And now," said Mr. George to the other waiter, " we want a good fire made here, and then let us have dinner as soon as you c^n." Doing the Hague. 125 The bedrooms. Single beds instead of double beds. " Very well, sir," replied the waiter ; and so saying he bowed respectfully and retired. A neatly-dressed young woman, in a very pic- turesque and pretty cap, had come into the room with the party, and while Mr. George had been ordering the fire and the dinner, she had shown Mrs. Parkman to her bedroom, which was a beautiful and richly furnished room with two single beds in it, opening out of the parlor. On the other side of the parlor was another bed- room, also with two beds in it, for Mr. George and Rollo.* Mr. and Mrs. Parkman remained in their room for a time, and when they came out they found the table set for dinner, and a very pleasant fire burning in the grate. " Mr. George," said she, " I wish we had you to make arrangements for us all the time." " It would be a very pleasant duty," said Mr. George. " You are so easily satisfied." Mrs. Parkman seemed much pleased with this compliment. She did not for a moment doubt that she fully deserved it. About eight o'clock that evening, Mr. George • Almost all the bedrooms in the hotels on the continent of Eu- rope are furnished thus with two single beds, instead of one double P~\e. It is the custom for every body to sleep alone 126 Rollo in Holland. Mr. George makes arrangements for doing the Hague. asked Mrs, Parkman at what time she would like to have breakfast the next morning. "At any time you please," said she ; " that is, if it is not too early." " How would half past nine do ? " asked Mr. George. " I think that will do very well," said Mrs. Parkman. " We will say ten, if you prefer," said Mr. George. "0, no," said she, "half past nine will do very well." So Mr. George rang the bell, and when the waiter came, he ordered a sumptuous breakfast, consisting of beefsteaks, hot rolls, coffee, omelet, and every thing else that he could think of that was good, and directed the waiter to have it ready at half past nine. " I shall also want a carriage and a pair of norses to-morrow," continued Mr. George, "and a commissioner." "Very well, sir," said the waiter ; "and what time shall you wish for the carriage ? " "What time, Mrs. Parkman?" repeated Mr. George, turning to the lady. "Shall you be ready by half past ten to go out and see the town ? " Dot nci the Hague. 127 The scone at the breakfast table. " Yes," said Mrs. Parkman, " that will be a very good time." " Very well, sir," said the waiter ; and he 1 owed and retired. The next morning, when the different members of the party came oat into the breakfast room, they found the table set for breakfast. At half past nine all were ready except Mrs. Parkman. She sent word by her husband that she would come out in a few minutes. " There is no hurry," said Mr. George. " It will be time enough to have breakfast when she comes." In about fifteen minutes she came. Mr. George asked her very politely how she had spent the night ; and after she had sat a few minutes talk- ing by the fire, he said that they would have oreakfast whenever she wished. " Yes," said she, "I am ready any time. In- deed, I was afraid that I should be late, and keep you waiting. I am very glad that I am in season." So Mr. George rang the bell ; when the wait- er came, he ordered breakfast to be brought up. While the party were at breakfast, a very nice- ly-dressed waiter, with a white napkin over his arm, stood behind Mrs. Parkman 7 s chair, and evinced a great deal of alertness and alacrity in offering her every thing that she required. When 128 Rollo in Holland. Mr. George questions the commissioner about places to be seen. the breakfast was nearly finished, Mr. George turned to him and said, — " Is the commissioner ready, John, who is to go with us to-day ? " 11 Yes, sir," said the waiter. " I wish you to go down and send him up," said Mr. George. So the waiter went down stairs to find the commissioner, and while he was gone Mr. George took out a pencil and paper from his pocket. " I am going to ask him," said Mr. George to Mrs. Parkman, " what there is to be seen here, and to make a list of the places ; and then we will go and see them all, or you can make a selection, just as you please." " Very well," said Mrs. Parkman. " I should like that." Accordingly, when the commissioner came in, Mr. George asked him to name, in succession, the various objects of interest usually visited by travellers coming to the Hague ; and as he named them, Mr. George questioned him re- specting them, so as to enable Mrs. Parkman to obtain a somewhat definite idea of what they were. The commissioner enumerated a variety of places to be seen, such as the public museum of painting, several private museums, the old palace, the new palace, two or three churches, Doing the Hague. 129 The list of sights. The watering place. the town hall, and various other sights which tourists, arriving at the Hague, usually like to view. Mr. George made a list of all these, and opposite to each he marked the time which the commissioner said would be required to see it well. After completing this list, he said, — " And there is a great watering place on the sea shore, not far from this, I believe." " Yes, sir," said the commissioner, " about three miles." "Is it a pleasant ride there?" asked Mi- George. " Yes, sir," replied the commissioner. " It is a very pleasant ride. You can go one way and return another. It is a very fashionable place. The queen and the princesses go there every summer." " Very well ; it takes about two hours and a half, I suppose, to go there and return," said Mr. George. " Yes, sir," said the commissioner. "Very well," said Mr. George. "Have the carriage ready in Shall we say half an -hour, Mrs. Parkman ? Shall you be ready in half an hour ? " Mrs. Parkman said that she should be ready in half an hour, and so Mr. George appointed that time, and then the commissioner went away. 9 130 Rollo in Holland. Paying the bill. A question between Mr. Parkman and Mr. George. Mr. George added up all the periods of time that the commissioner had said would be re» quired for the several sights, and found that there would be time for them to see the whole, and yet be ready for the afternoon train for Am- sterdam, where Mr. and Mrs. Parkman were going next. So Mrs. Parkman concluded not to omit any from the list, but to go and see the whole. In half an hour the carriage was at the door, and in ten or fifteen minutes afterwards Mrs. Parkman was ready. Just before they went, Mr. George rang the bell again, and called for the bill, requesting the waiter to see that every thing was charged — carriage, servants, commis- sioner, and all. When it came, Mr. Parkman took out his purse, expecting to pay it himself, but Mr. George took out his purse too. " The amount," said Mr. George, looking at the footing of the bill, " is forty-five guilders and some cents. Your share is, say twenty-two guil- ders and a half." " No, indeed," said Mr. Parkman. " My share is the exact footing of the bill. You have noth- ing to do with this payment." " Yes." said Mr. George. " I have just one naif to pay for Rollo and me. We are four in all, and Rollo and I are two." Doing the Hague. 131 Mr. George's politeness to Mrs. Parkman. Her curiosity. Mr. Parkman seemed extremely unwilling to allow Mr. George to pay any thing at all ; but Mr. George insisted upon it, and so the bill was paid by a joint contribution. All this time the carriage was ready at the door, and the gentlemen, attended by two or three waiters, conducted Mrs. Parkman down to the door. The party then drove, in succession, to the various places which the commissioner had enumerated. There were museums consisting of a great many rooms filled with paintings, and palaces, where they were shown up grand stair- cases, and through long corridors, and into suites of elegant apartments, and churches, and beau- tiful parks and gardens, and a bazaar filled with curiosities from China and Japan, and a great many other similar places. Mr. George paid very particular attention to Mrs. Parkman dur- ing the whole time, and made every effort to an- ticipate and comply with her wishes in all respects. In one case, indeed, I think he went too far in this compliance, and the result was to mortify her not a little. It was in one of the museums of paintings. Mrs. Parkman, like other ladies of a similar character to hers, always wanted to go where she could not go, and to see what she could not see. If, when she came into a town, she heard of any place to which, for any reason, 132 Bollo in Holland. A disagreeable trait. The closed door. it was difficult to obtain admission, that was the very place of all others that she wished most to see ; and if, in any museum, or palace, or li- brary that she went into, there were two doors open and one shut, she would neglect the open ones, and make directly to the one that was shut, and ask to know what there was there. I do not know as there was any thing particularly blame- worthy in this. On the contrary, such a feeling may be considered, in some respects, a very nat- ural one in a lady. But, nevertheless, when it manifests itself in a decided form, it makes the lady a very uncomfortable and vexatious com- panion to the gentleman who has her under his care. In one of the rooms where our party went in the museum of paintings, there was a door near one corner that was shut. All the other doors — those which communicated with the several apartments where the pictures were hung — were open. As soon as Mrs. Parkman came in sight of the closed door, she pointed to it and said, — " I wonder what there is in that room. I sup- pose it is something very choice. I wish we could get in." Mr. Parkman paid, at first, no attention to this request, but continued to look at the pictures around him. Doing the Hague. 183 Mr. George sets a trap for Mrs. Parkman. " I wish you would ask some of the attendants/' Bhe continued, " whether we cannot go into that room." " 0, no," replied her husband. " If it was any thing that it was intended we should see, the door would be open. The fact that the door is shut is notice enough that we are not to go in there." " I'm convinced there are some choice pic- tures in there," said Mrs. Parkman ; " something that they do not show to every body. Mr. George, I wish you would see if you can't find out some way to get in." " Certainly," said Mr. George, " I will try." So Mr. George walked along towards one of the attendants, whom he saw in another part of the room, — putting his hand in his pocket as he went, to feel for a piece of money. He put the piece of money into the attendant's hand, and then began to talk with him, asking various in- different questions about the building ; and final- ly he asked him where that closed door led to* " 0, that is only a closet," said the attendant, " where we keep our brooms and dusters." " I wish you would just let us look into it," said Mr. George. "Here's half a guilder for you." The man looked a little surprised, but he took the half guilder, saying, — 134 Rollo in Holland. Mrs. Parkman learns a lesson. The drive continued. " Certainly, if it will afford you any satisfao tion." Mr. George then went back to where he had left the rest of his party, and said to Mrs. Park- man, — " This man is going to admit us to that room. Follow him. I will come in a moment." So Mr. George stopped to look at a large painting on the wall, while Mrs. Parkman, with high anticipations of the pleasure she was to enjoy in seeing what people in general were ex» eluded from, walked in a proud and stately man- ner to the door, and when the man opened it, saw only a small, dark room, with nothing in it but brooms, dust pans, and lamp fillers. She was ex- ceedingly abashed by this adventure, and for the rest of that day she did not once ask to see any thing that was not voluntarily shown to her. After visiting all the places of note in the town, the coachman was ordered to drive to the watering place on the sea shore. It was a very pleasant drive of about three miles. Just before reaching the shore of the sea, the road came to a region of sand hills, called dunes, formed by the drifting sands blown in from the beach by the winds. Among these dunes, and close to the sea shore, was an immense hotel, with long wings stretching a hundred feet on each side, and a row Doing the Hague. 