The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks
by William Elliot Griffis

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Title: Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks

Author: William Elliot Griffis

Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7871]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on May 28, 2003]

Edition: 10

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUTCH FAIRY TALES FOR YOUNG FOLKS ***




Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tonya Allen
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.




[Illustration: Flying out of the sky they came bringing cheeses]



DUTCH FAIRY TALES FOR

YOUNG FOLKS

By

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS

_Author of "The Firefly's Lovers," "The Unmannerly Tiger," "Brave
Little Holland," "Bonnie Scotland," etc._




CONTENTS


THE ENTANGLED MERMAID

THE BOY WHO WANTED MORE CHEESE

THE PRINCESS WITH TWENTY PETTICOATS

THE CAT AND THE CRADLE

PRINCE SPIN HEAD AND MISS SNOW WHITE

THE BOAR WITH THE GOLDEN BRISTLES

THE ICE KING AND HIS WONDERFUL GRANDCHILD

THE ELVES AND THEIR ANTICS

THE KABOUTERS AND THE BELLS

THE WOMAN WITH THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX CHILDREN

THE ONI ON HIS TRAVELS

THE LEGEND OF THE WOODEN SHOE

THE CURLY-TAILED LION

BRABO AND THE GIANT

THE FARM THAT RAN AWAY AND CAME BACK

SANTA KLAAS AND BLACK PETE

THE GOBLINS TURNED TO STONE

THE MOULDY PENNY

THE GOLDEN HELMET

WHEN WHEAT WORKED WOE

WHY THE STORK LOVES HOLLAND





THE ENTANGLED MERMAID


Long ago, in Dutch Fairy Land, there lived a young mermaid who was very
proud of her good looks. She was one of a family of mere or lake folks
dwelling not far from the sea. Her home was a great pool of water that
was half salt and half fresh, for it lay around an island near the mouth
of a river. Part of the day, when the sea tides were out, she splashed
and played, dived and swam in the soft water of the inland current. When
the ocean heaved and the salt water rushed in, the mermaid floated and
frolicked and paddled to her heart's content. Her father was a
gray-bearded merryman and very proud of his handsome daughter. He owned
an island near the river mouth, where the young mermaids held their
picnics and parties and received the visits of young merrymen.

Her mother and two aunts were merwomen. All of these were sober folks
and attended to the business which occupies all well brought up mermaids
and merrymen. This was to keep their pool clean and nice. No frogs,
toads or eels were allowed near, but in the work of daily housecleaning,
the storks and the mermaids were great friends.

All water-creatures that were not thought to be polite and well behaved
were expected to keep away. Even some silly birds, such as loons and
plovers and all screaming and fighting creatures with wings, were warned
off the premises, because they were not wanted. This family of merry
folks liked to have a nice, quiet time by themselves, without any rude
folks on legs, or with wings or fins from the outside. Indeed they
wished to make their pool a model, for all respectable mermaids and
merrymen, for ten leagues around. It was very funny to see the old daddy
merman, with a switch made of reeds, shooing off the saucy birds, such
as the sandpipers and screeching gulls. For the bullfrogs, too big for
the storks to swallow, and for impudent fishes, he had a whip made of
seaweed.

Of course, all the mermaids in good society were welcome, but young
mermen were allowed to call only once a month, during the week when the
moon was full. Then the evenings were usually clear, so that when the
party broke up, the mermen could see their way in the moonlight to swim
home safely with their mermaid friends. For, there were sea monsters
that loved to plague the merefolk, and even threatened to eat them up!
The mermaids, dear creatures, had to be escorted home, but they felt
safe, for their mermen brothers and daddies were so fierce that, except
sharks, even the larger fish, such as porpoises and dolphins were afraid
to come near them.

One day daddy and the mother left to visit some relatives near the
island of Urk. They were to be gone several days. Meanwhile, their
daughter was to have a party, her aunts being the chaperones.

The mermaids usually held their picnics on an island in the midst of the
pool. Here they would sit and sun themselves. They talked about the
fashions and the prettiest way to dress their hair. Each one had a
pocket mirror, but where they kept these, while swimming, no mortal ever
found out. They made wreaths of bright colored seaweed, orange and
black, blue, gray and red and wore them on their brows like coronets.
Or, they twined them, along with sea berries and bubble blossoms, among
their tresses. Sometimes they made girdles of the strongest and knotted
them around their waists.

Every once in a while they chose a queen of beauty for their ruler. Then
each of the others pretended to be a princess. Their games and sports
often lasted all day and they were very happy.

Swimming out in the salt water, the mermaids would go in quest of
pearls, coral, ambergris and other pretty things. These they would bring
to their queen, or with them richly adorn themselves. Thus the Mermaid
Queen and her maidens made a court of beauty that was famed wherever
mermaids and merrymen lived. They often talked about human maids.

"How funny it must be to wear clothes," said one.

"Are they cold that they have to keep warm?" It was a little chit of a
mermaid, whose flippers had hardly begun to grow into hands, that asked
this question.

"How can they swim with petticoats on?" asked another.

"My brother heard that real men wear wooden shoes! These must bother
them, when on the water, to have their feet floating," said a third,
whose name was Silver Scales. "What a pity they don't have flukes like
us," and then she looked at her own glistening scaly coat in admiration.

"I can hardly believe it," said a mermaid, that was very proud of her
fine figure and slender waist. "Their girls can't be half as pretty as
we are."

"Well, I should like to be a real woman for a while, just to try it, and
see how it feels to walk on legs," said another, rather demurely, as if
afraid the other mermaids might not like her remark.

They didn't. Out sounded a lusty chorus, "No! No! Horrible! What an
idea! Who wouldn't be a mermaid?"

"Why, I've heard," cried one, "that real women have to work, wash their
husband's clothes, milk cows, dig potatoes, scrub floors and take care
of calves. Who would be a woman? Not I"--and her snub nose--since it
could not turn up--grew wide at the roots. She was sneering at the idea
that a creature in petticoats could ever look lovelier than one in
shining scales.

"Besides," said she, "think of their big noses, and I'm told, too, that
girls have even to wear hairpins."

At this--the very thought that any one should have to bind up their
tresses--there was a shock of disgust with some, while others clapped
their hands, partly in envy and partly in glee.

But the funniest things the mermaids heard of were gloves, and they
laughed heartily over such things as covers for the fingers. Just for
fun, one of the little mermaids used to draw some bag-like seaweed over
her hands, to see how such things looked.

One day, while sunning themselves in the grass on the island, one of
their number found a bush on which foxgloves grew. Plucking these, she
covered each one of her fingers with a red flower. Then, flopping over
to the other girls, she held up her gloved hands. Half in fright and
half in envy, they heard her story.

After listening, the party was about to break up, when suddenly a young
merman splashed into view. The tide was running out and the stream low,
so he had had hard work to get through the fresh water of the river and
to the island. His eyes dropped salt water, as if he were crying. He
looked tired, while puffing and blowing, and he could hardly get his
breath. The queen of the mermaids asked him what he meant by coming
among her maids at such an hour and in such condition.

At this the bashful merman began to blubber. Some of the mergirls put
their hands over their mouths to hide their laughing, while they winked
at each other and their eyes showed how they enjoyed the fun. To have a
merman among them, at that hour, in broad daylight, and crying, was too
much for dignity.

"Boo-hoo, boo-hoo," and the merman still wept salt water tears, as he
tried to catch his breath. At last, he talked sensibly. He warned the
Queen that a party of horrid men, in wooden shoes, with pickaxes, spades
and pumps, were coming to drain the swamp and pump out the pool. He had
heard that they would make the river a canal and build a dyke that
should keep out the ocean.

"Alas! alas!" cried one mermaid, wringing her hands. "Where shall we go
when our pool is destroyed? We can't live in the ocean all the time."
Then she wept copiously. The salt water tears fell from her great round
eyes in big drops.

"Hush!" cried the Queen. "I don't believe the merman's story. He only
tells it to frighten us. It's just like him."

In fact, the Queen suspected that the merman's story was all a sham and
that he had come among her maids with a set purpose to run off with
Silver Scales. She was one of the prettiest mermaids in the company, but
very young, vain and frivolous. It was no secret that she and the merman
were in love and wanted to get married.

So the Queen, without even thanking him, dismissed the swimming
messenger. After dinner, the company broke up and the Queen retired to
her cave to take a long nap! She was quite tired after entertaining so
much company. Besides, since daddy and mother were away, and there were
no beaus to entertain, since it was a dark night and no moon shining on
the water, why need she get up early in the morning?

So the Mermaid Queen slept much longer than ever before. Indeed, it was
not till near sunset the next day that she awoke. Then, taking her comb
and mirror in hand, she started to swim and splash in the pool, in order
to smooth out her tresses and get ready for supper.

But oh, what a change from the day before! What was the matter? All
around her things looked different. The water had fallen low and the
pool was nearly empty. The river, instead of flowing, was as quiet as a
pond. Horrors! when she swam forward, what should she see but a dyke and
fences! An army of horrid men had come, when she was asleep, and built a
dam. They had fenced round the swamp and were actually beginning to dig
sluices to drain the land. Some were at work, building a windmill to
help in pumping out the water.

The first thing she knew she had bumped her pretty nose against the dam.
She thought at once of escaping over the logs and into the sea. When she
tried to clamber over the top and get through the fence, her hair got so
entangled between the bars that she had to throw away her comb and
mirror and try to untangle her tresses. The more she tried, the worse
became the tangle. Soon her long hair was all twisted up in the timber.
In vain were her struggles to escape. She was ready to die with fright,
when she saw four horrid men rush up to seize her. She attempted to
waddle away, but her long hair held her to the post and rails. Her
modesty was so dreadfully shocked that she fainted away.

When she came to herself, she found she was in a big long tub. A crowd
of curious little girls and boys were looking at her, for she was on
show as a great curiosity. They were bound to see her and get their
money's worth in looking, for they had paid a stiver (two cents)
admission to the show. Again, before all these eyes, her modesty was so
shocked that she gave one groan, flopped over and died in the tub.

Woe to the poor father and mother at Urk! They came back to find their
old home gone. Unable to get into it, they swam out to sea, never
stopping till they reached Spitzbergen.

What became of the body of the Mermaid Queen?

Learned men came from Leyden to examine what was now only a specimen,
and to see how mermaids were made up. Then her skin was stuffed, and
glass eyes put in, where her shining orbs had been. After this, her body
was stuffed and mounted in the museum, that is, set up above a glass
case and resting upon iron rods. Artists came to Leyden to make pictures
of her and no fewer than nine noblemen copied her pretty form and
features into their coats of arms. Instead of the Mermaid's Pool is now
a cheese farm of fifty cows, a fine house and barn, and a family of
pink-cheeked, yellow-haired children who walk and play in wooden shoes.

So this particular mermaid, all because of her entanglement in the
fence, was more famous when stuffed than when living, while all her
young friends and older relatives were forgotten.




THE BOY WHO WANTED MORE CHEESE


Klaas Van Bommel was a Dutch boy, twelve years old, who lived where cows
were plentiful. He was over five feet high, weighed a hundred pounds,
and had rosy cheeks. His appetite was always good and his mother
declared his stomach had no bottom. His hair was of a color half-way
between a carrot and a sweet potato. It was as thick as reeds in a swamp
and was cut level, from under one ear to another.

Klaas stood in a pair of timber shoes, that made an awful rattle when he
ran fast to catch a rabbit, or scuffed slowly along to school over the
brick road of his village. In summer Klaas was dressed in a rough, blue
linen blouse. In winter he wore woollen breeches as wide as coffee bags.
They were called bell trousers, and in shape were like a couple of
cow-bells turned upwards. These were buttoned on to a thick warm jacket.
Until he was five years old, Klaas was dressed like his sisters. Then,
on his birthday, he had boy's clothes, with two pockets in them, of
which he was proud enough.

Klaas was a farmer's boy. He had rye bread and fresh milk for breakfast.
At dinner time, beside cheese and bread, he was given a plate heaped
with boiled potatoes. Into these he first plunged a fork and then dipped
each round, white ball into a bowl of hot melted butter. Very quickly
then did potato and butter disappear "down the red lane." At supper, he
had bread and skim milk, left after the cream had been taken off, with a
saucer, to make butter. Twice a week the children enjoyed a bowl of
bonnyclabber or curds, with a little brown sugar sprinkled on the top.
But at every meal there was cheese, usually in thin slices, which the
boy thought not thick enough. When Klaas went to bed he usually fell
asleep as soon as his shock of yellow hair touched the pillow. In summer
time he slept till the birds began to sing, at dawn. In winter, when the
bed felt warm and Jack Frost was lively, he often heard the cows
talking, in their way, before he jumped out of his bag of straw, which
served for a mattress. The Van Bommels were not rich, but everything was
shining clean.

There was always plenty to eat at the Van Bommels' house. Stacks of rye
bread, a yard long and thicker than a man's arm, stood on end in the
corner of the cool, stone-lined basement. The loaves of dough were put
in the oven once a week. Baking time was a great event at the Van
Bommels' and no men-folks were allowed in the kitchen on that day,
unless they were called in to help. As for the milk-pails and pans,
filled or emptied, scrubbed or set in the sun every day to dry, and the
cheeses, piled up in the pantry, they seemed sometimes enough to feed a
small army.

But Klaas always wanted more cheese. In other ways, he was a good boy,
obedient at home, always ready to work on the cow-farm, and diligent in
school. But at the table he never had enough. Sometimes his father
laughed and asked him if he had a well, or a cave, under his jacket.

Klaas had three younger sisters, Trintjé, Anneké and Saartjé; which is
Dutch for Kate, Annie and Sallie. These, their fond mother, who loved
them dearly, called her "orange blossoms"; but when at dinner, Klaas
would keep on, dipping his potatoes into the hot butter, while others
were all through, his mother would laugh and call him her Buttercup. But
always Klaas wanted more cheese. When unusually greedy, she twitted him
as a boy "worse than Butter-and-Eggs"; that is, as troublesome as the
yellow and white plant, called toad-flax, is to the farmer--very
pretty, but nothing but a weed.

One summer's evening, after a good scolding, which he deserved well,
Klaas moped and, almost crying, went to bed in bad humor. He had teased
each one of his sisters to give him her bit of cheese, and this, added
to his own slice, made his stomach feel as heavy as lead.

Klaas's bed was up in the garret. When the house was first built, one of
the red tiles of the roof had been taken out and another one, made of
glass, was put in its place. In the morning, this gave the boy light to
put on his clothes. At night, in fair weather, it supplied air to his
room.

A gentle breeze was blowing from the pine woods on the sandy slope, not
far away. So Klaas climbed up on the stool to sniff the sweet piny
odors. He thought he saw lights dancing under the tree. One beam seemed
to approach his roof hole, and coming nearer played round the chimney.
Then it passed to and fro in front of him. It seemed to whisper in his
ear, as it moved by. It looked very much as if a hundred fire-flies had
united their cold light into one lamp. Then Klaas thought that the
strange beams bore the shape of a lovely girl, but he only laughed at
himself at the idea. Pretty soon, however, he thought the whisper became
a voice. Again, he laughed so heartily, that he forgot his moping and
the scolding his mother had given him. In fact, his eyes twinkled with
delight, when the voice gave this invitation:

"There's plenty of cheese. Come with us."

To make sure of it, the sleepy boy now rubbed his eyes and cocked his
ears. Again, the light-bearer spoke to him: "Come."

Could it be? He had heard old people tell of the ladies of the wood,
that whispered and warned travellers. In fact, he himself had often seen
the "fairies' ring" in the pine woods. To this, the flame-lady was
inviting him.

Again and again the moving, cold light circled round the red tile roof,
which the moon, then rising and peeping over the chimneys, seemed to
turn into silver plates. As the disc rose higher in the sky, he could
hardly see the moving light, that had looked like a lady; but the voice,
no longer a whisper, as at first, was now even plainer:

"There's plenty of cheese. Come with us."

"I'll see what it is, anyhow," said Klaas, as he drew on his thick
woolen stockings and prepared to go down-stairs and out, without waking
a soul. At the door he stepped into his wooden shoes. Just then the cat
purred and rubbed up against his shins. He jumped, for he was scared;
but looking down, for a moment, he saw the two balls of yellow fire in
her head and knew what they were. Then he sped to the pine woods and
towards the fairy ring.

What an odd sight! At first Klaas thought it was a circle of big
fire-flies. Then he saw clearly that there were dozens of pretty
creatures, hardly as large as dolls, but as lively as crickets. They
were as full of light, as if lamps had wings. Hand in hand, they flitted
and danced around the ring of grass, as if this was fun.

Hardly had Klaas got over his first surprise, than of a sudden he felt
himself surrounded by the fairies. Some of the strongest among them had
left the main party in the circle and come to him. He felt himself
pulled by their dainty fingers. One of them, the loveliest of all,
whispered in his ear:

"Come, you must dance with us."

Then a dozen of the pretty creatures murmured in chorus:

"Plenty of cheese here. Plenty of cheese here. Come, come!"

Upon this, the heels of Klaas seemed as light as a feather. In a moment,
with both hands clasped in those of the fairies, he was dancing in high
glee. It was as much fun as if he were at the kermiss, with a row of
boys and girls, hand in hand, swinging along the streets, as Dutch maids
and youth do, during kermiss week.

Klaas had not time to look hard at the fairies, for he was too full of
the fun. He danced and danced, all night and until the sky in the east
began to turn, first gray and then rosy. Then he tumbled down, tired
out, and fell asleep. His head lay on the inner curve of the fairy ring,
with his feet in the centre.

Klaas felt very happy, for he had no sense of being tired, and he did
not know he was asleep. He thought his fairy partners, who had danced
with him, were now waiting on him to bring him cheeses. With a golden
knife, they sliced them off and fed him out of their own hands. How good
it tasted! He thought now he could, and would, eat all the cheese he had
longed for all his life. There was no mother to scold him, or daddy to
shake his finger at him. How delightful!

But by and by, he wanted to stop eating and rest a while. His jaws were
tired. His stomach seemed to be loaded with cannon-balls. He gasped for
breath.

