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Page 75
HOLLAND.
PART I.
Holland is one of the queerest countries under the sun. It should be
called Odd-land, or Contrary-land; for, in nearly every thing, it is
different from other parts of the world.
In the first place, a large portion of the country is lower than the
level of the sea. Great dikes have been built at a heavy cost of money
and labor, to keep the ocean where it belongs.
On certain parts of the coast it sometimes leans with all its weight
against the land, and it is as much as the poor country can do to stand
the pressure.
Sometimes the dikes give way, or spring a leak, and the most disastrous
results follow. They are high and wide, and the tops of some of them are
covered with buildings and trees. They have even fine public roads upon
them, from which horses may look down upon wayside cottages.
Often the keels of floating ships are higher than the roofs of the
dwellings. The stork, on the house-peak, may feel that her nest is
lifted far out of danger, but the croaking frog in the neighboring
bulrushes is nearer the stars than she.
Water-bugs dart backward and forward above the heads of the chimney
swallows; and willow-trees seem drooping with shame, because they can
not reach so high as the reeds near by.
Ditches, canals, ponds, rivers, and lakes are every-where to be seen.
High, but not dry, they shine in the sunlight, catching nearly all the
bustle and the business, quite scorning the tame fields, stretching
damply beside them. One is tempted to ask: "Which is Holland--the shores
or the water?"
The very verdure that should be confined to the land has made a mistake
and settled upon the fish ponds. In fact the entire country is a kind of
saturated sponge, or, as the English poet Butler called it--
"A land that rides at anchor, and is moored,
In which they do not live, but go aboard."
Persons are born, live, and die, and even have their gardens on
canal-boats. Farmhouses, with roofs like great slouched hats pulled over
their eyes, stand on wooden legs, with a tucked up sort of air, as if to
say, "We intend to keep dry if we can."
Even the horses wear a wide stool on each hoof to lift them out of the
mire.
It is a glorious country in summer for bare-footed girls and boys. Such
wadings! Such mimic ship sailing! Such rowing, fishing, and swimming!
Only think of a chain of puddles where one can launch chip boats all
day long, and never make a return trip!
But enough. A full recital would set all Young America rushing in a body
toward the Zuyder Zee.
* * * * *
Directions for Reading.--In reading the first line of page 187, there
will be a slight rising of the voice after each of the words,
_ditches', canals', ponds', rivers'_, and a slight falling of the voice
after _lakes'_.[11]
This rising or falling of the voice is called _inflection_, and may be
indicated as above.
Language Lesson.--What is the meaning of "Young America"?
[11] See paragraph 7.
* * * * *
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