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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Dutch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins
+#5 in our series by Lucy Fitch Perkins
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+Title: The Dutch Twins
+
+Author: Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+Release Date: May, 2003  [EBook #4012]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 10/09/01]
+[Updated: November 21, 2001]
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+Edition: 11
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+Language: English
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Dutch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins
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+Produced for Project Gutenberg by Lynn Hill <hill_lynn@hotmail.com>
+This PG project is dedicated to Luana Rodriquez, who proofreads
+my projects and loves the "Twins" stories.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+This book belongs to
+Lawrence and other children
+
+
+
+
+THE DUTCH TWINS
+
+By Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
+
+
+
+
+Geographical Series
+
+THE DUTCH TWINS PRIMER. Grade I.
+THE DUTCH TWINS. Grade III.
+THE ESKIMO TWINS. Grade II.
+THE JAPANESE TWINS. Grade IV.
+THE SWISS TWINS. Grade IV.
+THE IRISH TWINS. Grade V.
+THE ITALIAN TWINS. Grades V and VI.
+THE SCOTCH TWINS. Grades V and VI.
+THE MEXICAN TWINS. Grade VI.
+THE BELGIAN TWINS. Grade VI.
+THE FRENCH TWINS. Grade VII.
+
+Historical Series
+
+THE CAVE TWINS. Grade IV.
+THE SPARTAN TWINS. Grades V-VI.
+THE PURITAN TWINS. Grades VI-VII.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION - KIT AND KAT
+
+I.   THE DAY THEY WENT FISHING
+
+II.  MARKET DAY WITH FATHER
+
+III. MOTHER'S DAY.
+
+IV.  ONE SUNDAY
+
+V.   THE DAY THEY DROVE THE MILK CART
+
+VI.  THE DAY THEY GOT THEIR SKATES
+
+
+
+
+THE DUTCH TWINS
+
+KIT AND KAT
+
+
+This is a picture of Kit and Kat. They are Twins, and they live
+in Holland. Kit is the boy, and Kat is the girl.
+
+Of course their real names are not Kit and Kat at all. Their real
+names are Christopher and Katrina. But you can see for yourself
+that such long names as that would never in the world fit such a
+short pair of Twins. So the Twins' Mother, Vrouw Vedder, said,
+
+"They cannot be called Christopher and Katrina until they are
+four and a half feet high."
+
+Now it takes a long time to grow four and a half feet of Boy and
+Girl. You know, chickens and puppies and colts and kittens always
+grow up much faster than twins. Kit and Kat ate a great many
+breakfasts and dinners and suppers, and played a great many
+plays, and had a great many happy days while they were growing up
+to their names. I will tell you about some of them.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+THE DAY THEY WENT FISHING
+
+
+One summer morning, very early, Vrouw Vedder opened the door of
+her little Dutch kitchen and stepped out.
+
+She looked across the road which ran by the house, across the
+canal on the other side, across the level green fields that lay
+beyond, clear to the blue rim of the world, where the sky touches
+the earth. The sky was very blue; and the great, round, shining
+face of the sun was just peering over the tops of the trees, as
+she looked out.
+
+Vrouw Vedder listened. The roosters in the barnyard were crowing, the
+ducks in the canal were quacking, and all the little birds in the
+fields were singing for joy. Vrouw Vedder hummed a slow little tune of
+her own, as she went back into her kitchen.
+
+Kit and Kat were still asleep in their little cupboard bed. She
+gave them each a kiss. The Twins opened their eyes and sat up.
+
+"O Kit and Kat," said Vrouw Vedder, "the sun is up, the birds are
+all awake and singing, and Grandfather is going fishing to-day.
+If you will hurry, you may go with him! He is coming at six
+o'clock; so pop out of bed and get dressed. I will put some lunch
+for you in the yellow basket, and you may dig worms for bait in
+the garden. Only be sure not to step on the young cabbages that
+Father planted."
+
+Kit and Kat bounced out of bed in a minute. Their mother helped
+them put on their clothes and new wooden shoes. Then she gave
+them each a bowl of bread and milk for their breakfast. They ate
+it sitting on the kitchen doorstep.
+
+This is a picture of Kit and Kat digging worms. You see they did
+just as their mother said, and did not step on the young
+cabbages. They sat on them, instead. But that was an accident.
+
+Kit dug the worms, and Kat put them into a basket, with some
+earth in it to make them feel at home.
+
+When Grandfather came, he brought a large fishing-rod for himself
+and two little ones for the Twins. There was a little hook on the
+end of each line.
+
+Vrouw Vedder kissed Kit and Kat good-bye.
+
+"Mind Grandfather, and don't fall into the water," she said.
+
+Grandfather and the Twins started off together down the long road
+beside the canal.
+
+The house where the Twins lived was right beside the canal. Their
+father was a gardener, and his beautiful rows of cabbages and
+beets and onions stretched in long lines across the level fields
+by the roadside.
+
+Grandfather lived in a large town, a little way beyond the farm
+where the Twins lived. He did not often have a holiday, because
+he carried milk to the doors of the people in the town, every
+morning early. Sometime I will tell you how he did it; but I must
+not tell you now, because if I do, I can't tell you about their
+going fishing.
+
+This morning, Grandfather carried his rod and the lunch-basket.
+Kit and Kat carried the basket of worms between them, and their
+rods over their shoulders, and they were all three very happy.
+
+They walked along ever so far, beside the canal. Then they turned
+to the left and walked along a path that ran from the canal
+across the green fields to what looked like a hill.
+
+But it wasn't a hill at all, really, because there aren't any
+hills in Holland. It was a long, long wall of earth, very high--
+oh, as high as a house, or even higher!  And it had sloping
+sides.
+
+There is such a wall of earth all around the country of Holland,
+where the Twins live. There has to be a wall, because the sea is
+higher than the land. If there were no walls to shut out the sea,
+the whole country would be covered with water; and if that were
+so, then there wouldn't be any Holland, or any Holland Twins, or
+any story. So you see it was very lucky for the Twins that the
+wall was there. They called it a dyke.
+
+Grandfather and Kit and Kat climbed the dyke. When they reached
+the top, they sat down a few minutes to rest and look at the
+great blue sea. Grandfather sat in the middle, With Kit on one
+side, and Kat on the other; and the basket of worms and the
+basket of lunch were there, too.
+
+They saw a great ship sail slowly by, making a cloud of smoke.
+
+"Where do the ships go, Grandfather?" asked Kit.
+
+"To America, and England, and China, and all over the world,"
+said Grandfather.
+
+"Why?" asked Kat. Kat almost always said "Why?" and when she
+didn't, Kit did.
+
+"To take flax and linen from the mills of Holland to make dresses
+for little girls in other countries," said Grandfather.
+
+"Is that all?" asked Kit.
+
+"They take cheese and herring, bulbs and butter, and lots of
+other things besides, and bring back to us wheat and meat and all
+sorts of good things from the lands across the sea."
+
+"I think I'll be a sea captain when I'm big," said Kit.
+
+"So will I," said Kat.
+
+"Girls can't," said Kit.
+
+But Grandfather shook his head and said:
+
+"You can't tell what a girl may be by the time she's four feet
+and a half high and is called Katrina. There's no telling what
+girls will do anyway. But, children, if we stay here we shall not
+catch any fish."
+
+So they went down the other side of the dyke and cut onto a
+little pier that ran from the sandy beach into the water.
+
+Grandfather showed them how to bait their hooks. Kit baited
+Kat's for her, because Kat said it made her all wriggly inside to
+do it. She did not like it. Neither did the worm!
+
+They all sat down on the end of the pier, Grandfather sat on the
+very end and let his wooden shoes hang down over the water; but
+he made Kit and Kat sit with their feet stuck straight out in
+front of them, so they just reached to the edge, "So you can't
+fall in," said Grandfather.
+
+They dropped their hooks into the water and sat very still,
+waiting for a bite. The sun climbed higher and higher in the sky,
+and it grew hotter and hotter on the pier. The flies tickled
+Kat's nose and made her sneeze.
+
+"Keep still, can't you?" said Kit crossly. "You'll scare the
+fish. Girls don't know how to fish, anyway."
+
+Pretty soon Kat felt a queer little jerk on her line. She was
+perfectly sure she did.
+
+Kat squealed and jerked her rod. She jerked it so hard that one
+foot flew right up in the air, and one of her new wooden shoes
+went--splash--right into the water!
+
+But that wasn't the worst of it! Before you could say Jack
+Robinson, Kat's hook flew around and caught in Kit's clothes and
+pricked him.
+
+Kit jumped and said "Ow!" And then--no one could ever tell how it
+happened--there was Kit in the water, too, splashing like a young
+whale, with Kat's hook still holding fast to his clothes in the
+back!
+
+Grandfather jumped then, too, you may be sure. He caught hold of
+Kat's rod and pulled hard and called out, "Steady there, steady!"
+
+And in one minute there was Kit in the shallow water beside the
+pier, puffing and blowing like a grampus!
+
+Grandfather reached down and pulled him up.
+
+When Kit was safely on the pier, Kat threw her arms around his
+neck, though the water was running down in streams from his hair
+and eyes and ears.
+
+"O Kit," she said, "I truly thought it was a fish on my line when
+I jumped!"
+
+"Just like a g-g-girl," said Kit. "They don't know how to f-f-fish."
+You see his teeth were chattering, because the water was cold.
+
+"Well, anyway," said Kat, "I caught more than you did. I caught
+you!"
+
+Then Kat thought of something else She shook her finger at Kit.
+
+"O Kit," she said, "Mother told you not to fall into the water!"
+
+"'T-t-twas all your fault," roared Kit. "Y-y-you began it!
+Anyway, where is your new wooden shoe?"
+
+"Where are both of yours?" screamed Kat.
+
+Sure enough, where were they? No one had thought about shoes,
+because they were thinking so hard about Kit.
+
+They ran to the end of the pier and looked. There was Kat's shoe
+sailing away toward America like a little boat! Kit's were still
+bobbing about in the water near the pier.
+
+"Oh! Oh! Oh!" shrieked Kat; but the tide was going out and
+carrying her shoe farther away every minute. They could not get
+it; but Grandfather reached down with his rod and fished out both
+of Kit's shoes Then Kat took off her other one and her stockings,
+and they all three went back to the beach.
+
+Grandfather and Kat covered Kit up with sand to keep him warm
+while his clothes were drying. Then Grandfather stuck the Twins'
+fish-poles up in the sand and tied the lines together for a
+clothes-line, and hung Kit's clothes up on it, and Kat put their
+three wooden shoes in a row beside Kit.
+
+Then they ate their luncheon of bread and butter, cheese, and
+milk, with some radishes from Father's garden. It tasted very
+good, even if it was sandy. After lunch Grandfather said, "It
+will never do to go home without any fish at all."
+
+So by and by he went back to the pier and caught one while the
+Twins played in the sand. He put it in the lunch-basket to carry
+home.
+
+Kat brought shells and pebbles to Kit, because he had to stay
+covered up in the sand, and Kit built a play dyke all around
+himself with them, and Kat dug a canal outside the dyke. Then she
+made sand-pies in clam-shells and set them in a row in the sun to
+bake.
+
+They played until the shadow of the dyke grew very long across
+the sandy beach, and then Grandfather said it was time to go
+home.
+
+He helped Kit dress, but Kit's clothes were still a little wet in
+the thick parts. And Kat had to go barefooted and carry her one
+wooden shoe.
+
+They climbed the dyke and crossed the fields, and walked along
+the road by the canal. The road shone, like a strip of yellow
+ribbon across the green field. They walked quite slowly, for they
+were tired and sleepy.
+
+By and by Kit said, "I see our house"; and Kat said, "I see
+Mother at the gate."
+
+Grandfather gave the fish he caught to Kit and Kat, and Vrouw
+Vedder cooked it for their supper; and though it was not a very
+big fish, they all had some.
+
+Grandfather must have told Vrouw Vedder something about what had
+happened; for that night, when she put Kit to bed, she felt of
+his clothes carefully--but she didn't say a word about their
+being damp. And she said to Kat: "To-morrow we will see the
+shoemaker and have him make you another shoe."
+
+Then Kit and Kat hugged her and said good-night, and popped off
+to sleep before you could wink your eyes.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+MARKET DAY WITH FATHER
+
+
+One afternoon Kit and Kat were playing around the kitchen
+doorstep, while their Mother sat on a bench by the door, peeling
+some onions for supper. It was not yet supper-time, but Vrouw
+Vedder was always ahead of the clock with the work.
+
+Kit and Kat had a pan of water and were teaching their ducklings
+to swim. They each had one little fat duckling of their very own.
+The ducklings squawked when Kit lifted them over the edge of the
+pan into the water.
+
+"Don't do that, Kit," said Kat. "The ducklings don't like it. You
+didn't like it when you fell into the water, did you?"
+
+"But I'm not a duck," said Kit.
+
+"Well, anyway, they're tired and want to go to their mother,"
+said Kat. "Let's do something else! I'll tell you what! Let's go
+out to the garden and help Father get the boat loaded for
+market."