But the fairies would not let him stop, for Dutch fairies never get
tired. Flying out of the sky--from the north, south, east and west--they
came, bringing cheeses. These they dropped down around him, until the
piles of the round masses threatened first to enclose him as with a
wall, and then to overtop him. There were the red balls from Edam, the
pink and yellow spheres from Gouda, and the gray loaf-shaped ones from
Leyden. Down through the vista of sand, in the pine woods, he looked,
and oh, horrors! There were the tallest and strongest of the fairies
rolling along the huge, round, flat cheeses from Friesland! Any one of
these was as big as a cart wheel, and would feed a regiment. The fairies
trundled the heavy discs along, as if they were playing with hoops. They
shouted hilariously, as, with a pine stick, they beat them forward like
boys at play. Farm cheese, factory cheese, Alkmaar cheese, and, to crown
all, cheese from Limburg--which Klaas never could bear, because of its
strong odor. Soon the cakes and balls were heaped so high around him
that the boy, as he looked up, felt like a frog in a well. He groaned
when he thought the high cheese walls were tottering to fall on him.
Then he screamed, but the fairies thought he was making music. They, not
being human, do not know how a boy feels.

At last, with a thick slice in one hand and a big hunk in the other, he
could eat no more cheese; though the fairies, led by their queen,
standing on one side, or hovering over his head, still urged him to take
more.

At this moment, while afraid that he would burst, Klaas saw the pile of
cheeses, as big as a house, topple over. The heavy mass fell inwards
upon him. With a scream of terror, he thought himself crushed as flat as
a Friesland cheese.

But he wasn't! Waking up and rubbing his eyes, he saw the red sun rising
on the sand-dunes. Birds were singing and the cocks were crowing all
around him, in chorus, as if saluting him. Just then also the village
clock chimed out the hour. He felt his clothes. They were wet with dew.
He sat up to look around. There were no fairies, but in his mouth was a
bunch of grass which he had been chewing lustily.

Klaas never would tell the story of his night with the fairies, nor has
he yet settled the question whether they left him because the
cheese-house of his dream had fallen, or because daylight had come.




THE PRINCESS WITH TWENTY PETTICOATS


Long, long ago, before ever a blue flax-flower bloomed in Holland, and
when Dutch mothers wore wolf-skin clothes, there was a little princess,
very much beloved by her father, who was a great king, or war chief. She
was very pretty and fond of seeing herself. There were no metal mirrors
in those days, nor any looking glass. So she went into the woods and
before the pools and the deep, quiet watercourses, made reflection of
her own lovely face. Of this pleasure she never seemed weary.

Yet sometimes this little princess was very naughty. Then her temper was
not nearly so sweet as her face. She would play in the sand and roll
around in the woods among the leaves and bushes until her curls were all
tangled up. When her nurse combed out her hair with a stone comb--for no
other kinds were then known--she would fret and scold and often stamp
her foot. When very angry, she called her nurse or governess an
"aurochs,"--a big beast like a buffalo. At this, the maid put up her
hands to her face. "Me--an aurochs! Horrible!" Then she would feel her
forehead to see if horns were growing there.

The nurse--they called her "governess," as the years went on--grew tired
of the behavior of the bad young princess. Sometimes she went and told
her mother how naughty her daughter was, even to calling her an aurochs.
Then the little girl only showed her bad temper worse. She rolled among
the leaves all the more and mussed up her ringlets, so that the
governess could hardly comb them out smooth again.

It seemed useless to punish the perverse little maid by boxing her ears,
pinching her arm, or giving her a good spanking. They even tried to
improve her temper by taking away her dinner, but it did no good.

Then the governess and mother went together to her father. When they
complained of his daughter to the king, he was much worried. He could
fight strong men with his club and spear, and even giants with his sword
and battle-axe; but how to correct his little daughter, whom he loved as
his own eyes, was too much for him. He had no son and the princess was
his only child, and the hopes of the family all rested on her. The king
wondered how she would govern his people, after he should die, and she
became the queen. Yet he was glad for one thing: that, with all her
naughtiness, she was, like her father, always kind to animals. Her pet
was a little aurochs calf. Some hunters had killed the mother of the
poor little thing in winter time. So the princess kept the creature warm
and it fed out of her hand daily.

It was in gloom and with a sad face that the king walked in the woods,
thinking how to make a sweet-tempered lady out of his petulant daughter,
who was fast growing up to be a tall, fine-looking woman.

Now when the king had been himself a little boy, he was very kind to all
living creatures, wild and tame, dumb and with voice--yes, even to the
trees in the forest. When a prince, the boy would never let the axe men
cut down an oak until they first begged pardon of the fairy that lived
in the tree.

There was one big oak, especially, which was near the mansion of his
father, the king. It was said that the doctors found little babies in
its leafy branches, and brought them to their mothers. The prince-boy
took great care of this tree. He was taught by a wise man to cut off the
dead limbs, keep off the worms, and warn away all people seeking to
break off branches--even for Yule-tide, which came at our Christmas
time.

Once when some hunters had chased a young she-aurochs, with her two
calves, into the king's park, the prince, though he was then only a boy,
ran out and drove the rough fellows away. Then he sheltered and fed the
aurochs family of three, until they were fresh and fat. After this he
sent a skilled hunter to imitate the sound of an aurochs mother, to call
the aurochs father to the edge of the woods. He then let them all go
free, and was happy to see the dumb brutes frisking together.

Now that the boy-prince was grown to be a man and had long been king,
and had forgotten all about the incident of his earlier years, he was
one day walking in the forest.

Suddenly a gentle breeze arose and the leaves of the old oak tree began
first to rustle and then to whisper. Soon the words were clear, and the
spirit in the oak said:

"I have seen a thousand years pass by, since I was an acorn planted
here. In a few moments I shall die and fall down. Cut my body into
staves. Of these make a wooden petticoat, like a barrel, for your
daughter. When her temper is bad, let her put it on and wear it until
she promises to be good."

The king was sad at the thought of losing the grand old tree, under
which he had played as a boy and his fathers before him. His countenance
fell.

"Cheer up, my friend," said the oak, "for something better shall follow.
When I pass away, you will find on this spot a blue flower growing.
Where the forest was shall be fields, on which the sun shines. Then, if
your daughter be good, young women shall spin something prettier than
wooden petticoats. Watch for the blue flower. Moreover," added the voice
of the tree, "that I may not be forgotten, do you take, henceforth, as
your family name Ten Eyck" (which, in Dutch, means "at the oak ").

At this moment, a huge aurochs rushed into the wood. Its long hair and
shaggy mane were gray with age. The king, thinking the beast would lower
his horns and charge at him, drew his sword to fight the mighty brute
that seemed to weigh well-nigh a ton.

But the aurochs stopped within ten feet of the king and bellowed; but,
in a minute or two, the bellowing changed to a voice and the king heard
these good words:

"I die with the oak, for we are brothers, kept under an enchantment for
a thousand years, which is to end in a few moments. Neither a tree nor
an aurochs can forget your kindness to us, when you were a prince. As
soon as our spirits are released, and we both go back to our home in the
moon, saw off my right horn and make of it a comb for use on your
daughter's curls. It will be smoother than stone."

In a moment a tempest arose, which drove the king for shelter behind
some rocks hard by. After a few minutes, the wind ceased and the sky was
clear. The king looked and there lay the oak, fallen at full length, and
the aurochs lay lifeless beside it.

Just then, the king's woodmen, who were out--thinking their master
might be hurt--drew near. He ordered them to take out the right horn of
the aurochs and to split up part of the oak for slaves. The next day,
they made a wooden petticoat and a horn comb. They were such novelties
that nearly every woman in the kingdom came to see them.

After this, the king called himself the Lord of the Land of Ten Eyck,
and ever after this was his family name, which all his descendants bore.
Whenever the princess showed bad temper, she was forced to wear the
wooden petticoat. To have the boys and girls point at her and make fun
of her was severe punishment.

But a curious thing took place. It was found that every time the maid
combed the hair of the princess she became gentler and more sweet
tempered. She often thanked her governess and said she liked to have her
curls smoothed with the new comb. She even begged her father to let her
own one and have the comb all to herself. It was not long before she
surprised her governess and her parents by combing and curling her own
hair. In truth, such a wonderful change came over the princess that she
did not often have to wear the wooden petticoat, and after a year or
two, not at all. So the gossips nearly forgot all about it.

One summer's day, as the princess was walking in the open, sunny space,
where the old oak had stood, she saw a blue flower. It seemed as
beautiful as it was strange. She plucked it and put it in her hair. When
she reached home, her old aunt, who had been in southern lands, declared
it to be the flower of the flax.

During that spring, millions of tiny green blades sprang up where the
forest had been, and when summer came, the plants were half a yard high.
The women learned how to put the stalks in water and rot the coarse,
outer fibre of the flax. Then they took the silk-like strands from the
inside and spun them on their spinning-wheels. Then they wove them into
pretty cloth.

This, when laid out on the grass, under the sunshine, was bleached
white. The flax thread was made first into linen, and then into lace.

"Let us name the place Groen-e'-veld" (Green Field), the happy people
cried, when they saw how green the earth was where had been the dark
forest. So the place was ever after called the Green Field.

Now when the princess saw what pretty clothes the snow white linen made,
she invented a new style of dress. The upper garment, or "rok," that is,
the one above the waist, she called the "boven rok" and the lower one,
beneath the waist, her "beneden rok." In Dutch "boven" means above and
"beneden" means beneath. By and by, when, at the looms, more of the
beautiful white linen was woven, she had a new petticoat made and put it
on. She was so delighted with this one that she wanted more. One after
the other, she belted them around her waist, until she had on twenty
petticoats at a time. Proud she was of her skirts, even though they made
her look like a barrel. When her mother, and maids, and all the women of
Groen-é-veld, young and old, saw the princess set the fashion, they all
followed. It was not always easy for poor girls, who were to be married,
to buy as many as twenty petticoats. But, as it was the fashion, every
bride had to obey the rule. It grew to be the custom to have at least
twenty; for only this number was thought proper.

So, a new rule, even among the men, grew up. A betrothed young man, or
his female relatives assisting him, was accustomed to make a present of
one or more petticoats to his sweetheart to increase her wardrobe.

Thus the fashion prevailed and still holds among the women of the coast.
Fat or thin, tall or short, they pile on the petticoats and swing their
skirts proudly as they walk or go to market, sell their fish, cry "fresh
herring" in the streets, or do their knitting at home, or in front of
their houses. In some parts of the country, nothing makes a girl so
happy as to present her with a new petticoat. It is the fashion to have
a figure like a barrel and wear one's clothes so as to look like a small
hogshead.

By and by, the men built a dam to get plenty of water in winter for the
rotting of the flax stalks. The linen industry made the people rich. In
time, a city sprang up, which they called Rotterdam, or the dam where
they rotted the flax.

And, because where had been a forest of oaks, with the pool and rivulet,
there was now a silvery stream flowing gently between verdant meadows,
they made the arms and seal of the city green and white, two of the
former and one of the latter; that is, verdure and silver. To this day,
on the arms and flags of the great city, and on the high smoke-stacks of
the mighty steamers that cross the ocean, from land to land, one sees
the wide, white band between the two broad stripes of green.

[Illustration: ON AND ON THE RAGING FLOOD BORE THEM UNTIL DARK NIGHT CAME
DOWN]




THE CAT AND THE CRADLE


In the early ages, when our far-off ancestors lived in the woods, ate
acorns, slept in caves, and dressed in the skins of wild animals, they
had no horses, cows or cats. Their only pets and helpers were dogs. The
men and the dogs were more like each other than they are now.

However, they knew about bees. So the women gathered honey and from it
they made mead. Not having any sugar, the children enjoyed tasting honey
more than anything else, and it was the only sweet thing they had.

By and by, cows were brought into the country and the Dutch soil being
good for grass, the cows had plenty to eat. When these animals
multiplied, the people drank milk and learned to make cheese and butter.
So the Dutch boys and girls grew fat and healthy.

The oxen were so strong that they could pull logs of wood or draw a
plough. So, little by little, the forests were cut down and grassy
meadows, full of bright colored flowers, took their place. Houses were
built and the people were rich and happy.

Yet there were still many cruel men and bad people in the land.
Sometimes, too, floods came and drowned the cattle and covered the
fields with sand, or salt water. In such times, food was very scarce.
Thus it happened that not all the babies born could live, or every
little child be fed. The baby girls especially were often left to die,
because war was common and only boys, that grew into strong warriors,
were wanted.

It grew to be a custom that families would hold a council and decide
whether the baby should be raised or not. But if any one should give the
infant even a tiny drop of milk, or food of any kind, it was allowed to
live and grow up. If no one gave it milk or honey, it died. No matter
how much a mother might love her baby, she was not allowed to put milk
to its lips, if the grandmother or elders forbade it. The young bride,
coming into her husband's home, always had to obey his mother, for she
was now as a daughter and one of the family. All lived together in one
house, and the grandmother ruled all the women and girls that were under
one roof.

This was the way of the world, when our ancestors were pagans, and not
always as kind to little babies as our own mothers and fathers are now.
Many times was the old grandmother angry, when her son had taken a wife
and a girl was born. If the old woman expected a grandson, who should
grow up and be a fighter, with sword and spear, and it turned out to be
a girl, she was mad as fire. Often the pretty bride, brought into the
house, had a hard time of it, with her husband's mother, if she did not
in time have a baby boy. In those days a "Herman," a "War Man" and
"German" were one and the same word.

Now when the good missionaries came into Friesland, one of the first of
the families to receive the gospel was one named Altfrid. With his
bride, who also became a Christian, Altfrid helped the missionary to
build a church. By and by, a sweet little baby was born in the family
and the parents were very happy. They loved the little thing sent from
God, as fathers and mothers love their children now.

But when some one went and told the pagan grandmother that the new baby
was a girl instead of a boy, the old woman flew into a rage and would
have gone at once to get hold of the baby and put it to death. Her
lameness, however, made her move slowly, and she could not find her
crutch; for the midwife, who knew the bad temper of the grandmother, had
purposely hid it. The old woman was angry, because she did not want any
more females in the big house, where she thought there were already too
many mouths to fill. Food was hard to get, and there were not enough war
men to defend the tribe. She meant to get the new baby and throw it to
the wolves. The old grandmother was a pagan and still worshipped the
cruel gods that loved fighting. She hated the new religion, because it
taught gentleness and peace.

But the midwife, who was a neighbor, feared that the old woman was
malicious and she had hid her crutch. This she did, so that if the baby
was a girl, she could save its life. The midwife was a good woman, who
had been taught that the Great Creator loves little girls as well as
boys.

So when the midwife heard the grandmother storm and rave, while hunting
for her crutch, she ran first to the honey jar, dipped her forefinger in
it and put some drops of honey on the baby's tongue. Then she passed it
out the window to some women friends, who were waiting outside. She knew
the law, that if a child tasted food, it must be allowed to live.

The kind women took the baby to their home and fed it carefully. A hole
was drilled in the small end of a cow's horn and the warm milk, fresh
from the cow, was allowed to fall, drop by drop, into the baby's mouth.
In a few days the little one was able to suck its breakfast slowly out
of the horn, while one of the girls held it. So the baby grew bigger
every day. All the time it was carefully hidden.

The foolish old grandmother was foiled, for she could never find out
where the baby girl was, which all the time was growing strong and
plump. Her father secretly made her a cradle and he and the babe's
mother came often to see their child. Every one called her Honig-je', or
Little Honey.

Now about this time, cats were brought into the country and the children
made such pets of them that some of the cows seemed to be jealous of the
attentions paid to Pussy and the kittens. These were the days when cows
and people all lived under one long roof. The children learned to tell
the time of day, whether it was morning, noon or night by looking into
the cats' eyes. These seemed to open and shut, very much as if they had
doors.

The fat pussy, which was brought into the house where Honig-je' was,
seemed to be very fond of the little girl, and the two, the cat and the
child, played much together. It was often said that the cat loved the
baby even more than her own kittens. Every one called the affectionate
animal by the nickname of Dub-belt-je', which means Little Double;
because this puss was twice as loving as most cat mothers are. When her
own furry little babies were very young, she carried them from one place
to another in her mouth. But this way, of holding kittens, she never
tried on the baby. She seemed to know better. Indeed, Dub-belt-je' often
wondered why human babies were born so naked and helpless; for at an age
when her kittens could feed themselves and run about and play with their
tails and with each other, Honig-je' was not yet able to crawl.

But other dangers were in store for the little girl. One day, when the
men were out hunting, and the women went to the woods to gather nuts and
acorns, a great flood came. The waters washed away the houses, so that
everything floated into the great river, and then down towards the sea.

What had, what would, become of our baby? So thought the parents of
Honig-je', when they came back to find the houses swept away and no sign
of their little daughter. Dub-belt-je' and her kittens, and all the
cows, were gone too.

Now it had happened that when the flood came and the house crashed down,
baby was sound asleep. The cat, leaving its kittens, that were now
pretty well grown up, leaped up and on to the top of the cradle and the
two floated off together. Pretty soon they found themselves left alone,
with nothing in sight that was familiar, except one funny thing. That
was a wooden shoe, in which was a fuzzy little yellow chicken hardly
four days old. It had been playing in the shoe, when the floods came
and swept it off from under the very beak of the old hen, that, with all
her other chicks, was speedily drowned.

On and on, the raging flood bore baby and puss, until dark night came
down. For hours more they drifted until, happily, the cradle was swept
into an eddy in front of a village. There it spun round and round, and
might soon have been borne into the greater flood, which seemed to roar
louder as the waters rose.

Now a cat can see sometimes in the night, better even than in the day,
for the darker it becomes, the wider open the eyes of puss. In bright
sunshine, at noon, the inside doors of the cat's eyes close to a narrow
slit, while at night these doors open wide. That is the reason why, in
the days before clocks and watches were made, the children could tell
about the time of day by looking at the cat's eyes. Sometimes they named
their pussy Klok'-oog, which means Clock Eye, or Bell Eye, for bell
clocks are older than clocks with a dial, and because in Holland the
bells ring out the hours and quarter hours.

