Amsterdam, July 30, 1873


DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS AT HOME:

If you all could be here with me today, what fine times we might
have walking through this beautiful Dutch city! How we should
stare at the crooked houses, standing with their gable ends to
the street; at the little slanting mirrors fastened outside of
the windows; at the wooden shoes and dogcarts nearby; the
windmills in the distance; at the great warehouses; at the
canals, doing the double duty of streets and rivers, and at the
singular mingling of trees and masts to be seen in every
direction. Ah, it would be pleasant, indeed! But here I sit in
a great hotel looking out upon all these things, knowing quite
well that not even the spirit of the Dutch, which seems able to
accomplish anything, can bring you at this moment across the
moment. There is one comfort, however, in going through these
wonderful Holland towns without you--it would be dreadful to have
any of the party tumble into the canals; and then these lumbering
Dutch wagons, with their heavy wheels, so very far apart; what
should I do if a few dozen of you were to fall under THEM? And,
perhaps, one of the wildest of my boys might harm a stork, and
then all Holland would be against us! No. It is better as it
is. You will be coming, one by one, as years go on, to see the
whole thing for yourselves.

Holland is as wonderful today as it was when, more than twenty
years ago, Hans and Gretel skated on the frozen Y. In fact,