Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates

wo thinly clad children were kneeling up

crimson with the coming day. Most of the good Hollanders were enjoying a placid morning nap; eve

mming over the glassy surface of the canal; or a lusty boy, skating to his day's work

be fastening something upon their feet-not skates, certainly, but clumsy pieces of wood narrowed and

her little ones. Rough as these were, they had afforded the children many a happy hour upon the ice; and now as with cold, red fingers our young Hollanders

us swing of the arms, and a careless "come

is not well yet. The strings hurt me on last Market da

, as without looking at her he performed

The string i

, the English of which was that girls were

el, when you have a stout leather pair. Y

Before I knew what he had done they were all curled up in the midst of the bur

ne as he knelt beside her, he proceeded to fasten Gre

he cried, i

e cast it upon the ground in true big-brother style, had he

th sudden tenderness, "but we must be

ext at some bare willow branches above his head, and finally

as, with the air of a fellow who knew what he was about, he took off his cap and removing

rranging the strings as briskly as his benumbed

if to say "hurt away," bu

, for in Holland, ice is generally an all-Winter affair. It settles itself upon the water in a determined kind of way, and so far from gro

strokes grew shorter, ending ofttimes with a jerk, and finally, he lay spr

art was beating under her coarse blue jacket and, even as she laugh

now"-and she darted away shivering no longer, but

but it was no easy thing to catch Gretel. Before she h

tter part of valor she turned sudden

e caught you

," she retorted, stru

ick voice was heard c

said Hans, looking

eaving half the knots still tied. Hans, with his great square shoulders, and bushy yellow hair, towered high above his blue-eyed little sister as they trudged homeward. He was fifteen years old and Gretel was only twelve. He was a solid, hearty-looking boy, with honest eyes and a brow that seemed to bea

frame of the doorway. Had the cottage been a mile away, it would still have seemed near. In that flat country every object stands out plainly in the distance; the chickens show as distinctly as the wind

running at her call. But before stating why, let me ask you to take a rocking-chair trip with me to that far

TNO

ooden

ummer