had long curling ends on the runners. The Twins sat down on the floor.
Father Vedder tried on the skates.
"They are still pretty large; but you will grow," he told the Twins.
"You may have them if you will be very careful and not let them get
rusty. By and by we will teach you to skate."
The Twins practiced standing in the skates on the kitchen floor; and,
when bedtime came, they took the skates to bed with them.
"O Kit," said Kat, "I never supposed we'd get them so soon. Did you?"
"Well," said Kit, "you see, we're pretty big and very good. That makes
a difference."
"It's very nice to be good when people notice it, isn't it?" said Kat.
"Yah," said Kit. "I'm going to be good now right along, all the time;
for very soon St. Nicholas will come, and he leaves only a rod in the
shoes of bad children. And if you've been bad, you have to tell him
about it."
"Oh! Oh!" said Kat. "I'm going to be good all the time too. I'm going
to be good until after the feast of St. Nicholas, anyway."
Not many days after Kit and Kat got their skates, there came a cold,
cold wind. It blew over the fields and over the canals all day and all
night long; and in the morning, when the Twins looked out, the canal
was one shining roadway of ice.
Father Vedder came in from the stable with a great pail full of milk.
"Winter is here now, for good and all," he said, as he set the pail
down. "The canals are frozen over, and soon it will be the day for the
feast of St. Nicholas."
Kit and Kat ran to him and said, both together,
"Dear Father Vedder, will you please teach us to skate before St.
Nicholas Day?"
"I'll see if the ice is strong enough to bear," said Father Vedder; and
he went right down to the canal to see, that very minute. When he came
in, he said,
"Yes, the ice is strong; and we will go out as soon as you are ready,
and try your skates."
Vrouw Vedder said, "I should like to go too"; and Father Vedder said to
Kit and Kat,
"Your mother used to be the finest skater in the whole village when she
was a young girl. You must not let her beat you."
They hurried through with their work, Kit and Kat helped. Then they all
put on their heavy shoes and wraps, took their skates over their
shoulders, and started for the canal.
"If you learn to skate well enough, we will take you to town before the
feast of St. Nicholas," said Father Vedder. "But it comes very soon."
He put on his own skates and Kit's, and the mother put on her own and
Kat's.
"I'm sure we can do it almost right away," said Kat.
"Now we'll show you how to skate," said Father Vedder. He stood the
Twins up on the ice. They held each other's hands. They were afraid to
move. Father Vedder took Mother Vedder's hand.
"See," he said, "like this!" And away they went like two swallows,
skimming over the ice. In a minute they were ever so far away.
Kit and Kat felt lonesome, and very queer, when they saw their father
and mother flying along in that way. They weren't used to see them do
anything but work, and move about slowly.
"It looks easy," said Kit. "Let's try it. We must not be afraid."
He started with his right leg, pushing it out a little in front of him.
But it was very strange how his legs acted. They didn't seem to belong
to him at all! His left leg tried to follow his right, just as it ought
to; but, instead, it slid out sidewise and knocked against Kat's
skates. Then both Kat's feet flew up; and she sat down very hard, on
the ice. And Kit came down on top of her.
They tried to get up; but, each time they tried, their feet slid away
from them.
"Oh dear," said Kat, "we are all mixed up! Are those your feet or mine?
I can't tell which is which!"
"They don't any of them mind," said Kit. "I can't stand up on any of
them. I've tried them all! We'll just have to wait until Father and
Mother come back and pick us out."
"Ice is quite cold to sit on, isn't it?" said Kat.
Soon Father and Mother Vedder came skimming back again. When they saw
Kit and Kat, they laughed and skated to them, picked them up, and set
them on their feet.
"Now I'll take Kit, and you take Kat," said Vrouw Vedder to her
husband, "and they'll be skating in no time." So Kat's father took her
hands, and Kit took hold of his mother's, and they started off.
At first the Twins' feet didn't behave well at all. They seemed to want
to do everything they could to bother them. They would sprawl way
apart; then they would toe in and run into each other.
Many times Kit and Kat would have fallen if Father and Mother Vedder
had not held them up; but before the lesson was over, both Kit and Kat
could skate a little bit alone.
"See, this is the way," said Vrouw Vedder; and she skated around in a
circle. Then she cut a figure like this 8 in the ice. Then Father
Vedder did a figure like this S all on one foot.
"My!" said Kit and Kat.
"I think our parents must skate the best of all the people in the
world," said Kat.
"I'm going to some day," said Kit.
"So'm I," said Kat.
