AN EXCURSION.
"One, two, three,--five of you going with me to Saardam!" cried
Christian, as he saw Heins and the pastor follow the children and
Katrina into the boat: the children who, in Mr. Slyk's absence, had
prevailed on their mother's good nature to let them go with their
brothers. "And Mr. Visscher is coming before the afternoon. What a party
to belong to me!"
It was very natural that Christian should overrate his own importance,
passing his life, as he did, in a little circle where every one was
eager to give him pleasure: but never was he more mistaken than in
supposing that he was any thing more than a convenient pretence to some
of his friends for visiting Saardam. There was an attraction there which
would have taken two of them thither every day, if as good an excuse had
offered as that of which they now took advantage. Heins felt that at
Saardam resided one who would make as perfect a wife for a rich
Amsterdam merchant as could be imagined, if she had but a little more
gaiety. She was pretty; she was amiable; she was rich; and she and his
mother would suit admirably; and the children were fond of her. The
pastor's feelings about Gertrude are less easily described; but they
tended to the same object as those of Heins. These two were aware of
each other's intentions; but there was as little enmity in their
rivalship as there was present satisfaction in their pursuit. Aymond was
perfectly convinced that Gertrude could never love Heins; but he was
nearly as certain that she did not yet love himself: and Heins found
that he made no progress in the lady's good graces, while he trusted
that his friendly hints to her brother would prevent her throwing
herself away upon a poor refugee minister of religion, whose tender
conscience had already led him into adversity, and who could therefore
never be trusted to keep out of it in future.
"What a party of you to take care of me!" repeated Christian, in great
glee, when he began to enjoy the easy motion of the boat, and to
perceive that his deadly enemy, the fog, was clearing away before the
bright June sunshine. "Look, pastor, look at Amsterdam! Is there a city
in the world like Amsterdam, I wonder? How the spires, and the highest
houses stand up out of the mist, like a little city floating in the air,
or sailing in a cloud. O, Heins!--Kaatje, do ask Heins which bells those
are. I am sure I never heard such sweet bells before."
They were the bells of St. Nicholas Church, which Christian heard almost
every day of his life. Christian would hardly believe they were the
same.
"They clatter and jangle so as to make my head ache very often; but
these might send one to sleep, if it were not much pleasanter to lie
awake and listen to them.--Everything is light coloured here to what it
is at home,--as if silver had been shed over it. The sky is not bright
blue, as it is between the limes, but grey; and the water gleams as if
the moon was hanging just over it; and it is not muddy under the boat as
it is below our bridge; and I dare say there is never any bad smell, and
nobody need be afraid of ague. I wish we could stop, that I might fish.
There must be plenty of fine fish in such water as this."
When reminded of Saardam dock-yards, however, he had no further wish for
delay. From this moment to the time of landing, Katrina's good-nature
was taxed to turn him incessantly, that he might see, now the forest of
masts at Amsterdam, and the dark hulls resting upon the grey water, and
then the gaily-painted wooden houses of Saardam, with their pointed
gables turned some one way and some another, each with its weather-cock;
and all looking like baby-houses amidst the vast piles of timber from
which the dock-yards were supplied.
Christian's delight was in no wise diminished when he was established on
his couch at the promised window, whence he could overlook one of the
busiest parts of the dock-yard. He had no attention to spare for the
tidings of wonder which Roselyn brought, from one quarter of an hour to
another, when she had fairly gained her point of being allowed to find
her way about as she pleased. Now she drew near to whisper that she was
sure there was to be a very good dinner, as twice the quantity of turf
was burning in the kitchen that was ever used at home, and such a number
of bright pots upon the fire that it was inconceivable what could be in
them. She had tried to find out, but they were all close covered, and
the servants were so busy and so quiet that she was afraid to ask.
Better wait and see, Christian pronounced; so off ran Roselyn in another
direction, whence she soon returned with more wonders. The
garden,--Christian must see the garden. It was little larger than the
room he was sitting in; but it had walks, and grottos, and a rivulet;
and the rivulet had a paved bed of pebbles, and the walks were made of
cockle-shells, and the borders of red and blue and green glass; and the
wall which enclosed the whole, was chequered with blue and white bricks.
