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little one! and she is English. How did you get here, dear heart?"

"I--I--fell down the dike. I have--lost--everybody. Oh, how shall I ever
get back to father?" answered Katharine in her very poor Dutch.

"But tell me, little one, where you came from--ach! so cold and wet!"

"I was spending the day with Marie and Gretel--and--Jan--and we were
walking on the dike when the fog came on; then I fell, and could not
find my way--"

"Gretel and Jan--could they be Juffrouw Van Dyne's children?"

"Yes, yes," eagerly; "that is where I was. Oh, _can_ you take me back,
dear, dear juffrouw?"

"Yes, when the fog clears away, my child. I could not find the house
now; it is more than two miles from here. Besides, you must put off
these wet clothes; you will get your death of cold--poor lambkin."

At this Katharine's sobs broke forth afresh. It must be late in the
evening now, she thought; her father would come to Marie's and would not
be able to find her--

"No, dear child, it is only four o'clock in the afternoon. The fog may
clear away very soon, and then I will take you back."

Quickly the wet garments were taken off and hung about the stove.
Katharine presently found herself wrapped up in blankets in a great
arm-chair in front of the fire, a cushion at her back and another under
her feet, drinking some nice hot broth, and feeling so warm and
comfortable that she fell fast asleep, and awoke two hours later to find
the room quite light, the fog almost gone, the juffrouw sitting beside
her knitting, and a comfortable-looking cat purring noisily at her
feet.

 [Illustration: GRETEL AND KATRINE.]

"I think I have been asleep," she said.

"I think you have," said Dame Donk.

Just then a loud knock was heard at the door, a head was poked in, then
another, and still another. The cottage was fast filling up. There
stood, first of all, poor, pale, frightened Marie, holding a large
bundle in her arms, Jan with another smaller one, Gretel carrying a pair
of shoes, and one of the sisters, completely filling up the doorway with
her ample proportions, last of all.

It appears that as soon as the fog had begun to clear, the good Dame
Donk had despatched a boy from a neighboring cottage to let them know
where Katharine was, and that her wardrobe would need replenishing.

The excitement on finding the child safe and sound may be better
imagined than described. How she was kissed, cried, and laughed over,
what questions were asked and not answered, as she was taken into an
adjoining room and arrayed in a complete suit of Gretel's clothes, even
to the klompen, for, alas! her French shoes were now in no condition to
be worn, the pretty blue frock torn and stained and hopelessly wet, the
hat with its dainty plume crushed and useless; indeed, every article she
had worn looked only fit for the rag-bag.

Gretel was so much smaller than Katharine that the clothes were a very
tight fit, the skirt which hung round Gretel's ankles reaching just
below Katharine's knees, and it was a funny little figure that stepped
back into the room--no longer a fashionably dressed New York maiden, but
a golden-haired child of Holland, even to the blue eyes, sparkling now
with fun and merriment.

"But didn't you bring a cap for me, Marie?" she asked in a grieved tone.

"Ah, no, deary; I never thought of a cap."

"Well, you must put one on me the minute we get back."

"Oh, what will father say?" she cried delightedly, as she surveyed
herself in the little mirror.

This sobered Marie at once. What would "father" say, indeed? Would he
not have a right to be very angry with her, that she had allowed the
child to get into such danger?

 * * *

"Where is Katharine?" asked the colonel, as he stood, tall and
commanding, on the threshold, later that evening, surveying eight small
Hollanders, looking so much alike, except for the difference in their
sizes, that they might have passed for eight Dutch dolls propped up in a
row against the wall.

A sudden shriek of laughter, and one of the dolls was in his arms,
smothering him with kisses. Then every one began to talk at once, as
usual, and it was not until late the next evening, when he and Katharine
were steaming out of Amsterdam, that the colonel was told the whole
story and for the first time fully understood all that had happened to
his little girl on that eventful day.

Meanwhile the new light in his daughter's eyes and the laughter on her
lips kept him from any desire to inquire too deeply into the reason for
a certain embarrassed frightened look on the faces of the women.

Before leaving Amsterdam the colonel was obliged to purchase a complete
suit of Dutch garments for Katharine as a memento of this visit, and
"because they are so pretty, father," she said, and "oh, father, I just
love Holland! As for those Dutch children, I think they are simply the
dearest, sweetest things I ever saw, and I have promised to write to
Gretel as soon as ever I get to Paris."

THE JINGLE OF THE LITTLE JAP

BY ISABEL ECCLESTON MACKAY

 There lives in a town that is called Chu-Bo
 A little Jap girl named Nami-Ko.
 She learns to spell and she learns to write,
 But her A B C's are the _oddest_ sight!

 For _this_ is the way that the letters look
 In her neat little, queer little copy-book:

 This little Jap girl has shoes most neat
 To put on her tiny Japanese feet,
 But O! They are _queer_--such heels, such toes!
 You'd think she would fall on her little Jap nose!

 And _these_ are the shoes--beware of mishap
 If you wear what belongs to a queer little Jap!

 When this little Jap girl goes out to call
 She wears no hat--but a parasol!
 And her little Jap mother wears one too--
 In fact it's the way that the Japs all do.

 And _this_ is the curious parasol
 Which the little Jap girl wears out to call:

 This little Jap girl, when she goes to bed,
 Has no soft pillow beneath her head,
 For little Jap girls have to take great care
 Of their smooth little, black little Japanese hair!

 And _this_ is the pillow! Imagine, chicks,
 A pillow like this--and as hard as bricks!

THE SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE LITTLE COUSIN FROM CONSTANTINOPLE

BY EMMA C. DOWD

The Little Cousin from Constantinople was to have been given a party on
her seventh birthday; but, just before the invitations were written,
Mumps came uninvited, and, of course, there could be no other guests
while Mumps stayed.

 [Illustration: "EAGERLY SHE TORE OFF THE WRAPPINGS." (SEE NEXT PAGE.)]

The Little Cousin could not help feeling just a little tearful on her
birthday morning, for Mumps, as nearly everybody knows, is a painful,
disagreeable visitor. She did not cry when anybody was near--oh, no,
indeed! She even tried to smile; but she found smiling very difficult
with a poultice on each side of her face, and she had to give it up. The
Merry Mother understood, however, and told her she was a dear, brave
little girl, and strove to comfort her just as the dear absent Mother in
Constantinople would have comforted her if she had been there.

Befo

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