After a while Vrouw Vedder said,
"It's time to go home. Not too much the first time." So they all went
back home with their cheeks as red as roses, and their noses too, and
such an appetite for dinner!
But the Twins were a little lame next day.
Every day after that, Kit and Kat went out with their skates to the
ditches and tried and tried to skate as Father and Mother did--they did
so want to skate to town and see the sights before the feast of St.
Nicholas! They worked so hard that in a week they could skate very
well; and then they planned a surprise for their mother.
"If you will watch at the window, you'll see a great sight on the canal
very soon," said Kit to his mother one day.
Of course Vrouw Vedder hadn't the least idea what it would be!
Kit and Kat slipped out through the stable and ran down to the ditch.
They put on their skates and skated from the ditch out to the big canal.
Vrouw Vedder was watching at the window. Soon she saw Kit and Kat go
flying by, hand in hand, on the canal! They waved their hands to her.
Vrouw Vedder was so pleased that she went to call Father Vedder, who
was in the hay-loft over the stable.
"Come and see Kit and Kat," she cried.
Father Vedder came down from the loft and looked too. Then Kit cut a
figure like this, S, and Kat cut one like this, 6. The round spot is
where she sat down hard, just as she was almost around.
When they came into the kitchen Father said,
"I think we could take such a fine pair of skaters as that to the Vink
with us on our way to town! The ice is very hard and thick for so early
in the season, and we will go to-morrow."
"We can see the shops too. St. Nicholas is coming, and the shops are
full of fine things," said Vrouw Vedder.
Kit and Kat could hardly wait for to-morrow to come. They polished
their skates and made everything ready.
"What do you suppose the Vink is?" said Kat to Kit.
"I think it is something like a church," said Kit.
"You don't know what a Vink is, so there," said Kat. "I think it's
something to eat."
Then Kit changed the subject.
"I'll race you to-morrow," he said.
"I'll beat," said Kat.
"We'll see," said Kit.
The next day they started, all four, quite early in the morning: Vrouw
Vedder took her basket on her arm.
"I shall want to buy some things," she said.
Father Vedder lighted his pipe--"To keep my nose warm," he said.
Then they all went down to the canal and put on their skates.
"Kat and I are going to race to the first windmill," said Kit.
"I'll tell you when to start," said Father Vedder.
"And I'll get a cake for the one who wins," said the mother.
"One, two, three!" Away they flew like the wind! Father and Mother
Vedder came close behind.
Kit was so sure he would beat that he thought he would show off a
little. He went zigzag across the canal; once or twice he stopped to
skate in curves.
Kat didn't stop for anything. She kept her eyes on the windmill, and
she skated as hard as she could.
They were getting quite near the mill now. Kit stopped playing and
began to skate as fast as he could. But Kat had got the start of him.
"I'll soon get ahead of her," he thought. "She's a girl, and I'm a
boy." He struck out with great long sweeps, as long as such short legs
could make, but Kat kept ahead; and in another minute there she was at
the windmill, quite out of breath, and pointing her finger at Kit!
"I beat, I beat," she said.
"Well, I could have beaten if I wanted to," said Kit.
"I'll get the cake," said Kat.
"I don't care," said Kit. But Kat knew that he did.
"I'll give you a piece," she said.
Father and Mother Vedder came along then; and when Kit and Kat were
rested, they all skated for a long time without saying anything. Then
Father Vedder said proudly to his wife,
"They keep up as well as anybody! Were there ever such Twins!" And
Mother Vedder said,
"Never!"
By and by other people appeared on the canal--men and women and
children, all skating. They were going to the town to see the sights
too.
One woman skated by with her baby in her arms. One man was smoking a
long pipe, and his wife was carrying a basket of eggs. But the man and
woman were good skaters. They flew along, laughing; and no one could
get near enough to upset them.
As they came nearer to the town, Kit and Kat saw a tent near the place
where one canal opened into another. A man stood near the tent. He put
his hands together and shouted through them to the skaters,
"Come in, come in, and get a drink
Of warm sweet milk on your way to the Vink:"
"We must be getting quite near the Vink," Kat said. "I do wonder what
it looks like. Do you think it's alive?"
They passed another tent. There a man was shouting,
"Come buy a sweet cake; it costs but a cent,
Come buy, come buy, from the man in the tent."
Vrouw Vedder said,
"I promised a cake to the one who beat in the race. We'll go in here
and get it."
So they went to the tent.
They bought two cakes, and each ate half of one. Kat broke the cakes
and gave them to the others, because she won the race.
