or, The Silver Skates 31

¢¢ Leer, leer! jou luigaart, of dit endje touw zal je leeren!”? 4

It was only in winter that Gretel and Hans could be spared
to attend school; and for the past month they had been kept
at home because their mother needed their services. Raff
Brinker required constant attention ; and there was black-bread
to be made, and the house to be kept clean, and stockings and
other things to be knitted and sold in the market-place.

While they were busily assisting their mother on this cold
December morning, a merry troop of girls and boys came
skimming down the canal. There were fine skaters among
them; and, as the bright medley of costumes flitted by, it
looked from a distance as though the ice had suddenly
thawed, and some gay tulip-bed were floating along on the
current.

There was the rich burgomaster’s daughter, Hilda van
Gleck, with her costly furs and loose-fitting velvet sack; and
near by a pretty peasant-girl, Annie Bouman, jauntily attired
in a coarse scarlet jacket, and a blue skirt just short enough to
display the gray homespun hose to advantage. hen there
was the proud Rychie Korbes, whose father, Mynheer van
Korbes, was one of the leading men of Amsterdam; and,
flocking closely around her, Carl Schummel, Peter and Lud-
wig2 van Holp, Jacob Poot, and a very small boy, rejoicing
in the tremendous name of Voostenwalbert Schimmelpen-
ninck. ‘There were nearly twenty other boys and girls in
the party; and one and all seemed full of excitement and
frolic.

Up and down the canal, within the space of a half-mile,

1 ¢ Learn, learn, you idler! or this rope’s end shall teach you.”’
2 Ludwig, Gretel and Carl were named after German friends. ‘The
Dutch form would be Lodewyk, Grietje and Karel.