Moreover, there was a better garden some way off, with tulips as fine as
could be seen any where within five leagues of Amsterdam. Fond of tulips
and good dinners as Christian was, all this interested him less than
what was passing before his eyes. He wanted to be left in peace to make
his observations, till his beloved Gertrude could come and answer his
questions.
When she appeared, Heins was at her heels. He could never understand
that it was disagreeable to her to be followed, which ever way she
turned; and attributed her gravity of countenance to the religious bent
she had taken, which was a most desirable quality in a wife. Christian
wished, with all his heart, that Heins would keep away, that Gertrude
and he might be as happy together as they always were when there was no
one by to whom she curtsied and spoke with formality.
"Does not this hammering tire you?" she asked.
"You had better let me carry you into the inner room," said Heins. "It
is as quiet there as on the water."
"O, no, no," cried Christian. "I have not seen half that I want; and I
am very glad that they are at work so nearly under the window, because I
can watch what they are doing. They were hauling up that great beam when
I came, and now look how nicely they have fitted it into its place. But
I want to know who some of these people are. You see that short man,
smoking, with the rule in his hand, and a great roll of papers peeping
out of his breeches pocket."
"Yes; that is a master-builder. You will see that he is never long out
of sight of his men."
"You might have known him for the master-builder, and these shipwrights
for his men," observed Heins.
"I guessed who he was: but there is another who looks something like a
master too, though he is dressed like a sailor. He is a very idle man, I
think. He has stood there all this time, with his arms folded, making
the men laugh, and the master too, sometimes. Once he took up a mallet
that another man had laid down; and a strong blow he gave with it: but
he soon left off, and the master did not seem to scold him at all."
"Nobody scolds Master Peter. Nobody asks him to do more work than he
likes; but he does a great deal; and hard work too. He likes joking
quite as well as working; and these men are fond of having him among
them, for he lightens their labour, and is very good-natured."
This hint was enough for Luc, who came into the apartment just in time
to hear it. He found his way to another window which also looked into
the yard, and began to call, at first cautiously, and then more loudly,
"Master Peter! Master Peter!"
Master Peter did not hear till the party at the window heard also; and
when he turned, Gertrude was leaning out to ascertain which of her
household was making overtures of acquaintance. Luc's head had already
disappeared; so that Master Peter could not but suppose that it was
Gertrude who had greeted him. He laid his hand on his breast, and, with
a gesture of courtesy, advanced directly beneath the window. The lady
explained that some young visitors had made free with his good-nature;
and he immediately asked if they would like to come down and view the
dock-yard. At the close of his speech, he turned to the master, as if
suddenly recollecting that he ought to ask permission to admit visitors.
The master exerted himself to intermit his puffs of smoke, while he
desired Master Peter to do as he chose.
"O, let me go! let me go!" cried Christian, in answer to Heins's doubts
whether it would not be causing too much trouble to gratify the boy's
wish.
Gertrude soon settled the affair by taking hold of one side of
Christian's little chair, and making Katrina take the other. She would
not relinquish her grasp in favour of Heins, who followed her out,
officiously pressing his help; she reserved that favour for Master
Peter, who met the party at the gate of the yard, and immediately seeing
the state of the case, took the boy in his arms, and promised to show
him whatever he wished to see. Those who knew Christian thought this a
large promise; and Heins was very instructive as to the degree in which
it should be accepted.
The boy himself, as he looked around him, scarcely knew where and how to
begin his inquiries. Vessels in every stage of progress, from the
bare-ribbed skeleton to the full-rigged merchant ship, ready for
launching, met his eye in every direction. The carpenters' yards
resounded with the blows of the mallet; the rope-walks looked tempting;
and he also wanted to be carried among the stacks of timber which seemed
to him too huge to have been piled up by human strength.
"Where can all this wood have come from?" was his natural exclamation.
"Some of it came from my country," replied Master Peter. "You see that
pile of tall pine-trees laid one upon another as high as the
Stadt-house. Those are masts for the ships we are building; and they
come out of the woods of my country. They came as part of a cargo, and
some of them will go back as part of a ship that carries a cargo."
"And where will it go next?"
"It will come back again with hemp to make such ropes as those, and
pitch and tar to smear the timbers with, and canvass for the sails, and
many things besides that your people want for use, and your merchants
for sale,--tallow, and oils, and hides, and furs."
