trip with me to that far country where you may see, perhaps for
the first time, some curious things that Hans and Gretel saw
every day.




Holland



Holland is one of the queerest countries under the sun. It
should be called Odd-land or Contrary-land, for in nearly
everything it is different from the 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, or bulwarks, have been erected 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 ensue.
They are high and wide, and the tops of some of them are covered
with buildings and trees. They have even fine public roads on
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 clattering to her young on the house
peak may feel that her nest is lifted far out of danger, but the
croaking frog in 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,