156 Hans Brinker

XIX
ON THE CANAL

pas skating season had commenced unusually early : our

boys were by no means alone upon the ice. The after-
noon was so fine that men, women and children, bent upon
enjoying the holiday, had flocked to the grand canal from far
and near. St. Nicholas had evidently remembered the favorite
pastime: shining new skates were everywhere to be seen.
Whole families were skimming their way to Haarlem, or
Leyden, or the neighboring villages. The ice seemed fairly
alive. Ben noticed the erect, easy carriage of the women, and
their picturesque variety of costume. There were the latest
fashions, fresh from Paris, floating past dingy, moth-eaten gar-
ments that had seen service through two generations; coal-
scuttle bonnets perched over freckled faces bright with holiday
smiles ; stiff muslin caps, with wings at the sides, flapping beside
cheeks rosy with health and contentment ; furs, too, encircling
the whitest of throats; and scanty garments fluttering below
faces ruddy with exercise: in short, every quaint and comical
mixture of dry-goods and flesh that Holland could furnish
seemed sent to enliven the scene.

There were belles from Leyden, and fishwives from the
border villages ; cheese-women from Gouda, and prim matrons
from beautiful country-seats on the Haarlemmer Meer.
Grey-headed skaters were constantly to be seen; wrinkled old