"But do not you want the hemp, and pitch, and canvass for your own
ships? Or have you enough for both yourselves and us?"
Master Peter was sorry to say that very few ships had yet been built in
his country. He hoped there would soon be more. But his countrymen must
still manage to have enough of the produce of their woods and wilds for
themselves and the Dutch, as they could not do without many things which
the Dutch merchants were accustomed to bring them in exchange; silks and
jewels, for the ladies; wine, spice, and fruit, for their tables: gold
and silver to make money of; and pewter vessels and steel utensils for
their kitchens."
"But you can fetch these things for yourselves when you have ships,"
argued Christian.
"We can fetch them, but we must have something ready to give in payment
for them."
Heins disputed whether any other country could compete with the United
Provinces in fetching commodities from all parts of the globe. He
treated with solemn ridicule Master Peter's hopes of what might be
achieved by fleets which were not yet in existence, and pointed out,
with a very insulting air of superiority, the resources of his own
country.--To say nothing of the half-finished navy which was before
their eyes, there was a forest of masts just within sight, which he
defied any port in the world to rival. There were ships of his own and
his partner's bringing iron, copper, and the materials of war from
Sweden and Norway; grain and flax-seed from the Baltic; books, wines,
and timber from Germany; coal from England; spice, fruits, and cottons
from the regions of the east; and gold and silver from the west.
All very true, Master Peter allowed; but all this need not prevent his
country from fetching and carrying as much as she could, whether it
might prove more convenient to furnish herself with all that she wanted
from the ports of Holland, or to go round the world to purchase each
commodity in its native region. In answer to Heins's boast of the
commerce of the United Provinces, Peter begged to remind him that it was
now past its greatest glory. It had perceptibly declined for more than
twenty years.--Heins insisted that the shipping of the United Provinces
nearly equalled that of the whole of the rest of Europe.--True again;
but it was pretty certain that Dutch prosperity would not advance much
beyond the point it had now reached, while that of other countries might
rapidly overtake it. The Dutch had so much wealth that they now found
difficulty in making profitable use of it in their own country; and by
lending it to foreigners, they helped those foreigners to become rivals
to themselves. Such was the result of Master Peter's observation in the
course of his travels,--travels which he hoped to extend to England,
where he might chance to meet Dutch capital in another form. He
understood that the Dutch had not only deposited forty millions of their
wealth in the English funds, but had lent large sums to individuals;
thus investing money in a rival country for the sake of the higher
interest which could be obtained there.
Christian thought this very unpatriotic. If it was true, also, as he had
been told by his mother, that Heins and Mr. Vanderput sold no goods
abroad, but brought a great many to sell at home, he thought the firm
very wrong indeed. If they chose to spend Dutch money in the countries
of their rivals and their enemies, they ought at least to take care that
their rivals spent as much money among them.
Heins replied that this was the concern of the exporting merchants who
had the use of the ships to carry out Dutch produce, which were to
return with foreign commodities.
"You should look well to them," persisted Christian; "for I do not
believe they bring in half so much money as you send out. I never see
such a thing as a Spanish dollar, or an English guinea, unless a
traveller has come to Amsterdam to spend it; and how we have so many
ducats, and guilders, and stivers left, after the number you send away,
is more than I can tell."
Heins replied mysteriously that his partner and he seldom sent away any
money; which made Christian very angry, certain as he was of what his
mother had told him of Heins being an importing merchant.
"How can you tease the boy?" inquired Master Peter. And he asked
Christian if he really supposed that everything that was bought, all the
world over, was bought with gold and silver? If he would only consider
the quantity of coin that would have been collected in the States by
this time if all their produce had been thus paid for, he would see how
troublesome such a method of commerce would be.
But some of this money would go away again, Christian observed, as long
as the States bought as well as sold. However, he perceived that while
there was mutual exchange, it must save much trouble to exchange the
goods against one another, as far as they would go, and pay only the
balance in money. But this balance, when large, must be a very sad thing
for the country that had to pay it.
"Do you think the country would become liable to pay it," asked Master
Peter, "if it had no advantage in return? Do you think your brother
would run up heavy bills with the French wine-growers, if he did not
hope to make profit of their wines? When my country has as many ships as
I wish her to have, I shall encourage my merchants to--I mean, I hope my
countrymen will--make very large purchases from foreign countries."
