land.

In the spring there is always great danger of inland freshets,
especially in times of thaw, because the rivers, choked with
blocks of ice, overflow before they can discharge their rapidly
rising waters into the ocean. Adding to this that the sea chafes
and presses against the dikes, it is no wonder that Holland is
often in a state of alarm. The greatest care is taken to prevent
accidents. Engineers and workmen are stationed all along in
threatened places, and a close watch is kept up night and day.
When a general signal of danger is given, the inhabitants all
rush to the rescue, eager to combine against their common foe.
As, everywhere else, straw is supposed to be of all things the
most helpless in the water, of course, in Holland, it must be
rendered the mainstay against a rushing tide. Huge straw mats
are pressed against the embankments, fortified with clay and
heavy stone, and once adjusted, the ocean dashes against them in
vain.

Raff Brinker, the father of Gretel and Hans, had for years been
employed upon the dikes. It was at the time of a threatened
inundation, when in the midst of a terrible storm, in darkness
and sleet, the men were laboring at a weak spot near the Veermyk
sluice, that he fell from the scaffolding and became insensible.
From that hour he never worked again; though he lived on, mind
and memory were gone.

Gretel could not remember him otherwise than as the strange,
silent man whose eyes followed her vacantly whichever way she
turned, but Hans had recollections of a hearty, cheerful-voiced