Itl

THE SILVER SKATES

AME BRINKER earned a scanty support for her fam-

ily by raising vegetables, spinning and knitting. Once

she had worked on board the barges plying up and down the
canal, and had occasionally been harnessed with other women
to the towing-rope of a pakschuyt plying between Broek and
Amsterdam. But when Hans had grown strong and large,
he had insisted upon doing all such drudgery in her place.
Besides, her husband had become so very helpless of late that
he required her constant care. Although he had not as much
intelligence as a little child) he was yet strong of arm and