"But if Heins sends away a ship load of guilders," remonstrated
Christian, "the States will be so much the poorer, however much wine may
come in return; because the wine will be drunk in Amsterdam, and paid
for with more guilders. And then Heins will send out these guilders
again, I suppose, and not care how little money there is left in the
country, so long as his own pocket is filled."
Heins smiled condescendingly, and promised Christian that when he grew
older he should know better what he was talking about. How should the
boy know better, unless his questions were answered? asked Gertrude, who
came with Katrina to relieve Master Peter of his charge. But the
good-natured sailor took his seat on a piece of timber, saying that the
little man should have his questions properly attended to;--questions
the very same as had been asked by many a taller, if not a wiser man.
Christian did not like to be called "little man," but forgave the
expression in consideration of his questions being thought manly. Peter
told him that many kings having feared for their kingdoms what Christian
feared for the States,--that they would be emptied of money,--had passed
laws to prohibit money being sent out of the country. They had not
remembered, any more than Christian, that other countries must buy also;
so that Heins's neighbours would be taking money from abroad, while
Heins was sending it out,--supposing that it actually went in the shape
of guilders.
"But how do we know that they will buy?" asked Christian. "If they do
not choose to buy--what then?"
"They always do choose it, and must choose it, since they cannot get
what they want in any other way. The people in the mine-countries,--in
South America,--have more gold and silver than they know what to do
with; and no linen, no cloth, no knives and pots and kettles, no one of
many articles that they consider necessary to their comfort. Now, would
not it be very foolish in their governors to prevent their sending out
their spare gold in exchange for what they must otherwise do without?"
Yes: but Christian thought the case of mining countries peculiar. No
where else, he supposed, was precious metal superabundant. If it were
indeed,----But perhaps the truest sign of there being too much of it was
the wish of the people to send it away. What would Master Peter do if he
was a ruler?
Master Peter's nation being in great want of gold and silver, he should
wish his people to send out as much tallow and timber as they could
sell; but if he ruled in Holland, where there was more precious metal
than was wanted, he would encourage the Dutch to send out velvets and
brandy, for the sake of bringing back, not money, but wealth in some
more useful form. In either case, it would be for the sake of what was
brought back that he should be anxious to have the produce of the
country exported.
Of course, Christian observed, there could be little good in sending
property away unless for the sake of what it brought back. He, for his
part, should have no particular wish to dispose of his show-box at the
next fair, if he was to have only an apple in exchange; but he should be
glad to sell it for the model of a ship which he much desired to have.
In the latter case, he should be much pleased; but his pleasure would
be, not in parting with his show-box, but in gaining the model.
"Well, my dear boy," said Heins, "that will do. We are not children who
want to have every thing explained by a wise little man like you."
"Those kings were not children that Master Peter was speaking of,"
observed Christian; "and yet they seemed to want to have it explained
that they might as well part with their gold as with anything else,
since the thing that signified most was whether they got anything better
in exchange."
"You have quite changed your opinion," said Gertrude. "An hour ago, you
thought it a very sad thing to part with gold."
"Yes; because I thought gold was somehow more valuable than anything
else; that it had a value of its own. But, if there is any one country
where gold is of little use, it seems as if it was much like other
goods;--fit to be changed away when one has too much of it, and got back
again when one wants it."
"Then it is time," said Gertrude, "that merchants, and those who rule
them, should leave off being very glad when money is imported rather
than goods, and very sorry when it is exported."
"They may feel sure," Heins observed, "that they will soon have an
opportunity of getting more money, if they want it. No one thing is
bought and sold so often as money; and they may be as confident that
some will soon fall in their way as that there would always be blue
cloth in the market, if every trader in the world bought and sold blue
cloth."
Christian saw yet another consequence from what Master Peter had told
him. If gold was very cheap in Peru and very dear in Russia, and if furs
and hemp were very cheap in Russia and very dear in Peru, it would do as
much good to the one country as to the other to exchange them, while it
could do nobody any harm. At this grand discovery the boy was so
delighted that he ran the risk of bringing on his pain by the start
which he made to put his face opposite to Master Peter's. It was very
mortifying to hear once more Heins's compassionate laugh, while he asked
whether everybody did not know this before. Did not his mother send
abroad the butter which it cost very little to make at the farm, and
cause her household to eat salt butter of foreign preparation?
