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he home of one of Marie's sisters, two of whom were
married and settled near one of the dikes of Holland. Katharine was to
spend the day there with her nurse, and make the acquaintance of all the
nieces and nephews about whom Marie had told her so much, while her
father was to return to Amsterdam, where he had business to transact
with a friend. They had arrived in Holland only the day before, when
Marie had immediately left them, being anxious to get home as soon as
possible, after exacting a promise from the colonel that Katharine
should visit her the next day.

Katharine felt very sure she would never like Holland as she gazed
rather scornfully at the curious objects they passed: the queer
gay-colored boats, the windmills which met the eye at every turn, with
their great arms waving in the air, the busy-looking people, men and
women, some of the latter knitting as they walked, carrying heavy
baskets on their backs, and all looking so contented and placid.

"Try and think of the nice day you are going to have with Marie and the
children," said the colonel; "then this evening I will come for you, and
we will go together to Paris, and when you see Aunt Katharine you will
be perfectly happy. See, we are nearly at the landing, and look at that
row of little girls and boys. I do believe they are looking for you."

"Yes; they must be Marie's sister's children, I know them from the
description Marie has read me from her letters. Aren't they horrid
little things, father? Just look at their great clumps of shoes--"

"Yes--_klompen_; that is what they are called, Katharine."

"And their baggy clothes and short waists! One of them knitting, too!
Well, I would never make such a fright of myself, even if I did live in
Holland, which I'm glad I don't."

 [Illustration: "THE WINDMILLS WHICH MET THE EYE AT EVERY TURN, WITH
 THEIR GREAT ARMS WAVING IN THE AIR."]

By this time they had made the landing. Then Katharine and Marie fell
into each other's arms and cried, gazed at in half-frightened curiosity
by seven small, shy Hollanders, and in pitying patience by a very large
colonel.

"Au revoir. I will call for Katharine this afternoon," called Colonel
Easton, when the time came for him to go on board again.

Katharine waved her handkerchief to her father as long as his boat was
in sight.

"See, Miss Katharine," said Marie--in Dutch now, for Katharine
understood that language very well, Marie having spoken it to her from
her infancy--"here is Gretel, and this is her little sister Katrine and
her brother Jan. The others are their cousins. Come here, Lotten; don't
be shy. Ludolf, Mayken, Freitje, shake hands with my little American
girl; they were all eager to come and meet you, dear, so I had to bring
them."

Katharine shook hands very soberly with the little group, and then
walked off beside Marie, hearing nothing but the clatter-clatter of
fourteen wooden shoes behind her.

Soon they arrived at the cottage, and in a moment seven pairs of klompen
were ranged in a neat row outside a small cottage, while their owners
all talked at once to two sweet-faced women standing in the doorway.
These were Marie's sisters, whose husbands were out on the sea fishing,
and who lived close beside each other in two tiny cottages exactly
alike.

"Oh," exclaimed Katharine, as, panting and breathless, she joined the
group, "do you always take off your shoes before you go into the
house?"

 [Illustration: LITTLE MAYKEN]

"Why, of course," said the children.

"How funny!" said Katharine.

Then Marie, who had been left far behind, came up and introduced the
little stranger to Juffrouw Van Dyne and Juffrouw Boekman, who took her
into the house, followed by the three children who belonged there and
the four cousins who belonged next door. They took off her coat and hat
and gave her an arm-chair to sit in as she nibbled a tiny piece of
gingerbread, while large pieces from the same loaf disappeared as if by
magic among the other children. Then Gretel showed to her her doll; Jan
shyly put into her hand a very pretty small model of the boat she had
come in on that morning; Lotten offered her a piece of Edam cheese,
which she took, while politely declining Mayken's offer to teach her to
knit, little Katrine deposited a beautiful white kitten on her lap;
Ludolf showed her a fine pair of klompen on which his father was
teaching him to carve some very pretty figures; Freitje brought all his
new fishing-tackle and invited her to go fishing with him at the back of
the house. It was not long before Katharine forgot that she was
homesick, and grew really interested in her surroundings; and later the
dinner, consisting chiefly of fish and rye bread, tasted very good to
the now hungry Katharine.

It was after dinner that the tragedy happened. The children had all
started out for a walk. Before they had gone more than a mile from the
house the fog settled all around them--so dense, so thick, blotting out
everything, that they could not see more than a step ahead. They were
not frightened, however, as all they had to do was to turn round and go
straight ahead toward home. The children took one another's hands at
Gretel's direction, stretching themselves across the road, Katharine,
who held Gretel's hand, being at one end of the line. They walked on
slowly along the dike for a short time, talking busily, though not able
to see where they were going, when suddenly Katharine felt her feet
slipping. In trying to steady herself she let go of Gretel, gave a wild
clutch at the air, and then rolled, rolled, right down a steep bank,
and, splash! into a pool of water at the bottom. For a moment she lay
half stunned, not knowing what had happened to her; then, as her sense
came, "Oh," thought she, "I must be killed, or drowned, or something!"
She tried to call "Gretel," but her voice sounded weak and far off, and
she could see nothing. Slowly she crawled out of the pool, only to
plunge, splash! into another. She felt, oh, so cold, wet, and bruised!
"I must have rolled right down the dike," she thought. "If I could find
it, I might climb up again." She got up and tried to walk, but sank to
her ankles in water at every step.

She was a little lame from her fall, and soaked from head to foot. Her
clothes hung around her most uncomfortably when she tried to walk. But,
if she had to crawl on hands and knees, she must find the house; so,
plunging, tumbling, rising again, she crawled in and out of ditches,
every minute getting more cold and miserable.

But on she went, shivering and sore, every moment wandering farther from
her friends, who were out searching all along the bottom of the dike.

After what seemed to her a long time, she came bump up against something
hard. She did not know what it was, but she could have jumped for joy,
if her clothes had not been so heavy to hear a voice suddenly call out
in Dutch "What's that? Who has hit against my door? Ach! where in the
world have you come from?" Then in a considerably milder tone: "Ach! t

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