14 THE LAND OF PLUCK

with peat; pleasure-boats with their showy sails; the
little skiffs, the rafts, the chip boats launched by white-
haired urchins kneeling in the mud.

   

 
 

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OVER THE CHIMNEYS AND HOUSE-TOPS (AMSTERDAM).

 

- bares

Then, mingling confusedly with masts, and windmills,
and sails are the long rows of willows, firs, beeches, or
elms, planted on the highways wherever root-hold can be
found or manufactured ; the stiff, symmetrical gardens,
with their nodding tulips and brilliant shrubs; the great
white storks flying to and fro with outstretched necks
and legs, busily attending to family needs, or settling upon
the quaint gabled roofs, perhaps, of Amsterdam; water-fowl