How would you like to go to Holland with me to visit the little Dutch
children?
First we must go to New York City in a railroad train and then get on
board of one of the big ships that cross the ocean.
We shall have to travel over the water five or six days and nights in
this big ship, and then ride a long way, after we come to land.
When the Pilgrims came to this country, nearly three hundred years ago,
they crossed the same ocean, but it took them many weeks. They were in
a small sailing vessel, and had to come very slowly.
On board of this big ship you will find a great many things to do
and see. There are several hundred people on the vessel, and it is
interesting to watch them. There are books to read, and games to play,
and the days will go very swiftly.
Most of the time you will not be able to see land in any direction.
All you can see is the sun and the sky and the ocean with big waves
rolling and tossing about.
I wonder what you will notice the very first thing when you reach
Holland.
[Illustration]
Perhaps you will see a group of children running down the street with
their wooden shoes clacking on the stone walks.
Or perhaps you will see some girls standing at a corner knitting
stockings, or a boy driving a dog harnessed to a little cart.
If you take a train and ride through the country you will see many
strange things.
There are big windmills everywhere, with long arms, and sails to catch
the wind. These mills turn wheels to pump water and grind corn and saw
wood. In Holland there are no rivers with falls and swift currents to
turn the mill wheels.
In some towns there are canals instead of streets, with bridges for the
people to cross from one side to the other.
In summer there are many boats going up and down the canals, but in
winter the water in the canals freezes, and then everybody skates.
Think what fun it must be to skate to church, to skate to market, to
skate to school, and then skate home again!
A great many of the poor children in Holland wear wooden shoes when
they are out of doors. When they go into the house they take off their
shoes and leave them at the door. You can tell, by counting the pairs
of shoes at the door, how many children there are in the house.
Every week the children scrub their wooden shoes with soap and water
until they are almost as white as snow; then they dry them in the sun,
or before the fire in the big open fireplace.
These wooden shoes make fine boats, and sometimes the boys take them
off and sail them in the canals. The little girls use them for doll
carriages, or play they are beds, and tuck their dolls into them for a
nap.
If you were walking down a village street in Holland you might see a
red silk ball, or a pink silk one, hanging at the front door of one
of the houses. This is to show that there is a little new baby in the
house. If the ball is red, the baby is a boy; if it is pink, the baby
is a girl.
There are very good schools in Holland, and all the children go to
school and learn to read and write and sing, just as you do. But their
reading and singing would sound very strange to you, and you could not
read one word of their writing.
The Dutch children have vacations and holidays, of course. The holiday
they like best of all is Santa Claus Day. It comes on the sixth day of
December, and is very much like our Christmas Day.
The boys and girls put their wooden shoes in front of the fireplace,
on the hearth, just as you hang your stocking near the chimney, and
Santa Claus rides over the roofs of the houses on a big horse and drops
presents down the chimney into the little shoes.
* * * * *
How would you go from your home to New York City? How long would it
take?
What would you like to see in Holland?
What would you see that you never saw before?
Why do the people in Holland build windmills?
What kind of shoes do many of the children wear?
What season would you like best if you were in Holland? Why?