This little work aims to combine the instructive features of a book of
travels with the interest of a domestic tale. Throughout its pages the
descriptions of Dutch localities, customs, and general characteristics
have been given with scrupulous care. Many of its incidents are drawn
from life, and the story of Raff Brinker is founded strictly upon fact.
While acknowledging my obligations to many well-known writers on Dutch
history, literature, and art, I turn with especial gratitude to those
kind Holland friends who, with generous zeal, have taken many a backward
glance at their country for my sake, seeing it as it looked twenty years
ago, when the Brinker home stood unnoticed in sunlight and shadow.
Should this simple narrative serve to give my young readers a just
idea of Holland and its resources, or present true pictures of its
inhabitants and their every-day life, or free them from certain current
prejudices concerning that noble and enterprising people, the leading
desire in writing it will have been satisfied.
Should it cause even one heart to feel a deeper trust in God’s goodness
and love, or aid any in weaving a life, wherein, through knots and
entanglements, the golden thread shall never be tarnished or broken, the
prayer with which it was begun and ended will have been answered.
--M.M.D.