Puss looked up and saw the church tower looming up in the dark. At once
she began to meouw and caterwaul with all her might. She hoped that some
one in one of the houses near the river bank might catch the sound. But
none seemed to hear or heed. At last, when Puss was nearly dead with
howling, a light appeared at one of the windows. This showed that some
one was up and moving. It was a boy, who was named Dirck, after the
saint Theodoric, who had first, long ago, built a church in the village.
Then Puss opened her mouth and lungs again and set up a regular
cat-scream. This wakened all her other relatives in the village and
every Tom and Kitty made answer, until there was a cat concert of meouws
and caterwauls.

The boy heard, rushed down-stairs, and, opening the door, listened. The
wind blew out his candle, but the brave lad was guided by the sound
which Pussy made. Reaching the bank, he threw off his wooden klomps,
plunged into the boiling waters, and, seizing the cradle, towed it
ashore. Then he woke up his mother and showed her his prize. The way
that baby laughed and crowed, and patted the horn of milk, and kicked up
its toes in delight over the warm milk, which was brought, was a joy to
see. Near the hearth, in the middle of the floor, Dub-belt-je', the
puss, was given some straw for a bed and, after purring joyfully, was
soon, like the baby, sound asleep.

Thus the cat warned the boy, and the boy saved the baby, that was very
welcome in a family where there were no girls, but only a boy. When
Honig-je' grew up to be a young woman, she looked as lovely as a
princess and in the church was married to Dirck! It was the month of
April and all the world was waking to flowers, when the wedding
procession came out of the church and the air was sweet with the opening
of the buds.

Before the next New Year's day arrived, there lay in the same cradle,
and put to sleep over the same rockers, a baby boy. When they brought
him to the font, the good grandmother named him Luid-i-ger. He grew up
to be the great missionary, whose name in Friesland is, even today,
after a thousand years, a household word. He it was who drove out bad
fairies, vile enchanters, wicked spirits and terrible diseases. Best of
all, he banished "eye-bite," which was the name the people gave to
witchcraft. Luid-i-ger, also, made it hard for the naughty elves and
sprites that delude men.

After this, it was easy for all the good spirits, that live in kind
hearts and noble lives, to multiply and prosper. The wolves were driven
away or killed off and became very few, while the cattle and sheep
multiplied, until everybody could have a woollen coat, and there was a
cow to every person in the land.

But the people still suffered from the floods, that from time to time
drowned the cattle and human beings, and the ebb tides, that carried
everything out to sea. Then the good missionary taught the men how to
build dykes, that kept out the ocean and made the water of the rivers
stay between the banks. The floods became fewer and fewer and at last
rarely happened. Then Santa Klaas arrived, to keep alive in the hearts
of the people the spirit of love and kindness and good cheer forever.

At last, when nearly a hundred years had passed away, Honig-je', once
the girl baby, and then the dear old lady, who was kind to everybody and
prepared the way for Santa Klaas, died. Then, also, Dub-belt-je' the
cat, that had nine lives in one, died with her. They buried the old lady
under the church floor and stuffed the pussy that everybody, kittens,
boys, girls and people loved. By and by, when the cat's tail and fur
fell to pieces, and ears tumbled off, and its glass eyes dropped out, a
skilful artist chiselled a statue of Dub-belt-je', which still stands
over the tomb in the church. Every year, on Santa Klaas day, December
sixth, the children put a new collar around its neck and talk about the
cat that saved a baby's life.




PRINCE SPIN HEAD AND MISS SNOW WHITE


Long, long ago, before the Romans came into the land and when the
fairies ruled in the forest, there was a maiden who lived under an oak
tree. When she was a baby they called her Bundlekin. She had four
brothers, who loved their younger sister very dearly and did everything
they could to make her happy. Her fat father was a famous hunter. When
he roamed the woods, no bear, wolf, aurochs, roebuck, deer, or big
animal of any kind, could escape from his arrows, his spear, or his
pit-trap. He taught his sons to be skilful in the chase, but also to be
kind to the dumb creatures when captured. Especially when the mother
beast was killed, the boys were always told to care for the cubs, whelps
and kittens. As for the smaller animals, foxes, hares, weasels, rabbits
and ermine, these were so numerous, that the father left the business of
hunting them to the lads, who had great sport.

The house under the oak tree was always well provided with meat and
furs. The four brothers brought the little animals, which they took in
the woods, to make presents to their sister. So there was always a
plenty of pets, bear and wolf cubs, wildcats' kittens and baby aurochs
for the girl to play with. Every day, while the animals were so young as
to be fed on milk, she enjoyed frolicking with the four-footed babies.
When they grew bigger, she romped and sported with them, as if she and
they were equal members of the same family. The older brother watched
carefully, so that the little brutes, as they increased in size, should
not bite or claw his sister, for he knew the fierce nature that was in
wild creatures. Yet the maiden had wonderful power over these beasts of
the forest, whether little or big. She was not very much afraid of them
and often made them run, by looking at them hard in the eye.

While the girl made a pet of the animals, her parents made a pet of her.
The mother prepared the skins of the wolves and bears, until these were
very soft, keeping the fur on, to make rugs for the floor, and winter
coats for her children. The hides of the aurochs sufficed for rougher
use, but from what had once been the clothes of the fawn, the weasel,
the rabbit, and the ermine, garments were made that were smooth enough
to suit a baby's tender flesh. The forest folk wrapped their infants in
swaddling hands made of these dressed pelts. After feeding the darling,
a mother hung her baby up, warmly covered, to a tree branch. The cradle,
which was a furry bag, was made of the same material and swung in the
wind.

Bundlekin usually fell asleep right after she had had her breakfast.
When she woke up crowing, the squirrels were playing all around her. She
even learned to watch the spiders, spinning their houses of silk,
without being afraid. When Bundlekin grew up, she always called this
curious creature, that could make silk, Spin Head. She jokingly called
it her lover, in remembrance of baby days.

It was funny to see how deft the mother was with her needles, fashioned
from bone, and her rough thread, which was made of the intestines of the
deer. From her own childhood in the woods, Bundlekin's mother had been
used to this kind of dressmaking. Now, when her daughter had grown, from
babyhood and through her teens, to be a lovely maiden, fair of face and
strong of limb, her sweet, unselfish parent was equal to new tasks. To
the soft leather coats, made from the skins of fawns, martens, and
weasels, she added trimmings of snow white ermine. Caps and mittens,
cloaks for the body, and coverings for the feet, were fashioned to fit
neatly. Fringes, here and there, were put on them, until her girl looked
like a king's daughter. In summer, the skins of birds and their feathers
clothed her lightly, and with many and rich colors, while the forest
flowers decked her hair.

In winter, in her white forest robes, the maiden, except for her rosy
face and sparkling eyes, seemed as if she might have been born of the
snow, or was a daughter of the northern ice god at Ulrum. And because
she was so lovely, her parents changed her baby name and called her
Dri'-fa, which means Snow White.

Yet, though no other girl in Gelderland equalled, and none, not even the
princesses, excelled Snow White in beauty of face, form, or raiment, the
maiden was not happy, even though many lovers came to her and offered to
marry her. Some, as proof of their skill as hunters, brought the finest
furs the forest furnished. Others showed their strength or fleetness of
foot. Some bargained with the kabouters, or fairies of the mines, to
bring them shining ore or precious gems which they offered to Snow
White. Others, again, went afar to get strange wonders, amber and
ambergris, from the seashores of the far north to please her. One fine
fellow, who had been in the south and was proud of his travels, told her
of what he had seen in the great cities, and offered her a necklace of
pearls.

But all was in vain. Every lover went away sorrowful, for Snow White
wearied of them and sent each one home, disappointed.

Last of all, among the lovers came a strange looking one, named Spin
Head, resembling a spider, promising a secret worth more than furs,
gold, gems, or necklace; but the mother, seeing the ugly creature, drove
it off with hard words.

So the months and years passed, until her father feared he would not
live to see his daughter a wife.

But one day, when all in the household were absent, the leaves of the
oak tree rustled loudly. There was no wind, and Snow White, surprised,
strained her ears to find out what this might mean. Soon she could make
out these words:

"When the spider, that you called Spin Head, comes to make love to you,
listen to him. He is the wisest being in all the forest. He knows the
future. He will tell you a secret. I shall pass away, but what he
teaches you shall live."

Then the leaves of the oak ceased to rustle and all was quiet and still
again.

While wondering what this message might mean, down came the real spider
she had named Spin Head. He lowered himself from a tree branch, high
above on a silken thread. The creature sat down on the log beside the
maiden; but she was not in the least startled and did not scream nor run
away. Indeed, she spoke to the spider as an old friend:

"Well, playmate of my babyhood, what have you to tell me?"

"I came to offer you my love. You need not marry me yet, but if you will
let me spin a web in your room, I shall live there, and, by and by,
reward you. Let me be in your sight always, and you will not be sorry
for it."

The maiden had no sooner agreed than a terrible tempest uprooted the oak
and levelled the trees of the forest. In a moment more, a new and very
beautiful house rose up out of the ground. It was as noble to look at as
a palace. Near by was a garden, and one day when she walked in it, out
of it sprang a blue flower, almost under her feet.

"Choose the best room for your own self," said Spin Head, "and then show
me my corner. After a hundred days, if you treat me kindly, I shall
reveal the secret of that blue flower."

Dri'-fa, the maiden, chose the sunniest room, and gave Spin Head the
best corner, near the window and close to the ceiling. At once he began
to weave a shining web for his own house. She wondered at such fine
work, which no human weaver could excel, and why she was not able to
spin silk out of her head, nor even with her fingers, like her strange
lover. But the oak had promised that Spin Head would reveal a secret,
and she was curious to know what it was. Like all girls, she was in a
hurry to have the secret. To ease her impatience, Dri'-fa looked on,
while Spin Head was thus busy at making his dwelling place, with shining
threads which he spun out, never ceasing. She was so intent upon
watching him that night came down before she noticed that her room was
not furnished. There was not even a bed to sleep on.

Spin Head looked at her closely and then spoke with a deep voice, like a
man's:

"Ah, I know, you want a bed, and pretty things for your room."

In another moment, soft furs lined the floor, and soon all that Dri'-fa
had possessed in the forest for comfort she had now, and more. Lost in
wonder as she was, in a few minutes she was fast asleep.

She dreamed she wore a dress of some strange, new, white fabric, such as
her people had never seen before. Instead of being close in texture,
like the skin of an animal, it was as open work, full of thousands of
little holes, yet strongly held together. It was light and gauzy, like a
silvery spider's web on the summer grass before sunrise, when pearly
with dewdrops.

The hundred days were passing swiftly by, and Spin Head and Snow White
had become fast friends. Each lived in a different world--a world within
a world. She was waiting for the secret he would tell her. She bravely
resolved not to be impatient, but let Spin Head speak first.

One day, when autumn had come and she was lonely, she sauntered out into
the garden. The chill winds were blowing and the leaves falling, till
they covered the ground like a yellow carpet. One fell into her hand, as
if it bore words of friendly greeting. Yet, though she waited, not one
of the millions of them brought a message to her! Never a word had she
ever heard from her parents and brothers! The blue flower had long ago
fallen away and there was nothing in its place but a hard, rough, black
stalk. Then she said to herself:

"Is there anything in this ugly stick? How will Spin Head reveal his
secret?" Never had she been so cast down.

Again the tempest howled. All the winds of heaven seemed to have broken
loose. Many a sturdy oak lay prostrate. The leaves darkened the air, so
that Snow White could see nothing. Then there was a great calm. The maid
cleared her sight, and lo! there, beside her, stood a youth, more
beautiful than any of her brothers, or her lovers, or any man she had
ever seen. He was dressed in fine white clothing, excelling in its
texture any skin of fawn, or animal of the forest. Instead of being
leather, however soft, it seemed woven of a multitude of threads. In his
hand he held the black stalk of what had been the blue flower.

"I am Spin Head," he said. "The hundred days are over. The spell is
broken and my deliverance from enchantment has come. I bring to you, as
my gift, this ugly stalk, on which the blue flower bloomed."

Between surprise at the change of Spin Head from a spider to a handsome
youth, and disappointment at such a present offered her, Snow White was
dumb. She could hardly draw her breath. Was that all?

"Break it open," said Spin Head.

Splitting the stalk from end to end, the maiden was surprised to find
inside many long silky fibres, almost as fine as the strands in a
spider's web. She pulled them out and her eyes danced with joy.

"Plant the seed and let the blue flowers blossom by the million," said
the youth. "Then gather the stalks and, from the fibres, weave them
together and make this. The black rod is a sceptre of wealth."

Then, separating the delicate strands one by one, Spin Head wove them
together. The result was a rich robe, of a snow white fabric, never seen
in the forest. It was linen.

Snow White clapped her hands with joy.

"'Tis for your wedding dress, if you will marry me," said Spin Head.

Snow White's cheeks blushed red, but she looked at him and her eyes said
"yes."

"Wait," said Spin Head. "I'll make you a bridal veil."

Once more his fingers wrought wonders. He produced yards of a gauzy,
open work stuff. He made it float in the air first. Then he threw it
over her head. It trailed down her back and covered her rosy face. It
was lace.

Happily married, they left the forest and travelled into the land where
the blue flax flowers made a new sky on the earth. Soon on the map men
read the names of cities unknown before. At a time when Europe had no
such masses of happy people, joyous in their toil, Courtrai, Tournay,
Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges told what the blue flower of the flax had done
for the country. More than gold, gems, or the wealth of forest or mine,
was the gift of Spin Head to Snow White, for the making of Belgic Land.




THE BOAR WITH THE GOLDEN BRISTLES


Long, long ago, there were brave fighters and skilful hunters in
Holland, but neither men nor women ever dreamed that food was to be got
out of the ground, but only from the trees and bushes, such as berries,
acorns and honey. They thought the crust of the earth was too hard to be
broken up for seed, even if they knew what grain and bread were. They
supposed that what nature provided in the forest was the only food for
men. Besides this, they made their women do all the work and cook the
acorns and brew the honey into mead, while they went out to fish and
hunt and fight.

So the fairies took pity on the cold, northern people, who lived where
it rained and snowed a great deal. They held a council and agreed that
it was time to send down to the earth an animal, with tusks, to tear up
the ground. Then the people would see the riches of the earth and learn
what soil was. They would be blessed with farms and gardens, barns and
stalls, hay and grain, horses and cattle, wheat and barley, pigs and
clover.

Now there were powerful fairies, of a certain kind, who lived in a Happy
Land far, far away, who had charge of everything in the air and water.
One of them was named Fro, who became lord of the summer sunshine and
warm showers, that make all things grow. It was in this bright region
that the white elves lived.

It was a pretty custom in fairy-land that when a fairy baby cut its
first tooth, the mother's friends should make the little one some pretty
present.

When Nerthus, the mother of the infant Fro, looked into its mouth and
saw the little white thing that had come up through the baby's gums, she
went in great glee and told the glad news to all the other fairies. It
was a great event and she tried to guess what present her wonderful
boy-baby should receive.

There was one giant-like fairy as strong as a polar bear, who agreed to
get, for little Fro, a creature that could put his nose under the sod
and root up the ground. In this way he would show men what the earth,
just under its surface, contained, without their going into mines and
caverns.

One day this giant fairy heard two stout dwarfs talking loudly in the
region under the earth. They were boasting as to which could beat the
other at the fire and bellows, for both were blacksmiths. One was the
king of the dwarfs, who made a bet that he could excel the other. So he
set them to work as rivals, while a third dwarf worked the bellows. The
dwarf-king threw some gold in the flames to melt; but, fearing he might
not win the bet, he went away to get other fairies to help him. He told
the bellows dwarf to keep on pumping air on the fire, no matter what
might happen to him.

So when one giant fairy, in the form of a gadfly, flew at him, and bit
him in the hand, the bellows-blower did not stop for the pain, but kept
on until the fire roared loudly, as to make the cavern echo. Then all
the gold melted and could be transformed. As soon as the dwarf-king came
back, the bellows-blower took up the tongs and drew out of the fire a
boar having golden bristles.

This fire-born golden boar had the power of travelling through the air
as swiftly as a streak of lightning. It was named Gullin, or Golden, and
was given to the fairy Fro, and he, when grown, used the wonderful
creature as his steed. All the other good fairies and the elves
rejoiced, because men on the earth would now be helped to do great
things.

Even more wonderful to tell, this fire-born creature became the father
of all the animals that have tusks and that roam in the woods. A tusk is
a big tooth, of which the hardest and sharpest part grows, long and
sharp, outside of the mouth and it stays there, even when the mouth is
shut.

When Gullin was not occupied, or being ridden by Fro on his errands over
the world, he taught his sons, that is, the wild boars of the forest,
how to root up the ground and make it soft for things to grow in. Then
his master Fro sent the sunbeams and the warm showers to make the
turned-up earth fruitful.

To do this, the wild boars were given two long tusks, as pointed as
needles and sharp as knives. With one sweep of his head a boar could rip
open a dog or a wolf, a bull or a bear, or furrow the earth like a
ploughshare.

Now there were several cousins in the Tusk family. The elephant on land,
and the walrus and narwhal in the seas; but none of these could plough
ground, but because the boar's tusks grew out so long and were so sharp,
and hooked at the end, it could tear open the earth's hard crust and
root up the ground. This made a soil fit for tender plants to grow in,
and even the wild flowers sprang up in them.

All this, when they first noticed it, was very wonderful to human
beings. The children called one to the other to come and see the unusual
sight. The little troughs, made first by the ripping of the boar's
tusks, were widened by rooting with their snouts. These were welcomed by
the birds, for they hopped into the lines thus made, to feed on the
worms. So the birds, supposing that these little gutters in the ground
were made especially for them, made great friends with the boars. They
would even perch near by, or fly to their backs, and ride on them.

As for the men fathers, when they looked at the clods and the loose
earth thus turned over, they found them to be very soft. So the women
and girls were able to break them up with their sticks. Then the seeds,
dropped by the birds that came flying back every spring time, from
far-away lands, sprouted. It was noticed that new kinds of plants grew
up, which had stalks. In the heads or ears of these were a hundredfold
more seeds. When the children tasted them, they found, to their delight,
that the little grains were good to eat. They swallowed them whole, they
roasted them at the fire, or they pounded them with stones. Then they
baked the meal thus made or made it into mush, eating it with honey.