135 A description of the bathing place near the Hague. of bath vans on the margin of the beach before it. The beach was low and shelving, and it could be traced for miles in either direction along the coast, whitened by the surf that was rolling in from the German Ocean. After looking at this prospect for a time, and watching to see one or two of the bathing vans drive down into the surf, in order to allow ladies who had got into them to bathe, the party re- turned to the carriage, and the coachman drove them through the village, which was very quaint and queer, and inhabited by fishermen. The fish- ing boats were drawn up on the shore in great numbers, very near the houses. Rollo desired very much to go and see these boats and the fisher- men, and learn, if he could, what kind of fish they caught in them, and how they caught them. But Mrs. Parkman thought that they had better not stop. They were nothing but common fishing boats, she said. The carriage returned to the Hague by a dif- ferent road from the one in which it came. It was a road that led through a beautiful wood, where there were many pleasant walks, with cu- rious looking Dutch women going and coming. As the party approached the town, thcj passed through a region of parks, and palaces, and splen- did mansions of all kinds. Mrs. Parkman was 186 Kollo in Holland. Trying to converse with a Dutch coachman. Parting. curious to know who lived in each house, and Mr. George contrived to communicate her inquiries to the coachman, by making signs, and by asking questions partly in English and partly in Ger- man. But though the coachman understood the questions, Mrs. Parkman could not understand the answers that he gave, for they were Dutch names, — sometimes long and sometimes short ; but whether they were long or short, the sounds were so uncouth and strange that Mrs. Parkman looked terribly distressed in trying to make them out. At length the carriage arrived at the hotel again ; and there the porters put on the baggage belonging both to Mr. and Mrs. Parkman, and to Mr. George and Rollo. It then proceeded to the station. Mr. George and Rollo waited there until the train for Amsterdam arrived, and then took leave of Mr. and Mrs. Parkman as they went to their seats in the carriage. Mrs. Parkman shook hands with Mr. George very cor- dially, and said, — " We are very much obliged to you, Mr. George, for your company to-day. We ha ^e had a very pleasant time. I wish that we com.' have you to travel with us all the time." " I think she ought to be obliged to you," said Rollo, as soon as the train had gone. Doing the Hague 137 The reason of Mr. George's kindness. " Not at all," said Mr. George. "Not at all?" repeated Rollo. "Why not? Yen have done a great deal for her to-day." " No," said Mr. George. " All that I have done has not been for her sake, but for William's. William is an excellent good friend of mine, and I am very sorry that he has not got a mo r< 3 agreeable travelling companion." 138 Rollo in Holland. "he rainy day in Leyden. Letter writing. Chapter VII. Correspondence. One day, when Mr. George and Rollo were at the town of Leyden, it began to rain while they were eating their breakfast. " Never mind," said Rollo. " We can walk about the town if it does rain." " Yes," said Mr. George, " we can ; but we shall get tired of walking about much sooner if it rains, than if it were pleasant weather. How- ever, I am not very sorry, for I should like to write some letters." " I've a great mind to write a letter, too," said Rollo. " I'll write to my mother. Don't you think that would be a good plan?" " Why, — I don't know," — said Mr. George, speaking in rather a doubtful tone. " It seems to me that it would be hardly worth while." " Why not ? " asked Rollo. "Why, the postage is considerable," said Mr. George, "and I don't believe the letter would be worth what your father would have to pay for it ; Correspondence. 139 Sir. George's description of a boy's letter. that is, if it is such a letter as I suppose you would write." " Why, what sort of a letter do you suppose I should write ? " asked Hollo. " 0, you would do as boys generally do in such cases," replied his uncle. " In the first place you would want to take the biggest sheet that you eould find to write the letter upon. Then you would take up as much of the space as possible writing the date, and My dear mother. Then you would go on for a few lines, saying things of no interest to any body, such as telling what day you came to this place, and what day to that. Per- haps you'd say that to-day is a rainy day, and that yesterday was pleasant — just as if your mother, when she gets your letter, would care any thing about knowing what particular days were rainy and what pleasant, in Holland, a week back. Then, after you had got about two thirds down the page, you would stop because you could not think of any thing more to say, and subscribe your name with ever so many scrawl flourishes^ and as many affectionate and dutiful phrases as you could get to fill up the space. " And that would be a letter that your father, like as not, would have to pay one and sixpence or two shillings sterling for, to the London post- 140 Rollo in Holland. A resolution. Keeping warm by foot stoves. I'pat fires. Rollo laughed at this description of the prob- able result of his proposed attempt to write a let- ter ; but he laughed rather faintly, for he well recollected how many times he had written let- ters in just such a way. He secretly resolved, however, that when they came in from their walk, and Mr. George sat down to his writing, he would write too, and would see whether he could not, for once, produce a letter that should be at least worth the postage. After they came in from their walk, they asked the landlady to have a fire made in their room ; but she said they could not have any fire, for the stoves were not put up. She said it was the cus- tom in Holland not to put the stoves up until October ; and so nobody could have a fire in any thing but foot stoves until that time. The foot stoves, she said, would make it very comfortable for them. So she brought in two foot stoves. They con- sisted of small, square boxes, with holes bored in the top, and a little fire of peat in an earthen ves- sel within. Rollo asked Mr. George to give hiin two sheets of thin note paper, and he established himself at a window that looked out upon a ca- nal. He intended to amuse himself in the inter- vals of his writing in watching the boats that were passing along the cannh Correspondence. 141 Why Rollo chose note paper. Perseverance. He took two sheets of note paper instead of one sheet of letter paper, in order that, if he should get tired after filling one of them, he could stop, and so send what he had written, without causing his father to pay postage on any useless paper. " Then/- thought he, " if I do not get tired, I will go on and fill the second sheet, and my moth- er will have a double small letter. A double small letter will be just as good as a single large one." This was an excellent plan. Rollo also took great pains to guard against another fault which boys often fall into in writing their letters ; that is, the fault of growing careless about the writing as they go on with the work, by which means a letter is produced which looks very neat and pretty at the beginning, but be- comes an ill-looking and almost illegible scrawl at the end. " I'll begin," said he, " as I think I shall be able to hold out ; and I'll hold out to the end just as I begin." Rollo remained over his letter more than three hours. He would have become exceedingly tired with the work if he had written continuously all this time ; but he stopped to rest very often, and to amuse himself with observing what was pass- ing before him in the street and on the canal- 142 Rollo in Holland The letters finished. Mr. George's to Edward. Mr. George was occupied all this time in writ- ing Ms letter, and each read what he had written to the other that same evening, after dinner. The two letters were as follows : — Mr. George's Letter. "Leyden, Holland, September 27. " My Dear Edward : * " We have been travelling now for several days in Holland, and it is one of the most curi- ous and amusing countries to travel in that I have ever seen. " We all know from the books of geography which we study at school, that Holland is a very low country — lower in many places than the ocean ; and that the water of the ocean is kept from overflowing it by dikes, which the people built ages ago, along the shores. I always used to suppose that it was only from the sea that peo- ple had any danger to fear of inundations j but J find now that it is not so. "The people have to defend themselves from inundations, not only on the side towards the sea, out also quite as much, if not more, on the side towards the land, from the waters of the River * Edward was Mr. George's brother He was a toy about twelve years old. Correspondence. 143 Mr. George's account of the Rhine and the pollers. Rhine. The River Rhine rises in Switzerland, and flows through various countries of Eiirooe until it conies to the borders of Holland, and there it spreads out into innumerable branches, and runs every where, all over the country. It would often overflow the country entirely, were it not that the banks are guarded by dikes, like the dikes of the sea. The various branches of the rivers are connected together by canals, which are also higher than the land on each side of them. Thus the whole country is covered with a great network of canals, rivers, and inlets from the sea, with water in them higher than the land. When the tide is low in the sea, the surplus water from these rivers and canals flows off through immense sluices at the mouth of them. When the tide comes up, it is kept from flowing in by immense gates, with which the sluices are closed. They call the tracts of land that lie lower than the channels of water around them, polders. That is rather a queer name. I suppose it is a Dutch name. " The polders all have drains and canals cut in them. As we ride along in the railway carriages we overlook these polders. They look like im- mense green fields, extending as far as you can eee, with straight canals running through them in everj? direction, and crossing each other at right angles. These canals, in the bottom of the pol- 144 Hollo in Holland. Canals used for fences and roads. The wind mills ders, are about six feet wide. They are wide enough to prevent the cattle from jumping across them, and so they serve for fences to divide the Gelds from each other. They also serve for roads, for the Dutchmen use boats on their farms to get in their hay and produce, instead of carts. " The water that collects in these low canals and drains, which run across the polders, cannot flow out into the large canals, which are higher than they are, and so they have to pump it out. They pump it out generally by means of wind mills. So wherever you go, throughout all Hol- land, you find an immense number of wind mills. These wind mills are very curious indeed. Some of them are immensely large. They look like lighthouses. The large ones are generally built of brick, and some of them are several hundred years old. The sails of the big ones are often fifty feet long, and sometimes eighty feet. This makes a wheel one hundred and sixty feet in di- ameter. When you stand under one of these mills, and look up, and see these immense sails revolving so high in the air that the lowest point, when the sail comes round, is higher than the tops of the four story houses, the effect is quite Eublime. " With these wind mills they pump the water up from one drain or canal to another, till they Correspondence. 