+
+"All right," said Kit. "May we, Mother?"
+
+"Yes," said Vrouw Vedder; "and you may ask Father if he will take
+you to market with him to-morrow if it's fair. Tell him I said
+you could ask."
+
+"Oh, goody, goody!" said Kit and Kat, both at once; and they ran
+as fast as their wooden shoes would take them out into the
+garden.
+
+They found their father cutting cabbages and gathering them into
+piles. He was stopping to light his pipe, when they reached him.
+
+"O Father!" said Kit and Kat both together. "May we go on the
+boat to market with you to-morrow morning? Mother said we might
+ask!"
+
+Father Vedder blew two puffs from his pipe without answering.
+
+"We'll help you load the boat," said Kit.
+
+"Yes," said Kat, "I can carry a cabbage."
+
+"I can carry two," said Kit. "We'll both be good," said Kat.
+
+"Very well," said Father, at last. "We'll see how you work! And
+to-morrow morning, if it's fair, I'll see! But you must go to bed
+early to-night, because you'll have to get up very early in the
+morning, if you go with me! Now you each take a cabbage and run
+along."
+
+Father Vedder went back to his work.
+
+Kit and Kat ran to the cabbage-pile. Kat took one, and Kit took
+two--just to show that he could.
+
+"When Father says 'I'll see,' he always means 'yes,'" Kat said to
+Kit.
+
+Perhaps it seems queer to you that they should go to market in a
+boat, but it didn't seem queer at all to the Twins.
+
+Your see, in Holland there are a great many canals. They cross
+the fields like roadways of water, and that is what they really
+are. Little canals open into big ones, and big ones go clear to
+the sea.
+
+It is very easy for farmers to load their vegetables for market
+right on a boat. They can pull the boat out into the big canal,
+and then away they go to sell their produce in the town.
+
+The canals flow through the towns, too, and make water streets,
+where boats go up and down as carriages go here.
+
+The Twins and their father worked like beavers, washing the
+vegetables and packing them in baskets, until their good old boat
+was filled with cabbages and onions and beets and carrots and all
+sorts of good things to eat.
+
+By that time it was nearly dark, and they were all three very
+hungry; so they went home.
+
+They found that Mother Vedder had made buttermilk porridge for
+supper. The Twins loved buttermilk porridge. They each ate three
+bowls of it, and then their mother put them to bed.
+
+This is a picture of the bed! It opened like a cupboard right
+into the kitchen, and it was like going to bed on a shelf in the
+pantry.
+
+The very next thing the Twins knew, it was morning, and there was
+Vrouw Vedder calling to them.
+
+"It's market day, and the sun is almost up. Come Kit and Kat, if
+you want to go with Father," she said.
+
+The Twins bounced out like two rubber balls. They ate some
+breakfast and then ran to the boat.
+
+Father was there before them. He helped them into the boat and
+put them both on one seat, and told them to sit still. Then he
+got in and took the pole and pushed off.
+
+Vrouw Vedder stood on the canal bank to see them pass.
+
+"Be good children; mind Father, and don't get lost," she called
+after them.
+
+Kit and Kat were very busy all the way to town, looking at the
+things to be seen on each side of the canal.
+
+It was so early in the morning that the grass was all shiny with
+dew. Black and white cows were eating the rich green grass, and a
+few laborers were already in the fields.
+
+They passed little groups of farm buildings, their red-tiled
+roofs shining in the morning sun; and the windmills threw long,
+long shadows across the fields.
+
+The blue blossoms of the flax nodded to them from the canal bank;
+and once, they saw a stork fly over a mossy green roof, to her
+nest on the chimney, with a frog in her mouth.
+
+They went under bridges and by little canals that opened into the
+main canal. They passed so close to some of the houses that Kit
+and Kat could see the white curtains blowing in the windows, and
+the pots of red geraniums standing on the sill. In one house the
+family waved their hands to Kit and Kat from the breakfast table,
+and a little farther on they passed a woman who was washing
+clothes in the canal. Other boats filled with vegetables and
+flowers of all colors passed them. And they were going to market
+too. Only no other boat had twins in it.
+
+"Good day, neighbor Vedder," one man called out. "Are you taking
+a pair of fat pigs to market?"
+
+By and by they came to the town. There were a great many boats in
+the canal here, and people calling back and forth to each other
+from them.
+
+Kit and Kat saw a boat that the Captain's family lived in. It was
+like a floating house.
+
+The Twins thought it must be grand to live on a boat like that,
+just going about from town to town, seeing new sights every day.
+
+"We should never have to go to school at all," said Kit.
+
+They wished their own boat were big enough to move about in; but
+Father told them they must sit very, very still all the time.
+
+There were houses on each side of the canal, in the town, and
+people were clattering along over the pavement in their wooden
+shoes.
+
+The market-place was an open square in the middle of the town. It
+had little booths and stalls all about it. The farmers brought
+their fresh vegetables and flowers, or whatever they had to sell,
+into these stalls, and then sat there waiting for customers.
+
+Kit and Kat helped their father to unload the boat. Then they sat
+down on a box, and Father gave them each some bread and cheese to
+eat; for they were hungry again. They put the cheese between
+slices of bread and took bites, while they looked about.
+
+Soon there were a good many people in the square. Most of them
+were women with market baskets on their arms. They went to the
+different stalls to see what they would buy for dinner.
+
+A large woman with a big basket on her arm came along to the
+stall where Kit and Kat were sitting.
+
+"Bless my heart!" she said. "Are you twins?"
+
+"Yes, Ma'am," said Kit and Kat. And Kat said, "We're five years
+old."
+
+"O my soul!" said the large woman. "So you are! What are your
+names?"
+
+"Christopher and Katrina, but they call us Kit and Kat for
+short." It was Kat who said this. And Kit said,
+
+"When we are four feet and a half high, we are going to be called
+Christopher and Katrina."
+
+"Well, well, well!" said the large woman. "So you are! Now my
+name is Vrouw Van der Kloot. Are you helping Father?"
+
+"Yes," said the Twins. "We're going to help him sell things."
+
+"Then you may sell me a cabbage and ten onions," said Vrouw Van
+der Kloot.
+
+Father Vedder's eyes twinkled, and he lit his pipe. Kit got a
+cabbage for the Vrouw.
+
+"You can get the ten onions," he said to Kat. You see, really Kit
+couldn't count ten and be sure of it. So he asked Kat to do it.
+
+Kat wasn't afraid. She took out a little pile of onions in a
+measure, and said to Vrouw Van der Kloot,
+
+"Is that ten?"
+
+Then Vrouw Van der Kloot counted them with Kat, very carefully.
+There were eleven, and so she gave back one. Then she gave Kat
+the money for the onions, and Kit the money for the cabbage.
+
+Father Vedder said, "Now Kit and Kat, by and by, when you get
+hungry again, you can go over to Vrouw Van der Kloot's stall and
+buy something from her. She keeps the sweetie shop."
+
+"Oh! Oh!" cried Kit and Kat. "We're hungry yet! Can't we go now?"
+
+"No, not now," said Father. "We must do some work first."
+
+The Twins helped Father Vedder a long time. They learned to count
+ten and to do several other things. Then their father gave them
+the money for the cabbage and the ten onions they had sold to
+Vrouw Van der Kloot, and said,
+
+"You may walk around the market and look in all the stalls, and
+buy the thing you like best that costs just two cents. Then come
+back here to me."
+
+Kit and Kat set forth on their travels, to see the world. They
+each held the money tightly shut in one hand, and with the other
+hand they held on to each other.
+
+"The world is very large," said Kit and Kat.
+
+They saw all sorts of strange things in the market. There were
+tables piled high with flowers. There was a stall full of birds
+in cages, singing away with all their might. One cage had five
+little birds in it, sitting in a row.
+
+"O Kit," cried Kat, "let's buy the birds!"
+
+They asked the woman if the birds cost two cents, and she said,
+
+"No, my angels; they cost fifty cents."
+
+You see, now that the Twins could count ten, they knew they
+couldn't get the birds for two cents when they cost fifty. So
+they went to the next place.
+
+There, there were chickens and ducks for sale. But the Twins had
+plenty of those at home. There were stalls and stalls of
+vegetables just like Father's, and there were booths where meat
+and fish and wood and peat were sold. But the Twins couldn't find
+anything they wanted that cost exactly two cents.
+
+At last, what should they see but Vrouw Van der Kloot's fat face
+smiling at them from a stall just full of cakes and cookies and
+bread, and chocolate, and honey cakes, and goodies of all kinds.
+
+The Twins held up their money.
+
+There on the counter was a whole row of St. Nicholas dolls with
+currant eyes, and they knew at once that there was nothing else
+in all the market they should like so much!
+
+"Do these cost two cents apiece, dear Vrouw Van der Kloot?" asked
+Kat.
+
+"No," said Vrouw Van der Kloot; "they cost one cent apiece."
+
+The Twins were discouraged.
+
+"I don't believe there's a single thing in this whole market that
+costs just two cents," said Kat.
+
+"Keep still!" said Kit. "Let me think."
+
+They sat down on the curb. Kat kept still, and Kit took hold of
+his head with both hands and thought hard. He thought so hard
+that he scowled all over his forehead!
+
+"I tell you what it is, Kat," he said at last. "If those St.
+Nicholas dolls cost one cent apiece, I _think_ we could get two
+of them for two cents."
+
+"O Kit," said Kat, "how splendidly you can think! Does it hurt
+you much? Let's ask Vrouw Van der Kloot."
+
+They went back to the good Vrouw, who was selling some coffee
+bread to a woman with a basket.
+
+"O Vrouw Van der Kloot," said Kat, "Kit says that if those St.
+Nicholas dolls cost one cent apiece, he _thinks_ we could get two
+for two cents. Do you think so?"
+
+"Of course you can," said Vrouw Van der Kloot; and she winked at
+the lady with the bread.
+
+"But you've got two cents, and I've got two," said Kat to Kit.
+"If you should get two Nicholas dolls, why, I should have my two
+cents left; shouldn't I? Oh! dear, it won't come out right
+anyway!"
+
+"Let me think some more," said Kit; and when he had thought some
+more, he said,
+
+"I'll tell you what let's! You get two with your two cents, and
+I'll get two with mine! And I'll give my other one to Mother and
+you can give your other one to Father!"
+
+"That's just what we'll do," said Kat.
+
+They went back to Vrouw Van der Kloot.
+
+"We'll take _four_ dolls," said Kat.
+
+"Well, well, well!" said the Vrouw. "So you've figured it all
+out, have you?" And she counted out the dolls--"One for Kit, and
+one for Kat, and one for Father, and one for Mother, and an extra
+one for good measure!"
+
+"O Kit, she's given us one more!" said Kat. "Let's eat it right
+now! Thank you, dear Vrouw Van der Kloot."
+
+So they ate up the one more then and there, beginning with the
+feet. Kit bit one off, and Kat bit the other; and they took turns
+until the St. Nicholas doll was all gone.
+
+Then they took the four others, said good-bye to the good Vrouw,
+and went back to Father's stall. They found that Father had sold
+all his things and was ready to go home.
+
+They carried their empty baskets back to the boat, and soon were
+on their way home. The Twins sat on one seat, holding tight to
+their dolls, which were growing rather sticky.
+
+The boat was so light that they went home from market much more
+quickly than they had come, and it did not seem long before they
+saw their own house. There it was, with its mossy roof half
+hidden among the trees, and Vrouw Vedder waiting for them at the
+gate.
+
+Dinner was all ready, and the Twins set the four St. Nicholas
+dolls in a row, in the middle of the table.
+
+"There's one for Father, and one for Mother, and one for Kat, and
+one for me," said Kit.
+
+"O Mother," said Kat, "Kit can think! He thought just how many
+dolls he could buy when they were one for one cent! Isn't it fine
+that he can do that?"
+
+"You've learned a great deal at the market," said Vrouw Vedder.
+But Kit didn't say a word. He just looked proud and pleased and
+put his hands in his pockets.
+
+"By and by, when you are four and a half feet high and are called
+Christopher, you can go with Father every time," said Vrouw
+Vedder.
+
+"I can think a little bit, too," said Kat. "Can't I go?"
+
+"No," said Vrouw Vedder. "Girls shouldn't think much. It isn't
+good for them. Leave thinking to the men. You can stay at home
+and help me."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+MOTHER'S DAY
+
+
+"Yesterday was a very long day," said Vrouw Vedder on the morning
+after Market Day. "You were gone such a long time."
+
+Kat gave her mother a great hug.
+
+"We'll stay with you all day to-day, Mother," she said. "Won't we,
+Kit?"
+
+"Yes," said Kit; and he hugged her too.
+
+"And we'll help you just as much as we helped Father yesterday.
+Won't we, Kit?"
+
+"More," said Kit.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder!" said Father.
+
+"I shall be glad of help," said Vrouw Vedder, "because Grandma is
+coming, and I want everything to be very clean and tidy when she
+comes. I'm going first to the pasture to milk the cow. You can go
+with me and keep the flies away. That will be a great help."
