it is a wet day. The women first clear away the lunch utensils, and then
have a little undisturbed chat with their neighbours on the doorstep, or
go to see their friends in town. At four o'clock the whole family
assembles again in the parlour for their 'Borreltje,' either consisting of
'Boerenjongens' (brandied raisins) or 'Brandewyn met suiker' (brandy with
sugar), which they drink out of their best glasses. There is no church in
the evening, so the villagers retire early to bed, so as to be in good
trim for the week's hard work again.

From this sketch it will be judged that life in a village is very dull.
There is nothing to break the monotony of the days, and one season passes
by in precisely the same way as another. Days and seasons, in fact, make
no difference whatever in the villager's existence. There is no pack of
hounds to fire the sporting instinct; no excitement of elections; no
distraction of any kind. All is quiet, regular, and uneventful, and when
their days are over they sleep with their fathers naturally enough, for
only too often have they been half asleep all their lives.




Chapter VIII

The Peasant at Home



To describe an 'average' Dutch peasant would be to say very little of him.
There is far too much difference in this class of people all over the
Netherlands to allow of any generalization. In Zeeland we meet two