For the first time people in the Dutch world had bread. When they added
the honey, brought by the bees, they had sweet cakes with mead. Then,
saving the seeds over, from one summer to another, they in the spring
time planted them in the little trenches made by the animal's tusks.
Then the Dutch words for "boar" and "row" were put together, meaning
boar row, and there issued, in time, our word "furrow."

The women were the first to become skilful in baking. In the beginning
they used hot stones on which to lay the lump of meal, or flour and
water, or the batter. Then having learned about yeast, which "raised"
the flour, that is, lifted it up, with gas and bubbles, they made real
bread and cakes and baked them in the ovens which the men had made. When
they put a slice of meat between upper and lower layers of bread, they
called it "broodje," that is, little bread; or, sandwich. In time,
instead of one kind of bread, or cake, they had a dozen or twenty
different sorts, besides griddle cakes and waffles.

Now when the wise men of the mark, or neighborhood, saw that the women
did such wonderful things, they put their heads together and said one to
the other:

"We are quite ready to confess that fairies, and elves, and even the
kabouters are smarter than we are. Our women, also, are certainly
wonderful; but it will never do to let the boars think that they know
more than we do. They did indeed teach us how to make furrows, and the
birds brought us grain; but we are the greater, for we can hunt and kill
the boars with our spears.

"Although they can tear up the sod and root in the ground with tusk and
snout, they cannot make cakes, as our women can. So let us see if we
cannot beat both the boars and birds, and even excel our women. We shall
be more like the fairies, if we invent something that will outshine them
all."

So they thought and planned, and, little by little, they made the
plough. First, with a sharp stick in their hands, the men scratched the
surface of the ground into lines that were not very deep. Then they
nailed plates of iron on those sticks. Next, they fixed this iron-shod
wood in a frame to be pulled forward, and, by and by, they added
handles. Men and women, harnessed together, pulled the plough. Indeed it
was ages before they had oxen to do this heavy work for them. At last
the perfect plough was seen. It had a knife in front to cut the clods, a
coulter, a beam, a mould board and handles, and, after a while, a wheel
to keep it straight. Then they set horses to draw it.

Fro the fairy was the owner, not only of the boar with the golden
bristles, but also of the lightning-like horse, Sleipnir, that could
ride through fire and water with the speed of light. Fro also owned the
magic ship, which could navigate both land and sea. It was so very
elastic that it could be stretched out to carry a host of warriors over
the seas to war, or fold up like a lady's handkerchief. With this flying
vessel, Fro was able to move about like a cloud and also to change like
them. He could also appear, or disappear, as he pleased, in one place or
another.

By and by, the wild boars were all hunted to death and disappeared. Yet
in one way, and a glorious one also, their name and fame were kept in
men's memories. Brave knights had the boar's head painted on their
shields and coats of arms. When the faith of the Prince of Peace made
wars less frequent, the temples in honor of Fro were deserted, but the
yule log and the revels, held to celebrate the passing of the Mother
Night, in December, that is, the longest one of the year, were changed
for the Christmas festival.

Then again, the memory of man's teacher of the plough was still kept
green; for the boar was remembered as the giver, not only of nourishing
meat, but of ideas for men's brains. Baked in the oven, and made
delightful to the appetite, served on the dish, with its own savory
odors; withal, decorated with sprigs of rosemary, the boar's head was
brought in for the great dinner, with the singing of Christmas carols.




THE ICE KING AND HIS WONDERFUL GRANDCHILD


In the far-off ages, all the lands of northern Europe were one, for the
deep seas had not yet separated them. Then our forefathers thought that
fairies were gods. They built temples in their honor, and prayed to
them. Then, in the place where is now the little town of Ulrum in
Friesland was the home of the spirit in the ice, Uller. That is what
Ulrum means, the home of the good fairy Uller.

Uller was the patron of boys and girls. They liked him, because he
invented skates and sleds and sleighs. He had charge of things in winter
and enjoyed the cold. He delighted also in hunting. Dressed in thick
furs, he loved to roam over the hills and through the forests, seeking
out the wolf, the bear, the deer, and the aurochs. His bow and arrows
were terrible, for they were very big and he was a sure shot. Being the
patron of archery, hunters always sought his favor. The yew tree was
sacred to Uller, because the best bows were made from its wood. No one
could cut down a yew tree without angering Uller.

Nobody knew who Uller's father was, and if he knew himself, he did not
care to tell any one. He would not bestow many blessings upon mankind;
yet thousands of people used to come to Ulrum every year to invoke his
aid and ask him to send a heavy fall of snow to cover the ground. That
meant good crops of food for the next year. The white snow, lying thick
upon the ground, kept back the frost giants from biting the earth too
hard. Because of deep winter snows, the ground was soft during the next
summer. So the seed sprouted more easily and there was plenty to eat.

When Uller travelled over the winter snow, to go out on hunting trips,
he strapped snow-shoes on his feet. Because these were shaped like a
warrior's shield, Uller was often called the shield-god. His protection
was especially invoked by men who fought duels with sword or spear,
which were very common in early days; or by soldiers or hunters, who
wished to be very brave, or had engaged in perilous ventures.

Now when Uller wanted a wife to marry him, he made love to Skadi,
because she was a huntress and liked the things which he liked. So they
never had a quarrel. She was very strong, fond of sports, and of chasing
the wild animals. She wore a short skirt, which allowed freedom of
motion to her limbs. Then she ranged over the hills and valleys with
wonderful swiftness. So rapid were her movements that many people
likened her to the cold mountain stream, that leaps down from the high
peaks and over the rocks, foaming and dashing to the lowlands. They gave
the same name to both this fairy woman and the water, because they were
so much alike.

Indeed Skadi was very lovely to look at. It was no wonder that many of
the gods, fairies and men fell in love with her. It is even said that
she had had several husbands before marrying Uller. When you look at her
pictures, you will see that she was as pretty as bright winter itself,
when Jack Frost clothes the trees with white and makes the cheeks of the
girls so rosy. She wore armor of shining steel, a silver helmet, short
white skirts and white fur leggings. Her snow-shoes were of the hue of
winter. Besides a glittering spear, she had a bow and sharp arrows.
These were held in a silver quiver slung over her shoulders. Altogether,
she looked like winter alive. She loved to live in the mountains, and
hear the thunders of cataracts, the crash of avalanches, the moaning of
the winds in the pine forests. Even the howling of wolves was music in
her ears. She was afraid of nothing.

Now from such a father and mother one would expect wonderful children,
yet very much like their parents. It turned out that the offspring of
Uller and Skadi were all daughters. To them--one after another--were
given the names meaning Glacier, Cold, Snow, Drift, Snow Whirl, and Snow
Dust, the oldest being the biggest and hardiest. The others were in
degree softer and more easily influenced by the sun and the wind. They
all looked alike, so that some people called them the Six White Sisters.

Yet they were all so great and powerful that many considered them
giantesses. It was not possible for men to tame them, for they did very
much as they pleased. No one could stop their doings or drive them away,
except Woden, who was the god of the sun. Yet in winter, even he left
off ruling the world and went away. During that time, that is, during
seven months, Uller took Woden's throne and governed the affairs of the
world. When summer came, Uller went with his wife up to the North Pole;
or they lived in a house, on the top of the Alps. There they could hunt
and roam on their snow-shoes. To these cold places, which the whole
family enjoyed, their daughters went also and all were very happy so far
above the earth.

Things went on pleasantly in Uller's family so long as his daughters
were young, for then the girls found enough to delight in at their daily
play. But when grown up and their heads began to be filled with notions
about the young giants, who paid visits to them, then the family
troubles began.

[Illustration: YET ALL THE TIME HE WAS CALLING ON HUMAN BEINGS TO HARNESS
HIM TO WHEELS]

There was one young giant fairy named Vuur, who came often to see all
six of Uller's daughters, from the youngest to the oldest. Yet no one
could tell which of them he was in love with, or could name the girl he
liked best; no, not even the daughters themselves. His character and his
qualities were not well known, for he put on many disguises and appeared
in many places. It was believed, however, that he had already done a
good deal of mischief and was likely to do more, for he loved
destruction. Yet he often helped the kabouter dwarfs to do great things;
so that showed he was of some use. In fact he was the fire fairy. He
kept on, courting all the six sisters, long after May day came, and he
lengthened his visits until the heat turned the entire half dozen of
them into water. So they became one.

At this, Uller was so angry at Vuur's having delayed so long before
popping the question, and at his daughters' losing their shapes, that he
made Vuur marry them all and at once, they taking the name of Regen.

Now when the child of Vuur and Regen was born, it turned out to be, in
body and in character, just what people expected from such a father and
mother. It was named in Dutch, Stoom. It grew fast and soon showed that
it was as powerful as its parents had been; yet it was much worse, when
shut up, than when allowed to go free in the air. Stoom loved to do all
sorts of tricks. In the kitchen, it would make the iron kettle lid flop
up and down with a lively noise. If it were confined in a vessel,
whether of iron or earthenware, when set over the fire, it would blow
the pot or kettle all to pieces, in order to get out. Thinking itself a
great singer, it would make rather a pleasant sound, when its mother let
it come out of a spout. Yet it never obeyed either of its parents. When
they tried to shut up Stoom inside of anything, it always escaped with a
terrible sound. In fact, nothing could long hold it in, without an
explosion.

Sometimes Stoom would go down into the bowels of the earth and turn on a
stream of water so as to meet the deep fires which are ever burning far
down below us. Then there would come an awful earthquake, because Stoom
wanted to get out, and the earth crust would not let him, but tried to
hold him down. Sometimes Stoom slipped down into a volcano's mouth. Then
the mountain, in order to save itself from being choked, had to spit
Stoom out, and this always made a terrible mess on the ground, and men
called it lava. Or, Stoom might stay down in the crater as a guest, and
quietly come out, occasionally, in jets and puffs.

Even when Jack Frost was around and froze the pipes in the house, or
turned the water of the pots, pans, kettles and bottles into solid ice,
Stoom behaved very badly. If the frozen kettles, or any other closed
vessel were put over the stove, or near the fire, and the ice melted at
the bottom too fast, Stoom would blow the whole thing up. In this way,
he often put men's lives in danger and made them lose their property.

No one seemed to know how to handle this mischievous fairy. Not one man
on earth could do anything with him. So they let him have his own way.
Yet all the time, though he was enjoying his own tricks and lively fun,
he was, with his own voice, calling on human beings to use him properly,
and harness him to wheels; for he was willing to be useful to them, and
was all ready to pull or drive, lift or lower, grind or pump, as the
need might be.

As long as men did not treat him properly and give him the right to get
out into the air, after he had done his work, Stoom would explode, blow
up and destroy everything. He could be made to sing, hiss, squeal,
whistle, and make all kinds of sounds, but, unless the bands that held
him in were strong enough, or if Vuur got too hot, or his mother would
not give him drink enough, when the iron pipes were red with heat, he
would lose his temper and explode. He had no respect for bad or
neglected boilers, or for lazy or careless firemen and engineers.

Yet properly harnessed and treated well, and fed with the food such as
his mother can give, and roused by his father's persuasion, Stoom is
greater than any giant or fairy that ever was. He can drive a ship, a
locomotive, a submarine, or an aeroplane, as fast as Fro's boar, horse
or ship. Everybody to-day is glad that Stoom is such a good servant and
friend all over the world.




THE ELVES AND THEIR ANTICS


The elves are the little white creatures that live between heaven and
earth. They are not in the clouds, nor down in the caves and mines, like
the kabouters. They are bright and fair, dwelling in the air, and in the
world of light. The direct heat of the sun is usually too much for them,
so they are not often seen during the day, except towards sunset. They
love the silvery moonlight. There used to be many folks, who thought
they had seen the beautiful creatures, full of fun and joy, dancing hand
in hand, in a circle.

In these old days, long since gone by, there were more people than there
are now, who were sure they had many times enjoyed the sight of the
elves. Some places in Holland show, by their names, where this kind of
fairies used to live. These little creatures, that looked as thin as
gauze, were very lively and mischievous, though they often helped honest
and hard working people in their tasks, as we shall see. But first and
most of all, they were fond of fun. They loved to vex cross people and
to please those who were bonnie and blithe. They hated misers, but they
loved the kind and generous. These little folks usually took their
pleasure in the grassy meadows, among the flowers and butterflies. On
bright nights they played among the moonbeams.

There were certain times when the elves were busy, in such a way as to
make men and girls think about them. Then their tricks were generally in
the stable, or in the field among the cows. Sometimes, in the kitchen or
dairy, among the dishes or milk-pans, they made an awful mess for the
maids to clean up. They tumbled over the churns, upset the milk jugs,
and played hoops with the round cheeses. In a bedroom they made things
look as if the pigs had run over them.

When a farmer found his horse's mane twisted into knots, or two cows
with their tails tied together, he said at once, "That's the work of
elves." If the mares did not feel well, or looked untidy, their owners
were sure the elves had taken the animals out and had been riding them
all night. If a cow was sick, or fell down on the grass, it was believed
that the elves had shot an arrow into its body. The inquest, held on
many a dead calf or its mother, was, that it died from an "elf-shot."
They were so sure of this, that even when a stone arrow head--such as
our far-off ancestors used in hunting, when they were cave men--was
picked up off the ground, it was called an "elf bolt," or "elf-arrow."

Near a certain village named Elf-berg or Elf Hill, because there were so
many of the little people in that neighborhood, there was one very old
elf, named Styf, which means Stiff, because though so old he stood up
straight as a lance. Even more than the young elves, he was famous for
his pranks. Sometimes he was nicknamed Haan-e'-kam or Cock's Comb. He
got this name, because he loved to mock the roosters, when they crowed,
early in the morning. With his red cap on, he did look like a rooster.
Sometimes he fooled the hens, that heard him crowing. Old Styf loved
nothing better than to go to a house where was a party indoors. All the
wooden shoes of the twenty or thirty people within, men and women, girls
and boys, would be left outside the door. All good Dutch folks step out
of their heavy timber shoes, or klomps, before they enter a house. It is
always a curious sight, at a country church, or gathering of people at a
party, to see the klomps, big and little, belonging to baby boys and
girls, and to the big men, who wear a number thirteen shoe of wood. One
wonders how each one of the owners knows his own, but he does. Each pair
is put in its own place, but Old Styf would come and mix them all up
together, and then leave them in a pile. So when the people came out to
go home, they had a terrible time in finding and sorting out their
shoes. Often they scolded each other; or, some innocent boy was blamed
for the mischief. Some did not find out, till the next day, that they
had on one foot their own, and on another foot, their neighbor's shoe.
It usually took a week to get the klomps sorted out, exchanged, and the
proper feet into the right shoes. In this way, which was a special trick
with him, this naughty elf, Styf, spoiled the temper of many people.

Beside the meadow elves, there were other kinds in Elfin Land; some
living in the woods, some in the sand-dunes, but those called
Staalkaars, or elves of the stall, were Old Styf's particular friends.
These lived in stables and among the cows. The Moss Maidens, that could
do anything with leaves, even turning them into money, helped Styf, for
they too liked mischief. They teased men-folks, and enjoyed nothing
better than misleading the stupid fellows that fuddled their brains with
too much liquor.

Styf's especially famous trick was played on misers. It was this. When
he heard of any old fellow, who wanted to save the cost of candles, he
would get a kabouter to lead him off in the swamps, where the sooty
elves come out, on dark nights, to dance. Hoping to catch these lights
and use them for candles, the mean fellow would find himself in a swamp,
full of water and chilled to the marrow. Then the kabouters would laugh
loudly.

Old Styf had the most fun with another stingy fellow, who always scolded
children when he found them spending a penny. If he saw a girl buying
flowers, or a boy giving a copper coin for a waffle, he talked roughly
to them for wasting money. Meeting this miser one day, as he was walking
along the brick road, leading from the village, Styf offered to pay the
old man a thousand guilders, in exchange for four striped tulips, that
grew in his garden. The miser, thinking it real silver, eagerly took the
money and put it away in his iron strong box. The next night, when he
went, as he did three times a week, to count, and feel, and rub, and
gloat, over his cash, there was nothing but leaves in a round form.
These, at his touch, crumbled to pieces. The Moss Maidens laughed
uproariously, when the mean old fellow was mad about it.

But let no one suppose that the elves, because they were smarter than
stupid human beings, were always in mischief. No, no! They did, indeed,
have far more intelligence than dull grown folks, lazy boys, or careless
girls; but many good things they did. They sewed shoes for poor
cobblers, when they were sick, and made clothes for children, when the
mother was tired. When they were around, the butter came quick in the
churn.

When the blue flower of the flax bloomed in Holland, the earth, in
spring time, seemed like the sky. Old Styf then saw his opportunity to
do a good thing. Men thought it a great affair to have even coarse linen
tow for clothes. No longer need they hunt the wolf and deer in the
forest, for their garments. By degrees, they learned to make finer
stuff, both linen for clothes and sails for ships, and this fabric they
spread out on the grass until the cloth was well bleached. When taken
up, it was white as the summer clouds that sailed in the blue sky. All
the world admired the product, and soon the word "Holland" was less the
name of a country, than of a dainty fabric, so snow white, that it was
fit to robe a queen. The world wanted more and more of it, and the Dutch
linen weaver grew rich. Yet still there was more to come.

Now, on one moonlight night in summer, the lady elves, beautiful
creatures, dressed in gauze and film, with wings to fly and with feet
that made no sound, came down into the meadows for their fairy dances.
But when, instead of green grass, they saw a white landscape, they
wondered, Was it winter?

Surely not, for the air was warm. No one shivered, or was cold. Yet
there were whole acres as white as snow, while all the old fairy rings,
grass and flowers were hidden.

They found that the meadows had become bleaching grounds, so that the
cows had to go elsewhere to get their dinner, and that this white area
was all linen. However, they quickly got over their surprise, for elves
are very quick to notice things. But now that men had stolen a march on
them, they asked whether, after all, these human beings had more
intelligence than elves. Not one of these fairies but believed that men
and women were the inferiors of elves.