+
+Vrouw Vedder put a yoke across her shoulders, with hooks hanging
+from each end of it. Then she hung a large pail on one of the
+hooks, and a brass milk can on the other. She gave Kat a little
+pail to carry, and Kit took some switches from the willow tree in
+the yard, with which to drive away the flies. Then they all three
+started down the road to the pasture.
+
+Pretty soon they came to a little bridge over the canal, which
+they had to cross.
+
+"Oh, dear," said Kat, looking down at the water, "I'm scared!"
+You see, there was no railing at all to take hold of, and the
+bridge was quite narrow.
+
+"Ho! 'Fraidy cat!" said Kit. "I'll go first and show you how."
+
+"And I'll walk behind you," said Vrouw Vedder.
+
+Kat walked very slowly and held on hard to her pail, and so she
+got over the bridge safely.
+
+"When I'm four feet and a half high, I'm going to jump over the
+canal on a jumping pole," said Kit.
+
+"O how brave you are!" said Kat. "I should be scared. And besides
+I'm afraid I should drop my shoes in the water."
+
+"Well, of course," said Kit, "boys can do a great many things
+that girls can't do."
+
+When they reached the pasture, there was Mevrouw Holstein waiting
+for them. Mevrouw Holstein was the cow's name. Kit and Kat named
+her.
+
+Vrouw Vedder tucked up her skirts--and that was quite a task, for
+she wore a great many of them--and sat down on a little stool.
+Kit and Kat stood beside her and waved their willow wands and
+said "Shoo!" to the flies; and Vrouw Vedder began to milk.
+
+Mevrouw Holstein had eaten so much of the green meadow grass that
+Vrouw Vedder filled both the big pail and the brass can, and the
+little pail too, with rich milk.
+
+"I shall have milk enough to make butter and cheese," said Vrouw
+Vedder. "There are no cows like our Dutch cows in all the world,
+I believe."
+
+"O Mother, are you going to churn to-day?" asked Kat.
+
+"Yes," said the Vrouw, "I have cream enough at home to make a
+good roll of butter, and you may help me if you will be very
+careful and work steadily."
+
+"I will be very steady," said Kat. "I'm big enough now to learn."
+
+"All Dutch girls must know how to make good butter and cheese,"
+said Vrouw Vedder.
+
+"And boys can drink the buttermilk," said Kit.
+
+"I'll drink some too," said Kat.
+
+"There'll be plenty for both," said their mother.
+
+When she had finished milking, Vrouw Vedder shook out her skirts,
+put the yoke across her shoulders again and lifted the large pail
+of milk. She hung it on one of the hook and the brass milk can on
+the other. Kat took the small pail, and they started back home.
+The milk was quite heavy, so they walked slowly.
+
+They had crossed the bridge and were just turning down the road,
+when what should they see but their old goose and gander walking
+along the road, followed by six little goslings!
+
+"O Mother, Mother," screamed Kat; "there is the old goose that we
+haven't seen for so long! She has stolen her nest and hatched out
+six little geese all her own! They are taking them to the canal
+to swim."
+
+"Quick, Kit, quick!" said Vrouw Vedder. "Don't let them go into
+the canal! We must drive them home."
+
+Kit ran boldly forward in front of them, and Kat ran too. She
+spilled some of the milk; but she was in such a hurry that she
+never knew it, until afterwards, when she found some in her
+wooden shoes!
+
+"K-s-s-s!" said the old goose; and she ran straight for the Twins
+with her mouth open and her wings spread! The old gander ran at
+them too. I can't begin to tell you how scared Kat was then! She
+stood right still and screamed.
+
+Kit was scared too; but he stood by Kat, like a brave boy, and
+shook his willow switches at the geese, and shouted "Shoo! Shoo!"
+just as he did at the flies.
+
+Vrouw Vedder set her pails down in the road and came up behind,
+flapping her apron. Then the old goose and the gander and all the
+little goslings started slowly along the road for home, saying
+cross words in Goose talk all the way!
+
+Father Vedder was working in the garden, when the procession came
+down the road. First came the geese, looking very indignant, and
+the goslings. Then came Kit with the leaves all whipped off his
+willow switches. Then came Kat with her pail; and, last of all,
+Vrouw Vedder and the milk!
+
+When the new family of geese had been taken care of, and the
+fresh milk had been put away to cool, Vrouw Vedder got out her
+churn and scalded it well. Then she put in her cream, and put the
+cover down over the handle of the dasher.
+
+"Now, Kit and Kat, you may take turns," she said, "and see which
+one of you can bring the butter, but be sure you work the dasher
+very evenly or the butter will not be good."
+
+"Me first!" said Kat, and she began. Kit sat on a little stool
+and watched for the butter.
+
+Kat worked the dasher up and down, up and down. The cream
+splashed and splashed inside the churn, and a little white ring
+of spatters came up around the dasher. Kat worked until her arms
+ached.
+
+"Now it's my turn," said Kit. Then he poked the dasher, and the
+cream splashed and splashed for quite a long time; but still the
+butter did not come.
+
+"Ho!" said Kat. "You're nothing but a boy. Of course you don't
+know how to churn. Let me try." And she took her turn.
+
+Dash! Splash! Splash, dash! She worked away; and very soon,
+around the dasher, there was a ring of little specks of butter.
+
+    "Come, butter, come! Come, butter, come!
+     Some for a honey cake, and some for a bun,"
+
+she sang in time to the dasher; and truly, when Vrouw Vedder
+opened the churn, there was a large cake of yellow butter!
+
+Vrouw Vedder took out the butter and worked it into a nice roll.
+Then she gave each of the Twins a cup of buttermilk to drink.
+
+While the Twins drank the buttermilk, their mother washed the
+churn and put it away. When she was all through, it was still
+quite early in the morning, because they had gotten up with the
+sun.
+
+"Now we must clean the house," she said.
+
+So she got out her scrubbing-brushes, and mops, and pails, and
+dusters, and began.
+
+First she shook out the pillows of the best bed, that nobody ever
+slept in, and pushed back the curtains so that the embroidered
+coverlet could be seen. Then she put the other beds in order and
+drew the curtains in front of them.
+
+She dusted the linen press and left it open just a little, so
+that her beautiful rolls of white linen, tied with ribbons, would
+show. Kat dusted the chairs, and Kit carried the big brass jugs
+outside the kitchen door to be polished.
+
+Then they all three rubbed and scoured and polished them until
+they shone like the sun.
+
+"Now it is time to cook the dinner," said Vrouw Vedder. "We will
+have pork and potatoes and some cabbage. Kit, run to the garden
+and bring a cabbage; and Kat, you may get the fire ready to cook
+it, when Kit brings it in."
+
+Kat went to the stove--but it was such a funny stove! It wasn't a
+stove at all, really.
+
+There was a sort of table built up against the chimney. It was
+all covered with pretty blue tiles, with pictures of boats on
+them. Over this table, there was a shelf, like a mantel shelf.
+There were plates on it, and from the bottom of the shelf hung
+some chains with hooks on them. The coals were right out on the
+little table.
+
+Kat took the bellows and--puff, puff, puff!--made the coals burn
+brighter. She peeped in the kettle to see that there was water in
+it. Then she put some more charcoal on the fire.
+
+Kit brought in the cabbage, and Vrouw Vedder cut it up and put it
+into the pot of water hanging over the fire. She put the pork and
+potatoes in too.
+
+In a little while the pot was bubbling away merrily; and Father
+Vedder, who was in the garden, sniffed the air and said,
+
+"I know what we are going to have for dinner."
+
+While the pot boiled, Vrouw Vedder scrubbed the floor and wiped
+the window, then she took her brooms and scrubbing-brush outside.
+
+She scrubbed the door and the outside of the house. She scrubbed
+the little pig with soap. The little pig squealed, because she
+got some soap in its eyes. She scrubbed the steps--and even the
+trunk of the poplar tree in the yard! She scrubbed everything in
+sight, except Father Vedder and the Twins! By and by she came to
+the door and called,
+
+"Come to dinner! Only be sure to leave your wooden shoes outside,
+when you come into my clean kitchen."
+
+Here are the shoes, just as they left them, all in a row. And as
+it was Saturday, the shoes were scrubbed too, that night.
+
+When the dinner was cleared away, Vrouw Vedder said to the Twins,
+
+"It is almost time for Grandmother to come. Let's walk out to
+meet her."
+
+They walked clear to the edge of the town before they saw her coming.
+They walked on top of the dyke, so they could look right down into the
+street, and see all the houses in a row. Grandmother was coming up the
+street with a basket on her arm.
+
+"What do you think is in that basket?" Vrouw Vedder asked the
+Twins.
+
+"Honey cake!" said Kit; and Kat said, "Candy!"
+
+And Kit and Kat were both right. There was a large honey cake and
+anise candies, and some currant buns besides!
+
+Grandmother let them peep in and see. They were very polite and
+did not ask for any--Vrouw Vedder was proud of the Twins' good
+manners. Grandmother said,
+
+"This afternoon, when we have tea, you shall have some."
+
+"I'm glad I ate such a lot of dinner," said Kit to Kat, as they
+walked along; "or else I'd just have to have a bun this minute!"
+
+"Yes," said Kat, "it's much easier to be polite when you aren't
+hungry."
+
+When they got home, Kit and Kat took their Grandmother to see the
+new goslings, and to see the ducklings too. And Vrouw Vedder
+showed her the butter that Kit and Kat had helped to churn; and
+Grandmother said,
+
+"My, my! What helpers they are getting to be!" Then she said,
+"How clean the house is!" and then, "How the brasses shine!"
+
+"Yes," said Vrouw Vedder; "the Twins helped me make everything
+clean and tidy to show to you."
+
+"I guess it's time for honey cake," said Grandmother.
+
+Then Vrouw Vedder stirred up the fire again and boiled the kettle
+and made tea. She took down her best china cups and put them out
+on the round table.
+
+Then Grandmother opened her basket and took out the honey cake
+and buns and the candy; and Vrouw Vedder brought out her fresh
+butter.
+
+"I can't stay polite much longer," said Kit to Kat.
+
+Grandmother gave them each a thin slice of honey cake and a bun;
+and Vrouw Vedder spread some of the butter on the buns--and oh,
+how good they were!
+
+    "Some for a honey cake,
+     And some for a bun,"
+
+sang Kat. It didn't take the Twins long to finish them.
+
+When they had drunk their tea, Grandmother brought out her
+knitting, and Mother Vedder began to spin.
+
+"How many rolls of linen have you ready for Kat when she
+marries?" Grandmother asked.
+
+"I try to make at least one roll each year; so she has four now
+and I am working on the fifth one," said Vrouw Vedder. "She shall
+be as well-to-do as any farmer's daughter near here, when she
+marries. See, this is the last one," and Vrouw Vedder took from
+the press a roll of beautiful white linen tied with blue ribbons.
+
+"Is that for me, Mother?" asked Kat.
+
+"Yes," said Vrouw Vedder. "When you marry, we shall have a fine
+press full of linen for you."
+
+"Isn't Kit going to have some too?" asked Kat.
+
+Grandmother laughed.
+
+"The mother of the little girl who will some day marry Kit, is
+working now on her linen, no doubt; so Kit won't need any of
+yours."
+
+The Twins looked very solemn and went out into the yard. They sat
+down on the bench by the kitchen door together. Then Kat said,
+
+"Kit, do you suppose we've got to be married?"
+
+"It looks like it," said Kit.
+
+Things seemed very dark indeed to the Twins.
+
+"Well," said Kat, "I just tell you I'm not going to do it. I'm
+going to stay at home with Mother and Father, and you and the
+ducks and everything!"
+
+"What will they do with the linen then?" said Kit. "I guess
+you'll have to be married."
+
+Kat began to cry.
+
+"I'll just go and ask Mother," she said.
+
+"I'll go with you," said Kit. "I don't want to any more than you
+do."
+
+So the Twins got down from the bench and went into the kitchen
+where Grandmother and Vrouw Vedder were.
+
+Their mother was spinning flax to make linen thread.
+
+"Mother," said the Twins, "will you please excuse us from being
+married."
+
+"O my soul!" said Vrouw Vedder. She seemed surprised.
+
+"We don't want to at all," said Kat. "We'd rather stay with you."
+
+"You shan't be married until after you are four feet and a half
+high and are called Christopher and Katrina anyway," said Vrouw
+Vedder. "I promise you that."
+
+The Twins were much relieved. They went out and fed their
+ducklings. They felt so much better that they gave them an extra
+handful of grain, and they carried a bun to Father Vedder, who
+was hoeing in the farthest corner of the garden. He ate it,
+leaning on his hoe.
+
+When they went back to the house, it was late in the afternoon.
+Grandmother was rolling up her knitting.
+
+"I must go home to Grandfather;" she said. "He'll be wanting his
+supper."
+
+The Twins walked down the road as far as the first bridge with
+Grandmother. There she kissed them good-bye and sent them home.
+
+When their mother put them to bed that night, Kat said,
+
+"Has this been a short day, Mother?"