145 The River Amstcl. Dangers of an inundation. get it high enough to run off into the sea. In dome place?, however, it is very difficult to get the water into the sea even in this way, even at low tides. The River Amstel, for instance, which comes out at Amsterdam, and into which a great many canals and channels are pumped, is so low at its mouth that the sea is never, at the lowest tides, more than a foot and a half below it. At nigh tides the sea is a great deal above it. The average is about a foot above. Of course it re- quires a great deal of management to get the wa- ters of the river out, and avoid letting the water of the sea in. They do it by immense sluices, which are generally kept shut, and only opened when the tide is low. " In the mean time, if it should ever so happen that they could not succeed in letting the water out fast enough, it would, of course, accumulate, and rise in the rivers, and press against the dikes that run along the banks of it, till at last it would break through in some weak place ; and then, un- less the people could stop the breach, the whole polder on that side would be gradually over- flowed. The inundation would extend until it came to some other dike to stop it. The polder that would first be filled would become a lake. The lake would be many miles in extent, perhaps, but the water in it would not' usually be very deep 10 140 Rollo in Holland. Submerged land. Floods and conflagrations compared. ■ — not more than eight or ten feet, perhaps ; though in some cases the polders are so low, that an inundation from the rivers and canals around it would make the lake twenty or thirty feet deep. " Of course, in ancient times, when a portion of the country became thus submerged, it was for the people to consider whether they would abandon it or try to pump all that water out again, by means of the wind mills. They would think that if they pumped it out it would be some years be- fore the land would be good again ; for the salt in the water would tend to make it barren. So they would sometimes abandon it, and put all their energy into requisition to strengthen the dikes around it, in order to prevent the inunda- tion from spreading any farther. For water, in Holland, tends to spread and to destroy life and property, just as fire does in other countries. The lakes and rivers, where they are higher than the land, are liable to burst their barriers after heavy rains falling in the country, or great floods coming down the rivers, or high tides rise from the sea, and so run into each other ; and the peo- ple have continually to contend against this dan* ger, just as in other countries they do against spreading conflagrations. "In the case of spreading fire, water is the great friend and helper of man ; and in the cas^ Correspondence. 147 What has become of the Holland Lake. of these spreading inundations of water, it is wind that he relies upon. The only mode that the Dutch had to pump out the water in former times was the wind mills. When the rains or the tides inundated the land, they called upon the wind to help them lift the water out to where it could flow away again. " There was a time, two or three hundred years ago, when all the wind mills that the people could make, seem not to have been enough to do the work ; and there was one place, in the centre of the country, where the water continued to spread more and more — breaking through as it spread from one polder to another — until, at last, it swallowed up such an extent of country as to form a lake thirty miles in circumference. This lake at last extended very near to the gates of Haar- lem, and it was called the Holland Lake. You will find it laid down on all the maps of Holland, except those which have been printed within a few years. The reason why it is not laid down now is, because, a few years ago, finding that the wind mills were not strong enough to pump it out, the government concluded to try what virtue there might be in steam. So they first repaired and strengthened the range of dikes that extended round the lake. In fact, they made them double all around, leaving a space between for a canal. 148 Rollo in Holland. Steam engines hare accomplished what wind mills could not. They made both the inner and outer of these dikes water-tight ; so that the water should neither soak back into the lake again, after it was pumped out, nor ooze out into the polders beyond. The way they made them water-tight was by lining them on both sides with a good thick coating of clay. " When the dikes enclosing the lake were com- pleted, the engineers set up three very powerful steam engines, and gave to each one ten or twelve enormous pumps to work. These pumping en- gines were made on such a grand scale that they lifted over sixty tuns of water at every stroke. But yet so large was the lake, and so vast the quantity of water to be drained, that though there were three of the engines working at this rate, and though they were kept at work night and day, it took them a year and a half to lay the ground dry. The work was, however, at last accom- plished, and now, what was the bottom of the lake is all converted into pastures and green fields. But they still have to keep the pumps go- ing all the time to lift out the surplus water that falls over the whole space in rain. You may judge that the amount is very large that falls on a district thirty miles round. They calculate that the quantity which they have to pump up now, every year, in order to keep the land from Correspondence. 149 An account of the ice freshets in Holland. being overflowed again, is over fifty millions of tuns. And that is a quantity larger than you can ever conceive of. " And yet the piece of ground is so large, that the cost of this pumping makes only about fifty cents for each acre of land, which is very little. " Besides these great spreading inundations, which Holland has always been subject to from the lakes and rivers in the middle of the country, there has always been a greater danger still to be feared from the ice freshets of the Rhine, and other great rivers coming from the interior of the country. The Rhine, you know, flows from south to north, and often the ice, in the spring, breaks up in the middle of the course of the river, before it gets thawed in Holland. The broken ice, in coming down the stream towards the north, is kept within the banks of the stream where the banks arc high ; but when it reaches Holland it is not only no longer so confined, but it finds its flow obstructed by the ice which there still re- mains solid, and so it gets jammed and forms dams, and that makes the water rise very fast. At one time when such a dam was formed, the water rose seven feet in an hour. At such times the pressure becomes so prodigious that the dikes along the bank of the river are burst, and water, sand, gravel, and ice, all pour over together upon 150 Rollo in Holland. Terrible disasters. Rollo reads his letter. the surrounding country, and overwhelm and de- stroy every thing that comes in its way. " Some of the inundations caused in Holland by these floods and freshets have been terrible. Ie ancient times they were w r orse than they are now ; because now the dikes are stronger, and are better guarded. At one inundation that oc- curred about sixty years ago, eighty thousand persons were drowned. At another, three hun- dred years earlier, one hundred thousand perished. Think what awful floods there must have been. " But I cannot write any more in this letter. I have taken up so much space and time in tell- ing you about the inundations and freshets, that I have not time to describe a great many other things which I have seen, that are quite as cu- rious and remarkable as they. But when I get home I can tell you all about them, in the winter evenings, and read to you about them from my 'ournal. " Your affectionate brother, " George.'* Hollo's Letter. "Leyden, Tuesday, September 27. * My dear Mother : " Uncle George and I are having a very fiive tink indeed in travelling about Holland ; it is Correspondence. 151 Hollo's wi;;h. Difficulties of con versation. such a funny country, on account of their being bo many canals. The water is all smooth and still in all the canals, (except when the wind blows,) and so there must be excellent skating every where in the winter. " I wish it was winter here now, for one day, so that uncle George and I could have some Dutch skating. " There must be good skating every where here in the winter, for there is water every where, and it is all good water for skating. In the fields, instead of brooks running in crooked ways and tumbling over rocks, there are only long and narrow channels of smooth water, just about wide enough to skate upon, and reaching as far as you can see. " The people here speak Dutch, and they can- not understand me, and I cannot understand them. And that is not the worst of it ; they can't under- stand that / can't understand them. Sometimes the woman that comes to make my bed tells me something in Dutch, and I tell her that I can't understand. I know the Dutch for { I can't under- stand.' Then she says, * ! ' and goes on to tell me over again, only now she tries to speak plainer — as if it could make any difference to me whether she speaks plain or not. I shake my head, and tell her I can't understand any thing. I tell her 152 Rollo in Holland. How Rollo conversed by signs. Candles. Fire. in French, and in English, and in Dutch. But it does not do any good, for she immediately be gins again, and tells me the whole story all over again, trying to speak plainer than ever. I sup- pose she thinks that any body can understand Dutch, if she only speaks it plain enough to them. " When I want any thing of them, I always tell them by signs. The other evening, uncle George and I wanted some candles. So I rang the bell, and a woman came. I went to the door of the room, and made believe that I had two candle- sticks in my hand, and that I was bringing them in. I made believe put them on the table, and then sat down and opened a book, and pretended that I was reading by the light of them. She un- derstood me immediately. She laughed, and said, 1 Ya, ya ! ' and went off out of the room to get the candles. " Ya, ya, means yes, yes. "Another time we wanted a fire. So when the woman came in, I shivered, and made believe that I was very cold, and then I went to the fireplace, and made believe warm myself. Then I pointed to the fireplace, and made a sign for her to go away and bring the fire to put there. But instead of going, she told me something in Dutch, and shook her head ; and when I said I could not understand it, she told me over again ; and finally she went away, and sent the landlady. The landlady could Correspondence. 155 Canal boats. The dog carts. speak a little English. So she told me that we could not have any fire except in foot stoves, foi the fireplace stoves were not put up. 41 It is very curious to walk about the streets, and see the boats on the canals, and what the peo- ple are carrying back and forth in them. I watch them sometimes from the windows of the hotel, especially when it rains, and we cannot go out. They have every thing in these boats. They use some of them instead of houses ; and the man who owns them lives in them with his wife and children, and sometimes with his ducks and chickens. " I often see the little children playing on the decks of the boat. Once I saw one that had a dog, and he was trying to teach him to cipher on a slate. His mother and the other children were on the boat too. " The people use their dogs here to draw carts. They have three or four sometimes harne&sed in together. The dogs look pretty poor and lean, but they draw like good fellows. You would be surprised to see what great loads they draw. They draw loads of vegetables to market, and then, when the vegetables are sold, they draw the market women home in the empty carts. " Only they don't mind very well, when they are told which way to go. I saw a boy yesterday 156 Rollo in Holland. The marketing boats and their contents. riding along in a cart, with a good big dog to draw him, and when he came to a street where he wanted him to turn down, the dog would not turn. The boy hallooed out to him in Dutch a good manv times, and finally the boy had to jump down out of the cart, and run and seize him by the collar, and pull him round. " It is not a great deal that they use dog carts to bring things to market, for generally they bring them in boats. They take almost every thing to and fro along the canals in boats ; and it is very curious to stand on a bridge and look down on the boats that pass under, and see how many different kinds of boats there are, and how many different kinds of things they have in them. This morning, I saw one that had the bottom of it divided into three pens for animals. In the first pen were two great cows, lying down on the straw ; in the second pen were several sheep ; and in the third there were as many as a dozen small pigs, just big enough to be roasted. I sup- pose it was a farmer bringing in his stock to market. " Sometimes they row the boats along the canal, and sometimes they push them with setting pcles. They have the longest setting poles in some of the boats that I ever saw. There is an iron pike at one end of the pole, and a wooden knob at the Correspondence. 