"I never could make that out; and Kaatje never could tell me," exclaimed
Christian. "We none of us like the salt butter so well; and it costs
more to buy than our own fresh butter to make; and yet we must all eat
salt butter."
"Because my mother can sell every kop of her butter abroad for more than
she pays for the best salt butter that is brought in. You know there is
no butter to equal the Dutch."
"Nor anything else, by your own account, Mr. Heins," replied Master
Peter, laughing. "There is nothing to be found abroad equal to what you
have at home. A pretty honest boast this for a large importer! What say
you to your corn?"
"That our difficulty in producing it has proved the loftiness of Dutch
genius, and the abundance of Dutch resources. Nature has placed us in a
barren district, where we have not the less multiplied and prospered,
through our own talents and virtues, by which we have been supplied from
abroad with that which Providence had forbidden to us."
"If Providence forbade us to have corn," said Christian aside to
Gertrude, "how is it that we have corn? It seems to me that it is very
like Providence's having made the Eddystone Rock a dangerous place. Men
have been reminded to make it a useful beacon; and our people at home
have been obliged to begin a trade in corn; which trade has made them
rich; so that they are better off, perhaps, than if they had had the
most fertile fields in the world."
Gertrude smiled, and said she believed this was the method by which
Providence taught men to help one another, and showed them how. After
this, Christian heard no more of the argument going on about the extent
to which the Dutch traders had successfully carried their principles of
exporting goods that were cheap, and importing those which were dear. He
was pondering the uses of adversity,--of the few kinds of adversity
which had particularly struck him.--What was there in the storms of the
Zee,--what was there in the clay soil of Luc's garden, where no
hyacinths would grow,--what was there in the French king's ravaging
wars,--what was there in his own horrible pain, to show men how to help
one another? In his own case, one side of the question was easily
answered. At this moment, while his weary head was resting on Master
Peter's breast, wondering at the depth of voice which vibrated from
within, he felt that his infirmities allured the wise and the strong to
help and comfort him; but how wars stimulated men to aid as well as
destroy one another--much more, how he could be of service to any body,
were subjects for much deeper meditation. Just when he had an impression
that he had arrived near the solution, he unconsciously lost the thread
of his argument; and when his companions, some time afterwards, would
have asked his opinion of what was last said, they found that he was
happily asleep on the bosom of his new friend.
The hut in which Master Peter had taken up his abode being just at hand,
he insisted on laying the boy on his own bed, while he took his frugal
workman's meal. Gertrude, who said she could see the dock-yards any day
of her life, remained with Christian, while her guests continued their
survey of the curiosities of the place.
When they returned to the house to dinner, they found that the other
expected guest, Aalbert Visscher, had arrived, and was making himself
very agreeable to Christian;--probably more so than to Gertrude; since
his discourse was of pleasures whose number and variety could scarcely
be approved by such steady and self-denying persons as the Vanderputs.
Gay were the tales of the snipe-shooting and skaiting of last winter; of
the sailing and fishing matches of the spring; and of the wagers of
fancy pipes and rare tobacco which yet remained to be decided by the
arrival or non-arrival of expected ships by a certain day. Gertrude rose
and offered to show Christian the curious time-piece he had inquired
for;--the time-piece whose hours were struck on porcelain cups by a
silver hammer. It was almost the first time Gertrude was ever known to
break voluntarily the modest silence of a Dutchwoman in company; much
more to interrupt the conversation of another; and Christian looked up
surprised.
"My poor boy," exclaimed Aalbert, "I beg your pardon. I only thought of
amusing you, and I am afraid I have hurt you."
"O, because I cannot shoot and skait and swim? It does not hurt me,
indeed, or I am sure I should be very unhappy; for I hear of something
every day that I shall never be able to do."
"Christian likes to hear of other people's pleasures, whether he can
join in them or not," observed Gertrude. "But he can lay wagers, and may
be all the more easily tempted to do so from having fewer amusements
than you, Mr. Visscher."
"And you do not approve of laying wagers, my sober lady," replied
Aalbert.
