"I tell you what it is, Kat," said Kit; "I think we're big enough
to have skates. Hans Hite isn't much bigger than I am, and he had
skates last winter. I mean to ask Father this very day."

"Yah," said Kat--that is the way Dutch Twins always say yes--
"Yah, and let us be very good and help mother all we can. I think
maybe they will give skates to good Twins quite soon, even if we
aren't very big yet--not big enough to be called Christopher and
Katrina."

Vrouw Vedder was heating water and getting out her scrubbing
brushes, so Kit and Kat knew that she was going to clean
something.

"What are you going to scrub to-day, Mother?" asked Kit.

"I'm going to scrub the stable," said Vrouw Vedder. "It is
getting too cold for the cows to stay all night in the pastures.
Father means to bring Mevrouw Holstein in to-night, and I want
her stable to be nice and clean for her."

"We'll help you," said Kit and Kat very politely.

"Good children!" their mother said. "You may carry the brushes."
So they opened a door beside the fireplace, and walked right into
the stable.

The stable was really a part of the house. There were two stalls
in the stable. Vrouw Vedder took her pails of water and her