44. * Hans Brinker

On the following day there was not a prouder nor a happier
boy in all Holland than Hans Brinker, as he watched his
sister, with many a dexterous sweep, flying in and out among
the skaters who at sundown thronged the canal. A warm
jacket had been given her by the kind-hearted Hilda; and
the burst-out shoes had been cobbled into decency by Dame
Brinker. As the little creature darted backward and forward,
flushed with enjoyment, and quite unconscious of the many
wondering glances bent upon her, she felt that the shining
runners beneath her feet had suddenly turned earth into fairy-
land, while “‘ Hans, dear, good Hans!” echoed itself over and
over again in her grateful heart.

“©By den donder!” exclaimed Peter van Holp to Carl
Schummel, “ but that little one in the red jacket and patched
petticoat skates well. Gunst! she has toes on her heels, and
eyes in the back of her head. See her! It will be a joke if
she gets in the race, and beats Katrinka Flack, after all.”

“Hush! not so loud!” returned Carl, rather sneeringly.
“That little lady in rags is the special pet of Hilda van
Gleck. Those shining skates are her gift, if I make no
mistake.”

“ So, so! ”? exclaimed Peter, with a radiant smile; for Hilda
was his best friend. ‘She has been at her good work there
too!” And Mynheer van Holbp, after cutting a double 8 on
the ice, to say nothing of a huge P, then a jump, and an H,
glided onward until he found himself beside Hilda.

Hand in hand, they skated together, laughingly at first, then
staidly talking in a low tone.

Strange to say, Peter van Holp soon aived at a sudden
conviction that his little sister needed a wooden chain just like

Hilda’s.