157 Setting poles. Pulling the boats. Travelling by canal. other. When they are pushing the boat by means of one of these poles, they run the ironed end of it down to the bottom, and then the man puts his shoulder to the little knob at the other end and pushes. As the boat goes on, he walks along the boat from the bow to the stern, pushing all the way as hard as he can push. " When they are out of town the men pull the boats along the canals by means of a long cord, which is fastened to a strap over their shoulders. With this strap they walk along on the tow-path of the canal, pulling in this way — so that if the cord should break, I should think they would fall headlong on the ground. " I saw a man and a woman the other day pull- ing a double boat, loaded with hay, along a canal. The hay was loaded across from one boat to the other. It made as much as five or six of the largest cart loads of hay that I ever saw. I was surprised to see that a man and a woman could draw so much. They drew it by long lines, and by straps over their shoulders. The woman's line was fastened to one of the boats, and the man's to the other. "The people travel a great deal in boats in these parts of the country, where there are no rail- roads. Uncle George and I took a little jour- ney in one, the other day. I wanted to go very 158 Rollo in Holland. The excursion the travellers tock to Delft. much, but uncle George was afraid, he said, that they might take us somewhere where there would be nobody that could talk English, and so we might get into some serious difficulty. But he said that he would go with me a few miles, if I could find a canal boat going to some place that we knew. So I found one going to a town called Delft. We knew that place, because we had come through it, or close by it, by the railway. " Uncle George said that it was an excellent plan to go there, for then, if we got tired of the canal boat in going, we could come home by a railroad train. " So we went ; and we had a very pleasant time, indeed. I found the canal boat by going to the place where the boats all were, and saying, Delft, Delft, to the people ; and then they pointed me to the right boat. So we got in. When the captain came for the fare, I took out a handful of money, and said Delft, and also pointed to un- cle George. So he took out enough to pay for uncle George and me to go to Delft. At least T suppose he thought it was enough, though I thought it was very little. " We had a very pleasant sail to Delft. The banks of the canal are beautiful. They are green and pretty every where, and in some places there were beautiful gardens, and summer housesj and pavilions close upon the shore. Correspondence. 159 The close of Rollo's long letter. " But now I begin to be tired of writing. J should have been tired a great while ago, only I have stopped to rest pretty often, and to look out the window, and see what is going by on the canal. 11 There is a boat coming now with a mast, and I don't see what they are going to do, for there is a bridge here, and it is not a draw bridge. Almost all the bridges are draw bridges, but this one is not. So I don't see how he is going to get by. " Ah, I see how it is ! The mast is on a hinge, so that it can turn down backward, and lie along flat on the deck of the boat. It is going down now. " Now it is down, and the boat is going under the bridge. "But good by, mother, for it is time for me to stop. " Your affectionate and dutiful son, " ROLLO. " P. S This is the longest letter that I evei wiote." 160 Rollo in Holland. The agriculture of Holland. Beef. Cheeses. Chapter VIII. The Commissioner. As may well be imagined, the best use to which the green fields of Holland can be put, is the raising of grass to feed cattle ; for the wetness of the land, which makes it somewhat unsuitable to be ploughed, causes grass to grow upon it very luxuriantly. Accordingly, as you ride through the country along the great railway lines, you see, every where, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep feeding in the meadows that extend far and wide in every direction. The cattle are kept partly for the purpose of being fatted and sent to market for beef, and partly for their milk, which the Dutch farmers make cheese of. Dutch cheeses are celebrated in every part of the world. In the neighborhood of Amsterdam there are a number of dairy villages where cheeses are made, and some of them are almost always visited by travellers. They are great curiosities, in fact, on account of their singular and most extraor* The Commissioner. 101 The village of Broek. "Weather predictions. dinary neatness. Cleanliness is, in all parts of the world, deemed a very essential requisite of a dairy, and the Dutch housewives in the dairy vil- lages of Holland have carried the idea to the extreme. The village which is most commonly visited by strangers who go to Amsterdam, is one called Broek. It lies to the north of Am- sterdam, and at a distance of about five or six miles from it. One day when Mr. George and Rollo arrived in Amsterdam, Mr. George, just at sundown, looked out at the window of the hotel, and said, — " Eollo, I think it is going to be a superb day to-morrow.''' 11 So do I," said Rollo. " At least," said Mr. George, " I should think so if I were in America. The wind has all gone down, and the western sky is full of golden clouds chining in roseate splendor." Mr. George enunciated these high-sounding words in a pompous and theatrical manner, which made Rollo laugh very heartily. " And, to descend from poetry to plain prose," said Mr. George, "I think we had better take advantage of the fine weather to go to Broek to- morrow." 11 162 Rollo in Holland. Rollo's readiness to go. Peter the Great at Saandam. " Very well," said Rollo, " that plan suits me exactly." Rollo was always ready for any plan which in- volved the going away from the place where he was, to some new place which he had not seen before. " But how are we going to find the way there ?" said Rollo. " I shall take a commissioner," said Mr. George. "I am going to Saandam, too, where Peter the Great learned ship carpentry." "I have heard something about that," said Rol- lo, " but 1 don't know much about it." " Why, Peter the Great was emperor of Rus- sia," said Mr. George, " and he wished to intro- duce ship building into his dominions. So he came to Holland to learn about the construction of ships, in order that he might be better qual- ified to take the direction of the building of a fleet in Russia. Saandam was the place that he came to. While he was there he lived in a small, wooden house, near the place where the ship building was going on. That house is there now, and almost every body that comes to this part of the country goes to see it." "How long ago was it that he was there ? " asked Rollo. " It was more than one hundred and fifty years ago," said Mr. George. The Commissioner. 163 The wooden house at Saandam. The commissioner. "I should not think a wooden house would have lasted so long," said Rollo. " It would not have lasted so long," replied Mr. George, " if they had not taken special pains to preserve it. They have built a brick house around it and over it, to protect it from the weather, and so it has been preserved.. Now I think we had better go to-morrow and see Broek, and also Saandam, and I am going to take a com- missioner." Mr. George had employed a commissioner once before, as the reader will perhaps recollect, name- ly, at the Hague ; and perhaps I ought to stop here a moment to explain more fully what a com- missioner is. He is a servant hired by the day to conduct strangers about the town where they reside, and about the environs, if necessary, to show them what there is that is curious and won- derful there. These men are called, sometimes commissioners and sometimes valets de place, and in their way they are very useful. If a traveller arrives at a hotel in the morning, at any important town in Europe, before he has been in his room fifteen minutes he generally hears a knock at his door, and on bidding the person come in, a well-dressed looking servant man appears and asks, — 1G4 Rollo in Holland. Utilitj of commissioners. " Shall you wish for a commissioner, sir, to- day?" Or if the gentleman, after remaining in his room a few minutes, takes his wife or his daugh- ter, or whomever he may have travelling with him, and goes out from the door of the hotel, he is pretty sure to be met near the door by one or more of these men, who accost him earnestly, paying, — "Do you want a commissioner, sir?" Or, " Shall I show you the way, sir ? » Or, " Would you like to see the museum, sir ? " When a traveller intends to remain some days in a place, he has generally no occasion for a commissioner ; since, in his rambles about the town, he usually finds all the places of interest himself, and in such a case the importunities of the commissioners seeking employment are some- times annoying to him. But if his time is very short, or if he wishes to make excursions into the neighborhood of a town where he does not un- derstand the language of the people, then such a servant is of very great advantage. Mr. George thought that his proposed excur- sion to Broek and Saandam was an occasion on which a commissioner could be very advanta- geously employed. Accordingly, after he and Rollo had finished their dinner, which they took The Commissioner. 165 Inquiries about the route to Broek. at a round table near a window in the coffee room, he asked Rollo to ring the bell. Rollo did so, and a waiter came in. u Send me in a commissioner, if you please," said Mr. George. " Very well, sir," said the waiter, with a bow. The waiter went out, and in a few minutes a well-dressed and very respectable looking young man came in, and advancing towards Mr. George, said, — " Did you wish to see a commissioner, sir ? " " Yes," said Mr. George. " I want to make some inquiries about going to Broek and to Saan- dam, to-morrow. I want to know what the best way is to go, and what the expenses will be." So saying, Mr. George took out a pencil and a piece of paper from his pocket, in order to make a memorandum of what the commissioner should say. " In the first place," asked Mr. George, " what is your name ? I shall want to know what to call you." " My name is James," said the commissioner. " Well, now, James," said Mr. George, " I want you to tell me what the best way is to go, and what all the expenses will be. I want to know every thing beforehand." " Well, sir," said James, " we shall go first 166 Rollo in Holland. The Y. The trekschuyt. The expenses. by the ferry boat across to the Y * and there we shall take the trekschuyt for a short distance on the canal." " And how much will that cost ? " asked Mr. G eorge. " For the three, forty-five cents," said James. He meant, of course, Dutch cents. It takes two and a half Dutch cents to make one American cent. " There," continued James, " we take a car- riage." " And how much will the carriage be ? " asked Mr. George. " To go to Broek and back, and then to Saan- dam, will be ten guilders." Mr. George made memoranda of these sums on his paper, as James named them. " And the tolls," continued James, " will be one guilder and twenty-five cents more." " And the driver ? " asked Mr. George. In most of the countries of Europe, when you make a bargain for the carriage, the driver's ser- vices are not included in it. He expects a fee besides. " The driver, fifty cents. Half a guilder/' said James. * The Y is the name of the sheet of water which lies Define Aro sterdam. It is a sort of harbcr. Th e Commissioner. 167 » . — Mr. George calculates the cost of the excursion. " Is that enough for him ? " asked Mr. George "Yes, sir," said James, "that's enough." " We will call it seventy-five cents," said Mr. George. So saying, he wrote seventy-five. 11 Then there will be some fees to pay, I sup- pose," said Mr. George, " both at Broek and at Saandam." " Yes. sir/ said James. " We pay twenty-five cents at the dairy, twenty-five cents at the garden, and twenty-five to the hostler. That makes seven- ty-five. And the same at Saandam, to see the hut of Peter the Great, and the house. That makes one guilder fifty centimes." " Is that all ? " asked Mr. George. "There will be forty-five cents for the ferry coming back," said James. Mr. George added this sum to the column, and then footed it up. The amount was nearly fifteen guilders. " We will call it fifteen guilders," said he. " To- morrow I will give you fifteen guilders, and you will pay all expenses. And then what shall I have to pay you for your services ? " " My charge is four guilders for the day," said James. " Very well," said Mr. George. " And at what time in the morning will it be best to set out ? " " There is a boat at nine o'clock," said Jamea 168 Rollo in Holland. Starting before breakfast. 