CHAPTER I

ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DIKE

SAR over the sea is a famous little country
generally known as Holland; but that
Z name, even if it should mean Hollow land,

or How land?’ does not describe it half so
well as this—The Little Land of Pluck.

Verily, a queerer bit of earth was never shone upon by
the sun nor washed by the tide. It is the oddest, funniest
country that ever raised its head from the waves (and,
between ourselves, it does not quite do that), the most
topsyturvy landscape, the most amphibious spot in the
universe,—as the Man in the Moon cannot deny,— the
chosen butt of the elements, and good-naturedly the

laughing-stock of mankind. Its people are the queerest

   
 

 

and drollest of all the nations; and yet so plucky, so wise

and resolute and strong, that “beating the Dutch” has
1 1