Great flapping windmills all over the country make it look as if
flocks of huge sea birds were just settling upon it. Everywhere
one sees the funniest trees, bobbed into fantastical shapes, with
their trunks painted a dazzling white, yellow, or red. Horses
are often yoked three abreast. Men, women, and children go
clattering about in wooden shoes with loose heels; peasant girls
who cannot get beaux for love, hire them for money to escort them
to the kermis, *{Fair.} and husbands and wives lovingly harness
themselves side by side on the bank of the canal and drag their
pakschuyts to market.

Another peculiar feature of Holland is the dune, or sand hill.
These are numerous along certain portions of the coast. Before
they were sown with coarse reed grass and other plants, to hold
them down, they used to send great storms of sand over the
inland. So, to add to the oddities, the farmers sometimes dig
down under the surface to find their soil, and on windy days DRY
SHOWERS (of sand) often fall upon fields that have grown wet
under a week of sunshine.

In short, almost the only familiar thing we Yankees can meet with
in Holland is a harvest song which is quite popular there, though
no linguist could translate it. Even then we must shut our eyes
and listen only to the tune, which I leave you to guess.


Yanker didee dudel down
Didee dudel lawnter;