+
+"Oh, very short!" said Vrouw Vedder, "because you helped me so
+much."
+
+Then she kissed them good-night and went out to feed the pigs,
+and shut up the chickens for the night.
+
+When she was gone, Kit said,
+
+"I don't see how they got along before we came. We help so much!"
+
+"No," said Kat; "I don't think--" But what she didn't think, no
+one will ever know, because just then she popped off to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+ONE SUNDAY
+
+
+One Sunday morning in early fall, Kit and Kat woke up and peeped
+out from their cupboard bed to see what was going on in the
+world.
+
+The sun was shining through the little panes of the kitchen
+window, making square patches of light on the floor. The kettle
+was singing on the fire, and Vrowv Vedder was already putting
+away the breakfast things.
+
+Father Vedder was lighting his pipe with a coal from the fire. He
+had on his black Sunday clothes, all ready for church. Father
+Vedder did not look at Kit and Kat at all. He just puffed away at
+his pipe and said to himself,
+
+"If there are any Twins anywhere that want to go to church with
+me, they'd better get dressed and eat their breakfasts."
+
+Kit and Kat tumbled out of the cupboard at once.
+
+Vrouw Vedder came to help them dress.
+
+I can't tell you how many petticoats she put on Kat, but it was
+ever so many. And over them all she put a skirt of plaid. There
+was a waist of a different color, and over that a kerchief with
+bright red roses on it. And over the skirt she put a new, clean
+apron.
+
+Kit was dressed very splendidly too. He had full baggy trousers
+of velveteen that reached to his ankles, and a jacket that
+buttoned with big silver buttons. His trousers had pockets in
+them.
+
+Kit and Kat both wore stockings, which Vrouw Vedder had knit, and
+their best shoes of stout leather.
+
+When they were all dressed, Vrouw Vedder stood them up side by
+side and had them turn around slowly to be sure they were all
+right.
+
+"Now see that you behave well in meeting," she said. "Sit up
+straight. Look at the Dominie, and do not whisper."
+
+"Yes, Mother," said Kit and Kat.
+
+Then she tied a big apron over each of them and gave them each a
+bowl of bread and milk. While they were eating it, Father Vedder
+went out and looked at the pigs, and chickens, and ducks, and
+geese, and smoked his pipe.
+
+When he came in, Kit and Kat were quite ready. Vrouw Vedder had
+tied on Kat's little white-winged cap, and put Kit's hat on. She
+kissed them good-bye, and they were off, one on each side of
+Father Vedder, holding tight to his hands.
+
+Mother Vedder looked after them proudly, from the doorway. She
+did not go to church that day.
+
+They walked slowly along the roadway in the bright sunshine. Many
+of their neighbors and friends, all dressed in their best, were
+walking to church, too.
+
+Father Vedder and Kit and Kat went a little out of their way, in
+order to pass a large windmill that was swinging its arms around
+and creaking out a kind of sleepy windmill song. This is the song
+it seemed to sing:
+
+    Around, and around, and around, I go,
+    Sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
+    I pump the water and grind the grain,
+    The marshy fields of the Lowlands, drain.
+    I harness the wind to turn my mill,
+    Around, and around, and around with a will!
+
+Perhaps it was listening to the windmill song that made Kat say,
+
+"Why do we have windmills, father?"
+
+Kit and Kat said "Why?" every few steps on that walk. You see,
+they didn't often have their father all to themselves, to ask
+questions of.
+
+"Why, what a little Dutch girl," said Father Vedder, "not to know
+what windmills are for! They pump the water out of the fields, to
+be sure! Don't you know how wet the fields are sometimes? If we
+didn't keep pumping the water out, they would be so wet we could
+not make gardens at all."
+
+"Does the wind pump the water?" asked Kat.
+
+"Of course it does, goosie girl! and grinds the grain too. The
+wind blows against the great arms and turns them round and round.
+That works the pumps; and the pumps suck the water out of the
+fields, and it is poured out into the canals. If it weren't for
+the good old windmills working away, who knows but the water
+would get the best of us some day and cover up all our land!"
+
+"Wouldn't the dykes keep out the sea?" asked Kit.
+
+"Suppose the dykes should break!" said Father Vedder. "Even one
+little break can let in lots of water. The dykes have to be
+watched day and night all the time, and the least bit of a hole
+stopped up right away, so it can't grow any bigger and let in the
+sea."
+
+"Oh dear," Kat said, "what a leaky country!"
+
+She ran near the mill and let the wind from the fans blow her
+hair and the white wings on her cap.
+
+As the great fans swung near the ground, Kit jumped up and caught
+hold of one. It lifted him right off the ground as it swung
+around, and in a minute he was dangling high in the air.
+
+"Jump, jump, quick," shouted Father Vedder.
+
+Kit let go and dropped to the ground just in time. In another
+minute he would have been carried clear over.
+
+As it was, he sat down very hard on the ground, and had to have
+the dirt brushed off of his Sunday clothes.
+
+"I am surprised at you," Father Vedder said, while he brushed
+him. "You are too small to swing on windmills, and besides it is
+the Sabbath day. Don't you ever do it again until you are big
+enough to be called Christopher!"
+
+Sitting down so hard in the dirt had hurt Kit a little bit, and
+scared him a good deal, so he said, "No, father."
+
+Then they walked all around the mill. They peeped inside a door
+which was open, and saw the pumps working away.
+
+"Yes," said Father Vedder, "it is nip and tuck between wind and
+water in Holland. Let us sit down here on the canal bank, in the
+sunshine, and I will tell you what hard work has to be done to
+keep this good land of ours. And it is a good land! We should be
+thankful for it! Just see the rich green meadows over there, with
+the cows grazing in them!" Father Vedder pointed to the
+beautiful fields across the canal. "The grass is so rich and
+fresh, that the cows here give more milk than any other cows in
+the whole world!"
+
+"That's what Mother says," said Kat.
+
+"The Holland butter and cheese are famous everywhere," went on
+Father Vedder; "and we have all the good milk we want to drink,
+besides. The Dutch gardens, too, are the finest in the world."
+
+"And ours is one of the best of Dutch gardens, isn't it, Father?"
+said Kit.
+
+"It's a very good garden," said Father Vedder, proudly. "No one
+can raise better onions and cabbage and carrots than I can. And
+the Dutch bulbs! Our tulips and hyacinths make the whole world
+bloom!"
+
+"Holland is really the greatest country there is; isn't it?" said
+Kit.
+
+"Well, not in point of size, perhaps," Father Vedder admitted;
+"but in pluck, my boy, it is! Did you know that sometimes people
+call Holland the Land of Pluck?"
+
+"I don't see why," said Kat. "I'm Dutch, but I'm afraid of lots
+of things! I'm afraid of spiders and of cross geese, and of
+falling into the water!"
+
+"You're a girl, if you are Dutch," said Kit. "Boys are always
+pluckier than girls; aren't they, Father?"
+
+"Really plucky people never boast," said Father Vedder.
+
+Kit looked the other way and dug the toe of his shoe into the
+dirt. Kat snuggled up to her Father and sniffed at Kit.
+
+"So there, Kit!" was all she said.
+
+"There's pluck enough to go round," said Father Vedder mildly,
+"and we all need it boys and girls, and men and women too. It
+was pluck that made Holland, and it's pluck that keeps her from
+slipping back into the sea."
+
+"How did pluck make Holland?" asked Kit.
+
+"There wasn't any Holland in the first place," Father Vedder
+answered. "There were only some marshes and some lands under
+water. But people built a wall of earth around these flats; and
+then they pumped out the water from the space inside the wall,
+and made canals through the land, and drained it. And after all
+that work, we have our rich fields."
+
+"How does pluck keep them?" asked Kat.
+
+"The dykes have to be watched and mended all the time," said
+Father Vedder. "And the windmills have to work and work, to keep
+the fields drained. No one can be lazy in Holland. Each one has
+to work well for what he gets. If Holland should grow lazy, she
+would soon be back again in the Zuyder Zee! So, my children, you
+see you must learn well and work hard. And that is all my sermon
+to-day."
+
+"It is a better sermon than the Dominie will preach, I know,"
+said Kat.
+
+"Tut, tut! You must never say such things," said Father Vedder.
+He got up and held out his hands to the Twins.
+
+"Come! we must walk along, or we shall be late for church," he
+said. "Here comes the Dominie now."
+
+There indeed was the Dominie! Kit and Kat knew him well. No one
+else dressed as he did. He wore a high silk hat, and long, black
+coat and trousers, such as city people wear.
+
+As he came along the road, all the people bowed respectfully; the
+little boys took off their caps, and the little girls bobbed a
+courtesy. Kit and Kat bobbed and courtesied too, and the Dominie
+smiled at them and laid his hand on Kit's head.
+
+"I wish he'd come to see us again," said Kit, after the Dominie
+had passed by.
+
+Father Vedder was pleased.
+
+"I am glad to see that you love your pastor, my son," he said.
+
+"Well," said Kit, "I don't really like him so very much, because
+we have to be washed, and recite the catechism, and mind all our
+manners when he comes. But Mother always has such good things to
+eat when the Dominie comes--doesn't she, Kat?--cake and preserves
+and everything!"
+
+"If it weren't for the catechism and such things, it would be
+something like St. Nicholas day!" sighed Kat. "But the Dominie
+never forgets! And last time I couldn't tell what saving grace
+was! The cakes are good, but..."
+
+"Good Dutch boys and girls always learn their catechism well,"
+said Father Vedder; "then they are glad to see the good Dominie
+as well as the cakes. Now no more chatter! Here is a penny for
+each of you to put in the bag when it is passed."
+
+He gave them each a penny. Kit put his in his pocket. Kat didn't
+have a pocket, so she held hers tight in her hand.
+
+At the church door they met Grandfather and Grandmother.
+
+Grandfather looked very fine indeed, in his black clothes; and
+Grandmother was all dressed up in her best black dress, with a
+fresh white cap, and a shawl over her shoulders. She carried a
+large psalm book with golden clasps in one hand, and a scent
+bottle in the other. She had some peppermints too. Kit and Kat
+smelled them.
+
+They all went into the church together, and an old woman led them
+to their seats. Kit and Kat sat one on each side of Grandmother.
+Grandfather and Father Vedder sat on the other side of the church
+with all the rest of the men.
+
+"You must sit very still and look straight before you," said
+Grandmother.
+
+Kit remembered the peppermints and sat up like a soldier. So did
+Kat.
+
+Pretty soon the schoolmaster came in and went up into the pulpit.
+He read a chapter from the Bible, and then the Dominie stood up
+in the pulpit and began to preach. He preached a long time.
+
+Kit and Kat tried very hard to sit still, just as Grandmother had
+said; but pretty soon their heads began to nod.
+
+Grandmother gave them each a peppermint.
+
+They waked up for a minute. But the Dominie kept right on
+preaching, until they were both sound asleep with their heads on
+Grandmother's shoulders, one on each side; and if they had been
+awake to see, they might have thought that Grandmother took a nap
+too.
+
+The sermon was so very long that a great many people went to
+sleep. So, by and by, the Dominie said,
+
+"We will all sing the Ninety-first Psalm."
+
+Everybody woke up.
+
+Grandmother opened the great golden clasps of her psalm book, and
+stood up with all the rest of the people. She stood up quickly,
+so that no one would think she had been asleep. She forgot that
+the Twins were asleep too, with their heads on her shoulders.
+That was why, when she got up, Kit and Kat fell against each
+other and bumped their heads!
+
+They forgot that they were in church. They said "Ow!" both
+together, and Kat began to cry. But Grandmother said "Sh! sh!"
+and gave them each a peppermint; and that made them feel much
+better.
+
+Pretty soon the schoolmaster came along with a little bag on the
+end of along stick. He passed it to each person. Kit and Kat each
+put in a penny, though Kit had a hard time to get his out of his
+pocket. But Grandmother was so upset about the Twins getting
+bumped, that she forgot and put in a peppermint instead.
+
+When church was over and they were out on the street again,
+Grandmother said,
+
+"Now you are coming home with me to stay all night."
+
+"Really and truly?" said the Twins. "And may we go with
+Grandfather to carry the milk in the morning?"
+
+"Yes," said Grandfather, "and Kit may drive the dogs."
+
+Kit jumped right up and down, he was so happy, even if it was
+Sunday.
+
+"May I too? May I too?" asked Kat.
+
+"You are a girl," said Grandfather. "You may ride in the wagon."
+
+"Oh, I wish to-morrow would come right away," said Kat.
+
+Then Kit and Kat said good-bye to Father Vedder and went home
+with Grandmother and Grandfather.
+
+They lived on a little street in the town, where the houses stood
+in a row close together. The houses were built of brick and had
+wooden shutters at the windows, and they were so clean they shone
+in the sun.
+
+This is a picture of Grandmother's house and of Grandmother and
+Kit and Kat going in. The door opened right into the kitchen.
+
+Grandmother put away her shawl and psalm book and scent bottle as
+soon as she was home. Then she put on a big apron and drew out
+the round table.