So, then and there, began a battle of wits.

"They have spoiled our dancing floor with their new invention; so we
shall have to find another," said the elfin queen, who led the party.

"They are very proud of their linen, these men are; but, without the
spider to teach them, what could they have done? Even a wild boar can
instruct these human beings. Let us show them, that we, also, can do
even more. I'll get Old Styf to put on his thinking cap. He'll add
something new that will make them prouder yet."

"But we shall get the glory of it," the elves shouted in chorus. Then
they left off talking and began their dances, floating in the air, until
they looked, from a distance, like a wreath of stars.

The next day, a procession of lovely elf maidens and mothers waited on
Styf and asked him to devise something that would excel the invention of
linen; which, after all, men had learned from the spider.

"Yes, and they would not have any grain fields, if they had not learned
from the wild boar," added the elf queen.

Old Styf answered "yes" at once to their request, and put on his red
thinking cap. Then some of the girl elves giggled, for they saw that he
did, really, look like a cock's comb. "No wonder they called him
Haan-e'-kam," said one elf girl to the other.

Now Old Styf enjoyed fooling, just for the fun of it, and he taught all
the younger elves that those who did the most work with their hands and
head, would have the most fun when they were old.

First of all, he went at once to see Fro, the spirit of the golden
sunshine and the warm summer showers, who owned two of the most
wonderful things in the world. One was his sword, which, as soon as it
was drawn out of its sheath, against wicked enemies, fought of its own
accord and won every battle. Fro's chief enemies were the frost giants,
who wilted the flowers and blasted the plants useful to man. Fro was
absent, when Styf came, but his wife promised he would come next day,
which he did. He was happy to meet all the elves and fairies, and they,
in turn, joyfully did whatever he told them. Fro knew all the secrets of
the grain fields, for he could see what was in every kernel of both the
stalks and the ripe ears. He arrived, in a golden chariot, drawn by his
wild boar which served him instead of a horse. Both chariot and boar
drove over the tops of the ears of wheat, and faster than the wind.

The Boar was named Gullin, or Golden Bristles because of its sunshiny
color and splendor. In this chariot, Fro had specimens of all the
grains, fruits, and vegetables known to man, from which Styf could
choose, for these he was accustomed to scatter over the earth.

When Styf told him just what he wanted to do, Fro picked out a sheaf of
wheat and whispered a secret in his ear. Then he drove away, in a burst
of golden glory, which dazzled even the elves, that loved the bright
sunshine. These elves were always glad to see the golden chariot coming
or passing by.

Styf also summoned to his aid the kabouters, and, from these ugly little
fellows, got some useful hints; for they, dwelling in the dark caverns,
know many secrets which men used to name alchemy, and which they now
call chemistry.

Then Styf fenced himself off from all intruders, on the top of a bright,
sunny hilltop, with his thinking cap on and made experiments for seven
days. No elves, except his servants, were allowed to see him. At the end
of a week, still keeping his secret and having instructed a dozen or so
of the elf girls in his new art, he invited all the elves in the Low
Countries to come to a great exhibition, which he intended to give.

What a funny show it was! On one long bench, were half a dozen washtubs;
and on a table, near by, were a dozen more washtubs; and on a longer
table not far away were six ironing boards, with smoothing irons. A
stove, made hot with a peat fire, was to heat the irons. Behind the tubs
and tables, stood the twelve elf maidens, all arrayed in shining white
garments and caps, as spotless as snow. One might almost think they were
white elves of the meadow and not kabouters of the mines. The wonder was
that their linen clothes were not only as dainty as stars, but that they
glistened, as if they had laid on the ground during a hoar frost.

Yet it was still warm summer. Nothing had frozen, or melted, and the
rosy-faced elf-maidens were as dry as an ivory fan. Yet they resembled
the lilies of the garden when pearly with dew-drops.

When all were gathered together, Old Styf called for some of the
company, who had come from afar, to take off their dusty and
travel-stained linen garments and give them to him. These were passed
over to the trained girls waiting to receive them. In a jiffy, they were
washed, wrung out, rinsed and dried. It was noticed that those
elf-maidens, who were standing at the last tub, were intently expecting
to do something great, while those five elf maids at the table took off
the hot irons from the stove. They touched the bottom of the flat-irons
with a drop of water to see if it rolled off hissing. They kept their
eyes fixed on Styf, who now came forward before all and said, in a loud
voice:

"Elves and fairies, moss maidens and stall sprites, one and all, behold
our invention, which our great friend Fro and our no less helpful
friends, the kabouters, have helped me to produce. Now watch me prove
its virtues."

Forthwith he produced before all a glistening substance, partly in
powder, and partly in square lumps, as white as chalk. He easily broke
up a handful under his fingers, and flung it into the fifth tub, which
had hot water in it. After dipping the washed garments in the white
gummy mass, he took them up, wrung them out, dried them with his breath,
and then handed them to the elf ironers. In a few moments, these held
up, before the company, what a few minutes before had been only dusty
and stained clothes. Now, they were white and resplendent. No fuller's
earth could have bleached them thus, nor added so glistening a surface.

It was starch, a new thing for clothes. The fairies, one and all,
clapped their hands in delight.

"What shall we name it?" modestly asked Styf of the oldest gnome
present.

"Hereafter, we shall call you Styf Sterk, Stiff Starch." They all
laughed.

Very quickly did the Dutch folks, men and women, hear and make use of
the elves' invention. Their linen closets now looked like piles of snow.
All over the Low Countries, women made caps, in new fashions, of lace or
plain linen, with horns and wings, flaps and crimps, with quilling and
with whirligigs. Soon, in every town, one could read the sign "Hier
mangled men" (Here we do ironing).

In time, kings, queens and nobles made huge ruffs, often so big that
their necks were invisible, and their heads nearly lost from sight, in
rings of quilled linen, or of lace, that stuck out a foot or so. Worldly
people dyed their starch yellow; zealous folk made it blue; but moderate
people kept it snowy white.

Starch added money and riches to the nation. Kings' treasuries became
fat with money gained by taxes laid on ruffs, and on the cargoes of
starch, which was now imported by the shipload, or made on the spot, in
many countries. So, out of the ancient grain came a new spirit that
worked for sweetness and beauty, cleanliness, and health. From a useful
substance, as old as Egypt, was born a fine art, that added to the sum
of the world's wealth and pleasure.




THE KABOUTERS AND THE BELLS


When the young queen Wilhelmina visited Brabant and Limburg, they amused
her with pageants and plays, in which the little fellows called
kabouters, in Dutch, and kobolds in German, played and showed off their
tricks. Other small folk, named gnomes, took part in the tableaux. The
kabouters are the dark elves, who live in forests and mines. The white
elves live in the open fields and the sunshine.

The gnomes do the thinking, but the kabouters carry out the work of
mining and gathering the precious stones and minerals. They are short,
thick fellows, very strong and are strenuous in digging out coal and
iron, copper and gold. When they were first made, they were so ugly,
that they had to live where they could not be seen, that is, in the dark
places. The grown imps look like old men with beards, but no one ever
heard of a kabouter that was taller than a yardstick. As for the babies,
they are hardly bigger than a man's thumb. The big boys and girls, in
the kabouter kingdom, are not much over a foot high.

[Illustration: THE MASTER OF THE CHOIR TRIED AGAIN AND AGAIN]

What is peculiar about them all is, that they help the good and wise
people to do things better; but they love to plague and punish the dull
folks, that are stupid, or foolish or naughty. In impish glee, they lure
the blockheads, or in Dutch, the "cheese-heads," to do worse.

A long time ago, there were no church spires or bells in the land of the
Dutch folks, as there are now by the thousands. The good teachers from
the South came into the country and taught the people to have better
manners, finer clothes and more wholesome food. They also persuaded them
to forget their cruel gods and habits of revenge. They told of the
Father in Heaven, who loves us all, as his children, and forgives us
when we repent of our evil doings.

Now when the chief gnomes and kabouters heard of the newcomers in the
land, they held a meeting and said one to the other:

"We shall help all the teachers that are good and kind, but we shall
plague and punish the rough fellows among them."

So word was sent to all little people in the mines and hills,
instructing them how they were to act and what they were to do.

Some of the new teachers, who were foreigners, and did not know the
customs of the country, were very rude and rough. Every day they hurt
the feelings of the people. With their axes they cut down the sacred
trees. They laughed scornfully at the holy wells and springs of water.
They reviled the people, when they prayed to great Woden, with his black
ravens that told him everything, or to the gentle Freya, with her white
doves, who helped good girls to get kind husbands. They scolded the
children at play, and this made their fathers and mothers feel
miserable. This is the reason why so many people were angry and sullen,
and would not listen to the foreign teachers.

Worse than this, many troubles came to these outsiders. Their bread was
sour, when they took it out of the oven. So was the milk, in their pans.
Sometimes they found their beds turned upside down. Gravel stones
rattled down into their fireplaces. Their hats and shoes were missing.
In fact, they had a terrible time generally and wanted to go back home.
When the kabouter has a grudge against any one, he knows how to plague
him.

But the teachers that were wise and gentle had no trouble. They
persuaded the people with kind words, and, just as a baby learns to eat
other food at the table, so the people were weaned away from cruel
customs and foolish beliefs. Many of the land's folk came to listen to
the teachers and helped them gladly to build churches.

More wonderful than this, were the good things that came to these kind
teachers, they knew not how. Their bread and milk were always sweet and
in plenty. They found their beds made up and their clothes kept clean,
gardens planted with blooming flowers, and much hard work done for them.
When they would build a church in a village, they wondered how it was
that the wood and the nails, the iron necessary to brace the beams, and
the copper and brass for the sacred vessels, came so easily and in
plenty. When, on some nights, they wondered where they would get food to
eat, they found, on waking up in the morning, that there was always
something good ready for them. Thus many houses of worship were built,
and the more numerous were the churches, the more did farms, cows, grain
fields, and happy people multiply.

Now when the gnomes and kabouters, who like to do work for pleasant
people, heard that the good teachers wanted church bells, to call the
people to worship, they resolved to help the strangers. They would make
not only a bell, or a chime, but, actually a carillon, or concert of
bells to hang up in the air.

The dark dwarfs did not like to dig metal for swords or spears, or what
would hurt people; but the church bells would guide travellers in the
forest, and quiet the storms, that destroyed houses and upset boats and
killed or drowned people, besides inviting the people to come and pray
and sing. They knew that the good teachers were poor and could not buy
bells in France or Italy. Even if they had money, they could not get
them through the thick forests, or over the stormy seas, for they were
too heavy.

When all the kabouters were told of this, they came together to work,
night and day, in the mines. With pick and shovel, crowbar and chisel,
and hammer and mallet, they broke up the rocks containing copper and
tin. Then they built great roaring fires, to smelt the ore into ingots.
They would show the teachers that the Dutch kabouters could make bells,
as well as the men in the lands of the South. These dwarfish people are
jealous of men and very proud of what they can do.

It was the funniest sight to see these short legged fellows, with tiny
coats coming just below their thighs, and little red caps, looking like
a stocking and ending in a tassel, on their heads, and in shoes that had
no laces, but very long points. They flew around as lively as monkeys,
and when the fire was hot they threw off everything and worked much
harder and longer than men do.

Were they like other fairies? Well, hardly. One must put away all his
usual thoughts, when he thinks of kabouters. No filmy wings on their
backs! No pretty clothes or gauzy garments, or stars, or crowns, or
wands! Instead of these were hammers, pickaxes, and chisels. But how
diligent, useful and lively these little folks, in plain, coarse coats
and with bare legs, were! In place of things light, clean and easy, the
kabouters had furnaces, crucibles and fires of coal and wood.

Sometimes they were grimy, with smoke and coal dust, and the sweat ran
down their faces and bodies. Yet there was always plenty of water in the
mines, and when hard work was over they washed and looked plain but
tidy. Besides their stores of gold, and silver, and precious stones,
which they kept ready, to give to good people, they had tools with which
to tease or tantalize cruel, mean or lazy folks.

Now when the kabouter daddies began the roaring fires for the making of
the bells, the little mothers and the small fry in the kabouter world
could not afford to be idle. One and all, they came down from off the
earth, and into the mines they went in a crowd. They left off teasing
milkmaids, tangling skeins of flax, tearing fishermen's nets, tying
knots in cows' tails, tumbling pots, pans and dishes, in the kitchen, or
hiding hats, and throwing stones down the chimneys onto the fireplaces.
They even ceased their fun of mocking children, who were calling the
cows home, by hiding behind the rocks and shouting to them. Instead of
these tricks, they saved their breath to blow the fires into a blast.
Everybody wondered where the "kabs" were, for on the farms and in town
nothing happened and all was as quiet as when a baby is asleep.

For days and weeks underground, the dwarfs toiled, until their skins,
already dark, became as sooty as the rafters in the houses of our
ancestors. Finally, when all the labor was over, the chief gnomes were
invited down into the mines to inspect the work.

What a sight! There were at least a hundred bells, of all sizes, like as
in a family; where there are daddy, mother, grown ups, young sons and
daughters, little folk and babies, whether single, twins or triplets.
Big bells, that could scarcely be put inside a hogshead, bells that
would go into a barrel, bells that filled a bushel, and others a peck,
stood in rows. From the middle, and tapering down the row, were scores
more, some of them no larger than cow-bells. Others, at the end, were so
small, that one had to think of pint and gill measures.

Besides all these, there were stacks of iron rods and bars, bolts, nuts,
screws, and wires and yokes on which to hang the bells.

One party of the strongest of the kabouters had been busy in the forest,
close to a village, where some men, ordered to do so by a foreign
teacher, had begun to cut down some of the finest and most sacred of the
grand old trees. They had left their tools in the woods; but the "kabs,"
at night, seized their axes and before morning, without making any
noise, they had levelled all but the holy trees. Those they spared.
Then, the timber, all cut and squared, ready to hold the bells, was
brought to the mouth of the mine.

Now in Dutch, the name for bell is "klok." So a wise and gray-bearded
gnome was chosen by the high sounding title of klokken-spieler, or bell
player, to test the bells for a carillon. They were all hung, for
practice, on the big trestles, in a long row. Each one of these frames
was called a "hang," for they were just like those on which fishermen's
nets were laid to dry and be mended.

So when all were ready, washed, and in their clean clothes, every one of
the kabouter families, daddies, mothers, and young ones, were ranged in
lines and made to sing. The heavy male tenors and baritones, the female
sopranos and contraltos, the trebles of the little folks, and the
squeaks of the very small children, down to the babies' cooing, were all
heard by the gnomes, who were judges. The high and mighty
klokken-spieler, or master of the carillon, chose those voices with best
tone and quality, from which to set in order and regulate the bells.

It was pitiful to see how mad and jealous some of the kabouters, both
male and female, were, when they were not appointed to the first row, in
which were some of the biggest of the males, and some of the fattest of
the females. Then the line tapered off, to forty or fifty young folks,
including urchins of either sex, down to mere babies, that could hardly
stand. These had bibs on and had to be held up by their fond mothers.
Each one by itself could squeal and squall, coo and crow lustily; but,
at a distance, their voices blended and the noise they made sounded like
a tinkle.

All being ready, the old gnome bit his tuning fork, hummed a moment, and
then started a tune. Along the line, at a signal from the chief gnome,
they started a tune.

In the long line, there were, at first, booms and peals, twanging and
clanging, jangling and wrangling, making such a clangor that it sounded
more like an uproar than an opera. The chief gnome was almost
discouraged.

But neither a gnome nor a kabouter ever gives up. The master of the
choir tried again and again. He scolded one old daddy, for singing too
low. He frowned at a stalwart young fellow, who tried to drown out all
the rest with his bull-like bellow. He shook his finger at a kabouter
girl, that was flirting with a handsome lad near her. He cheered up the
little folks, encouraging them to hold up their voices, until finally he
had all in order. Then they practiced, until the master gnome thought he
had his scale of notation perfect and gave orders to attune the bells.
To the delight of all the gnomes, kabouters and elves, that had been
invited to the concert, the rows of bells, a hundred or more, from
boomers to tinklers, made harmony. Strung one above the other, they
could render merriment, or sadness, in solos, peals, chimes, cascades
and carillons, with sweetness and effect. At the low notes the babies
called out "cow, cow;" but at the high notes, "bird, bird."

So it happened that, on the very day that the bishop had his great
church built, with a splendid bulb spire on the top, and all nicely
furnished within, but without one bell to ring in it, that the kabouters
planned a great surprise.

It was night. The bishop was packing his saddle bags, ready to take a
journey, on horseback, to Rheims. At this city, the great caravans from
India and China ended, bringing to the annual fair, rugs, spices, gems,
and things Oriental, and the merchants of Rheims rolled in gold. Here
the bishop would beg the money, or ask for a bell, or chimes.

Suddenly, in the night, while in his own house, there rang out music in
the air, such as the bishop had never heard in Holland, or in any of the
seventeen provinces of the Netherlands. Not even in the old lands,
France, or Spain, or Italy, where the Christian teachers, builders and
singers, and the music of the bells had long been heard, had such a
flood of sweet sounds ever fallen on human ears. Here, in these northern
regions, rang out, not a solo, nor a peal, nor a chime, nor even a
cascade, from one bell, or from many bells; but, a long programme of
richest music in the air--something which no other country, however rich
or old, possessed. It was a carillon, that is, a continued mass of real
music, in which whole tunes, songs, and elaborate pieces of such length,
mass and harmony, as only a choir of many voices, a band of music, or an
orchestra of many performers could produce.

To get this grand work of hanging in the spire done in one night, and
before daylight, also, required a whole regiment of fairy toilers, who
must work like bees. For if one ray of sunshine struck any one of the
kabouters, he was at once petrified. The light elves lived in the
sunshine and thrived on it; but for dark elves, like the kabouters,
whose home was underground, sunbeams were as poisoned arrows bringing
sure death; for by these they were turned into stone. Happily the task
was finished before the eastern sky grew gray, or the cocks crowed.
While it was yet dark, the music in the air flooded the earth. The
people in their beds listened with rapture.