11 Then we will leave here at half past eight. We will have breakfast, Rollo, at eight. Or per- haps we can hare breakfast at Broek. Is then; a hotel there, James ? " "Yes, sir," said James. "There is a hotel there." "Very well. Then we will wait till we get there before we take breakfast, and we will ex- pect you at half past eight. Our room is number eleven." The arrangement being thus fully made, the commissioner, promising to be punctual, bowed and retired. " Now, Rollo," said Mr. George, " to-morrow we will have a good time. After I give the com- missioner the fifteen guilders, I shall have no further care or responsibility, but shall be taken along over the whole ground as if I were a child under the care of his father." The great Canal. 169 Tho travellers stop at the post office. Chapter IX. The great Canal. The commissioner knocked at Mr. George's door at the time appointed. Mr. George and Rol- lo were both ready. Mr. George counted out the fifteen guilders on the table, and James put them in liis pocket. The party then set out. Mr. George wished to stop by the way to put a letter in the post office, and to pay the postage of it. He desired to do this personally, for he wished to inquire whether the letter would go direct. So James led them by the way of the post office, and conducted Mr. George into the office where foreign letters were received, and the payment of postage taken for them. Here James served as interpreter. Indeed, it is one of the most important duties of a commissioner to serve as an interpreter to his em- ployer, whenever his services are required in this capacity. When the letter was put in, the party resumed their walk. The commissioner went on before, carrying Mr. George's travelling shawl and the I TO Rollo in Holland. Hurrying to the boat. View of the harbor. umbrella, and Mr. George and Rollo followed. The way lay along a narrow street, by the side of a canal. There were a thousand curious sights to be seen, both among the boats on the canal and along the road ; but Rollo could not stop to ex- amine them, for the commissioner walked prettj fast. " I wish he would not walk so fast," said Rollo. " Ah, yes," said Mr. George, " he is right this morning, for we want to get to the pier in time for the boat. But in walking about the town to see it, it would be a great trouble to us." " To-morrow we will go about by ourselves/ said Rollo, " and stop when and where we please. ' " We will," said Mr. George. At last the party came out to what may oe called the front of the city, where they could look off upon the harbor. This harbor is a sheet of water called the Y, which has been before re- ferred to. The morning was bright and beauti- ful, and the water was covered with ships, steam- ers, barges, boats, and vessels of every form and size, going to and fro. The steamers passed swift- ly, but the sailing vessels scarcely moved, so calm and still was the morning air. The sun was shin- ing, and the whole scene presented to Mr. George's and Rollo's view, as they looked out over the wa ter, was extremely brilliant and beautiful. The great Canal. 171 The landing pier. Rollo and Mr. George on board tl e boat. The commissioner led the way out over a long pier supported by piles, to a sort of landing plat- form at a distance from the shore. This place was quite large. It had a tavern upon it, and a great many different offices belonging to the dif- ferent lines of steamers, and piers projecting in different directions for the different boats and steamers to land at. It stood at some distance from the shore, and the whole had the appearance of a little village on an island. It would have been an island indeed, if there had been any land about it ; but there was not. It was built wholly on piles. Here were crowds of people going and coming on this stage, some having just landed from the different steamers that had just arrived, and some about to embark in others that were going away. Small boats were coming, too, over the water, with passengers in them, among whom were many peasant girls, whose foreheads and temples were adorned with a profusion of golden ornaments, such as are worn by the ladies of North Holland. Rollo looked this way and that as he passed along the stage, and he wished for time to stop and examine what he saw ; but the commissioner walked rapidly on, and led the way to the ferry boat. " You will walk on board," said James, " while I get the tickets." 172 Rollo in Holland. The ticket master. Independence. Nine o'clock. So Mr. George and Rollo went over the plank on board the boat, while James turned to a lit- tle office that stood near to get the tickets. There was a man standing at the end of the plank to collect the tickets as the passengers came on board. Mr. George, as he passed, point- ed back to the office where James had gone. The man bowed, and he and Rollo passed on. " How independent we are ! " said Mr. George. " I shall have nothing to do with making any payments all day to-day, and it will seem as if we were travelling free." The ferry boat was of a very singular con- struction, and most singular looking people they were who were on board of it. It had a great flat deck, which was of an oval form, and was spreading out very wide at the sides. There were seats here and there in different places, but no awning or shelter of any kind overhead. Rol- lo was glad of this, for the morning was so fine, and the view on every side was so magnificent, that he was very much pleased to have it so wholly unobstructed. As soon as the chimes of the city clocks began to strike for nine, the various steamboats began to shoot out in different directions from the piers of the landing, and soon the ferry boat began to move, too. She moved, however, very slowly, The great Canal. 173 The prospect seen by the travellers upon the Y. " What a slow and clumsy boat ! " said Rollo. " I'm glad she is slow," replied Mr. George, "for I want to look about. I should be willing to be an hour in going across this ferry." The prospect on every side was, indeed, very fine. On looking back they could see the build- ings of the town extending far and wide for miles, with domes, and towers, and spires, and tops of trees, and masts of ships rising together every where above the tops of the houses. The water of the harbor was covered with ships and steamers passing to and fro — those near glitter- ing in the sun, while the distant ones were half lost in a smoky haze that every where softened and concealed the horizon. Mr. George and Rollo gazed earnestly on this scene, looking now in this direction, and now in that, but not speak- ing a word. When they were about half across the Y, James came to Mr. George, and said, — " This ferry boat connects with a steamer on the canal, which goes to the Helder, and also with various trekschuyts. We shall take a trek- schuyt to go for a short distance ? — as far as to the place where we shall get a carriage." " Very well," said Mr. George. " Arrange it as you think best. Then we shall go a short distance on the great canal." 174 Rollo in Holland. The grandest of canals. The Zuyder Zee. 11 Yes, sir," said James. " You will like to see a little of the canal." "I shall, indeed," said Mr. George. The great canal of which James here spoke is the grandest work of the kind in Holland, and perhaps in the world. If you look at the map you will see that Amsterdam stands somewhat in the interior of the country, and that the only ap- proach to it, by sea, is through a great gulf called the Zuyder Zee. Now, the water in the Zuyder Zee is shallow. There are channels, it is true, that are tolerably deep ; but they are very wind- ing and intricate, and they are so surrounded with shoals and sand banks as to make the nav- igation very difficult, especially for ships of large size. The people, accordingly, conceived the plan of digging a canal across the country, from Am- sterdam to the nearest place where there was deep water on the sea. This was at a point of land called the Helder. The reason why there was deep water there, was, that that was the outlet for the Zuyder Zee, and the water rushing in there when the tide is rising, and out again when it goes down, keeps the channel deep and clear. So it was determined to make a canal from the Holder to Amsterdam. But the land was lowe^, The great Canal. 175 A canal fcelow the level of the sea. almost all the way, than the sea. This rendered it impossible to construct the canal so as to make it of the same level with the sea, without build- ing up the banks of it to an inconvenient height. Besides, it was just as well to make the canal lower than the sea, and then to build gates at each end of it, to prevent the sea water from coming in. " Then how were the ships to get in ? " asked Rollo, when Mr. George explained this to him. " Why, there were two ways," replied Mr. George, " by which ships might get in. You see, although the canal is lower than the sea is gen- erally, there is an hour or two every day when the tide goes down, in which the two are about on a level. Accordingly, by opening the gates when the tide is low, a communication would be made by which the vessels could sail in and out." " But that would be inconvenient, I should think," said Rollo, " not to have the gates open but twice a day." " Yes," said Mr. George ; " and so, to enable them to admit ships at any time, they have built locks at each end." " Like the locks in a common canal in Amer* tea?" said Rollo. "Yes," said Mr. George ; "and by means of 176 Rollo in Holland. — — — — , A description of the lock upon the canal. these locks, ships can be taken in and out at any time." " I don't exactly understand how they do it/ said Rollo. " Let me explain it to you, then," replied Mr. George. " Listen attentively, and picture to your mind precisely what I describe, and see if you understand. " First," continued Mr. George, " imagine that you are down by the sea shore, where the canal ends. The water in the sea is higher than it is in the canal, and there are two sets of gates, at a little distance from each other, near the mouth of the canal, which keep the water of the sea from flowing in." 11 Yes," said Rollo, " I can picture that to my mind. But how far apart are the two sets of gates ? " " A little farther apart," said Mr. George, " than the length of the longest ship. Of courje one pair of these locks is towards the sea, and the other towards the canal. I will call the first the sea gates, and the other the canal gates. The space between the two gates is called the lock." "Yes," said Rollo, "I understand all that." " Now," continued Mr. George, " a ship comes in, we will suppose, and is to be taken into the The great Canal. 177 Mr. George explains the operation of a lock. canal. First, the men open the sea gates. The sea can now flow into the lock, but it cannot get into the canal, because the canal gates are still shut." " Yes," said Rollo. " And, now you see," continued Mr. George, " that as the water in the lock is high, and on a level with the sea, the ship can sail into the lock." " But it can't get down into the canal," said Rollo. "No," replied Mr. George, "not yet. But now the men shut the sea gates, and thus shut the ship in. They then open the passages through the canal gates, and this lets the water out of the lock until it subsides to the level of that in the canal, and the ship settles down with it. But the sea cannot come in, for the sea gates, that are now behind the ship, are shut. When the water in the lock has gone down to the canal level, then they can open the gates, and the ship can sail along out of the lock into the canal. " Thus they lock the ship down into the canal at one end, and when she has passed through the canal, they lock her up into the Y again at the other.' 