When they had eaten the cakes, they skated on. The canals grew more and
more crowded. There were a good many tents; flags were flying, and the
whole place was very gay.
At last they saw a big building, with crowds of merry skaters about it.
Many people were going in and out.
"There's the Vink," said Father Vedder.
"Where?" said Kit and Kat.
He pointed to the building.
"Oh!" said Kit. He never said another word about what they had thought
it was like.
Soon they were inside the Vink. It was a large restaurant. There were
many little tables about, crowded with people, eating and drinking.
Father Vedder found a table, and they all sat down.
"Bring us some pea soup," he said to the waiter. Soon they were eating
the hot soup.
"This is the best thing I ever had," said Kit.
When they had eaten their soup; they went out of the building and
walked through the streets of the town. All the shops were filled with
pretty things. The bake shops had wonderful cakes with little candies
on top, and there were great cakes made like St. Nicholas himself in
his long robes.
Kit and Kat flattened their noses against all the shop windows, and
looked at the toys and cakes.
"I wish St. Nicholas would bring me that," said kit, pointing to a very
large St. Nicholas cake.
"And I want some of those," Kat said, pointing to some cakes made in
the shapes of birds and fish.
Vrouw Vedder had gone with her basket on an errand. Father Vedder and
Kit and Kat walked slowly along, waiting for her. Soon there was a
great noise up the street. There were shouts, and the clatter of wooden
shoes.
"Look! Look!" cried Kit.
There, in the midst of the crowd, was a great white horse; and riding
on it was the good St. Nicholas himself! He had a long white beard and
red cheeks, and long robes, with a mitre on his head; and he smiled at
the children, who crowded around him and followed him in a noisy
procession down the street.
Behind St. Nicholas came a cart, filled with packages of all sizes. The
children were all shouting at once, "Give me a cake, good St.
Nicholas!" or, "Give me a new pair of shoes!" or whatever each one
wanted most.
"Where is he going?" asked Kit and Kat.
"He's carrying presents to houses where there are good girls and boys,"
Father Vedder said. "For bad children, there is only a rod in the shoe."
"I'm glad we're so good," said Kit.
"When will he come to our house?" asked Kat.
"Not until to-morrow," said Father Vedder. "But you must fill your
wooden shoes with beans or hay for his good horse, to-night; and then
perhaps he will come down the chimney and leave something in them. It's
worth trying."
Kit and Kat were in a hurry to get home, for fear the Saint would get
there first.
It was growing late, so they all went to a waffle shop for their supper.
In the shop a woman sat before an open fire. On the fire was a big
waffle iron. She made the waffles, put sugar and butter on them, and
passed a plate of them to each one. Oh, how good they were!
When they had eaten their waffles, Father and Mother Vedder and the
Twins went back to the canal and put on their skates. It was late in
the afternoon. They took hold of hands and began to skate toward home,
four in a row. Father and Mother Vedder were on the outside, and the
Twins in the middle.
It was dark when they reached home. Vrouw Vedder lighted the fire,
while Father Vedder went to feed the cow and see that the chickens and
ducks and geese were all safe for the night.
Kit and Kat ran for their wooden shoes. They each took one and put some
hay in it. This was for St. Nicholas to give to his horse. Father
Vedder put the shoes on the mantel. Then they hurried to bed to make
morning come quicker.
Father and Mother Vedder sat up late that night. Mother Vedder said it
was to prepare the goose for dinner the next day.
When the Twins woke the next morning, the fire was already roaring up
the chimney, and the kitchen was warm as toast. They hopped out of bed
and ran for their wooden shoes. Mother Vedder reached up to the mantel
shelf for them. Truly, the hay was gone and there in each shoe was a
package done up in paper!
"Oh, he did come! He did come!" cried Kat. "O Mother, you're sure you
didn't build the fire before he had got out of the chimney?"
"I'm sure," said Vrouw Vedder. "I've made the fire on many a St.
Nicholas morning, and I've never burned him yet!"
The Twins climbed up the steps to their cupboard bed and sat on the
edge of it to open their packages. In Kit's was a big St. Nicholas
cake, like the one in the shop window! And in Kat's were three cakes
like birds, and two like fish!
"Just what we wanted!" said Kit and Kat. "Do you suppose he heard us
say so?"
"St. Nicholas can hear what people think," said Vrouw Vedder. "He is
coming to see you to-night at six o'clock, and you must be ready to
sing him a little song and answer any questions he asks you."
