St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-03-02


feet high above the surrounding pasture
land, which are thickly populated with
black and white cattle or the 'aristocracy
of the cow world These canals are SO
trimming full of water that one feels they
actually must sit perfectly quiet in the
boat for fear of causing an extra ripple
and so force the water over the top OF
the dyke. One especially feels this when
they are passing the little villages tor the
houses are cuddled close to the dyke for
protection, so that but half of the hous-
es stand above the water line. Now can
you imagine us as having reached this
little town of Aalsmeer? AS it happened
it was Kermiss week, or fair week, SO
that the one hotel was full, and there
was no way for us to get away from
there until twelve o'clock that night,
and then only by boat. Of course the
Holland language is not English and but
little like German-so it was difficult to
make the proprietor understand that we
would be willing and glad to stay in
private home. Nearly every one had
company or couldn't think of having
strangers come into their home. Final
~ fine looking Ho1lander, who could
speak English came to our rescue. saying
that perhaps he could persuade the town
miller and his wife to take US in, and this
he did, with considerable tact on his
part. Oh my. oh my, how | wish you
could have been with US that evening,
for it was like story book. Miss Hall,
young lady who has been travelling
with US this summer was given the par
lor for her room. Now this means
room quite different from our parlor. All
the rooms are small and this one contain
ed the treasures of the household. There
were beautiful black walnut cases filled
with china and glass, the walls were
covered with Delft plate and knick-knacks.
A tea table was set ready for use at
moments notice, although l doubt it
they were often used, while one side of
the, room was taken up by two doors,
one opening into a china cupboard and
the other into the bed, or as | named it,
the hole in the wall. AS we opened the
door and pushed back the snow white
curtains it certainly looked inviting, but
when we opened the windows to let in
bit of fresh air, it nearly took the good
Frau's breath away. Eula1ie and | were
ushered upstairs, or more correctly up
ladder, for the stairs were no more than
our good ladders. We too, slept in a
hole in the wall, with our room literally
full of knick-knacks. The evening we
spent with the family in the little sitting
room. with stool carefully placed under
our feet by the miller himself, who by the
way, had b1oomer-like trousers. made OF
a large checked blue and white gingharn.
The tea, coffee and hot milk pots were
ever present and hot, and the contents of
the same served to US several times dur
ing the evening The daughter sang and
played to US on an organ, while the ia
Their gesticulated his admiration of her to
US, for you remember we could not under
stand his Dutch nor he our English, so
most of our talk was in pantomime. For
instance, in the morning when we wished
some pepper for our eggs we had to
sneeze and point to the eggs, and imme-
diately they understood, and such fun as
we had! The good Frau simply satur-
ated our handkerchief with the choicest
eau de cologne, and spread our zwieback
with powdered annis seed, brought forth
from the treasure room. About half past
nine an invitation came from the head
schoolmaster and his wife to make them
a call. Here we were served with more
coffee and the burgermeister wife sent
in dish of Hermiss cakes, made only
once a year. The next morning our
English speaking friend took US to his
nursery, for it is here in little AalSmeer
that most of the beautifully trained and
clipped box wood and yew trees are
raised. Such wonderful shapes for trees
or small bushes 1 never dreamed of.
There were cats, dogs, swans, elephants,
bears, ducks, ETC., all living in a happy
family, with soft green tables, chairs,
ships, harps, etc., to keep them COM
pany.
eve were so 10th to leave this will
low pattern land with its streets some
times so narrow not a carriage can trav-
ell them, simply narrow dyke, with
still narrower canal on either side and
then the most doll like houses set behind
-
ers are reflected in the narrow canals.
These homes are reached by swing bridg-
es, which are pushed aside by the small
boats as they are poled along. Dogs
are used great deal for drawing carts.
A very pretty sight is to see small cart
drawn by two dogs and engineered by
young boy in his native costume, deliver
ing milk, which he dips from huge,
brightly polished brass cans.
1T was someway hard for US to go to
city after this peep into such fairy land,
but Amsterdam was delightful with its
broad canals crossed by large arching
bridges and in the evening was it especi-
ally picturesque with the many lights
from the buildings and streets reflected in
the water, making another city turned up
side down. The Zaandam region with
its many windmills is most bewitching
while Monnikendam. Edam, Volendam
and Marker could fill a book, but are you
not all worn out? Of course Edam is
where the Edam cheeses were first made,
and we were there on market day, where
we saw thousands of these round yellow
cheeses weighed and sold.
''We were in Volendam on Saturday
and Sunday, when the 800 fishing boats
came into the little harbor for their day
of cleaning and their day of rest. 1t was
interesting to see the men busy taking
out their days or weeks catch of fish
nets up to dry, paint the sails another
coat of brown, blue or yellow paint, and
then go home to dress up in their Sunday
best, and best of all was it to see them
afterwards with their Frau, or wife, and
little one walking slowly along the dyke
In fact l couldn't imagine them walking