+
+She boiled the kettle and made coffee; and, when it was done, she
+set the coffee pot on a pretty little porcelain stove on the
+table to keep hot. She got out bread and cheese and smoked beef
+and, best of all, a plate of little cakes.
+
+Then they all four sat down to eat. I will not tell you how many
+cakes Kit and Kat ate, but it was a good many.
+
+After dinner, Grandmother put away the things, and Kat helped
+her.
+
+Kit sat beside Grandfather in the doorway while he smoked. Pretty
+soon Grandfather said,
+
+"Bring me my accordeon, Kit."
+
+Kit ran to the press in the corner. He knew where the accordeon
+was kept.
+
+Then Grandfather took the accordeon, tipped his head back, shut
+his eyes and began to play, beating time with one foot. Kat heard
+the music and came out too.
+
+She and Kit sat down on the doorstep, one on each side of
+Grandfather, to listen.
+
+Grandfather played six tunes.
+
+Then Grandmother said,
+
+"Why don't we go to the woods to hear the band play?"
+
+"No reason at all," said Grandfather. So very soon they were on
+their way to a grove on the edge of the town.
+
+In the grove a band was playing; and just as the Twins and
+Grandfather and Grandmother came up, it began to play the national
+hymn of Holland. All the people began to sing. There were a great
+many people in the grove, and they all sang as aloud as they
+could; so there was a great sound. Grandfather and Grandmother
+and Kit and Kat all sang too; for they all knew every word of the
+hymn.
+
+This is what they sang:
+
+    Let him in whom old Dutch blood flows,
+    Untainted, free and strong;
+    Whose heart for Prince and Country glows,
+    Now join us in our song;
+    Let him with us lift up his voice,
+    And sing in patriot band,
+    The song at which all hearts rejoice,
+    For Prince and Fatherland,
+    For Prince and Fatherland.
+
+    We brothers, true unto a man,
+    Will sing the old song yet;
+    Away with him who ever can
+    His Prince or Land forget!
+    A human heart glowed in him ne'er,
+    We turn from him our hand,
+    Who callous hears the song and prayer,
+    For Prince and Fatherland,
+    For Prince and Fatherland.
+
+    Preserve, O God, the dear old ground
+    Thou to our fathers gave;
+    The land where we a cradle found,
+    And where we'll find a grave!
+    We call, O Lord, to Thee on high,
+    As near death's door we stand,
+    Oh! Safety, blessing to our cry
+    For Prince and Fatherland,
+    For Prince and Fatherland.
+
+    Loud ring thro' all rejoicings here,
+    Our prayer, O Lord, to Thee;
+    Preserve our Prince, his house so dear
+    To Holland great and free!
+    From youth thro' life, be this our song,
+    Till near to death we stand:
+    O God, preserve our sov'reign long,
+    Our Prince and Fatherland,
+    Our Prince and Fatherland.
+
+Now, while the people were singing with all their might, and the
+band was playing, and Kit and Kat were having the most beautiful
+time they had ever had in their whole lives, what do you think
+happened?
+
+Down the long drive through the trees came a great, splendid
+carriage, drawn by a pair of beautiful white horses with wavy
+white tails and manes. There were two soldiers on horseback
+riding in front of the carriage, and the driver of the carriage
+was dressed in blue and orange livery.
+
+The carriage was open, and in it sat a beautiful, smiling young
+lady. Beside her sat her husband; and a nurse, in the other seat,
+held a baby in her arms.
+
+When the people saw the carriage and the lady, they waved their
+caps and shouted, "Long live the Queen!"
+
+"Look! Look! Kit and Kat," said Grandfather. "It is your dear
+Queen Wilhelmina, and Prince Henry and the little Princess! Wave
+your hands!"
+
+Kit and Kat waved with all their might, but they were so short,
+and the people crowded beside the driveway so, that neither of
+them could see. Then Grandfather caught Kit and lifted him up
+high, and Grandmother did the same with Kat.
+
+It was fine to be up so high. Kit and Kat could see everything
+better than anyone else there. And when the carriage came by, the
+queen saw Kit and Kat! She smiled at them, and the nurse held the
+little Princess up high for them to see! Kit and Kat threw kisses
+to the little Princess; and the Princess waved her baby hand to
+Kit and Kat; and then they were all gone, like a bright dream.
+
+But the soldiers were better to see even than queens, Kit
+thought. Kat thought the baby, any baby, was nicer than either.
+
+When the carriage was out of sight, Grandfather and Grandmother
+set the Twins down on the ground. Everyone began to talk about
+the Queen, about how sweet she was, and how good; and the band
+played, and everybody was as happy as they could possibly be.
+
+By and by it was time to go home; for, Grandfather said, "Dutch
+girls and boys must learn to get up early in the morning,
+especially Twins that are going out with the milk cart."
+
+So they went back to Grandfather Winkle's house; and Grandmother
+put them to bed in a little cupboard like their own at home,
+after they had had some supper. And the last thing Kat said that
+night was,
+
+"O Kit, just to think that to-day we saw the Queen and the
+soldiers, and the Queen's baby, and to-morrow we are going to
+drive in the milk cart! What a beautiful world it is!"
+
+Just as they were dropping off to sleep, they heard a great noise
+in the street.
+
+"Clap, clap, clap," it sounded, eight times.
+
+"There goes the Klapper man," said Grandmother Winkle. "Eight
+o'clock, and time all honest folk were abed."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE DAY THEY DROVE THE MILK CART
+
+
+The next morning Kit and Kat woke up very early, without any
+one's calling them. You see, they were afraid they would be too
+late to go with the milk cart.
+
+But Grandfather Winkle had only just gone out to get the milk
+ready, and they had plenty of time to dress while Grandmother got
+breakfast. Grandmother helped with the buttons and the hard
+parts.
+
+Grandmother Winkle's kitchen was quite like the kitchen at home,
+only a little nicer. It had red tiles on the floor; and it had
+ever so many blue plates hanging around on the walls, and
+standing on edge in a row on the shelves. There was a warming-pan
+with a bright brass cover, hanging on the wall; and I wish you
+could have seen the pillows and the coverlet on the best bed!
+
+Grandmother Winkle had embroidered those all herself, and she was
+very proud of them. When she had company, she always drew the
+curtains back so that her beautiful bed would be seen. She said
+that Kit and Kat were company, and she always left the curtains
+open when they came to visit her.
+
+When the Twins were all dressed, Grandmother said,
+
+"Mercy sakes! You have on your best clothes! Now that's just like
+a man to promise to take you out in your best clothes in a milk
+wagon! Whatever was Grandfather thinking about!"
+
+Kit and Kat thought she was going to say that they couldn't go,
+so they dug their knuckles in their eyes and began to cry. But
+they hadn't got farther than the first whimper when Grandmother
+said,
+
+"Well, well, we must fix it somehow. Don't cry now, that's a good
+Kit and Kat." So the Twins took their knuckles out of their eyes
+and began to smile.
+
+Grandmother went to the press and brought out two aprons. One was
+a very small apron. It wouldn't reach to Kit's knees. But she put
+it on him and tied it around his waist.
+
+"This was your Uncle Jan's when he was a little boy," she said.
+"It's pretty small, but it will help some."
+
+Kit wished that Uncle Jan had taken it with him when he went to
+America. But he didn't say so.
+
+Then Grandmother took another apron out of the press. It looked
+as if it had been there a long time.
+
+"Kat, you must wear this," she said. "It was your mother's when
+she was a little girl."
+
+Now, this apron was all faded, and it had patches on it of
+different kinds of cloth. Kat looked at her best dress. Then she
+looked at the apron. Then she thought about the milk cart. She
+wondered if she wanted to go in the milk cart badly enough to
+wear that apron over her Sunday dress! She stuck her finger in
+her mouth and looked sidewise at Grandmother Winkle.
+
+Grandmother didn't say a word. She just looked firm and held up
+the apron.
+
+Very soon Kat came slowly--very slowly--and Grandmother buttoned
+the apron up behind, and that was the end of that.
+
+The Twins could hardly eat any breakfast, they were in such a
+hurry to go. As soon as they had taken the last spoonful, and
+Grandfather Winkle had finished his coffee, they ran out into the
+place where the dogs were kept, to help Grandfather harness them.
+
+There were two black and white dogs. Their names were Peter and
+Paul.
+
+The wagon was small, just the right size for the dogs; and it was
+painted blue. The bright brass cans full of milk were already in;
+and there was a little seat for Kat to sit on.
+
+When the last strap was fastened, Grandfather lifted Kat up and
+set her on the seat. She held on with both hands.
+
+Then Grandfather gave the lines to Kit, and a little stick for a
+whip, and told him to walk slowly along beside the dogs. He told
+him to be sure not to let go of the lines.
+
+Grandfather walked behind, carrying some milk cans.
+
+Grandmother stood in the door to see them off; and, as they
+started away, Kat took one hand off the cart long enough to wave
+it to her. Then she held on again; for the bricks in the pavement
+made the cart joggle a good deal.
+
+"We must go first to Vrouw de Vet," Grandfather called out. "She
+takes one quart of milk. Go slowly."
+
+At first Kit went slowly. But pretty soon there was a great
+rattling behind him; and Hans Hite, a boy he knew, drove right
+past him with his dog cart! He drove fast; and, as he passed Kit,
+he stuck out his tongue and called out,
+
+    "Milk for sale! Milk for sale!
+     A milk cart drawn by a pair of snails!"
+
+Kit forgot all about going slowly.
+
+"Get up!" he said to the dogs, and he touched them with his long
+stick.
+
+Peter and Paul "got up." They jumped forward and began to run!
+
+Kit ran as fast as his legs would go beside the dogs, holding the
+lines. But the dogs had four legs apiece, and Kit had only two;
+so you see he couldn't keep up very well.
+
+Kat began to scream the moment that Peter and Paul began to run.
+The dogs thought that something that made a dreadful noise was
+after them, and they ran faster than ever. You see, Grandfather
+Winkle never in the world screamed like that, and Peter and Paul
+didn't know what to make of it. So they ran and ran and ran.
+
+Kat held on the best she could, but she bounced up ever so far in
+the air every time the cart struck a bump in the street. So did
+the milk cans; and when they came down again, the milk splashed
+out.
+
+Kat didn't always come down in the same spot. All the spots were
+hard, so it didn't really matter much which one she struck as she
+came down.
+
+But Kat didn't think about that; she just screamed. And Peter and
+Paul ran and ran, and Kit ran and ran, until he couldn't run any
+more; he just sat down hard on the pavement and slid along. But
+he didn't let go of the lines!
+
+When Kit sat down, it jerked the dogs so hard that they stopped
+suddenly. But Kat didn't stop; she went right on. She flew out
+over the front of the cart and landed on the ground, among all of
+Peter and Paul's legs! Then she stopped going, but she didn't
+stop screaming.
+
+And, though Kit was a boy, he screamed some too. Then Peter and
+Paul pointed their noses up in the air and began to howl.
+
+Way back, ever so far, Grandfather was coming along as fast as he
+could; but that wasn't very fast.
+
+All the doors on the street flew open, and all the good
+housewives came clattering out to see what was the matter. They
+picked Kat up and told her not to cry, and wiped her eyes with
+their aprons, and stood Kit on his feet, and patted the dogs; and
+pretty soon Peter and Paul stopped barking, and Kit and Kat
+stopped screaming, and then it was time to find out what had
+really happened.
+
+Neither of the Twins had any broken bones; the good housewives
+wiggled all their arms and legs, and felt of their bones to see.
+But shocking things had happened, nevertheless! Kat had torn a
+great hole in the front of her best dress; and Kit had worn two
+round holes in the seat of his Sunday clothes, where he slid
+along on the pavement; and, besides that, the milk was slopped
+all over the bottom of the cart!
+
+Just then Grandfather came up. If it hadn't been that his pipe
+was still in his mouth, I really don't know what he might not
+have said! He looked at the cart, and he looked at the Twins.
+Then he took his pipe out of his mouth and said sternly to Kit,
+
+"Why didn't you do as I told you?"
+
+"I did," said Kit, very much scared. "You told me to be sure to
+hold tight to the lines, and I did! I never let go once."
+
+"Yes, and look at his clothes," said one of the women. She turned
+him around and showed Grandfather the holes.
+
+"I told you to go slowly," said Grandfather. "Now look at the
+cart, and see what you've done by not minding, spoiled your best
+clothes and Kat's, and spilled the milk! Go back to Grandmother."
+
+"But I couldn't mind twice at one time," said Kit. "I was minding
+about not letting go."
+
+"Oh dear," sobbed Kat, "I wish we were four and a half feet high
+now! If we were, this never would have happened."
+
+Grandfather took the dogs and went on to Vrouw de Vets, without
+another word.
+
+The Twins took each other's hands, and walked back to
+Grandmother's house. Quite a number of little boys and girls in
+wooden shoes clattered along with them. Grandmother heard all the
+noise, and ran to the door to see what was the matter.