"Laus Deo" (Praise God), devoutly cried the surprised bishop. "It sounds
like a choir of angels. Surely the cherubim and seraphim are here. Now
is fulfilled the promise of the Psalmist: 'The players on instruments
shall be there.'"

So, from this beginning, so mysterious to the rough, unwise and stupid
teachers, but, by degrees, clearer to the tactful ones, who were kind
and patient, the carillons spread over all the region between the
forests of Ardennes and the island in the North Sea. The Netherlands
became the land of melodious symphonies and of tinkling bells. No town,
however poor, but in time had its carillon. Every quarter of an hour,
the sweet music of hymn or song, made the air vocal, while at the
striking of the hours, the pious bowed their heads and the workmen heard
the call for rest, or they took cheer, because their day's toil was
over. At sunrise, noon, or sunset, the Angelus, and at night the curfew
sounded their calls.

It grew into a fashion, that, on stated days, great concerts were given,
lasting over an hour, when the grand works of the masters of music were
rendered and famous carillon players came from all over the Netherlands,
to compete for prizes. The Low Countries became a famous school, in
which klokken-spielers (bell players) by scores were trained. Thus no
kingdom, however rich or great, ever equalled the Land of the Carillon,
in making the air sweet with both melody and harmony.

Nobody ever sees a kabouter nowadays, for in the new world, when the
woods are nearly all cut down, the world made by the steam engine, and
telegraph, and wireless message, the automobile, aeroplane and
submarine, cycle and under-sea boat, the little folks in the mines and
forests are forgotten. The chemists, miners, engineers and learned men
possess the secrets which were once those of the fairies only. Yet the
artists and architects, the clockmakers and bellfounders, who love
beauty, remember what their fathers once thought and believed. That is
the reason why, on many a famous clock, either in front of the dial or
near the pendulum, are figures of the gnomes, who thought, and the
kabouters who wrought, to make the carillons. In Teuton lands, where
their cousins are named kobolds, and in France where they are called
fée, and in England brownies, they have tolling and ringing of bells,
with peals, chimes and cascades of sweet sound; but the Netherlands,
still, above all others on earth, is the home of the carillon.




THE WOMAN WITH THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX CHILDREN


Long, long ago, before the oldest stork was young and big deer and
little fawns were very many in the Dutch forests, there was a pond,
famous for its fish, which lay in the very heart of Holland, with woods
near by. Hunters came with their bows and arrows to hunt the stags. Or,
out of the bright waters, boys and men in the sunshine drew out the fish
with shining scales, or lured the trout, with fly-bait, from their
hiding places. In those days the fish-pond was called the Vijver, and
the woods where the deer ran, Rensselaer, or the Deer's Lair.

So, because the forests of oak, and beech, and alder trees were so fine,
and game on land and in water so plentiful, the lord of the country came
here and built his castle. He made a hedge around his estate, so that
the people called the place the Count's Hedge; or, as we say, The Hague.

Even to-day, within the beautiful city, the forests, with their grand
old trees, still remain, and the fish-pond, called the Vijver, is there
yet, with its swans. On the little island, the fluffy, downy cygnets are
born and grow to be big birds, with long necks, bent like an arch. In
another part of the town, also, with their trees for nesting, and their
pond for wading, are children of the same storks, whose fathers and
mothers lived there before America was discovered.

By and by, many people of rank and fortune came to The Hague, for its
society. They built their grand houses at the slope of the hill, not far
away from the Vijver, and in time a city grew up.

It was a fine sight to see the lords and ladies riding out from the
castle into the country. The cavalcade was very splendid, when they went
hawking. There were pretty women on horseback, and gentlemen in velvet
clothes, with feathers in their hats, and the horses seemed proud to
bear them. The falconers followed on foot, with the hunting birds
perched on a hoop, which the man inside the circle carried round him.
Each falcon had on a little cap or hood, which was fastened over its
head. When this was taken off, it flew high up into the air, on its hunt
for the big and little birds, which it brought down for its masters.
There were also men with dogs, to beat the reeds and bushes, and drive
the smaller birds from shelter. The huntsmen were armed with spears,
lest a wild boar, or bear, should rush out and attack them. It was
always a merry day, when a hawking party, in their fine clothes and gay
trappings, started out.

There were huts, as well as palaces, and poor people, also, at The
Hague. Among these, was a widow, whose twin babies were left without
anything to eat--for her husband and their father had been killed in the
war. Having no money to buy a cradle, and her babies being too young to
be left alone, she put the pair of little folks on her back and went out
to beg.

Now there was a fine lady, a Countess, who lived with her husband, the
Count, near the Vijver. She was childless and very jealous of other
women who were mothers and had children playing around them. On this
day, when the beggar woman, with her two babies on her back, came along,
the grand lady was in an unusually bad temper. For all her pretty
clothes, she was not a person of fine manners. Indeed, she often acted
more like a snarling dog, ready to snap at any one who should speak to
her. Although she had cradles and nurses and lovely baby clothes all
ready, there was no baby. This spoiled her disposition, so that her
husband and the servants could hardly live with her.

One day, after dinner, when there had been everything good to eat and
drink on her table, and plenty of it, the Countess went out to walk in
front of her house. It was the third day of January, but the weather was
mild. The beggar woman, with her two babies on her back and their arms
round her neck, crying with hunger, came trudging along. She went into
the garden and asked the Countess for food or an alms. She expected
surely, at least a slice of bread, a cup of milk, or a small coin.

But the Countess was rude to her and denied her both food and money. She
even burst into a bad temper, and reviled the woman for having two
children, instead of one.

"Where did you get those brats? They are not yours. You just brought
them here to play on my feelings and excite my jealousy. Begone!"

But the poor woman kept her temper. She begged piteously and said: "For
the love of Heaven, feed my babies, even if you will not feed me."

"No! they are not yours. You're a cheat," said the fine lady, nursing
her rage.

"Indeed, Madame, they are both my children and born on one day. They
have one father, but he is dead. He was killed in the war, while serving
his grace, your husband."

"Don't tell me such a story," snapped back the Countess, now in a fury.
"I don't believe that any one, man or woman, could have two children at
once. Away with you," and she seized a stick to drive off the poor
woman.

Now, it was the turn of the beggar to answer back. Both had lost their
temper, and the two angry women seemed more like she-bears robbed of
their whelps.

"Heaven punish you, you wicked, cruel, cold-hearted woman," cried the
mother. Her two babies were almost choking her in their eagerness for
food. Yet their cries never moved the rich lady, who had bread and good
things to spare, while their poor parent had not a drop of milk to give
them. The Countess now called her men-servants to drive the beggar away.
This they did, most brutally. They pushed the poor woman outside the
garden gate and closed it behind her. As she turned away, the poor
mother, taking each of her children by its back, one in each hand, held
them up before the grand lady and cried out loudly, so that all heard
her:

"May you have as many children as there are days in the year."

Now with all her wrath burning in her breast, what the beggar woman
really meant was this: It was the third of January, and so there were
but three days in the year, so far. She intended to say that, instead of
having to care for two children, the Countess might have the trouble of
rearing three, and all born on the same day.

But the fine lady, in her mansion, cared nothing for the beggar woman's
words. Why should she? She had her lordly husband, who was a count, and
he owned thousands of acres. Besides, she possessed vast riches. In her
great house, were ten men-servants and thirty-one maid-servants,
together with her rich furniture, and fine clothes and jewels. The lofty
brick church, to which she went on Sundays, was hung with the coats of
arms of her famous ancestors. The stone floor, with its great slabs, was
so grandly carved with the crests and heraldry of her family, that to
walk over these was like climbing a mountain, or tramping across a
ploughed field. Common folks had to be careful, lest they should stumble
over the bosses and knobs of the carved tombs. A long train of her
servants, and tenants on the farms followed her, when she went to
worship. Inside the church, the lord and lady sat, in high seats, on
velvet cushions and under a canopy.

By the time summer had come, according to the fashion in all good Dutch
families, all sorts of pretty baby clothes were made ready. There were
soft, warm, swaddling bands, tiny socks, and long white linen dresses. A
baptismal blanket, covered with silk, was made for the christening, and
daintily embroidered. Plenty of lace, and pink and blue ribbons--pink
for a girl and blue for a boy--were kept at hand. And, because there
might be twins, a double set of garments was provided, besides baby
bathtubs and all sorts of nice things for the little stranger or
strangers--whether one or two--to come. Even the names were chosen--one
for a boy and the other for a girl. Would it be Wilhelm or Wilhelmina?

It was real fun to think over the names, but it was hard to choose out
of so many. At last, the Countess crossed off all but forty-six; or the
following; nearly every girl's name ending in _je_, as in our
"Polly," "Sallie."

       _Girls_                        _Boys_

  Magtel        Catharyna         Gerrit          Gysbert
  Nelletje      Alida             Cornelis        Jausze
  Zelia         Annatje           Volkert         Myndert
  Jannetje      Christina         Kilian          Adrian
  Zara          Katrina           Johannes        Joachim
  Marytje       Bethje            Petrus          Arendt
  Willemtje     Eva               Barent          Dirck
  Geertruy      Dirkje            Wessel          Nikolaas
  Petronella    Mayken            Hendrik         Staats
  Margrieta     Hilleke           Teunis          Gozen
  Josina        Bethy             Wouter          Willemtje
                                  Japik           Evert

But before the sun set on the expected day, it was neither one boy nor
one girl, nor both; nor were all the forty-six names chosen sufficient;
for the beggar woman's wish had come true, in a way not expected. There
were as many as, and no fewer children than, there were days in the
year; and, since this was leap year, there were three hundred and
sixty-six little folks in the house; so that other names, besides the
forty-six, had to be used.

Yet none of these wee creatures was bigger than a mouse. Beginning at
daylight, one after another appeared--first a girl and then a boy; so
that after the forty-eighth, the nurse was at her wit's end, to give
them names. It was not possible to keep the little babies apart. The
thirty-one servant maids of the mansion were all called in to help in
sorting out the girls from the boys; but soon it seemed hopeless to try
to pick out Peter from Henry, or Catalina from Annetje. After an hour or
two spent at the task, and others coming along, the women found that it
was useless to try any longer. It was found that little Piet, Jan and
Klaas, Hank, Douw and Japik, among the boys; and Molly, Mayka, Lena,
Elsje, Annatje and Marie were getting all mixed up. So they gave up the
attempt in despair. Besides, the supply of pink and blue ribbons had
given out long before, after the first dozen or so were born. As for
the, baby clothes made ready, they were of no use, for all the garments
were too big. In one of the long dresses, tied up like a bag, one might
possibly, with stuffing, have put the whole family of three hundred and
sixty-six brothers and sisters.

It was not likely such small fry of human beings could live long. So,
the good Bishop Guy, of Utrecht, when he heard that the beggar woman's
curse had come true, in so unexpected a manner, ordered that the babies
should be all baptized at once. The Count, who was strict in his ideas
of both custom and church law, insisted on it too.

So nothing would do but to carry the tiny infants to church. How to get
them there, was a question. The whole house had been rummaged to provide
things to carry the little folks in: but the supply of trays, and mince
pie dishes, and crocks, was exhausted at the three hundred and sixtieth
baby. So there was left only a Turk's Head, or round glazed earthen
dish, fluted and curved, which looked like the turban of a Turk. Hence
its name. Into this, the last batch of babies, or extra six girls, were
stowed. Curiously enough, number 366 was an inch taller than the others.
To thirty house maids was given a tray, for each was to carry twelve
mannikins, and one the last six, in the Turk's Head. Instead of rich
silk blankets a wooden tray, and no clothes on, must suffice.

In the Groote Kerk, or Great Church, the Bishop was waiting, with his
assistants, holding brass basins full of holy water, for the
christening. All the town, including the dogs, were out to see what was
going on. Many boys and girls climbed up on the roofs of the one-story
houses, or in the trees to get a better view of the curious
procession--the like of which had never been seen in The Hague before.
Neither has anything like it ever been seen since.

So the parade began. First went the Count, with his captains and the
trumpeters, blowing their trumpets. These were followed by the
men-servants, all dressed in their best Sunday clothes, who had the
crest and arms of their master, the Count, on their backs and breasts.
Then came on the company of thirty-one maids, each one carrying a tray,
on which were twelve mannikins, or minikins. Twenty of these trays were
round and made of wood, lined with velvet, smooth and soft; but ten were
of earthenware, oblong in shape, like a manger. In these, every year,
were baked the Christmas pies.

At first, all went on finely, for the outdoor air seemed to put the
babies asleep and there was no crying. But no sooner were they inside
the church, than about two hundred of the brats began wailing and
whimpering. Pretty soon, they set up such a squall that the Count felt
ashamed of his progeny and the Bishop looked very unhappy.

To make matters worse, one of the maids, although warned of the danger,
stumbled over the helmet of an old crusader, carved in stone, that rose
some six inches or so above the floor. In a moment, she fell and lay
sprawling, spilling out at least a dozen babies. "Heilige Mayke" (Holy
Mary!), she cried, as she rolled over. "Have I killed them?"

Happily the wee ones were thrown against the long-trained gown of an old
lady walking directly in front of her, so that they were unhurt. They
were easily picked up and laid on the tray again, and once more the line
started.

Happily the Bishop had been notified that he would not have to call out
the names of all the infants, that is, three hundred and sixty-six; for
this would have kept him at the solemn business all day long. It had
been arranged that, instead of any on the list of the chosen forty-six,
to be so named, all the boys should be called John, and all the girls
Elizabeth; or, in Dutch, Jan and Lisbet, or Lizbethje. Yet even to say
"John" one hundred and eighty times, and "Lisbet" one hundred and
eighty-six times, nearly tired the old gentleman to death, for he was
fat and slow.

So, after the first six trays full of wee folks had been sprinkled, one
at a time, the Bishop decided to "asperse" them, that is, shake, from a
mop or brush, the holy water, on a tray full of babies at one time. So
he called for the "aspersorium." Then, clipping this in the basin of
holy water, he scattered the drops over the wee folk, until all, even
the six extra girl babies in the Turk's Head, were sprinkled. Probably,
because the Bishop thought a Turk was next door to a heathen, he dropped
more water than usual on these last six, until the young ones squealed
lustily with the cold. It was noted, on the contrary, that the little
folks in the mince pie dishes were gently handled, as if the good man
had visions of Christmas coming and the good things on the table.

Yet it was evident that such tiny people could not bear what healthy
babies of full size would think nothing of. Whether it was because of
the damp weather, or the cold air in the brick church, or too much
excitement, or because there were not three hundred and sixty-six
nurses, or milk bottles ready, it came to pass that every one of the wee
creatures died when the sun went down.

Just where they were buried is not told, but, for hundreds of years,
there was, in one of The Hague churches, a monument in honor of these
little folks, who lived but a day. It was graven with portraits in stone
of the Count and Countess and told of their children, as many as the
days of the year. Near by, were hung up the two basins, in which the
holy water, used by the Bishop, in sprinkling the babies, was held. The
year, month and day of the wonderful event were also engraved. Many and
many people from various lands came to visit the tomb. The guide books
spoke of it, and tender women wept, as they thought how three hundred
and sixty-six little cradles, in the Count's castle, would have looked,
had each baby lived.




THE ONI ON HIS TRAVELS


Across the ocean, in Japan, there once lived curious creatures called
Onis. Every Japanese boy and girl has heard of them, though one has not
often been caught. In one museum, visitors could see the hairy leg of a
specimen. Falling out of the air in a storm, the imp had lost his limb.
It had been torn off by being caught in the timber side of a well curb.
The story-teller was earnestly assured by one Japanese lad that his
grandfather had seen it tumble from the clouds.

Many people are sure that the Onis live in the clouds and occasionally
fall off, during a peal of thunder. Then they escape and hide down in a
well. Or, they get loose in the kitchen, rattle the dishes around, and
make a great racket. They behave like cats, with a dog after them. They
do a great deal of mischief, but not much harm. There are even some old
folks who say that, after all, Onis are only unruly children, that
behave like angels in the morning and act like imps in the afternoon. So
we see that not much is known about the Onis.

Many things that go wrong are blamed on the Onis. Foolish folks, such as
stupid maid-servants, and dull-witted fellows, that blunder a good deal,
declare that the Onis made them do it. Drunken men, especially, that
stumble into mud-holes at night, say the Onis pushed them in. Naughty
boys that steal cake, and girls that take sugar, often tell fibs to
their parents, charging it on the Onis.

The Onis love to play jokes on people, but they are not dangerous. There
are plenty of pictures of them in Japan, though they never sat for their
portraits, but this is the way they looked.

Some Onis have only one eye in their forehead, others two, and, once in
a while, a big fellow has three. There are little, short horns on their
heads, but these are no bigger than those on a baby deer and never grow
long. The hair on their heads gets all snarled up, just like a little
girl's that cries when her tangled tresses are combed out; for the Onis
make use of neither brushes nor looking glasses. As for their faces,
they never wash them, so they look sooty. Their skin is rough, like an
elephant's. On each of their feet are only three toes. Whether an Oni
has a nose, or a snout, is not agreed upon by the learned men who have
studied them.

No one ever heard of an Oni being higher than a yardstick, but they are
so strong that one of them can easily lift two bushel bags of rice at
once. In Japan, they steal the food offered to the idols. They can live
without air. They like nothing better than to drink both the rice spirit
called saké, and the black liquid called soy, of which only a few drops,
as a sauce on fish, are enough for a man. Of this sauce, the Dutch, as
well as the Japanese, are very fond.

Above all things else, the most fun for a young Oni is to get into a
crockery shop. Once there, he jumps round among the cups and dishes,
hides in the jars, straddles the shelves and turns somersaults over the
counter. In fact, the Oni is only a jolly little imp. The Japanese
girls, on New Year's eve, throw handfuls of dried beans in every room of
the house and cry, "In, with good luck; and out with you, Onis!" Yet
they laugh merrily all the time. The Onis cannot speak, but they can
chatter like monkeys. They often seem to be talking to each other in
gibberish.