"How glad I am that we are so good!" said Kat.
"We'll see what the Saint thinks about that," said the mother. "Now get
dressed; for Grandfather and Grandmother will be here for dinner, and
we're going to have roast goose, and there's a great deal to do."
Kit and Kat set their beautiful cakes up where they could see them
while they dressed.
"I do wish every day were St. Nicholas Day," said Kit.
"Or the day before," said Kat. "That was such a nice day!"
"All the days are nice days, I think," said Kit.
"I don't think the dog-cart day was so very nice," said Kat. "We tore
our best clothes, and they'll never, never be so nice again. That was
because you didn't mind!"
"Well," said Kit, "I minded as much as I could. How can I mind two
things at one time? You know how well I can think! You know how I
thought about Vrouw Van der Kloot's cakes. But I can't think how I can
mind twice at one time."
"I don't suppose you can," said Kat. "But anyway, I'm sorry about my
dress."
Just then Vrouw Vedder called them to come and eat their breakfast.
Father and Mother Vedder sat down at the little round table and bowed
their heads. Kit and Kat stood up. Father Vedder said grace; and then
they ate their salt herring and drank their coffee; and Kit and Kat had
coffee too, because it was St. Nicholas morning.
It was snowing when, after breakfast, Kit went out with his father to
feed the chickens and the pigs, and to see that the cow had something
very good that she liked to eat. When they had done that, they called
Kat; and she helped throw out some grain on the white snow, so the
birds could have a feast, too.
It snowed all day. Kit and Kat both helped their mother get the dinner.
They got the cabbage and the onions and the potatoes ready; and when
the goose was hung upon the fire to roast, they watched it and kept it
spinning around on the spit, so it would brown evenly.
By and by the kitchen was all in order, and you can't think how clean
and homelike it looked! The brasses all around the room had little
flames dancing in them, because they were so bright and shiny.
Everything was ready for the St. Nicholas feast. The goose was nearly
roasted, and there was such a good smell of it in the air!
After a while there was a great stamping of feet at the door; and Vrouw
Vedder ran with the broom to brush the snow off Grandfather and
Grandmother, who had skated all the way from town, on the canal. When
they were warmed and dried, and all their wraps put away, Grandfather
and Grandmother Winkle looked around the pleasant kitchen; and
Grandmother said to Grandfather,
"Our Neltje is certainly a good house-wife." Neltje was Vrouw Vedder.
And Grandfather said,
"There's only one better one, my dear." He meant Grandmother Winkle.
By and by they all sat down to dinner, and I can't begin to tell you
how good it was! It makes one hungry just to think of it. They had
roast goose and onions and turnips and cabbage. They had bread and
butter, and cheese, and sweet cakes.
"Everything except the flour in the bread, we raised ourselves," said
Vrouw Vedder. "The hens gave us the eggs; and the cow, the butter. The
Twins helped Father and me to take care of the chickens, and to milk
the cow, and to make the butter; so it is our very own St. Nicholas
feast that we are eating."
"A farmer's life is the best life there is," said Father Vedder.
They sat a long time at the table; and Grandfather told stories about
when he was a boy; and Father Vedder told how Kit and Kat learned to
skate; and Kit and Kat told how they saw St. Nicholas riding on a white
horse, and how he sent them the very things they wanted; and they all
enjoyed themselves very much.
After dinner, Grandmother Winkle sat down in the chimney corner and
called Kit and Kat.
"Come here," she said, "and I'll tell you some stories about St.
Nicholas."
The Twins brought two little stools and sat beside her, one on each
side. She took out her knitting; and as the needles clicked in her
fingers, she told this story:
"Once upon a time, many years ago, three little brothers went out one
day to the woods to gather fagots. They were just about as big as you
are, Kit and Kat."
"Were they all three, twins?" asked Kat.
"The story doesn't tell about that," said Grandmother Winkle; "but
maybe they were. At any rate, they all got lost in the woods and
wandered ever so far, trying to find their way home. But instead of
finding their way home, they just got more and more lost all the time.
They were very tired and hungry; but, as they were brave boys, not one
of them cried."
"It's lucky that none of those twins were girls," said Kit.
"I've even heard of boy twins that cried, when dog carts ran away, or
something of that kind happened," said Grandmother Winkle. "But you
shouldn't interrupt; it's not polite."
"Oh!" said Kit very meekly.