"It is God who appoints the winds, and makes a path in the deep waters
for the blessings he brings us," replied Gertrude; "and I think it
scarcely becomes us to sport with the uncertainty with which He is
pleased to try our faith, and make matter for gambling of His secret
counsels."
The pastor enforced the impiety. Vanderput thought all gambling vicious;
and Heins proved to Christian that in him it would be peculiarly
atrocious, since, as he could never hope to earn any money, his
speculations must be at the risk of others. Christian ingenuously
admitted all this, but was not the less in a hurry to ask for more tales
of adventure from the gay bill-broker, as soon as the pastor's long
grace was over. Nothing more was said of wagers; nor was it necessary,
so ample were Aalbert's other resources of amusement,--or, as the pastor
expressed it, of dissipation. Aymond's countenance wore a deeper gravity
every moment as he saw the eagerness with which the children listened,
the indolent satisfaction with which Vanderput let his guests be thus
entertained, and the interest with which even Gertrude appeared to be
beguiled. Heins also perceived this interest; and thought it time to be
exerting himself to rival it. He took advantage of every long puff with
which his adversary regaled himself, to draw attention upon his own
gaieties. For every wild-duck, he had a story of a tulip; for every
marvellous bagging of snipe, he had an unheard-of draught of herrings.
If Aalbert had made a humorous bargain at the last Rotterdam fair, he
had made an excessively acute one. If the bill-broker had met with a
ducking in Haerlem lake, the importer had been within an ace of running
aground in the Zuyder Zee. There was a remarkable parallel between their
fortunes if Gertrude would but perceive it. What she was most ready to
perceive, however, was that the conversation grew very tiresome after
Heins had taken it up; and she was not sorry when the boatmen sent in
word that it was time the party were afloat, if they meant to reach
Amsterdam before the gates were closed.
The prudent guests were in haste to be gone. It was true that, by paying
a stiver each, they might gain admittance any time within an hour from
the first closing of the gates; but where was the use of paying a
stiver, if it could be as well avoided?
As it was bad for Christian's cough to be on the water in the evening,
he was left behind to enjoy one more survey of the dock-yard,--one more
chance of intercourse with his dear Master Peter. He sacrificed
something, he knew, in not seeing the congregation of dark masts
springing from the silver mist, and not feeling the awe of penetrating
the fog where unknown obstacles might be concealed. He remembered
something of the night-call of the boatmen, alternating with the splash
of their oars, as they approached the crowded harbour; and he would have
liked to hear it again. But Gertrude was at hand to hearken to and join
in his vesper prayer, and to sing him to sleep with any hymn he chose.
"My pain has not come to-day, nor yesterday, nor the day before," said
he, as he lay down. "I do not think it will come yet. O, Gertrude,
suppose it should never come any more!"
"And if not," said Gertrude, with a pitying smile, "what then?"
"Why, then I think I should like to live a thousand years, like the man
we were fancying the other day. But, perhaps, I might want next to be
able to walk, and then to have no more coughing (for I am very tired of
coughing sometimes). So I dare say it is best----"
"It is always best to make ourselves as happy as it pleases God to give
us power to be, my dear boy; and I think you do this very well for a
little lad."
As she stooped to kiss his forehead, Christian whispered that she very
often helped to make him happy. "But," said he, "you think my pain will
certainly come again?"
Gertrude could not tell. She recommended thinking as little about it as
possible. If he thought about God, and what the gospel promises, he
would be happy at the time, and best prepared, if his pain should seize
him.
"Whenever I think of Jesus Christ, Gertrude, it makes me long to have
lived when he lived. If he had cured me, as he cured so many, I would
never have denied him, or gone away without thanking him. Do you really
believe anybody ever did that?"
Gertrude was afraid it was too true; but suggested some palliations; and
hinted that there were ways of testifying faithlessness or discipleship
to Jesus even now, when he was present only in his gospel.
His spirit pillowed upon this truth, Christian fell asleep, and dreamed
that he met Jesus on a shore, which would have been that of the Zuyder
Zee, only that there were mountains; and that Jesus bade him walk, and
that he not only walked, but flew up to the very top of the highest
mountain, where he met Gertrude, and told her what had happened; and
that she sang his favourite hymn; and that, though they seemed alone,
many voices came to sing it with her from every side.