1 "Tos." said Rollo. "I understand it now. 12 178 Rollo in Holland. The passenger boat did not go through the lock. And shall we go into the canal through the locks in this way ? " " I don't know/' said Mr. George. " I'll ask James." So Mr. George beckoned to James to come to him, and asked him whether they should enter t^e canal through the lock. "No," said James. "The ferry boat does not go into the canal at all. We go into a little dock or harbor by the side of it, and the passen- gers walk over the dike, and down to the canal, where they find the boats ready for them that they are to take." " Why don't they pass from those boats through the locks, and let them come across to Amster- dam ? " asked Rollo, " and then we might get on board them there, and so not have to change from one boat to the other." " Because it takes some time, and some trou- ble," said James, " to pass any thing through the locks, and it is not worth while to do it, except in case of large and valuable ships. So the boats and steamers that ply along the canal are left inside the lock, and the passengers are taken to and from them by the ferry boat." The ferry boat, by this time, began to approach the shore. It entered into a little opening in the land, which formed a sort of harbor. Here the The great Canal. 179 The steamboat and the trekschuyt. passengers were landed at a wharf, which was surrounded by small buildings. Thence they as- cended what was evidently a large dike. When they reached the top of the dike they saw below them, on the other side of it, the beginning of the canal. It lay several feet lower than the wa- ter of the harbor in which they had left the ferry boat ; but it was quite wide, and it was bordered by broad dikes with avenues of trees upon them, on either side. On one side, under the trees, was a tow path, and on the other a broad and smooth- ly gravelled road. Two boats were lying moored to the wharves at the side of the canal. One was a long, sharp, and narrow steamer, which was going through the whole length of the canal to the Helder. The other was a trekschuyt, or canal boat, which was going only a short way, to the near- est village. The passengers that came in the ferry boat di- vided into two parties, as they came down the dike. One party went to the steamer, the other to the trekschuyt. Mr. George and Rollo, of course, went with the last. The trekschuyt was a curious sort of boat. It was built like the Noah's ark made for children to play with ; that is, it was a broad boat, with a house in it. The roof of the house, which 180 Rollo in Holland. Rollo explores the trekschuyt. formed the deck of the boat, was flat, and there were seats along the sides of it, and a railing be- hind them on the margin, to keep people from falling off. At each end of the house were two flights of steps, leading up to the roof or deck, and below them another flight, which led down to the little cabins below. As soon as Rollo got on board, he first ran up on the deck. He sat down on the seat upon one side, and then, after looking about a moment, he ran over to the other side, and sat down there. Then he got up, and said that he was going be- low to look at the cabins. Mr. George, all the time, stood quietly on the deck, looking at the canal, and at the country around. He could see the canal extending, in a winding direction, across the country ; but the view of it was soon lost, as the winding of its course brought the dikes on the sides of it in the way so that they concealed the water. He could, however, trace its course for some distance, by the masts and sails of vessels which he saw at different distances rising among the green trees. Along the dike, on one side, was a high road, and on the other, a tow path. Different boats were coming and going in the part of the canal that was near. They were drawn by long and slen- der lines, that were fastened to a tall mast set up The gkeat Canal. 183 Towing a ship through the great canal. near the bows of the boat. Some were drawn by men, and some by horses. Before the trekschuyt had gone far, after it commenced its voyage, a great ship was seen coming on the canal. She was coming from the Helder. It was a ship that Lad come from the West Indies, and was going to Amsterdam. The wind was contrary for her, and they could not use their sails, and so they were drawing her along by horses. There were two teams of horses, eight in each team. The view of these teams, walking along the tow path, with the immense ship following them in the canal, presented a very imposing spectacle. The trekschuyt started before the Helder steamer ; but it had not gone far before Rollo, who had now ascended to the deck again, saw her coming up behind very rapidly. 11 1 tell you what it is, uncle George," said he, " I wish you and I were on board that steamer, and were going along the whole length of the canal." " So do I," said Mr. George. " Could not we get on board ? " asked Rollo. " No," said Mr. George. " We cannot change our plan to-day very well. But now that we have found the way, we can come over here any morning we please, and take the Helder steamer." 184 Rollo in Holland. Meeting. Passing upon the canal. A collisica. " Let's come," said Rollo, eagerly. " Let's come to-morrow." " We'll see about that," said Mr. George. " See, here comes a market boat." " Yes," said Rollo. " The man is towing it, and his wife is steering." " Now we will see how they pass," said Rollo. There was no difficulty about passing, for as soon as the man who was towing the market boat found that the trekschuyt had come up to his line, he stopped suddenly, and the advance of his boat caused his line to drop into the water. The trek- schuyt then sailed right over it. By this simple manoeuvre, boats and vessels could pass each other very easily, and generally the manoeuvre was ex- ecuted in a prompt and very skilful manner. But once, when they were passing a boat, the woman who was steering it put the helm the wrong way, and though the captain of the trekschuyt, and also the husband of the woman, who was on the shore, shouted to her repeatedly in a loud and angry manner, she could not get it right again in time to avoid a collision. The trekschuyt gave the boat a dreadful bump as it went by. Fortunate- ly, however, it did no harm, except to frighten the poor woman, and break their tow line. After going on in this way for fifteen or twenty The great Canal. 185 Mr. George and Rollo at the dairy village. minutes along the canal, the trekschuyt arrived at its place of destination, and Mr. George and Rollo disembarked at a little village of very neat and pretty houses, built along the dike on one •side of the canal. 186 Rollo in Holland The travellers found numerous and excellent carriage*. Chapter X. The Dairy Village. Mr. George and Rollo walked ashore in a very independent manner, having the commissioner to attend to the tickets. They went up to the top of the dike, and waited for the commissioner to come to them. " While I am getting the carriage ready," said the commissioner, when he came, " perhaps you will like to take a walk on the bridge, where there is a very fine view. But first, perhaps, you will look at the carriage, and choose the one that vou will like." So saying, James led the way into a sort of stable, where there were a great many very nice and pretty carriages, arranged very snugly to- gether Mr. George was surprised to see so many. He asked James how it happened. " 0, there is a great deal of travelling on the roads about here," said James. " The country is very rich and populous, and the people of Am- sterdam come out a great deal." The Dairy Village. 187 Tliey choose an open carriage. Gardens on the dike. Some of the carriages were very elegant. One of these an hostler took out, and told Mr. George that he could have it if he chose. There was another which was much less elegant, but it was more open. " Let us take the open one," said Rollo. " We can see so much better." So they decided upon the open one ; and then, while the hostlers were harnessing the horses, Mr. George and Rollo went forward to the bridge. The bridge led over a branch canal, which here comes into the main canal. The road to it lay along the dike, and formed the street of a little village. It was paved with bricks placed edge- wise, and was as neat as a parlor floor. The houses were all on one side. They were very small ; but they were so neat and pretty, and the forms of them were so strange and queer, that they looked like play houses, or like a scene in fairy land, rather than like the real habitations of men. There were pretty gardens by them, which ex- tended down the slope of the dike. The slopes of the dikes are always very gradual, and very nice gardens can be made on them. Mr. George and Rollo stood on the bridge, and looked up and down the canals on either side. They saw boats, with people in them, getting ready to set out on their voyages. 188 Rollo in Holland. Appearance of the Dutch village. " I wonder where that canal leads to ? " said Rollo. " 0, it goes off into the interior of the country, some where," said Mr. George. " The country is as full of canals as Massachusetts is of roads." "I should like, very much," said Rollc, "to get on board that boat with that man, and go with him wherever he is going." "So should I, if I knew Dutch," sail Mr. George, " so that I could talk with him as we sailed along." " How pretty it is all about here," said Rollo. " What a queer village, — built on a bank ! And what a funny road ! It looks like a play road." The road, where it led through the village, did, indeed, present a very singular appearance. It was very narrow indeed, being barely wide enough for one carriage to pass, and leaving scarcely room on the side for a child to crowd up against the house, and let it go by. On the other side was a row of trees, with green grass beneath, covering the banks of the canal. After Mr. George and Rollo had been stand- ing a few minutes on the bridge they saw that the carriage was nearly ready. So they went back to the place and got in. The top of the carriage was turned entirely down, so that they could see about them in every direction as they The Dairy Village. 189 Narnm streets. Scenery in the country. rode along. James mounted on the box outside, with the driver. "Now," said Rollo, in a tone of great satis- faction, " we will have a very first rate ride." The carriage drove along through the little street, which has already been described. Rollo could reach his hand out and almost touch the houses as they rode by. There were little shops kept in some of the houses, and the things that were for sale were put up at the windows. They looked exactly as if children had arranged them for play. After leaving the village the road turned and followed the dike of a branch canal. The views on every side were extremely beautiful. The ca- nal was carried along between its two banks, high above the rest of the country, and here and there, at moderate distances from each other, wind mills were to be seen busy at work pumping up water from the drains in the fields, and pouring it into the canal. The fields were covered with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and here and there were parties of men mowing the grass or loading the new-made hay into boats, that lay floating in the small canals which bordered the fields. In looking about over the country, there were wind mills to be seen i*i all directions, their long ^.rms slowly revolving in the air, and interspersed 190 Rollo in Holland. An illusion. Ships sailing on land. The inn among them were the masts and sails of sloops and schooners, that were sailing to and fro along the canals. As the water of these canals was often hidden from view by the dikes which bor- dered them, it seemed as if the ships and steamers were sailing on the land in the midst of green fields and trees, and smiling villages. After going on in this way for an hour or more, the carriage approached the village which Mr. George and Rollo were going to see. The vil- lage lay on the borders of a canal, which was here quite broad, and as the road approached it on the other side of the canal, it was in full view for Mr. George and Rollo as the party ap- proached it. The houses were close to the mar- gin of the water. They were very neat and pretty, and were, most of them, painted green. Many of them had little canals by the side of them, like lanes of water leading into the rear of the houses, and the prettiest little porticoes, and trellises, and piazzas, and pavilions, and summer houses were seen in every part. The road went winding round a wide basin, and then, after cross- ing a bridge, the carriage stopped at an inn. The inn was entirely outside of the village. The commissioner said that they must walk through the village, for there was no carriage road through it at all. The Dairy Village. 