"Well, as I was saying, they were very lost indeed. Night was coming
on; and they were just thinking that they must lie down on the ground
to sleep, when one of them saw a light shining through the leaves. He
pointed it out to the others; and they walked along toward it,
stumbling over roots and stones as they went, for it was now quite dark.
"As they came nearer, they saw that the light came from the window of a
poor little hut on the edge of a clearing.
"They went to the door and knocked. The door was opened by a dirty old
woman, who lived in the hut with her husband, who was a farmer.
"The boys told the old woman that they had lost their way, and asked
her if she could give them a place to sleep. She spoke to her husband,
who sat crouched over a little fire in the corner; and he told her to
give them a bed in the loft.
"The three boys climbed the little ladder into the loft and lay down on
the hay. They were so tired that they fell asleep at once. The old man
and his wife whispered about them over their bit of fire.
"'They are fine-looking boys; and well dressed,' said the old woman.
"'Yes,' said the old man, 'and I have no doubt they have plenty of
money about them.'
"'Do you really think so?' said the wife.
"'I think I'll find out,' said the wicked farmer. So he climbed up to
the loft and killed the three boys. Then he looked in their pockets for
money; but there was no money there.
"He was very angry. And he was very much afraid, wicked people are
always afraid."
"Are all afraid people wicked?" asked Kat. She wished very much that
she were brave.
"M-m-m, well, not always," said Grandmother Winkle.
"The wicked farmer was so afraid that he wanted to put the bodies of
the three boys where no one would find them. So he carried them down
cellar and put them into the pickle tub with his pork."
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed Kat, and she put her hands over her ears. Even
Kit's eyes were very round and big. But Grandmother said,
"Now, don't you be scared until I get to the end of the story. Didn't I
tell you it was all about St. Nicholas? You wait and see what happened!
"That very same day the wicked farmer went to market with some
vegetables to sell. As he was sitting in the market, St. Nicholas
appeared, before him. He had on his mitre and his long robes, just as
you see him in Kit's cake.
"Have you any pork to sell?" St. Nicholas asked the man.
"No," said the farmer.
"What of the three young pigs in your brine tub in the cellar?" said
St. Nicholas.
The farmer saw that his wicked deed was found out, as all wicked deeds
are, sooner or later. He fell on his knees and begged the good Saint to
forgive him.
St. Nicholas said, "Show me the way to your house."
The farmer left his vegetables unsold in the market and went home at
once, the Saint following all the way.
When they reached the hut, St. Nicholas went to the pickled-pork tub in
the cellar. He waved his staff over the tub, and out jumped the three
boys, hearty and well! Then the good Saint took them through the woods
and left them in sight of their own home.
"Oh, what a good St. Nicholas!" said Kit and Kat. "Tell us another."
"Well," said Grandmother Winkle, "once upon another time there was a
very mean man, who had a great deal of money, that often happens. He
had, also, three beautiful daughters, that sometimes happens too."
"One day he lost all his money. Now, he cared more for money than for
anything else in the world more, even, than for his three beautiful
daughters. So he made up his mind to sell them!"
"St. Nicholas knew of this wicked plan; so that very night he went to
the man's house and dropped some money through a broken window."
"Why did he do that?" asked Kat.
Because the man was selling his daughters to get money. If he had money
enough, he wouldn't sell them.
The first night St. Nicholas dropped enough money to pay for the eldest
daughter. The next night he took a purse of gold for the second
daughter, and dropped it down the chimney. It fell down right in front
of the man, as he was getting a coal to light his pipe. The third night
the man watched; and when St. Nicholas came, the door flew open, and
the man ran out. He caught St. Nicholas by his long robe and held him.
"O St. Nicholas, Servant of the Lord," he said, "why dost thou hide thy
good deeds?"
And from that time on, every one has known it is St. Nicholas who
brings gifts in the night and drops them down the chimney.
"Did the man sell his daughter?" asked Kat.
"No," said Grandmother. "He was so ashamed of himself that he wasn't
wicked any more."
"Does St. Nicholas give everybody presents so they will be good?" asked
Kat.
"Yes," said Grandmother; "that's why bad children get only a rod in
their shoes."
"He gave the bad man nice presents to make him good," said Kit. "Why
doesn't he give bad children nice things to make them good too?"
Grandmother Winkle knitted for a minute without speaking. Then she said,
"I guess he thinks that the rod is the present that will make them good
in the shortest time."
The clock had been ticking steadily along while Grandmother had been
telling stories, and it was now late in the afternoon. The sky was all
red in the west; there were long, long shadows across the snowy fields,
and the corners of the kitchen were quite dark.