14 Hans Brinker

for carrying fuel and merchandise. Instead of green country
“lanes, green canals stretch from field to barn, and from barn
to garden; and the farms, or polders, as they are termed, are
merely great lakes pumped dry. Some of the busiest streets
are water; while many of the country roads are paved with
brick. The city boats, with their rounded sterns, gilded prows
and gayly painted sides, are unlike any others under the sun;
and a Dutch wagon, with its
funny little crooked pole, is a
perfect mystery of mysteries.
“One thing is: clear,’ cries
Master Brightside, “the inhabit-
ants need never be thirsty.”
But, no, Odd-land is true to
itself still. Notwithstanding the
sea pushing to get in, and the
lakes struggling to get out, and

 

the overflowing canals, rivers and
ditches, in many districts there is

THE POLE OF A DUTCH WAGON.

no water fit to swallow: our poor Hollanders must go dry, or
drink wine and beer, or send far into the inland, to Utrecht
and other favored localities, for that precious fluid older than
Adam, yet young as the morning dew. Sometimes, indeed,
the inhabitants can swallow a shower, when they are provided

along the bank of the canal. The ¢rekschuiten are divided into two com-
partments, first and second class; and, when not too crowded, the
passengers make themselves quite at home in them: the men smoke, the
women knit or sew, while children play upon the small outer deck.
Many of the canal-boats have white, yellow or chocolate-colored sails.
This last color is caused by a preparation of tan, which is put on to
preserve them.