191 A walk before breakfast. Biftek aux pommes. So Mr. George and Rollo dismounted, and the hostlers came out from the stable to unharness the horses. " Now, Rollo," said Mr. George, " we will go in and order a breakfast, and then we will take our walk through the village while it is getting ready." " Yes," said Rollo. " I should like some break* fast very much." " What shall we have ? " asked Mr. George. " What you like," replied Rollo. " You al- ways get good breakfasts." " Well," said Mr. George, " we will tell them the old story." Just at this moment James came up to the door of the hotel where Mr. George and Rollo had been standing during this conversation. " You may order breakfast for us, James," said Mr. George, " and let them have it ready for us when we get back from our walk." " Yes, sir," said James. " And what will you have?" " Biftek aux pommes" * said Mr. George, " and * Pronounced biftek-o-pom. This is a very favorite breakfast in France, and every where, in fact, throughout Europe. Mr. George liked it better than any thing else, not only for bis breakfast, bul also for his dinner. It consists of very tender beefsteaks, delirious- ly seasoned, and accompanied with sliced potatoes, fried in a pe 2uliar manner, and arranged all around the margin of the disb- 192 Rollo in Holland. The beefsteak and fried potato man. The servant girl. coffee. And let them give us some of their best cheese." The commissioner went in to give the order. " Uncle George." said Rollo, " I think you'll be known all through this country as the beefsteak and fried potato man." Mr. George laughed. " Well," said he. " There could not be a more agreeable idea than that to be associated with my memory." The truth is, that both Mr. George and Rollo liked the biftek aux po?nmes better than almost any thing else that they could have, whether for breakfast or dinner. After having given the order for the breakfast to a very nice and tidy-looking Dutch girl, whose forehead and temples were adorned with a pro- fusion of golden ornaments, after the fashion of the young women of North Holland, the commis- sioner came back, and the whole party set out to walk through the village. There were no streets, properly so called, but only walks, about as wide as the gravel walks of a garden, which meandered about among the houses and yards, in a most extra- ordinary manner. There were beautiful views, from time to time, presented over the water of the canal on which the village was situated ; and there were a great number of small canals which seemed The Dairy Village. 195 Strange intermingling of land and water. The dairy. to penetrate every where, with the prettiest little bridges over them, and landing steps, and bowers and pavilions along the borders of them, and gay ly painted boats fastened at kitchen doors, and a thousand other such-like objects, characteristic of the intimate intermingling of land and water which prevails in this extraordinary country. Every thing was, however, on so small a scale, and so scrupulously neat and pretty, that it looked more like a toy village than one built for the eve- ry-day residence of real men. After walking on for about a quarter of a mile, the commissioner said that he would show them the interior of one of the dairy houses, where the cheeses were made, — for the business of this town was the making of cheeses from the milk of the cows that feed on the green polders that lie all around them. " The stalls for the cows," said James, " are in the same house in which the family lives ; but the cows are not kept there in summer, and so we shall find the stalls empty." So saying, James turned aside up a little paved walk which led to the door of a very pretty look- ing house. He opened the door without any cere- nony, and Mr. George and Hollo went in. The door was near one end of the house, and it opened into a passage way which extended 196 Rollo in Holland. - — Decorated stables. The ornaments and the utensils. back through the whole depth of it. On one side was a row of stalls, or cribs, for the cows. On the other, were doors opening into the rooms used for the family. A very nice looking Dutch wo- man, who had apparently seen the party from her window, came out through this side door into the passage way, to welcome them when they came. The stalls for the cows were all beautifully made, and they were painted and decorated in such an extraordinary manner, that no one could have imagined for what use they were intended. The floors for them were made of the glazed tiles so often used in Holland, and the partitions be- tween them were nicely rubbed as bright as a lady's sideboard. The cribs, too, were now, in the absence of the cows, occupied with various little etageres, and sets of shelves, which were covered with fancy cups and saucers, china im- ages, and curiosities of all sorts, — the Dutch housewives taking a special pride in the collec- tion of such things. The row of cribs was separated from the floor of the passage way by a sort of trench, about a foot and a half wide and ten inches deep, and outside this trench, and also within it, at the en- trances to the cribs, were arrayed a great num- ber of utensils employed in the work of the dairy Buch as tubs, cans, cheese presses, moulds, and The Dairy Village. 197 Cheeses. The travellers visit the dairywoman's house. other such things. These were all beautifully made, and being mounted with brass, which had received the highest polish by constant rubbing, they gave to the whole aspect of the place an ex- ceedingly gay and brilliant appearance. Some of this apparatus was in use. There were tubs standing, with the curd or whey in thsm, and cheeses in press or in pickle, and va- rious other indications that the establishment was a genuine one, and was then in active operation. The cheeses were of the round kind, so often seen for sale at the grocers' stores in Boston and New York. They looked like so many big cannon balls. After walking down the passage way that led by the side of cribs, and examining all these things in detail, the party returned to the door where they had come in, and then, turning to the left, went into the rooms of the house. The first room was the bedroom. The second was the par- lor. These rooms were both completely crowded with antique looking furniture, among which were cabinets of Chinese ware, and ornaments of every kind ; and all was in such a brilliant condition of nicety and polish, as made the spectacle won- derful to behold. The bed was in a recess, shut up by doors. 198 Rollo in Holland. Curious beds. The neatness of the Dutch. When the doors were opened the bed place looked precisely like a berth on board ship. After looking at all these things as long as they wished, Mr. George and Rollo bade the wo- man good by, and James gave her half a guilder. The party then withdrew* 11 Well, uncle George," said Rollo, " and what do you think of that?" "I think it is a very extraordinary spectacle," said Mr. George. "And it is very curious to think how such a state of things has come about." " And how has it come about ? " asked Rollo. " Why, here," replied Mr. George, " for a thou- sand years, for aught I know, the people have been living from generation to generation with no other employment than taking care of the cows that feed on the polders around, and making the milk into cheese. That is a business which requires neatness. Every kind of dairy business does. So that here is a place where a current was set towards neatness a thousand years ago, and it has been running ever since, and this is what it lias come to." Talking in this manner of what they had seen, Mr. George and Rollo returned to the inn, and there they found an excellent breakfast. The) The Dairy Village 199 The travellers at breakfast. were waited upon at the table by the young wo- man who had so many golden ornaments in her hair ; and besides the biftek aux pommes, and the coffee, and the hot milk, and the nice butter, there was the half of one of the round cheeses, such as they had seen in process of making at the dairy. !00 Rollo in Holland. Returning towards Amsterdam. A sea difte. Chapter XI. Conclusion. After finishing their breakfast, Mr. George and Rollo entered the carriage again, and re- turned by the same way that they came, for some miles towards Amsterdam, until they came to the place where the road turned off to go to Saan- dam. After proceeding for some distance upon one of the inland dikes, they came at length to the margin of the sea, and then for several miles the road lay along the great sea dike, which here defends the land from the ingress of the ocean. " Ah," said Mr. George, as soon as they en- tered upon this portion of the road, " here we come to one of the great sea dikes. How glad I am." " So am I," said Rollo. " I wanted to see one of the sea dikes." "It is very much like the others," said Mr. George, "only it is much larger." "Yes," said Rollo, "and see how it winds about along the shore." Conclusion. 201 Ancient trees upon the dike. The wind mills. In looking forward in the direction in which Rollo pointed, the dike could be traced for a long distance in its course, like an immense railroad embankment, winding in and out in a most re- markable manner, in conformity to the indenta- tions of the shore. In one respect it differed from a railroad embankment, namely, in being bordered and overshadowed by avenues of im- mense trees, which showed how many ages ago the dike had been built. There is not a railroad embankment in the world that has been built long enough for such immense trees to have had time to grow. The carriage road lay along the top of the dike, which was very broad, and the slopes of it, towards the water on one side, and towards the low meadow lands on the other, were very grad- ual. Men were at work every where along these slopes, cutting the second crop of grass, and mak- ing it into hay. Where the hay was ready to be got in, the men were at work loading it into boats that lay in the little canals that extend along the sides of the dike at the foot of the slopes. Wind mills were to be seen every where, all about the horizon. As the road approached Saandam, these mills became more and more nu- merous. " I mean to see if I can count them," said Rollo. 202 Rollo in Holland. The four thousand wind mills. Saandam. " You cannot count them, I am sure," said Mr, George. Rollo began ; but when he got up to a hun- dred, he gave up the undertaking in despair. Mr. George told him that he read in the guide book that there were four thousand wind mills in that region. Some of these wind mills were very small in- deed ; and there were two or three which looked so " cunning," as Rollo said, that he wished very much that he had one of them to take with him to America. The use of these very small wind mills was to pump up the water from some very limited tract of land, which, for some reason or other, hap- pened to lie a few inches lower than the rest. At last, after an infinite number of turnings and windings, by means of which every part of the surrounding country was brought in succession into view before Mr. George and Rollo as they sat in their carriage, they arrived at the town of Saandam. The town consists of two streets, one on each embankment of a great canal. The streets are closely built up for many miles along the canal, ►but the town does not extend laterally at all, on account of the ground falling off immediately to very low polders. Conclusion. 