98 THE LAND OF PLUCK

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of this is that I have heard too much music in the last few
years, and that I don’t appreciate it. So when it is not
something I like very much I had rather not hear it, as
I think it only needlessly fatigues my brain, and so I do
not profit by it atall. .. .

“Your letter was very pleasant and so fluently, written !
I wish I could do as well. My only consolation is that it is
not my language; but then I cannot produce such a good
style in Dutch either, and you will hardly believe it, but I
need a dictionary more when I write a Dutch letter than
when I write an English one. Of course I make a great
many mistakes in English, but Dutch is a far more difficult
language, and you never know when a word is masculine
or feminine (unless you are exceedingly clever!), as it
makes no difference when you speak, but a great difference
when you write; so if you want to write correctly you have
to look in the dictionary or else to guess. Then you say,
‘Oh! that word is probably feminine, and you change the
sentence accordingly, and afterward you discover that you
were quite wrong. Is not that a troublesome language ?
The French can hear when to put ‘le’ or ‘la’ before the
word (at least they rarely make mistakes), but we can’t. It
sounds all the same when speaking.

“. .. The year that has gone has been very much like
the foregoing ones except for some political events which
have created a change in our country. Our old king died,
as you remember, and at his death there was a sincere
mourning over the whole country. Personally he was not
so very much liked; still his subjects were attached to
him because he was (his two sons having died) the last