Now it once happened in Japan that the great Tycoon of the country
wanted to make a present to the Prince of the Dutch. So he sent all over
the land, from the sweet potato fields in the south to the seal and
salmon waters in the north, to get curiosities of all sorts. The
products of Japan, from the warm parts, where grow the indigo and the
sugar cane, to the cold regions, in which are the bear and walrus, were
sent as gifts to go to the Land of Dykes and Windmills. The Japanese had
heard that the Dutch people like cheese, walk in wooden shoes, eat with
forks, instead of chopsticks, and the women wear twenty petticoats
apiece, while the men sport jackets with two gold buttons, and folks
generally do things the other way from that which was common in Japan.

Now it chanced that while they were packing the things that were piled
up in the palace at Yedo, a young Oni, with his horns only half grown,
crawled into the kitchen, at night, through the big bamboo water pipe
near the pump. Pretty soon he jumped into the storeroom. There, the
precious cups, vases, lacquer boxes, pearl-inlaid pill-holders, writing
desks, jars of tea, and bales of silk, were lying about, ready to be put
into their cases. The yellow wrappings for covering the pretty things of
gold and silver, bronze and wood, and the rice chaff, for the packing of
the porcelain, were all at hand. What a jolly time the Oni did have, in
tumbling them about and rolling over them! Then he leaped like a monkey
from one vase to another. He put on a lady's gay silk kimono and wrapped
himself around with golden embroidery. Then he danced and played the
game of the Ka-gu'-ra, or Lion of Korea, pretending to make love to a
girl-Oni. Such funny capers as he did cut! It would have made a cat
laugh to see him. It was broad daylight, before his pranks were over,
and the Dutch church chimes were playing the hour of seven.

Suddenly the sound of keys in the lock told him that, in less than a
minute, the door would open.

Where should he hide? There was no time to be lost. So he seized some
bottles of soy from the kitchen shelf and then jumped into the big
bottom drawer of a ladies' cabinet, and pulled it shut.

"Namu Amida" (Holy Buddha!), cried the man that opened the door. "Who
has been here? It looks like a rat's picnic."

However, the workmen soon came and set everything to rights. Then they
packed up the pretty things. They hammered down the box lids and before
night the Japanese curiosities were all stored in the hold of a swift,
Dutch ship, from Nagasaki, bound for Rotterdam. After a long voyage, the
vessel arrived safely in good season, and the boxes were sent on to The
Hague, or capital city. As the presents were for the Prince, they were
taken at once to the pretty palace, called the House in the Wood. There
they were unpacked and set on exhibition for the Prince and Princess to
see the next day.

When the palace maid came in next morning to clean up the floor and dust
the various articles, her curiosity led her to pull open the drawer of
the ladies' cabinet; when out jumped something hairy. It nearly
frightened the girl out of her wits. It was the Oni, which rushed off
and down stairs, tumbling over a half dozen servants, who were sitting
at their breakfast. All started to run except the brave butler, who
caught up a carving knife and showed fight. Seeing this, the Oni ran
down into the cellar, hoping to find some hole or crevice for escape.
All around, were shelves filled with cheeses, jars of sour-krout,
pickled herring, and stacks of fresh rye bread standing in the corners.
But oh! how they did smell in his Japanese nostrils! Oni, as he was, he
nearly fainted, for no such odors had ever beaten upon his nose, when in
Japan. Even at the risk of being carved into bits, he must go back. So
up into the kitchen again he ran. Happily, the door into the garden
stood wide open.

Grabbing a fresh bottle of soy from the kitchen shelf, the Oni, with a
hop, skip and jump, reached outdoors. Seeing a pair of klomps, or wooden
shoes, near the steps, the Oni put his pair of three toes into them, to
keep the dogs from scenting its tracks. Then he ran into the fields,
hiding among the cows, until he heard men with pitchforks coming. At
once the Oni leaped upon a cow's back and held on to its horns, while
the poor animal ran for its life into its stall, in the cow stable,
hoping to brush the monster off.

The dairy farmer's wife was at that moment pulling open her bureau
drawer, to put on a new clean lace cap. Hearing her favorite cow moo and
bellow, she left the drawer open and ran to look through the pane of
glass in the kitchen. Through this, she could peep, at any minute, to
see whether this or that cow, or its calf, was sick or well.

Meanwhile, at the House in the Wood, the Princess, hearing the maid
scream and the servants in an uproar, rushed out in her embroidered
white nightie, to ask who, and what, and why, and wherefore. All
different and very funny were the answers of maid, butler, cook, valet
and boots.

The first maid, who had pulled open the drawer and let the Oni get out,
held up broom and duster, as if to take oath. She declared:

"It was a monkey, or baboon; but he seemed to talk--Russian, I think."

"No," said the butler. "I heard the creature--a black ram, running on
its hind legs; but its language was German, I'm sure."

The cook, a fat Dutch woman, told a long story. She declared, on honor,
that it was a black dog like a Chinese pug, that has no hair. However,
she had only seen its back, but she was positive the creature talked
English, for she heard it say "soy."

The valet honestly avowed that he was too scared to be certain of
anything, but was ready to swear that to his ears the words uttered
seemed to be Swedish. He had once heard sailors from Sweden talking, and
the chatter sounded like their lingo.

Then there was Boots, the errand boy, who believed that it was the
Devil; but, whatever or whoever it was, he was ready to bet a week's
wages that its lingo was all in French.

Now when the Princess found that not one of her servants could speak or
understand any language but their own, she scolded them roundly in
Dutch, and wound up by saying, "You're a lot of cheese-heads, all of
you."

Then she arranged the wonderful things from the Far East, with her own
dainty hands, until the House in the Wood was fragrant with Oriental
odors, and soon it became famous throughout all Europe. Even when her
grandchildren played with the pretty toys from the land of Fuji and
flowers, of silk and tea, cherry blossoms and camphor trees, it was not
only the first but the finest Japanese collection in all Europe.

Meanwhile, the Oni, in a strange land, got into one trouble after
another. In rushed men with clubs, but as an Oni was well used to seeing
these at home, he was not afraid. He could outrun, outjump, or outclimb
any man, easily. The farmer's vrouw (wife) nearly fainted when the Oni
leaped first into her room and then into her bureau drawer. As he did
so, the bottle of soy, held in his three-fingered paw, hit the wood and
the dark liquid, as black as tar, ran all over the nicely starched
laces, collars and nightcaps. Every bit of her quilled and crimped
hear-gear and neckwear, once as white as snow, was ruined.

"Donder en Bliksem" (thunder and lightning), cried the vrouw. "There's
my best cap, that cost twenty guilders, utterly ruined." Then she
bravely ran for the broomstick.

The Oni caught sight of what he thought was a big hole in the wall and
ran into it. Seeing the blue sky above, he began to climb up. Now there
were no chimneys in Japan and he did not know what this was. The soot
nearly blinded and choked him. So he slid down and rushed out, only to
have his head nearly cracked by the farmer's wife, who gave him a whack
of her broomstick. She thought it was a crazy goat that she was
fighting. She first drove the Oni into the cellar and then bolted the
door.

An hour later, the farmer got a gun and loaded it. Then, with his hired
man he came near, one to pull open the door, and the other to shoot.
What they expected to find was a monster.

But no! So much experience, even within an hour, of things unknown in
Japan, including chimneys, had been too severe for the poor, lonely,
homesick Oni. There it lay dead on the floor, with its three fingers
held tightly to its snout and closing it. So much cheese, zuur kool
(sour krout), gin (schnapps), advocaat (brandy and eggs), cows' milk,
both sour and fresh, wooden shoes, lace collars and crimped neckwear,
with the various smells, had turned both the Oni's head and his stomach.
The very sight of these strange things being so unusual, gave the Oni
first fright, and then a nervous attack, while the odors, such as had
never tortured his nose before, had finished him.

The wise men of the village were called together to hold an inquest.
After summoning witnesses, and cross-examining them and studying the
strange creature, their verdict was that it could be nothing less than a
_Hersen Schim_, that is, a spectre of the brain. They meant by this
that there was no such animal.

However, a man from Delft, who followed the business of a knickerbocker,
or baker of knickers, or clay marles, begged the body of the Oni. He
wanted it to serve as a model for a new gargoyle, or rain spout, for the
roof of churches. Carved in stone, or baked in clay, which turns red and
is called terra cotta, the new style of monster became very popular. The
knickerbocker named it after a new devil, that had been expelled by the
prayers of the saints, and speedily made a fortune, by selling it to
stone cutters and architects. So for one real Oni, that died and was
buried in Dutch soil, there are thousands of imaginary ones, made of
baked clay, or stone, in the Dutch land, where things, more funny than
in fairy-land, constantly take place.

The dead Japanese Oni serving as a model, which was made into a water
gutter, served more useful purposes, for a thousand years, than ever he
had done, in the land where his relations still live and play their
pranks.




THE LEGEND OF THE WOODEN SHOE


In years long gone, too many for the almanac to tell of, or for clocks
and watches to measure, millions of good fairies came down from the sun
and went into the earth. There, they changed themselves into roots and
leaves, and became trees. There were many kinds of these, as they
covered the earth, but the pine and birch, ash and oak, were the chief
ones that made Holland. The fairies that lived in the trees bore the
name of Moss Maidens, or Tree "Trintjes," which is the Dutch pet name
for Kate, or Katharine.

The oak was the favorite tree, for people lived then on acorns, which
they ate roasted, boiled or mashed, or made into meal, from which
something like bread was kneaded and baked. With oak bark, men tanned
hides and made leather, and, from its timber, boats and houses. Under
its branches, near the trunk, people laid their sick, hoping for help
from the gods. Beneath the oak boughs, also, warriors took oaths to be
faithful to their lords, women made promises, or wives joined hand in
hand around its girth, hoping to have beautiful children. Up among its
leafy branches the new babies lay, before they were found in the cradle
by the other children. To make a young child grow up to be strong and
healthy, mothers drew them through a split sapling or young tree. Even
more wonderful, as medicine for the country itself, the oak had power to
heal. The new land sometimes suffered from disease called the _val_
(or fall). When sick with the _val_, the ground sunk. Then people,
houses, churches, barns and cattle all went down, out of sight, and were
lost forever, in a flood of water.

But the oak, with its mighty roots, held the soil firm. Stories of dead
cities, that had tumbled beneath the waves, and of the famous Forest of
Reeds, covering a hundred villages, which disappeared in one night, were
known only too well.

Under the birch tree, lovers met to plight their vows, and on its smooth
bark was often cut the figure of two hearts joined in one. In summer,
the forest furnished shade, and in winter warmth from the fire. In the
spring time, the new leaves were a wonder, and in autumn the pigs grew
fat on the mast, or the acorns, that had dropped on the ground.

So, for thousands of years, when men made their home in the forest, and
wanted nothing else, the trees were sacred.

But by and by, when cows came into the land and sheep and horses
multiplied, more open ground was needed for pasture, grain fields and
meadows. Fruit trees, bearing apples and pears, peaches and cherries,
were planted, and grass, wheat, rye and barley were grown. Then, instead
of the dark woods, men liked to have their gardens and orchards open to
the sunlight. Still, the people were very rude, and all they had on
their bare feet were rough bits of hard leather, tied on through their
toes; though most of them went barefooted.

The forests had to be cut down. Men were so busy with the axe, that in a
few years, the Wood Land was gone. Then the new "Holland," with its
people and red roofed houses, with its chimneys and windmills, and dykes
and storks, took the place of the old Holt Land of many trees.

Now there was a good man, a carpenter and very skilful with his tools,
who so loved the oak that he gave himself, and his children after him,
the name of Eyck, which is pronounced Ike, and is Dutch for oak. When,
before his neighbors and friends, according to the beautiful Dutch
custom, he called his youngest born child, to lay the corner-stone of
his new house, he bestowed upon her, before them all, the name of
Neeltje (or Nellie) Van Eyck.

The carpenter daddy continued to mourn over the loss of the forests. He
even shed tears, fearing lest, by and by, there should not one oak tree
be left in the country. Moreover, he was frightened at the thought that
the new land, made by pushing back the ocean and building dykes, might
sink down again and go back to the fishes. In such a case, all the
people, the babies and their mothers, men, women, horses and cattle,
would be drowned. The Dutch folks were a little too fast, he thought, in
winning their acres from the sea.

One day, while sitting on his door-step, brooding sorrowfully, a Moss
Maiden and a Tree Elf appeared, skipping along, hand in hand. They came
up to him and told him that his ancestral oak had a message for him.
Then they laughed and ran away. Van Eyck, which was now the man's full
family name, went into the forest and stood under the grand old oak
tree, which his fathers loved, and which he would allow none to cut
down.

Looking up, the leaves of the tree rustled, and one big branch seemed to
sweep near him. Then it whispered in his ear:

"Do not mourn, for your descendants, even many generations hence, shall
see greater things than you have witnessed. I and my fellow oak trees
shall pass away, but the sunshine shall be spread over the land and make
it dry. Then, instead of its falling down, like acorns from the trees,
more and better food shall come up from out of the earth. Where green
fields now spread, and the cities grow where forests were, we shall come
to life again, but in another form. When most needed, we shall furnish
you and your children and children's children, with warmth, comfort,
fire, light, and wealth. Nor need you fear for the land, that it will
fall; for, even while living, we, and all the oak trees that are left,
and all the birch, beech, and pine trees shall stand on our heads for
you. We shall hold up your houses, lest they fall into the ooze and you
shall walk and run over our heads. As truly as when rooted in the soil,
will we do this. Believe what we tell you, and be happy. We shall turn
ourselves upside down for you."

"I cannot see how all these things can be," said Van Eyck.

"Fear not, my promise will endure."

The leaves of the branch rustled for another moment. Then, all was
still, until the Moss Maiden and Trintje, the Tree Elf, again, hand in
hand, as they tripped along merrily, appeared to him.

"We shall help you and get our friends, the elves, to do the same. Now,
do you take some oak wood and saw off two pieces, each a foot long. See
that they are well dried. Then set them on the kitchen table to-night,
when you go to bed." After saying this, and looking at each other and
laughing, just as girls do, they disappeared.

Pondering on what all this might mean, Van Eyck went to his wood-shed
and sawed off the oak timber. At night, after his wife had cleared off
the supper table, he laid the foot-long pieces in their place.

When Van Eyck woke up in the morning, he recalled his dream, and, before
he was dressed, hurried to the kitchen. There, on the table, lay a pair
of neatly made wooden shoes. Not a sign of tools, or shavings could be
seen, but the clean wood and pleasant odor made him glad. When he
glanced again at the wooden shoes, he found them perfectly smooth, both
inside and out. They had heels at the bottom and were nicely pointed at
the toes, and, altogether, were very inviting to the foot. He tried them
on, and found that they fitted him exactly. He tried to walk on the
kitchen floor, which his wife kept scrubbed and polished, and then
sprinkled with clean white sand, with broomstick ripples scored in the
layers, but for Van Eyck it was like walking on ice. After slipping and
balancing himself, as if on a tight rope, and nearly breaking his nose
against the wall, he took off the wooden shoes, and kept them off, while
inside the house. However, when he went outdoors, he found his new shoes
very light, pleasant to the feet and easy to walk in. It was not so much
like trying to skate, as it had been in the kitchen.

At night, in his dreams, he saw two elves come through the window into
the kitchen. One, a kabouter, dark and ugly, had a box of tools. The
other, a light-faced elf, seemed to be the guide. The kabouter at once
got out his saw, hatchet, auger, long, chisel-like knife, and smoothing
plane. At first, the two elves seemed to be quarrelling, as to who
should be boss. Then they settled down quietly to work. The kabouter
took the wood and shaped it on the outside. Then he hollowed out, from
inside of it, a pair of shoes, which the elf smoothed and polished. Then
one elf put his little feet in them and tried to dance, but he only
slipped on the smooth floor and flattened his nose; but the other fellow
pulled the nose straight again, so it was all right. They waltzed
together upon the wooden shoes, then took them off, jumped out the
window, and ran away.

When Van Eyck put the wooden shoes on, he found that out in the fields,
in the mud, and on the soft soil, and in sloppy places, this sort of
foot gear was just the thing. They did not sink in the mud and the man's
feet were comfortable, even after hours of labor. They did not "draw"
his feet, and they kept out the water far better than leather possibly
could.

When the Van Eyck vrouw and the children saw how happy Daddy was, they
each one wanted a pair. Then they asked him what he called them.

"Klompen," said he, in good Dutch, and klompen, or klomps, they are to
this day.

"I'll make a fortune out of this," said Van Eyck. "I'll set up a
klomp-winkel (shop for wooden shoes) at once."

So, going out to the blacksmith's shop, in the village, he had the man
who pounded iron fashion for him on his anvil, a set of tools, exactly
like those used by the kabouter and the elf, which he had seen in his
dream. Then he hung out a sign, marked "Wooden blocks for shoes." He
made klomps for the little folks just out of the nursery, for boys and
girls, for grown men and women, and for all who walked out-of-doors, in
the street or on the fields.

Soon klomps came to be the fashion in all the country places. It was
good manners, when you went into a house, to take off your wooden shoes
and leave them at the door. Even in the towns and cities, ladies wore
wooden slippers, especially when walking or working in the garden.

Klomps also set the fashion for soft, warm socks, and stockings made
from sheep's wool. Soon, a thousand needles were clicking, to put a soft
cushion between one's soles and toes and the wood. Women knitted, even
while they walked to market, or gossiped on the streets. The
klomp-winkels, or shops of the shoe carpenters, were seen in every
village.

When rich beyond his day-dreams, Van Eyck had another joyful night
vision. The next day, he wore a smiling countenance. Everybody, who met
him on the street, saluted him and asked, in a neighborly way:

"Good-morning, Mynheer Bly-moe-dig (Mr. Cheerful). How do you sail
to-day?"

That's the way the Dutch talk--not "how do you do," but, in their watery
country, it is this, "How do you sail?" or else, "Hoe gat het u al?"
(How goes it with you, already?)

Then Van Eyck told his dream. It was this: The Moss Maiden and Trintje,
the wood elf, came to him again at night and danced. They were lively
and happy.

"What now?" asked the dreamer, smilingly, of his two visitors.

[Illustration: The kabouter took the wood and shaped it on the inside.]

