DA. Hans Brinker

be of all things the most helpless in the water, of course in
Holland it must be rendered the mainstay against a rushing
tide. Huge straw mats are pressed against the embankments,
fortified with clay and heavy stone; and, once adjusted, the
ocean dashes against them in vain.

Raff Brinker, the father of Gretel and Hans, had for
years been employed upon the dikes. It was at the time of
a threatened inundation, when in the midst of a terrible storm,
in darkness and sleet, the men were laboring at a weak spot
near the Veermyk sluice, that he fell from the scaffolding, and
was taken home insensible. From that hour he never worked
again. Though he lived on, mind and memory were gone.

Gretel could not remember him otherwise than as the strange,
silent man whose eyes followed her vacantly whichever way
she turned; but Hans had recollections of a hearty, cheerful-
voiced father, who was never tired of bearing him
upon his shoulder, and s whose careless song still

seemed echoing near when he lay awake at

 

night and listened.

  

VESSELS HITCHED TO A FENCE-POST.