205 The old residence of Peter the Great at Saandam. After entering the street the commissioner left the carriage, in order that the horses might rest, and led Mr. George and Hollo on a walk through the prettiest part of the town. They walked about half a mile along the canal on one side, and then, crossing by a ferry, they came back on the other side. . In the course of this walk they went to see the hut where Peter the Great lived while he was in Holland engaged in studying ship building in the ship yards of Saandam. The hut itself was old and dilapidated ; but it was covered and pro- tected by a good, substantial building of brick, with open arches all around, which allowed the hut to be seen, while the roof and walls of the building protected it from the rain. The hut was situated in a very pretty little garden. There were two rooms in the hut, and one of them — the one shown in the engraving — had a very curious-looking Dutch fireplace in one corner of it, and a ladder to go up to the loft above. The chairs were very curious indeed ; the seats being three-cornered, and the back and arms be- irg constructed in a very singular manner. The walls of the rooms were perfectly covered, in every part, with the names of visitors, who had come from all countries to see the rooms. Be- sides these, there were a great many volumes of 206 Rollo in Holland. The register of visitors. Driving back to Amsterdam. hooks filled with names. These books lay on a great table, which stood at one side of the room. There was one of the books which was not yet full, and this one lay open on the table, with a pen and ink near it, in order that fresh visitors, as fast as they came, might enter their names. After looking at this cabin as long as they wished, and entering their names in the book, Mr. George and Rollo left the hut and returned through one of the main streets of the town to the place where they had left their carriage. The carriage was soon ready for them, and they set out to go back to Amsterdam. They had a delightful drive back, going as they came, on the top of the great sea dike. On one side they could look off over a wide expanse of water, with boats, and steamers, and ships moving to and fro in every direction over it. On the other side they overlooked a still wider expanse of low and level green fields, intersected every where with canals of water and avenues of trees, and with a perfect forest of wind mills in the horizon. As they were riding quietly along upon this dike on the return to Amsterdam, Rollo had the opporturity of imparting to Mr. George some valuable information in respect to Peter the Great. Conclusion. 207 Kollo's account of Peter the Great. What are the boyars. " I am glad that I have had an opportunity to Bee the workshop of Peter the Great," said Mr. George. "It is very curious indeed. But I don't know much about Peter the Great. The first opportunity I get I mean to read an account of his life, and I advise you to do the same." "I have read about him," said Rollo. " I found a book about him in a steamboat that we came in, and I read all about his coming to Holland." " Then tell me about it," said Mr. George. "Why, you see," said Rollo, "he was at war with the Turks, and he fought them and drove them off to the southward, until at last he came to the Sea of Asoph. Then he could not fight them any more, unless he could get some ships. So he made a law for all the great boyars of his kingdom, that every one of them must build or buy him a ship. What are boyars, uncle George ? " " Nobles," said Mr. George. " I thought it must be something like that," replied Eollo. 11 The old nobility of those Russian countries are called boyars," said Mr. George ; " but I don't know why. Most of the common people are slaves to them." " Well, at any rate," said Rollo, " he made a law that every one of them, or at least all that were rich enough, should build or buy him a ship ,• 208 Rollo in Holland. Ship building in Holland. Education of the young nobles. but they did not know how to build ships them- selves, and so they were obliged to send to Hol- land for ship builders. They built more and bet- ter ships in Holland in those days than in any country in the world." " Yes, I suppose so," said Mr. George. " The boyars did not like it very well to be obliged to build these ships," continued Rollo. " And there was another thing that they disliked still more." " What was that ? " asked Mr. George. " Why, the emperor made them send off their sons to be educated in different foreign countries," replied Rollo. " You see, in those days Russia was very little civilized, and Peter concluded that it would help to introduce civilization into the country, if the sons of the principal men went to other great cities for some years, to study sci- ences and arts. So he sent some of them to Paris, and some to Berlin, and some to Amsterdam, and some to Rome. But most of them did not like to go." " That's strange," said Mr. George. ■" 1 should have thought they would have liked to go very much." "At least their fathers did not like to send them," said Rollo ; " perhaps on account of the expense ; and some of the young men did not Conclusion. 209 The loolish young boyar in Venice- Peter's great journey. like to go. There was one that was sent to Venice, in order that he might see and learn every thing that he could there, that would be of ad- vantage to his own country ; but he was so cross about it that when he got to Venice he shut him- self up in his house, and declared that he would not see or learn any thing at all." "He was a very foolish fellow, I think," said Mr. George. " Yes," said Rollo, " I think he was. But I've seen boys in school act just so. They get put out with the teacher for something or other, and then they won't try to understand the lesson." " That is punishing themselves, and not the teacher," said Mr. George. " But go on about Peter." " After a while," continued Rollo, " Peter con- cluded to make a journey himself. His plan was to go to all the most civilized countries, and into all the finest cities in Europe, and see what he could learn that would be of use in his own do- minions. So he fitted out a grand expedition. He took a number of ambassadors, and generals, and great potentates of all kinds with him. These men were dressed in splendid uniforms, and travelled in great state, and had grand receptions in all the great towns that they came to. But Peter himself did nothing of the kind. He 14 210 Rollo in Holland. Contrast between the emperor and his grandees. dressed plainly, like a common man, so that wherever he went he could ramble about at lib- erty, and see what he wanted to see in peace and quietness, while all the people were running after the procession of ambassadors and grandees." " That was a good plan," said Mr. George. " An excellent plan," rejoined Rollo. " In some of the seaports that he visited, he used to put on a sort of a pea jacket, such a3 the Dutch skippers wore, and go about in that, along the wharves and docks, and look at all the shipping. " But he was most interested in going to Hol- land," continued Rollo, " for that was the country where they built the best ships. Besides, the first vessel that he ever saw happened to be a Dutch vessel. I forgot to tell you about that." " Yes," replied Mr. George, " tell me now." " Why, it was some years before this time," said Rollo, — " two or three I believe, — that he first saw a vessel. There was a country place with a handsome house and pleasure grounds, belonging to the royal family. I forget what the name of it was. But that is no matter. One time, after Peter came to the throne, he went out to this country place to spend a few days. He found on the grounds a sort of artificial winding canal or pond, with pretty trees on the banks of it. On this canal was a yacht, which had been built in Conclusion. 211 The Dutch-built yacht. The first ship buildiug in Russia. Holland and brought there, for the people to sail in when they came to that palace. The yacht had not been used much, and was lying neglected at the wharf. But Peter immediately had it put in order, and took a sail in it, and he liked it very much indeed." " Was it the first vessel that he ever saw ? " Asked Mr. George. " Yes," said Rollo, " I believe it was ; or at (east it was the first that he ever particularly no- ticed. He liked sailing in it, and then, besides, there was one of his officers there, who had trav- elled in other countries in Europe where people had ships and navies, and he told Peter what great advantages they gained from them, not only in carrying goods from place to place, but in transporting armies, and fighting their enemies at sea. " Peter thought a great deal about this, and when he went back to Moscow, which was then the capital, he inquired and found that there were some people from Holland there. He asked them tf they knew how to build ships. Some of them said they did. Then he asked them if they could not build him some small vessels, just like the Dutch ships of war. They said they could. So he made a bargain with them, and they built him several. 212 Rollo in Holland. The four gun frigates. The emperor's model fleet. " Do you know how many ? " asked Mr. George. "Not exactly," replied Rollo. "There were several small vessels, and I remember that there were four frigates, and each frigate had four guns. I don't suppose the guns were very large." " Four guns is a very small armament for a frigate," said Mr. George. " Yes," replied Rollo, " very small indeed. But you see, Peter did not want them for real service, but only for models, as it were." " And what did he do with them, when they were done ? " asked Mr. George. " They were launched into a lake there was in that part of the country," said Rollo, " and there the emperor used to sail about in them, and have Bham fights. " But all this, you must understand," continued Rollo, " took place two or three years before Peter drove the Turks off from the southern part of his empire, so as to get to the sea. And it was not till then that he began to have real ships built of large size. And now, when he was going to Hol- land, he of course remembered the old Dutch yacht which he had on his pleasure grounds, and the small frigates which they had built him, and the large ones too, which they had built for the boyars, and he felt a great interest in going to see the ship yards. He determined that while he Conclusion. 213 Peter the Great eludes the reception at Amsterdam. was in Holland he would spend as much time as he could in learning all about ship building. " It is very curious about the emperor and his company's entering Amsterdam," continued Rollo. " When the government there heard that he was coming, they made grand preparations to receive him. They got the cannon all ready on the ram- parts to fire salutes, and drew out the soldiers, and all the doors and windows were crowded with spectators. They prepared a great number of illuminations, too, and fireworks, for the night. But just before the party arrived at Amsterdam, the emperor slipped away in a plain dress, and left the ambassadors, and generals, and grandees to go in by themselves. The people of Amster- dam did not know this. They supposed that some one or other of the people dressed so splen- didly, in the procession, was Peter ; and so they shouted, and waved their flags and their hand- kerchiefs, and fired the cannon, and made a great parade generally." " And Peter himself was not there at all ? " said Mr. George. "No," said Rollo. "He slipped away, and came in privately with a few merchants to accom- pany him. And instead of going to the great palace which the government of Amsterdam had provided and fitted up for him, he left that to his 214 Rollo in Holland. Peter's retreat. His ship yards at Saandam. ambassadors, and went himself to a small house, by a ship yard, where he could be at liberty, and go and come when he pleased." " And afterwards, I suppose he went to Saan- dam," said Mr. George. " Yes, sir," replied Rollo. " Saandam was a great place for building ships in those days. They say that while he was there, he went to work regularly, like a ship carpenter, as if he wished to learn the trade himself. But I don't believe he worked a great deal." " No," said Mr. George. " I presume he did not. He probably took the character and dress 3f a workman chiefly for the purpose of making himself more at home in the ship yards and about the wharves. Indeed, I can't see what useful end could be gained by his learning to do work him- self. He could not expect to build ships himself when he should return to Russia." " No," said Rollo. " I expect he wanted to see exactly how the ships were built, and how the yards were managed, and he thought he could do this better if he went among the workmen as one of their number." " I presume so," said Mr. George. " I am very glad you found the book, and I am much obliged to you for all this information." Conclusion. 215 The end of the journey. Entertainments in Amsterdam. Soon after this Mr. George and Hollo arrived safely at Amsterdam. Hollo and Mr. George remained, after this, some days in Amsterdam : and they were very much entertained with what they saw there in the streets, and with the curious manners and customs of the people.