Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-12-12
literorp Selections.
GERARD VAN KAMPEN.

all that duly day one unbroken unfnoItleu
sweep Of cloud had stretched across the
sky. You might have painted the land
scape with chalk and ashes. Over rich
pasture and sluggish canal, over the
Zuyder Zee and the German Ocean, the
same duh wearisome, UNMARRIED shadow
for our scene lies in Holland, and it opens
IN the little village of Muiden, league
from Amsterdam, and on the borders Of
the great inland sea.
When the sun comes out again, its
long street Of low white houses, with their
formal garden plots, and still more formal
trees, viii look pretty enough. Now the
same dull rain confuses all the place
seems deserted boy may occasionally
cross the road on some errand, a drench-
ed fowl may occasionally be seen in the
lane that runs down to yonder white
farm and then they retire, and then
leave the place to its destination. That
high bank to the north, which shuts out
all view Of the Zuyder Zee, is the great
dyke, on the strength of which depends
the very existance of the surrounding
country. It is towards that am going
to take you for our business lies at the
cottage yonder which nestles at its foot,
close to the enormous sluice gates that
commands the tides.
A neat little place it is, to be sure /;
like the rest, low and whitewashed, save
that there is broad, yellow band ofpaint
round the windows. The walk through
the garden is paved with brick, now slip
perry and shining with wet the garden
itself is laid out in square or star-shaped,
or ectagonal beds, neatly trimmed with
box; there is a yew tree on each side of
the outer gate, the one bearing the form
Of lion rampant, the other intended TO
represent peacock with spread tail, and
in.the green moat that surrounds the
whole, good Gerard van Kampen-for
that is the name of the owner-had
erected one of those buildings, half ship,
half summer house, where Dutchmen are
won't to enjoy their pipes till sunset and
then leave the apartment to the possess
ion Of frogs and typhuE. A well to do
man is master Gerard, keeper Of the
sluice gates, near which he lives, and
owner Of five acres of the best land in
the Sticht. How the whole country as
we go in, seems choked with water
bitches overbrimming, burrows turned
into currentless riyulets, every horse-hooi
or pattern mark in the road proving the
saturation Of the earth. 1t is enough to
remind one Of Buffers verse:
"They always ply the pump, and never think
They can be safe but at the rate they sink
They live as if they had been run aground,
And when they die are cast away and drown'd
A land that rides at anchor, and is moor'd.
In which men do not lire but go abroad
Let Us go ia and see what the interior
Of the cottage can show us.
A comfortable little kitchen indeed
the fire just sufficient to make the grea
pot that hangs over it simmer; the fire
place lined with blue and white tiles, in
tended TO represent Scripture history, al
indeed after a sort they do. There il
Isaac bound and lying upon the altar
while Abraham levels at him monstrou
blunderbuss, into the pan of which the
angel is about 10 empty jug of water
There is the Judgment of Solomon-th
king is attired in full bottomed wi;
while the officer wears the habit of tn
Amsterdam bnngher guard. There i
the marriage of Tobit, celebrated by
gentleman in ruff and bands. As to th
dresser, its pewter dishes glitters like sill
yer the red tiles of the floor look as
II were an impossibility that speck @
dirt should ever have fallen on them
while The great black oak table, with il
earions carved legs, shines with bright
ness that suggests hours and years of pa
tient rubbing, and generations ofdecease
house-maids. There are one or two en-
cravings. snch as they are the burgc
master oi Leyden offering his body fo
the food Of Che enraged and famishin
multitude, but Declaring that he had swor
not TO surrender the town to the Spar
iards, and that BY Gods grace he woul
keep his oath the murder of Williar
of Orange, BY Belthazer Geraarts : an
portrait Of the then Stakeholder. afte
wards William III, of England.
Bat it is too bad to have been SO Ion
in describing the room, and as yetto ha,
aidnothing Of its young mistress, who
working BY the fire side. Elsie va
Kampen IS the old Waterwarden's on
child her mother died at her birth; ar
she has indeed been sunbeam in th
little Mfsssau Too4la III Ii L. r.