+
+"Laws a mercy me, I told you so!" she cried, the moment she saw
+them. "Look at your clothes! See how you've torn them!"
+
+"I can't see the holes in mine," said Kit.
+
+"But I can," said Kat. And then all the children talked at once;
+and what with wooden shoes and the tongues all going, Grandmother
+clapped her hands over her ears to shut out the noise. Then she
+took Kit and Kat into the kitchen and shut the door. She put on
+her glasses and got down on the floor so she could see better.
+
+Then she turned Kit and Kat all around and looked at the holes.
+"O! my soul!" she said. She took off the aprons and the torn
+clothes and put the Twins to bed while she mended.
+
+She got out a pair of Grandfather's oldest velveteen breeches
+that had been patched a great deal, and found a good piece to
+patch with. Then she patched the holes in Kit's breeches so
+neatly that one had to look very carefully indeed to see that
+there had ever been any holes there at all.
+
+Then she patched Kat's dress; and, when it was all done, she
+shook it out and said to herself,
+
+"Seems to me those Twins have been quiet for a long time."
+
+She went over to the cupboard bed; and there were Kit and Kat
+fast asleep; with their cheeks all stained with tears and dirt.
+Grandmother Winkle kissed them. Kit and Kat woke up, and
+Grandmother dressed them in their Sunday clothes again, and
+washed their faces and made them feel as good as new.
+
+By and by Grandfather Winkle came home from going about with the
+milk. Grandmother Winkle scrubbed the cart and made it all clean
+again; and by noon you would never have known, unless you had
+looked very, very closely, much more closely than would be polite
+that anything had happened to the Twins or the milk cart, or
+their clothes or anything.
+
+After they had eaten their dinner, and the dogs were rested and
+Grandfather had smoked his pipe he said,
+
+"Kit, if you think you can mind, I will take you and Kat both
+home in the dog cart." Kit and Kat both nodded their heads very
+hard. "Only, I'll do the driving myself," said Grandfather
+Winkle. And he did.
+
+He put Kit and Kat both on the seat, and he walked slowly beside
+the cart. They went out on the road beside the canal toward home.
+They got there just as the sun was getting low in the west, and
+Vrouw Vedder was going out to feed her chickens.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE DAY THEY GOT THEIR SKATES
+
+
+One morning, when Kit and Kat ran out early to feed their
+ducklings, the frost nipped their noses and ears.
+
+"It's getting colder every day. Very soon winter will come," Kat
+said.
+
+They ran down to the canal. The old goose and the gander and the
+goslings--now half grown--were standing on the bank, looking
+unhappy: there was a thin sheet of ice all over the canal, and
+they could not go swimming.
+
+Kit took a stick and broke the ice. Thin sheets of it, like
+pieces of broken glass, were soon floating about; and the old
+goose, the gander, and all the goslings went down the bank in a
+procession into the water.
+
+They swam about among the pieces of ice for a while, but it was
+so cold that they soon came up on the bank into the sun again and
+wiggled their tails to shake out the water. Then they all sat
+down in the sun to get their feet warm.
+
+Kit and Kat ran up and down the road and played tag until their
+cheeks were red and they were warm as toast. Then they ran into
+Vrouw Vedder's warm kitchen.
+
+The kettle was singing on the fire, and there was a smell of
+coffee in the air. Vrouw Vedder gave the Twins some in a large
+cup. She put in a good deal of milk and gave them each a piece of
+sugar to sweeten it with.
+
+"Is it Sunday?" asked Kat. On Sundays they sometimes had coffee.
+On other days they had milk.
+
+"No," said Vrouw Vedder; "but it is cold, and I thought a cup of
+coffee would warm us all up."
+
+While they were drinking their coffee, Kit and Kat talked about
+the ice, and what fun they would have with their sleds on the
+canals when winter came.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Kat," said Kit; "I think we're big enough
+to have skates. Hans Hite isn't much bigger than I am, and he had
+skates last winter. I mean to ask Father this very day."
+
+"Yah," said Kat--that is the way Dutch Twins always say yes--
+"Yah, and let us be very good and help mother all we can. I think
+maybe they will give skates to good Twins quite soon, even if we
+aren't very big yet--not big enough to be called Christopher and
+Katrina."
+
+Vrouw Vedder was heating water and getting out her scrubbing
+brushes, so Kit and Kat knew that she was going to clean
+something.
+
+"What are you going to scrub to-day, Mother?" asked Kit.
+
+"I'm going to scrub the stable," said Vrouw Vedder. "It is
+getting too cold for the cows to stay all night in the pastures.
+Father means to bring Mevrouw Holstein in to-night, and I want
+her stable to be nice and clean for her."
+
+"We'll help you," said Kit and Kat very politely.
+
+"Good children!" their mother said. "You may carry the brushes."
+So they opened a door beside the fireplace, and walked right into
+the stable.
+
+The stable was really a part of the house. There were two stalls
+in the stable. Vrouw Vedder took her pails of water and her
+brushes and began to scrub. She scrubbed the walls, and the sides
+of the stalls, and the floor. The Twins scrubbed, too, until they
+were tired; and the stable was so clean, you would have liked to
+live there yourself.
+
+"Let's play out here," said Kat. "Let's play house."
+
+"All right," said Kit. "I'll be the father, and you be the
+mother."
+
+"But who will be Twins?" said Kat.
+
+"Let's get the ducklings," said Kit.
+
+"They can be Twins, of course," said Kat. "They are, anyway."
+
+So Kit ran out and brought in the ducklings. They were so tame
+they always ran to Kit and Kat, when they saw them coming. They
+were almost ducks now, they had grown so big.
+
+"Let's give the Twins their dinner," said Kat. So she got some
+grain, and they both sat down on a little box and held the ducks
+in their laps and fed them from their hands. The ducks ate
+greedily.
+
+"You have very bad manners," said Kat. "You will get your clothes
+all dirty." She took two rags and tied them around the ducks'
+necks for bibs. The ducks did not like bibs. They quacked.
+
+"Now don't say anything like that," said Kat. "You must do just
+as you are told and not spill your food."
+
+Then Kit got some water and a spoon and gave the Twins a drink,
+but they did not like the drink either.
+
+"Now we must put them to sleep," said Kat. They rocked the ducks
+in their arms, but the ducks squawked dreadfully.
+
+"What bad children to cry so!" said Kit. "You can have both the
+Twins"; and he gave his duck to Kat.
+
+"You fix a bed for them," said Kat. So Kit turned up the box they
+had been sitting on, and put some hay in it; and they put the
+ducks in on the hay.
+
+Pretty soon the ducks went to sleep. Kit and Kat ran away to play
+out of doors and forgot all about them.
+
+They didn't think about them again until Father Vedder came home
+at night with Mevrouw Holstein. When he put the cow into the
+stall, he stumbled over the box. It was rather dark in the
+stable.
+
+"Quack, quack!" said the ducks.
+
+Kit and Kat were helping Father put the cow into the stall and
+get some hay for her. When the ducks quacked, Father Vedder said,
+
+"What in the world is this?"
+
+"Oh, our Twins! our Twins!" cried Kit and Kat. "Don't let Mevrouw
+Holstein step on the Twins!"
+
+Father Vedder pulled out the box. Kit and Kat each took a duck
+and carried it out to the poultry house.
+
+"Twins are a great care," said Kit and Kat.
+
+"Now is the time to ask," whispered Kat to Kit, that night, when
+Father Vedder had finished his supper and was lighting his pipe.
+"You must ask very politely, just the very politest way you
+can."
+
+They went and stood before their father. They put their feet
+together. Kit made a bow, and Kat bobbed a curtsy.
+
+"Dear parent," said Kit.
+
+"That's a good start," whispered Kat. "Go on."
+
+"Well, well, what now?" said Father Vedder.
+
+"Dear parent, Kat and I are quite big now. I think we must be
+nearly four feet and a half high. Don't you think we are big
+enough to have skates this winter?"
+
+"So that's it!" said Father Vedder. Then he smoked his pipe
+again.
+
+"There was ice on the canal this morning," said Kat.
+
+"So you think you are big enough to skate, do you?" said Father
+Vedder, at last. Mother Vedder was clearing away the supper.
+"What do you think about it, Mother?" said Father Vedder.
+
+"They have been very good children," said the Vrouw. "There are
+the skates you and I had when we were children. We might try them
+on and see if they are big enough to wear them. They are in the
+bag hanging back of the press."
+
+Kit and Kat almost screamed with joy.
+
+"Our feet are quite large. I'm sure we can wear them," they said.
+
+Father Vedder got the bag down and took out two pairs of skates.
+They had long curling ends on the runners. The Twins sat down on
+the floor. Father Vedder tried on the skates.
+
+"They are still pretty large; but you will grow," he told the
+Twins. "You may have them if you will be very careful and not let
+them get rusty. By and by we will teach you to skate."
+
+The Twins practiced standing in the skates on the kitchen floor;
+and, when bedtime came, they took the skates to bed with them.
+
+"O Kit," said Kat, "I never supposed we'd get them so soon. Did
+you?"
+
+"Well," said Kit, "you see, we're pretty big and very good. That
+makes a difference."
+
+"It's very nice to be good when people notice it, isn't it?" said
+Kat.
+
+"Yah," said Kit. "I'm going to be good now right along, all the
+time; for very soon St. Nicholas will come, and he leaves only a
+rod in the shoes of bad children. And if you've been bad, you
+have to tell him about it."
+
+"Oh! Oh!" said Kat. "I'm going to be good all the time too. I'm
+going to be good until after the feast of St. Nicholas, anyway."
+
+Not many days after Kit and Kat got their skates, there came a
+cold, cold wind. It blew over the fields and over the canals all
+day and all night long; and in the morning, when the Twins looked
+out, the canal was one shining roadway of ice.
+
+Father Vedder came in from the stable with a great pail full of
+milk.
+
+"Winter is here now, for good and all," he said, as he set the
+pail down. "The canals are frozen over, and soon it will be the
+day for the feast of St. Nicholas."
+
+Kit and Kat ran to him and said, both together,
+
+"Dear Father Vedder, will you please teach us to skate before
+St. Nicholas Day?"
+
+"I'll see if the ice is strong enough to bear," said Father
+Vedder; and he went right down to the canal to see, that very
+minute. When he came in, he said,
+
+"Yes, the ice is strong; and we will go out as soon as you are
+ready, and try your skates."
+
+Vrouw Vedder said, "I should like to go too"; and Father Vedder
+said to Kit and Kat,
+
+"Your mother used to be the finest skater in the whole village
+when she was a young girl. You must not let her beat you."
+
+They hurried through with their work, Kit and Kat helped. Then
+they all put on their heavy shoes and wraps, took their skates
+over their shoulders, and started for the canal.
+
+"If you learn to skate well enough, we will take you to town
+before the feast of St. Nicholas," said Father Vedder. "But it
+comes very soon."
+
+He put on his own skates and Kit's, and the mother put on her own
+and Kat's.
+
+"I'm sure we can do it almost right away," said Kat.
+
+"Now we'll show you how to skate," said Father Vedder. He stood
+the Twins up on the ice. They held each other's hands. They were
+afraid to move. Father Vedder took Mother Vedder's hand.
+
+"See," he said, "like this!" And away they went like two
+swallows, skimming over the ice. In a minute they were ever so
+far away.
+
+Kit and Kat felt lonesome, and very queer, when they saw their
+father and mother flying along in that way. They weren't used to
+see them do anything but work, and move about slowly.
+
+"It looks easy," said Kit. "Let's try it. We must not be afraid."
+
+He started with his right leg, pushing it out a little in front
+of him. But it was very strange how his legs acted. They didn't
+seem to belong to him at all! His left leg tried to follow his
+right, just as it ought to; but, instead, it slid out sidewise
+and knocked against Kat's skates. Then both Kat's feet flew up;
+and she sat down very hard, on the ice. And Kit came down on top
+of her.
+
+They tried to get up; but, each time they tried, their feet slid
+away from them.
+
+"Oh dear," said Kat, "we are all mixed up! Are those your feet or
+mine? I can't tell which is which!"
+
+"They don't any of them mind," said Kit. "I can't stand up on any
+of them. I've tried them all! We'll just have to wait until
+Father and Mother come back and pick us out."
+
+"Ice is quite cold to sit on, isn't it?" said Kat.
+
+Soon Father and Mother Vedder came skimming back again. When they
+saw Kit and Kat, they laughed and skated to them, picked them up,
+and set them on their feet.
+
+"Now I'll take Kit, and you take Kat," said Vrouw Vedder to her
+husband, "and they'll be skating in no time." So Kat's father
+took her hands, and Kit took hold of his mother's, and they
+started off.
+
+At first the Twins' feet didn't behave well at all. They seemed
+to want to do everything they could to bother them. They would
+sprawl way apart; then they would toe in and run into each other.
+
+Many times Kit and Kat would have fallen if Father and Mother
+Vedder had not held them up; but before the lesson was over, both
+Kit and Kat could skate a little bit alone.
