or, The Silver Skates 87

then a donkey, bearing a pair of panniers filled with crockery
or glass; then a sled driven over the bare cobble-stones (the
runners kept greased with a dripping oil rag, so that it might
run easily); and then, perhaps, a showy but clumsy family
carriage, drawn by the brownest of Flanders horses, swinging
the whitest of snowy tails.

 

A BRIDGE IN OLD AMSTERDAM.

The city was in full festival array. - Every shop was gor-
geous in honor of St. Nicholas. Captain Peter was forced
more than once to order his men away from the tempting show-
windows, where everything that is, has been, or can be thought
of in the way of toys, was displayed. Holland is famous for
this branch of manufacture. Every possible thing is copied in
miniature for the benefit of the little ones. “The intricate