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A large part of this low land is very soft and
boggy. It seems like a wet sponge. The ground
trembles under even the little children at play.
Tf it were not for wide shoes, the horses would
sink deep into the soil.

What a land this is for the barefoot girls and
boys! They can splash in the puddles, wade in

 

Scene in the Alps.

the ditches, sail boats on the canals and catch
fish nearly everywhere. ;

You should see the children in winter, when
the canals are frozen. How swiftly they skim
over the ice! For miles and miles the canals are
then alive with skaters !

Poor children use wooden skates, but they have
much fun. People go to market on skates. Here
is a little girl going to sell a basket of egos.
She will bring back a small red cheese and a
loaf of bread about two feet long.

Should you like to wear wooden shoes? Of
course you would take them off at the door, and
not wear them in the house. Do you-not think
that our leather shoes are much better than
wooden ones?

Here we are at a bridge. Our house boat
cannot pass till the bridge is raised. The men
who move the bridge swing out to us a little
wooden shoe on the end of a pole and line, and
we drop into it a small piece of money to pay
them for their work.

&

CHILDREN OF THE HIGHLANDS.

Now we are near a city. It looks like a forest
of masts, trees and steeples. Boats, boats every-
where! The houses are very neat. Perhaps the
kitchen is the front room, but what of it?

Should you like to live in Holland?

What large river flows across the plain of Holland?

Where does the Rhine river rise? In what direction is
Holland from the Swiss plateau ?

What is a house boat? Are the rivers of Holland swift
or slow?

What do the people of Holland use for fuel?

Of what use are windmills to the people of Holland?.

Of what use are canals?

Name some of the plants that grow in Holland.

94. Children of the Highlands.

Let us leave the “land of canals,” and sail far
up the river Rhine. Hans, a Holland boy, will go
with us to visit the Swiss boys who live on the
plateau near the high Alps. :

Here we are in a pretty village, close by the
snowy peaks. Wilhelm, a little Swiss boy, comes
down the road to meet us.

How strange the place looks to Hans! He has
always lived on low land by the sea. Now for the
first time he sees great rocky ranges upon which
snow lies all the year.

What do you think that Hans misses most?
Yes, the quiet canals. In Wilhelm’s home no
white sails seem to skim across rich meadows.

-Many of the Swiss streams rush and roar over

steep, rocky beds. Hans feels of the water and
finds it icy cold. Wilhelm says that it flows from
a long glacier.

The Swiss village is all alive to-day. Spring
has come, and the flocks must be driven up the
mountains to feed.

The men who go with the flocks will be away

from home till near the end of summer, and many

carts are loaded with food and bedding for them.
Hans and Wilhelm are very happy, for they are
going on the long trip.

When all are ready they set out with long lines
of cattle and sheep. The flocks graze for a few
days at the foot of the range, then as the snow

!