+
+"See, this is the way," said Vrouw Vedder; and she skated around
+in a circle. Then she cut a figure like this 8 in the ice. Then
+Father Vedder did a figure like this S all on one foot.
+
+"My!" said Kit and Kat.
+
+"I think our parents must skate the best of all the people in the
+world," said Kat.
+
+"I'm going to some day," said Kit.
+
+"So'm I," said Kat.
+
+After a while Vrouw Vedder said,
+
+"It's time to go home. Not too much the first time." So they all
+went back home with their cheeks as red as roses, and their noses
+too, and such an appetite for dinner!
+
+But the Twins were a little lame next day.
+
+Every day after that, Kit and Kat went out with their skates to
+the ditches and tried and tried to skate as Father and Mother did
+they did so want to skate to town and see the sights before the
+feast of St. Nicholas! They worked so hard that in a week they
+could skate very well; and then they planned a surprise for their
+mother.
+
+"If you will watch at the window, you'll see a great sight on the
+canal very soon," said Kit to his mother one day.
+
+Of course Vrouw Vedder hadn't the least idea what it would be!
+
+Kit and Kat slipped out through the stable and ran down to the
+ditch. They put on their skates and skated from the ditch out to
+the big canal.
+
+Vrouw Vedder was watching at the window. Soon she saw Kit and Kat
+go flying by, hand in hand, on the canal! They waved their hands
+to her. Vrouw Vedder was so pleased that she went to call Father
+Vedder, who was in the hay-loft over the stable.
+
+"Come and see Kit and Kat," she cried.
+
+Father Vedder came down from the loft and looked too. Then Kit
+cut a figure like this, S, and Kat cut one like this, 6. The
+round spot is where she sat down hard, just as she was almost
+around.
+
+When they came into the kitchen Father said,
+
+"I think we could take such a fine pair of skaters as that to the
+Vink with us on our way to town! The ice is very hard and thick
+for so early in the season, and we will go to-morrow."
+
+"We can see the shops too. St. Nicholas is coming, and the shops
+are full of fine things," said Vrouw Vedder.
+
+Kit and Kat could hardly wait for to-morrow to come. They polished
+their skates and made everything ready.
+
+"What do you suppose the Vink is?" said Kat to Kit.
+
+"I think it is something like a church," said Kit.
+
+"You don't know what a Vink is, so there," said Kat. "I think
+it's something to eat."
+
+Then Kit changed the subject.
+
+"I'll race you to-morrow," he said.
+
+"I'll beat," said Kat.
+
+"We'll see," said Kit.
+
+The next day they started, all four, quite early in the morning:
+Vrouw Vedder took her basket on her arm.
+
+"I shall want to buy some things," she said.
+
+Father Vedder lighted his pipe "To keep my nose warm," he said.
+
+Then they all went down to the canal and put on their skates.
+
+"Kat and I are going to race to the first windmill," said Kit.
+
+"I'll tell you when to start," said Father Vedder.
+
+"And I'll get a cake for the one who wins," said the mother.
+
+"One, two, three!" Away they flew like the wind! Father and
+Mother Vedder came close behind.
+
+Kit was so sure he would beat that he thought he would show off a
+little. He went zigzag across the canal; once or twice he stopped
+to skate in curves.
+
+Kat didn't stop for anything. She kept her eyes on the windmill,
+and she skated as hard as she could.
+
+They were getting quite near the mill now. Kit stopped playing
+and began to skate as fast as he could. But Kat had got the start
+of him.
+
+"I'll soon get ahead of her," he thought. "She's a girl, and I'm
+a boy." He struck out with great long sweeps, as long as such
+short legs could make, but Kat kept ahead; and in another minute
+there she was at the windmill, quite out of breath, and pointing
+her finger at Kit!
+
+"I beat, I beat," she said.
+
+"Well, I could have beaten if I wanted to," said Kit.
+
+"I'll get the cake," said Kat.
+
+"I don't care," said Kit. But Kat knew that he did.
+
+"I'll give you a piece," she said.
+
+Father and Mother Vedder came along then; and when Kit and Kat
+were rested, they all skated for a long time without saying
+anything. Then Father Vedder said proudly to his wife,
+
+"They keep up as well as anybody! Were there ever such Twins!"
+And Mother Vedder said,
+
+"Never!"
+
+By and by other people appeared on the canal--men and women and
+children, all skating. They were going to the town to see the
+sights too.
+
+One woman skated by with her baby in her arms. One man was
+smoking a long pipe, and his wife was carrying a basket of eggs.
+But the man and woman were good skaters. They flew along,
+laughing; and no one could get near enough to upset them.
+
+As they came nearer to the town, Kit and Kat saw a tent near the
+place where one canal opened into another. A man stood near the
+tent. He put his hands together and shouted through them to the
+skaters,
+
+    "Come in, come in, and get a drink
+     Of warm sweet milk on your way to the Vink:"
+
+"We must be getting quite near the Vink," Kat said. "I do wonder
+what it looks like Do you think it's alive?"
+
+They passed another tent. There a man was shouting,
+
+    "Come buy a sweet cake; it costs but a cent,
+     Come buy, come buy, from the man in the tent."
+
+Vrouw Vedder said,
+
+"I promised a cake to the one who beat in the race. We'll go in
+here and get it."
+
+So they went to the tent.
+
+They bought two cakes, and each ate half of one. Kat broke the
+cakes and gave them to the others, because she won the race.
+
+When they had eaten the cakes, they skated on. The canals grew
+more and more crowded. There were a good many tents; flags were
+flying, and the whole place was very gay.
+
+At last they saw a big building, with crowds of merry skaters
+about it. Many people were going in and out.
+
+"There's the Vink," said Father Vedder.
+
+"Where?" said Kit and Kat.
+
+He pointed to the building.
+
+"Oh!" said Kit. He never said another word about what they had
+thought it was like.
+
+Soon they were inside the Vink. It was a large restaurant. There
+were many little tables about, crowded with people, eating and
+drinking. Father Vedder found a table, and they all sat down.
+
+"Bring us some pea soup," he said to the waiter. Soon they were
+eating the hot soup.
+
+"This is the best thing I ever had," said Kit.
+
+When they had eaten their soup; they went out of the building and
+walked through the streets of the town. All the shops were filled
+with pretty things. The bake shops had wonderful cakes with
+little candies on top, and there were great cakes made like St.
+Nicholas himself in his long robes.
+
+Kit and Kat flattened their noses against all the shop windows,
+and looked at the toys and cakes.
+
+"I wish St. Nicholas would bring me that," said kit, pointing to
+a very large St. Nicholas cake.
+
+"And I want some of those," Kat said, pointing to some cakes made
+in the shapes of birds and fish.
+
+Vrouw Vedder had gone with her basket on an errand. Father Vedder
+and Kit and Kat walked slowly along, waiting for her. Soon there
+was a great noise up the street. There were shouts, and the
+clatter of wooden shoes.
+
+"Look! Look!" cried Kit.
+
+There, in the midst of the crowd, was a great white horse; and
+riding on it was the good St. Nicholas himself! He had a long
+white beard and red cheeks, and long robes, with a mitre on his
+head; and he smiled at the children, who crowded around him and
+followed him in a noisy procession down the street.
+
+Behind St. Nicholas came a cart, filled with packages of all
+sizes. The children were all shouting at once, "Give me a cake,
+good St. Nicholas!" or, "Give me a new pair of shoes!" or
+whatever each one wanted most.
+
+"Where is he going?" asked Kit and Kat.
+
+"He's carrying presents to houses where there are good girls and
+boys," Father Vedder said. "For bad children, there is only a rod
+in the shoe."
+
+"I'm glad we're so good," said Kit.
+
+"When will he come to our house?" asked Kat.
+
+"Not until to-morrow," said Father Vedder. "But you must fill
+your wooden shoes with beans or hay for his good horse, to-night;
+and then perhaps he will come down the chimney and leave
+something in them. It's worth trying."
+
+Kit and hat were in a hurry to get home, for fear the Saint would
+get there first.
+
+It was growing late, so they all went to a waffle shop for their
+supper.
+
+In the shop a woman sat before an open fire. On the fire was a
+big waffle iron. She made the waffles, put sugar and butter on
+them, and passed a plate of them to each one. Oh, how good they
+were!
+
+When they had eaten their waffles, Father and Mother Vedder and
+the Twins went back to the canal and put on their skates. It was
+late in the afternoon: They took hold of hands and began to skate
+toward home, four in a row. Father and Mother Vedder were on the
+outside, and the Twins in the middle.
+
+It was dark when they reached home. Vrouw Vedder lighted the
+fire, while Father Vedder went to feed the cow and see that the
+chickens and ducks and geese were all safe for the night.
+
+Kit and Kat ran for their wooden shoes. They each took one and
+put some hay in it. This was for St. Nicholas to give to his
+horse. Father Vedder put the shoes on the mantel. Then they
+hurried to bed to make morning come quicker.
+
+Father and Mother Vedder sat up late that night. Mother Vedder
+said it was to prepare the goose for dinner the next day.
+
+When the Twins woke the next morning, the fire was already
+roaring up the chimney, and the kitchen was warm as toast. They
+hopped out of bed and ran for their wooden shoes. Mother Vedder
+reached up to the mantel shelf for them. Truly, the hay was gone
+and there in each shoe was a package done up in paper!
+
+"Oh, he did come! He did come!" cried Kat. "O Mother, you're sure
+you didn't build the fire before he had got out of the chimney?"
+
+"I'm sure," said Vrouw Vedder. "I've made the fire on many a St.
+Nicholas morning, and I've never burned him yet!"
+
+The Twins climbed up the steps to their cupboard bed and sat on
+the edge of it to open their packages. In Kit's was a big St.
+Nicholas cake, like the one in the shop window! And in Kat's were
+three cakes like birds, and two like fish!
+
+"Just what we wanted!" said Kit and Kat. "Do you suppose he heard
+us say so?"
+
+"St. Nicholas can hear what people think," said Vrouw Vedder. "He
+is coming to see you to-night at six o'clock, and you must be
+ready to sing him a little song and answer any questions he asks
+you."
+
+"How glad I am that we are so good!" said Kat.
+
+"We'll see what the Saint thinks about that," said the mother.
+"Now get dressed; for Grandfather and Grandmother will be here
+for dinner, and we're going to have roast goose, and there's a
+great deal to do."
+
+Kit and Kat set their beautiful cakes up where they could see
+them while they dressed.
+
+"I do wish every day were St. Nicholas Day," said Kit.
+
+"Or the day before," said Kat. "That was such a nice day!"
+
+"All the days are nice days, I think," said Kit.
+
+"I don't think the dog-cart day was so very nice," said Kat. "We
+tore our best clothes, and they'll never, never be so nice again.
+That was because you didn't mind!"
+
+"Well," said Kit, "I minded as much as I could. How can I mind
+two things at one time? You know how well I can think! You know
+how I thought about Vrouw Van der Kloot's cakes. But I can't
+think how I can mind twice at one time."
+
+"I don't suppose you can," said Kat. "But anyway, I'm sorry about
+my dress."
+
+Just then Vrouw Vedder called them to come and eat their
+breakfast.
+
+Father and Mother Vedder sat down at the little round table and
+bowed their heads. Kit and Kat stood up. Father Vedder said
+grace; and then they ate their salt herring and drank their
+coffee; and Kit and Kat had coffee too, because it was St.
+Nicholas morning.
+
+It was snowing when, after breakfast, Kit went out with his
+father to feed the chickens and the pigs, and to see that the cow
+had something very good that she liked to eat. When they had done
+that, they called Kat; and she helped throw out some grain on the
+white snow, so the birds could have a feast, too.
+
+It snowed all day. Kit and Kat both helped their mother get the
+dinner. They got the cabbage and the onions and the potatoes
+ready; and when the goose was hung upon the fire to roast, they
+watched it and kept it spinning around on the spit, so it would
+brown evenly.
+
+By and by the kitchen was all in order, and you can't think how
+clean and homelike it looked! The brasses all around the room had
+little flames dancing in them, because they were so bright and
+shiny. Everything was ready for the St. Nicholas feast. The goose
+was nearly roasted, and there was such a good smell of it in the
+air!
+
+After a while there was a great stamping of feet at the door; and
+Vrouw Vedder ran with the broom to brush the snow off Grandfather
+and Grandmother, who had skated all the way from town, on the
+canal. When they were warmed and dried, and all their wraps put
+away, Grandfather and Grandmother Winkle looked around the
+pleasant kitchen; and Grandmother said to Grandfather,
+
+"Our Neltje is certainly a good house-wife." Neltje was Vrouw
+Vedder. And Grandfather said,
+
+"There's only one better one, my dear." He meant Grandmother
+Winkle.
+
+By and by they all sat down to dinner, and I can't begin to tell
+you how good it was! It makes one hungry just to think of it.
+They had roast goose and onions and turnips and cabbage. They had
+bread and butter, and cheese, and sweet cakes.
+
+"Everything except the flour in the bread, we raised ourselves,"
+said Vrouw Vedder. "The hens gave us the eggs; and the cow, the
+butter. The Twins helped Father and me to take care of the
+chickens, and to milk the cow, and to make the butter; so it is
+our very own St. Nicholas feast that we are eating."
