DAY-DREAMS ON THE DIKE 109

how we all will wish him a happy day and the Lord’s
blessing! And if he gives me a little cart some time for
my dog ‘Shag’ to draw, I think 171] fill it full of wet,
shining fish and sell them at the market-town. No; I Il
help Mother very hard at making the cheeses; and I ’Il
fill the cart with them ; and soon Mother can have a fine
new lace cap with the money, and a silk apron; and maybe
I'll be so useful to the family that they 71] decide to take
and then Ill work and I ’Il
save, and save, till perhaps—”

 

me out of school; and then

“Can that be Jan van Riper’s boat?” mused big boy
Dirk, as he eyed a fishing-smack just coming into view.
“No, it ’s my uncle Ryk’s. Like enough, Jan has landed
somewhere and put off to foreign parts, as he often says
he will when Vrouw van Riper’s tongue gets too lively.
ZI should. I ’d like to go to foreign parts, anyway. Lots
of room for a fellow in Java; lots of rich Hollanders there
—we Hollanders own it, they say ; and there ’s no reason
a fellow like me should n’t grow to be a merchant and
own warehouses, and—”

# * *

So the dreams ran on,— Greitje’s, Kassy Riker’s,
Katrina’s, and Dirk van Dorf’s,—all different, and all very
absorbing. Meantime the straw had shown itself so weak-
minded and tedious that little Ludoff had nodded himself
into a dose as he leaned against Greitje’s plump little
shoulder. The dreaming time, pleasant as it was, had
really not been very long; for even ‘a smooth sea, a soft
summer breeze, and five serene little Dutch natures could