The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-07-24

To my request for permission to
come on board he shouted back,
heartily, "Gaarne, mijnheer! Willing
W At the bridge just yonder. Min
aeer; can you step on from there as
We pass under?"
| ran on to the low bridge, and as
the big, gaily painted canal boat
passed, jumped aboard.
TX ben tot uwen dienst" The
sturdy, full syllables ordered them
selves at once now into the cordial
Il am at your service" and seemed
to scour suddenly the three years
rust from my proud "Nederlandsch. y
My phrases came back, and 1 ex-
planned.
Three years before l had lived for
almost eighteen months with Dutch
family at Utrecht; and when I had
left, had imagined myself very
much of Hollander indeed. And
now, when l had at last returned, /
found myself again foreigner.
At Vlissinger, where l landed, at
the Rotterdam Hotel, and even on
the train, all had failed to recognize
any evidence of my prided patriation
With them, and had addressed me in
variably in English. And finally here
At Delft, where my English fellow
traveller had informed me, with ex-
plantations, that here Hugo De Groot
was born; that here William the ST.
lent, founder of Dutch independence,
was assassinated; and that here was
buried Admiral Tromp, who had
swept the seas of his enemies, and
proclaimed it with broom nailed to
his masthead-then l could stand it
no longer, and left the train to make
my old friends again and hear their
tongue.
The boatman smiled and babe me
sit down. You are an American,
mijnheer?" he asked.
Yes" said, wondering a little at
The smile.
JAM" he called to the boy at the
stern. JAM" Then to me, wait;
DO not speak first, mijnheer.
The boy came up. Good morning,
sir!" he began at once in English, but
with little ring in his tone which
made me forget to resent it. You
are an American, SIR"
I'm an American" I answered
Then the ridiculous struck me, and
laughed with the father.
81 had asked your father, JAM"
said in Dutch, "to take me on board
to get away from English; and now
you show me that even on your own
canals | am not safe"
The father put his arm on the
boys shoulder a little proudly.
Upon any other boat on the whole
canal, mijnheer,' he said, you would
have been safe. Jan only"
"Neen, vader," the boy denied,
quickly. 81 am not the only one. All
the boys at the school learn either
English or German. The most think
German casters but 1 liked English
better; that was all"
mo, JAM the father contradicted,
kindly, lit is not true. They learn
German, for they will need it more,
working here, as you learn the Eng
fish, for it will be necessary where
you shall work. And so, mijnheer,"
he continued, turning to me, "he will
be very grateful to you if you will sit
and talk with him of America Yes,
Jan, it is more than my turn now to
pole the boat"
The father took the pole and went
to the bow of the long, fiat boat
Sinking an end Of the stick to the
bottom of the canal, he put the cross
piece at the top against his shoulder;
he Strengthened his legs with a jerk,
and the canal boat moved again; he
walked slowly. to the stern as he
showed, and the boat crept ahead.
Then back to the bow he came, to
trudge the length over again and
over.
l had seen enough OF that to have
it lose it's novelty, and not enough to
realize yet the full meaning of that
slow, unceasing plod. But the boy
beside me, as he watched, shuddered
little nervously; then, as l turned
he threw it off, and answered my
questions brightly.
A Holland town clusters clearly
neatly together; and slow as we were
already the scrupulously swept walks
the spotless, lively colored bricks and
tiles of Delft were passed. We were
out in the country between pastures
and farms.
A Holland canal is not like oul
Erie or our Delaware and Raritan
or any other canal know in America
There are canals in our far West fol
irrigating; but the Dutch canals are
even more unlike these, for they
DRAIN And to drain the fields eff
fectually in whole sections of the
country, the bottoms of the canal!
are higher than those fields they draw
their water from.
A large part Of Holland lies. a:
every one knows, below the sea, ant
Is protected by bikes so strong that
unless Holland is invaded and tn,
Hollanders cut the bikes, as they have
cut them before to drive back thei,
enemies-there is little chance tina
the sea will ever have to be pumped
out again; but the rain-water mus
be continually drawn off. So tn,
canals are built far enough abov,
the fields to have their level a littI,
nhnun tho nj 11xx