+
+"A farmer's life is the best life there is," said Father Vedder.
+
+They sat a long time at the table; and Grandfather told stories
+about when he was a boy; and Father Vedder told how Kit and Kat
+learned to skate; and Kit and Kat told how they saw St. Nicholas
+riding on a white horse, and how he sent them the very things
+they wanted; and they all enjoyed themselves very much.
+
+After dinner, Grandmother Winkle sat down in the chimney corner
+and called Kit and Kat.
+
+"Come here," she said, "and I'll tell you some stories about St.
+Nicholas."
+
+The Twins brought two little stools and sat beside her, one on
+each side. She took out her knitting; and as the needles clicked
+in her fingers, she told this story:
+
+"Once upon a time, many years ago, three little brothers went out
+one day to the woods to gather fagots. They were just about as
+big as you are, Kit and Kat."
+
+"Were they all three, twins?" asked Kat.
+
+"The story doesn't tell about that," said Grandmother Winkle;
+"but maybe they were. At any rate, they all got lost in the woods
+and wandered ever so far, trying to find their way home. But
+instead of finding their way home, they just got more and more
+lost all the time. They were very tired and hungry; but, as they
+were brave boys, not one of them cried."
+
+"It's lucky that none of those twins were girls," said Kit.
+
+"I've even heard of boy twins that cried, when dog carts ran
+away, or something of that kind happened," said Grandmother
+Winkle. "But you shouldn't interrupt; it's not polite."
+
+"Oh!" said Kit very meekly.
+
+"Well, as I was saying, they were very lost indeed. Night was
+coming on; and they were just thinking that they must lie down on
+the ground to sleep, when one of them saw a light shining through
+the leaves. He pointed it out to the others; and they walked
+along toward it, stumbling over roots and stones as they went,
+for it was now quite dark.
+
+"As they came nearer, they saw that the light came from the
+window of a poor little hut on the edge of a clearing.
+
+"They went to the door and knocked. The door was opened by a
+dirty old woman, who lived in the hut with her husband, who was a
+farmer.
+
+"The boys told the old woman that they had lost their way, and
+asked her if she could give them a place to sleep. She spoke to
+her husband, who sat crouched over a little fire in the corner;
+and he told her to give them a bed in the loft.
+
+"The three boys climbed the little ladder into the loft and lay
+down on the hay. They were so tired that they fell asleep at
+once. The old man and his wife whispered about them over their
+bit of fire.
+
+"'They are fine-looking boys; and well dressed,' said the old
+woman.
+
+"'Yes,' said the old man, 'and I have no doubt they have plenty
+of money about them.'
+
+"'Do you really think so?' said the wife.
+
+"'I think I'll find out,' said the wicked farmer. So he climbed
+up to the loft and killed the three boys. Then he looked in their
+pockets for money; but there was no money there.
+
+"He was very angry. And he was very much afraid, wicked people
+are always afraid."
+
+"Are all afraid people wicked?" asked Kat. She wished very much
+that she were brave.
+
+"M-m-m, well, not always," said Grandmother Winkle.
+
+"The wicked farmer was so afraid that he wanted to put the bodies
+of the three boys where no one would find them. So he carried
+them down cellar and put them into the pickle tub with his pork."
+
+"Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed Kat, and she put her hands over her ears.
+Even Kit's eyes were very round and big. But Grandmother said,
+
+"Now, don't you be scared until I get to the end of the story.
+Didn't I tell you it was all about St. Nicholas? You wait and see
+what happened!
+
+"That very same day the wicked farmer went to market with some
+vegetables to sell. As he was sitting in the market, St. Nicholas
+appeared, before him. He had on his mitre and his long robes,
+just as you see him in Kit's cake.
+
+"Have you any pork to sell?" St. Nicholas asked the man.
+
+"No," said the farmer.
+
+"What of the three young pigs in your brine tub in the cellar?"
+said St. Nicholas.
+
+The farmer saw that his wicked deed was found out, as all wicked
+deeds are, sooner or later. He fell on his knees and begged the
+good Saint to forgive him.
+
+St. Nicholas said, "Show me the way to your house."
+
+The farmer left his vegetables unsold in the market and went
+home at once, the Saint following all the way.
+
+When they reached the hut, St. Nicholas went to the pickled-pork
+tub in the cellar. He waved his staff over the tub, and out
+jumped the three boys, hearty and well! Then the good Saint took
+them through the woods and left them in sight of their own home.
+
+"Oh, what a good St. Nicholas!" said Kit and Kat. "Tell us
+another."
+
+"Well," said Grandmother Winkle, "once upon another time there was
+a very mean man, who had a great deal of money, that often
+happens. He had, also, three beautiful daughters, that sometimes
+happens too."
+
+"One day he lost all his money. Now, he cared more for money than
+for anything else in the world more, even, than for his three
+beautiful daughters. So he made up his mind to sell them!"
+
+"St. Nicholas knew of this wicked plan; so that very night he
+went to the man's house and dropped some money through a broken
+window."
+
+"Why did he do that?" asked Kat.
+
+Because the man was selling his daughters to get money. If he
+had money enough, he wouldn't sell them.
+
+The first night St. Nicholas dropped enough money to pay for the
+eldest daughter. The next night he took a purse of gold for the
+second daughter, and dropped it down the chimney. It fell down
+right in front of the man, as he was getting a coal to light his
+pipe. The third night the man watched; and when St. Nicholas
+came, the door flew open, and the man ran out. He caught St.
+Nicholas by his long robe and held him.
+
+"O St. Nicholas, Servant of the Lord," he said, "why dost thou
+hide thy good deeds?"
+
+And from that time on, every one has known it is St. Nicholas
+who brings gifts in the night and drops them down the chimney.
+
+"Did the man sell his daughter?" asked Kat.
+
+"No," said Grandmother. "He was so ashamed of himself that he
+wasn't wicked any more."
+
+"Does St. Nicholas give everybody presents so they will be good?"
+asked Kat.
+
+"Yes," said Grandmother; "that's why bad children get only a rod
+in their shoes."
+
+"He gave the bad man nice presents to make him good," said Kit.
+"Why doesn't he give bad children nice things to make them good
+too?"
+
+Grandmother Winkle knitted for a minute without speaking. Then
+she said,
+
+"I guess he thinks that the rod is the present that will make
+them good in the shortest time."
+
+The clock had been ticking steadily along while Grandmother had
+been telling stories, and it was now late in the afternoon. The
+sky was all red in the west; there were long, long shadows across
+the snowy fields, and the corners of the kitchen were quite dark.
+
+"It's almost time to expect him, now," said Vrouw Vedder; and she
+brought out a sheet and spread it in the middle of the kitchen
+floor. She stirred up the fire, and the room was filled with the
+pleasant glow from the flames.
+
+Kit and Kat sat on their little stools. Their eyes were very big.
+At five minutes of six, Vrouw Vedder said,
+
+"He will be here in just a few minutes, now. Get up, Kit and Kat,
+and sing your song!"
+
+The Twins stood up on the edge of the sheet and began to sing:
+
+    "St. Nicholas, good, holy man,
+     Put on your best gown;
+     Ride with it to Amsterdam,
+     From Amsterdam to Spain."
+
+While they were singing, there was a sound at the door, of some
+one feeling for the latch. Then the door flew open, and a great
+shower of sweet cakes and candies fell onto the sheet, all around
+Kit and Kat! There in the doorway stood St. Nicholas himself,
+smiling and shaking off the snow! His horse was stamping outside.
+Kit and Kat could hear it.
+
+They stopped singing and hardly breathed, they stood so still.
+They looked at St. Nicholas with big, big eyes. In one hand St.
+Nicholas carried two large packages; in the other, a birch rod.
+
+"Are there any good children here?" said St. Nicholas.
+
+"Pretty good, if you please, dear St. Nicholas," said Kit in a
+very small voice.
+
+"Children who always mind their mothers and fathers and
+grandfathers and grandmothers?" said St. Nicholas, "and who do
+not quarrel?"
+
+Kat couldn't say anything at all, though the Saint looked right
+at her! Vrouw Vedder spoke.
+
+"I think, dear St. Nicholas, they are very good children," she
+said.
+
+"Then I will leave these for them and carry the rod along to some
+bad little boy and girl, if I find one," said St. Nicholas.
+"There seem to be very few about here. I haven't left a single
+rod yet." And he handed one big package to Kit, and another to
+Kat.
+
+"Thank you," said Kit and Kat.
+
+St. Nicholas smiled at them and waved his hand. Then the door
+shut, and he was gone!
+
+Kit and Kat dropped on their knees to pick up the cakes and
+candies. They passed the cakes and candies around to each one.
+Vrouw Vedder lighted the candles, and then they all gathered
+around to see Kit and Kat open their bundles.
+
+"You open yours first," said Vrouw Vedder to Kat.
+
+Kat was so excited that she could hardly untie the string. When
+she got the bundle open, there was a beautiful new Sunday dress
+much prettier than the torn one had ever been! Oh, how pleased
+Kat was! She hugged her mother and her grandmother and her father
+and her grandfather.
+
+"I just wish I could hug dear St. Nicholas, too," she said.
+
+Then Kit opened his bundle; and there was a beautiful new
+velveteen suit, with his very own silver buttons on it! It had
+pockets in it! He put his hand in one pocket. It had a penny in
+it! Then he put his hand in the other pocket. There was another
+penny!
+
+"I'm going to see if there's a pocket in mine," said Kat.
+
+She hunted and hunted and hunted. By and by she found a pocket.
+And sure enough, there was a penny in that too!
+
+Then some presents came from somewhere for Father and Mother
+Vedder and for Grandfather and Grandmother Winkle; and such a
+time as they all had, opening the bundles and showing their
+presents!
+
+Then Mother Vedder tried on Kit's suit and Kat's dress, to see if
+they were the right size. They were just right exactly.
+
+"St. Nicholas even knows how big we are," said Kat.
+
+"Oh, I wish St. Nicholas Day would last a week," said Kit.
+
+"That reminds me," said Vrouw Vedder, and she looked at the
+clock. "Half-past ten, and these children still up! Bless my
+heart, this will never do! Come here, Kit and Kat, and let me
+undo your buttons!"
+
+"May we take our new clothes to bed with us?" Kat asked.
+
+"Yes, just this once," said Mother Vedder, "because this
+is St. Nicholas night."
+
+They kissed their Grandfather and Grandmother good-night, and
+their Mother and Father, and said their prayers like good
+children; and then they climbed up into their little cupboard
+bed, and Vrouw Vedder drew the curtains, so they would go to
+sleep sooner.
+
+"Good-night, dear little Twins," she said.
+
+And so say we.
+
+
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
+
+
+This book is the first of a series of stories for supplementary
+reading the purpose of which is to give children a correct idea
+of life in different countries, both in the spirit and atmosphere
+of the story, and in the actual descriptions. These books will
+also further a spirit of friendliness and good will for children
+of other nationalities. Respect for and an understanding of the
+life and customs of other races, are not only educationally
+valuable, but are fundamentally important in this "crucible of
+nations," where different races are fusing themselves together as
+never before in the history of the world. Tradition is a precious
+heritage, and the traditions of other nations should be the
+natural inheritance of the American child, since here as nowhere
+else all the nations of the earth are entering into our national
+life.
+
+The author has recognized from the start that the purpose of a
+book of this kind would fail of realization if the narrative does
+not appeal strongly to children. The delight with which the book
+has been received by children is evidence that the important
+element of interest has not been left out of the narrative.
+
+To make the reading of this story most valuable as a school
+exercise, it is suggested that children be allowed at the outset
+to turn the pages of the book in order to get glimpses of "Kit"
+and "Kat," in the various scenes in which they are portrayed, in
+the illustrations, thus arousing their interest. With a globe, or
+a map of the world, point out Holland, and tell the children
+something about the unique character of the country.
+
+The text is so simply written that any third or fourth grade
+child can read it without much preparation. In the third grade it
+may be well to have the children read it first in the study
+period in order to work out the pronunciation of the more
+difficult words. In the fourth grade the children can usually
+read it at sight, without the preparatory study.
+
+In connection with the reading of the book, have children read
+selections from their readers and other books about Holland and its
+people. The legend of "The Hole in the Dike" is an illustration of
+this kind of collateral reading. Let children also bring to class
+postcards and other pictures illustrating scenes in Holland.
+
+The unique illustrations in the book should be much used, both in
+the reading of the story and in other ways. Children will enjoy
+sketching some of the pictures; their simple treatment makes them
+especially useful for this purpose. An excellent oral language
+exercise would be for the children, after they have read the
+story, to take turns telling the story from the pictures; and a
+good composition exercise would be for each child to select the
+picture that he would like to write upon, make a sketch of it,
+and write the story in his own words.
+
+These are only a few of the number of ways that will occur to
+resourceful teachers of making the book a valuable as well as an
+interesting exercise in reading.
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Dutch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins
+