He had hardly got the question out of his mouth, when in walked a
kabouter, all smutty with blacksmith work. In one hand, he grasped his
tool box. In the other, he held a curious looking machine. It was a big
lump of iron, set in a frame, with ropes to pull it up and let it fall
down with a thump.

"What is it?" asked Van Eyck.

"It's a Hey" (a pile driver), said the kabouter, showing him how to use
it. "When men say to you, on the street, to-morrow, 'How do you sail?'
laugh at them," said the Moss Maiden, herself laughing.

"Yes, and now you can tell the people how to build cities, with mighty
churches with lofty towers, and with high houses like those in other
lands. Take the trees, trim the branches off, sharpen the tops, turn
them upside down and pound them deep in the ground. Did not the ancient
oak promise that the trees would be turned upside down for you? Did they
not say you could walk on top of them?"

By this time, Van Eyck had asked so many questions, and kept the elves
so long, that the Moss Maiden peeped anxiously through the window.
Seeing the day breaking, she and Trintje and the kabouter flew away, so
as not to be petrified by the sunrise.

"I'll make another fortune out of this, also," said the happy man, who,
next morning, was saluted as Mynheer Blyd-schap (Mr. Joyful).

At once, Van Eyck set up a factory for making pile drivers. Sending men
into the woods, who chose the tall, straight trees, he had their
branches cut off. Then he sharpened the trunks at one end, and these
were driven, by the pile driver, down, far and deep, into the ground. So
a foundation, as good as stone, was made in the soft and spongy soil,
and well built houses uprose by the thousands. Even the lofty walls of
churches stood firm. The spires were unshaken in the storm.

Old Holland had not fertile soil like France, or vast flocks of sheep,
producing wool, like England, or armies of weavers, as in the Belgic
lands. Yet, soon there rose large cities, with splendid mansions and
town halls. As high towards heaven as the cathedrals and towers in other
lands, which had rock for foundation, her brick churches rose in the
air. On top of the forest trees, driven deep into the sand and clay,
dams and dykes were built, that kept out the ocean. So, instead of the
old two thousand square miles, there were, in the realm, in the course
of years, twelve thousand, rich in green fields and cattle. Then, for
all the boys and girls that travel in this land of quaint customs,
Holland was a delight.




THE CURLY-TAILED LION


Once upon a time, some Dutch hunters went to Africa, hoping to capture a
whole family of lions. In this they succeeded. With a pack of hounds and
plenty of aborigines to poke the jungle with sticks, they drove a big
male lion, with his wife and four whelps, out of the undergrowth into a
circle. In the centre, they had dug a pit and covered it over with
sticks and grass. Into this, the whole lion family tumbled. Then, by
nets and ropes, the big, fierce creatures and the little cubs were
lifted out. They were put in cages and brought to Holland. The baby
lions, no bigger than pug dogs, were as pretty and harmless as kittens.
The sailors delighted to play with them.

Now lions, even before one was ever seen among the Dutch, enjoyed a
great reputation for strength, courage, dignity and power. It was
believed that they had all the traits of character supposed to belong to
kings, and which boys like to possess. Many fathers had named their sons
Leo, which is Latin for lion. Dutch daddies had their baby boys
christened with the name of Leeuw, which is their word for the king of
beasts.

Before lions were brought from the hot countries into colder lands, the
bear and wolf were most admired; because, besides possessing plenty of
fur, as well as great claws and terrible teeth, they had great courage.
For these reasons, many royal and common folks had taken the wolf and
bear as namesakes for their hopeful sons.

But the male lion could make more noise than wolves, for he could roar,
while they could only howl. He had a shaggy mane and a very long tail.
This had a nail at the end, for scratching and combing out his hair,
when tangled up. If he were angry, the mighty brute could stick out his
red tongue, curled like a pump handle, and nearly half a yard long.

So the lion was called the king of beasts, and the crowned rulers and
knights took him as their emblem. They had pictures of the huge creature
painted on their flags, shields and armor. Sometimes they stuck a gold
or brass lion on their iron war hats, which they called helmets. No
knight was allowed to have more than one lion on his shield, but kings
might have three or four, or even a whole menagerie of meat-eating
creatures. These painted or sculptured lions were in all sorts of
action, running, walking, standing up and looking behind or before.

Now there was a Dutch artist, who noticed what funny fellows kings were,
and how they liked to have all sorts of beasts and birds of prey, and
sea creatures that devour, on their banners. There were dragons,
two-headed eagles, boars with tusks, serpents with fangs, hawks,
griffins, wyverns, lions, dragons and dragon-lions, besides horses with
wings, mermaids with scaly tails, and even night mares that went flying
through the dark. With such a funny variety of beast, bird, and fish,
some wondered why there were not cows with two tails, cats with two
noses, rams with four horns, and creatures that were half veal and half
mutton. He noticed that kings did not care much for tame, quiet,
peaceable, or useful creatures, such as oxen or horses, doves or sheep;
but only for those brutes that hunt and kill the more defenceless
creatures.

Since, then, kings of the country must have a lion, the artist resolved
to make a new one. He would have some fun, at any rate.

So as painter or sculptor select men and women to pose for them in their
study as their heroes and heroines, and just as they picture plump
little boys and girls as cherubs and angels, so the Dutchman would make
of the cubs and the father beast of prey his models for coats of arms.

Poor lions! They did not know, but they soon found out how tiresome it
was to pose. They must hold their paws up, down, sideways or behind,
according as they were told. They must stand or kneel, for a long time,
in awkward positions. They must stick out their tongues to full length,
walk on their hind legs, twist their necks, to one side or the other,
look forward or backward, and in many tiresome ways do just as they were
ordered. They must also make of their tails every sort of use, whether
to wrap around posts or bundles, to stick out of their cage, or put
between their legs, as they ran away, or to whisk them around, as they
roared; or hoist them up high when rampant.

In some cases, they were expected, even, to put on spectacles, and
pretend to be reading, to hold in their paws books and scrolls, or town
arms, or shop signs. They must pose, not only as companions of Daniel,
in the lions' den at Babylon, which was proper; but also to sit, as
companion of St. Mark, and even to stand on their legs on the top of a
high column, without falling off.

In a word, this artist belonged to the college of heralds, and he
introduced the king of beasts into Dutch heraldry.

So from that day forth, the life of that family of African lions, from
the daddy to the youngest cub, was made a burden. When at home in the
jungle and even in the cage, the father lion's favorite position was
that of lolling on one side, with his paws stretched out, and half
asleep and all day, until he went out, towards dark, to hunt. Now, he
must stand up, nearly all day. Daddy lion had to do most of the posing,
until the poor beast's front legs and paws were weary with standing so
long. Moreover, the hair was all worn off his body at the place where he
had to sit on the hard wooden floor. He must do all this, on penalty of
being punched with a red hot poker, if he refused. A charcoal furnace
and long andirons were kept near by, and these were attended to by a
Dutch boy. Or, it might be that the whole family of lions were not
allowed to have any dinner till Daddy obeyed and did what he was told,
though often with a snarl or a roar.

First, Leo must rise upon his hind legs and look in front of him. This
posture was not hard, for in his native jungle, he had often thus
obtained a breakfast of venison for his wife and family. But oh, to
stand a half hour on two legs only, when he had four, and would gladly
have used all of them, was hard. Yet this was the position, called "the
lion rampant," which kings liked best.

But the king's uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, and his wife's
relations generally, every one of them, wanted a lion on his or her
stationery and pocket handkerchiefs, as well as on their shields and
flags. So the old lion was tortured--the hot poker being always in
sight--and he was made to take a great variety of positions. The artist
called out to Leo, just as a driver says to his cart horse, "whoa," "get
up," "golong," etc. When he yelled in this fashion, the lion had to
obey.

Pretty soon lions in heraldry, on flags, armor, town arms, family crests
and city seals became all the fashion. The whole country went lion-mad.
There were lions carved in stone, wood and iron, and every sort and
kind, possible or impossible. Some of them seemed to be engaged in a
variety of tricks, as if they belonged to a circus, or were having a
holiday. They laughed, giggled, yawned, stuck out their tongues, held
boards for hotels, bundles for the shopkeepers, or barrels for beer
halls, and made excellent shop signs, which the boys and girls enjoyed
looking at.

Mrs. Leo was not in much demand, for Mr. Leo did not approve of his
wife's appearing in public. She was kept busy in taking care of her
cubs. Daddy Lion had to do multiple work for his family, until the cubs
were grown. Yet long before this time had come, their Dad had died and
been stuffed for a museum. How this first king of beasts in the
Netherlands came to his untimely end was on this wise.

Not satisfied with posing Leo in every posture, and with all possible
gestures, his master, the artist, wanted him to look "heraldical"; that
is, like some of the mythical beasts that were combinations of any and
all creatures having fins, fur, feathers, or scales, such as the dragon
or griffin. One day, he attempted to make out of a live lion a fanciful
creature of curlicues and curliewurlies. So he strapped the lion down,
and used a curling iron on his mane until he looked like a bearded bull
of Babylon. Then he combed out, and, with curl papers, twisted the long
line of hair, which is seen in front of Leo's stomach. In like manner,
he treated the bunches of hair that grow over the animal's kneepans and
elbows. Last of all, he took a hair brush, and smoothed out the tuft, at
the end of the animal's long tail. Then the artist made a picture of him
in this condition, all curled and rich in ringlets, like a dandy.

By this time, the father of the lion family looked as if he had come out
fresh from a hairdresser's parlor. Indeed, Mrs. Leo was so struck with
her husband's appearance, that she immediately licked her cubs all over,
until their fur shone, so they should look like their father. Then,
having used her tongue as a comb, to make her own skin smooth and
glossy, she completed the job by using the nail in her tail, to do the
finishing work. Altogether, this was the curliest family of lions ever
seen, and Daddy Leo appeared to be the funniest curly-headed and
curly-bodied lion ever seen. In fact he was all curls, from head to
tail.

Notwithstanding all his pains, the artist was not yet satisfied with his
job. He wanted a circle of long hair to grow in the middle of the lion's
tail. His curly lion should beat all creation, and in this way he
proceeded.

His own daughter, being a young lady and having some trouble of the
throat, the doctor had ordered medicine for the girl, charging her not
to spill any drops of the liquid on her face, or clothes.

But, in giving the dose, either the mother, or the daughter, was
careless. At that very moment the cat ran across the room, after the
mouse, and just as she held the spoon to her mouth, Puss got twisted in
her skirts. So most of the medicine splashed upon her upper lip and then
ran down to her chin, on either side of her mouth. She laughed over the
spill, wiped off the liquid, and thought no more of the matter.

But a week later, she was astonished. On waking, she looked in the
glass, only to shrink back in horror. On her face had grown both
moustaches and a beard. True, both were rather downy, but still they
were black; and, until the barber came, and shaved off the growth, she
was a bearded woman. Yet, strange to tell, after one or two shaves by
the barber, no more hair grew again on her face, which was smooth again.

"By Saint Servatus! I'll make a fortune on this," cried the artist, when
he saw his daughter's hairy face.

So, he sold his secret to a druggist, and this man made an ointment,
giving it a Chinese name, meaning "beard-grower." This wonderful
medicine, as his sign declared, would "force the growth of luxuriant
moustaches and a beard, on the smoothest face of any young man," who
should buy and apply it.

Soon the whole town rang with the news of the wonderful discovery. The
druggist sold out his stock, in two days, to happy purchasers. Other
young fellows, that wanted to outrival their companions, had to wait a
fortnight for the new medicine to be made. By that time, a full crop of
downy hair had come out on the cheeks and chin and upper lip of many a
youth. Some, who had been trying for years to raise moustaches, in order
duly to impress the girls, to whom they were making love, were now
jubilant. In several cases, a lover was able to cut out his rival and
win the maid he wanted. Several courtings were hastened and became
genuine matches, because a face, long very smooth, and like a desert as
to hair, bore a promising crop. Beard and cheeks had at last met
together. So the new medicine was called a "match-maker."

The artist rubbed his hands in glee, at the prospect of a fortune. He
argued that if the wonderful ointment made beards for men, it must be
good for lions also. So again, Daddy Lion was coerced by the threat of
the hot poker. Then his tail was seized, and, by means of a rope, tied
to a post on one side of the cage, he was held fast. Then the artist
anointed about six inches of the middle of the smooth tail with the
magic liquid. For fear the lion might lick it off, the poor beast was
held in this tiresome position for a whole week, so that he could not
turn round, and he nearly died of fatigue.

But it happened to the lion's tail, as it did with the young men's
chins, cheeks and upper lips. A beard did indeed grow, but once shaved
off--and many did shave, thinking to promote greater growth--no more
hair ever appeared again. The ointment forced a downy growth but it
killed the roots of the hair.

A worse fate befell the lion. A crop of hair, perhaps an inch longer
than common, grew out. But this time, the bad medicine, which had
deceived men, and was unfit for lions, struck in.

From this cause, added to nervous prostration, old Leo fell dead. As
lion fathers go, he was a good one, and his widow and children mourned
for him. He had never once, however hungry, tried to eat up his cubs,
which was something in his favor.

Soon after these exploits, the old artist died also. His son, hearing
there was still a demand, among kings, for lions, and those especially
with centre curls in their tails, took the most promising of the whelps
and petted and fed him well. In the seventh year, when his mane and
elbow and knee hair had grown out, this cub was mated to a young lioness
of like promise. When, of this couple, a male whelp was born, it was
found that in due time its knees, elbows, tail-tuft, and the front of
its body were all rich in furry growth. In the middle of its tail, also,
thick ringlets, several inches long, were growing. Evidently, the hair
tonic had done some good. So this one became the father of all the
curly-tailed lions in the Netherlands. Not only was this lion, thus
distinguished for so novel an ornament, copied into heraldry, but it
adorned many city seals and town arms. In time, the lion of the
Netherlands was pictured with a crown on its head, a sword in its right
hand, a bundle of seven arrows--in token of a union of seven
states--and, still later, the new Order of the Netherlands Lion was
founded. The original curly lion, with long hair in the middle of its
tail, boasts of a long line of descendants that are proud of their
ancestor.




BRABO AND THE GIANT


Ages ago, when the giants were numerous on the earth, there lived a big
fellow named Antigonus. That was not what his mother had called him, but
some one told him of a Greek general of that name; so he took this for
his own. He was rough and cruel. His castle was on the Scheldt River,
where the city of Antwerp now stands. Many ships sailed out of France
and Holland, down this stream. They were loaded with timber, flax, iron,
cheese, fish, bread, linen, and other things made in the country. It was
by this trade that many merchants grew rich, and their children had
plenty of toys to play with. The river was very grand, deep, and wide.
The captains of the ships liked to sail on it, because there was no
danger from rocks, and the country through which it flowed was so
pretty.

So every day, one could see hundreds of white-sailed craft moving
towards the sea, or coming in from the ocean. Boys and girls came down
to stand in their wooden shoes on the banks, to see the vessels moving
to and fro. The incoming ships brought sugar, wine, oranges, lemons,
olives and other good things to eat, and wool to make warm clothes.
Often craftsmen came from the wonderful countries in the south to tell
of the rich cities there, and help to build new and fine houses, and
splendid churches, and town halls. So all the Belgian people were happy.

But one day, this wicked giant came into the country to stop the ships
and make them pay him money. He reared a strong castle on the river
banks. It had four sides and high walls, and deep down in the earth were
dark, damp dungeons. One had to light a candle to find his way to the
horrid places.

What was it all for? The people wondered, but they soon found out. The
giant, with a big knotted club, made out of an oak tree, strode through
the town. He cried out to all the people to assemble in the great open
square.

"From this day forth," he roared, "no ship, whether up or down the
river, shall pass by this place, without my permission. Every captain
must pay me toll, in money or goods. Whoever refuses, shall have both
his hands cut off and thrown into the river.

"Hear ye all and obey. Any one caught in helping a ship go by without
paying toll, whether it be night, or whether it be day, shall have his
thumbs cut off and be put in the dark dungeon for a month. Again I say,
Obey!"

With this, the giant swung and twirled his club aloft and then brought
it down on a poor countryman's cart, smashing it into flinders. This was
done to show his strength.

So every day, when the ships hove in sight, they were hailed from the
giant's castle and made to pay heavy toll. Poor or rich, they had to
hand over their money. If any captain refused, he was brought ashore and
made to kneel before a block and place one hand upon the other. Then the
giant swung his axe and cut off both hands, and flung them into the
river. If a ship master hesitated, because he had no money, he was cast
into a dungeon, until his friends paid his ransom.

Soon, on account of this, the city got a bad name. The captains from
France kept in, and the ship men from Spain kept out. The merchants
found their trade dwindling, and they grew poorer every day. So some of
them slipped out of the city and tried to get the ships to sail in the
night, and silently pass the giant's castle.

But the giant's watchers, on the towers, were as wide awake as owls and
greedy as hawks. They pounced on the ship captains, chopped off their
hands and tossed them into the river. The townspeople, who were found on
board, were thrown into the dungeons and had their thumbs cut off.

So the prosperity of the city was destroyed, for the foreign merchants
were afraid to send their ships into the giant's country. The reputation
of the city grew worse. It was nicknamed by the Germans Hand Werpen, or
Hand Throwing; while the Dutchmen called it Antwerp, which meant the
same thing. The Duke of Brabant, or Lord of the land, came to the big
fellow's fortress and told him to stop. He even shook his fist under the
giant's huge nose, and threatened to attack his castle and burn it. But
Antigonus only snapped his fingers, and laughed at him. He made his
castle still stronger and kept on hailing ships, throwing some of the
crews into dungeons and cutting off the hands of the captains, until the
fish in the river grew fat.

Now there was a brave young fellow named Brabo, who lived in the
province of Brabant. He was proud of his country and her flag of yellow,
black and red, and was loyal to his lord. He studied the castle well and
saw a window, where he could climb up into the giant's chamber.

Going to the Duke, Brabo promised if his lord's soldiers would storm the
gates of the giant's castle, that he would seek out and fight the
ruffian. While they battered down the gates, he would climb the walls.
"He's nothing but a 'bulle-wak'" (a bully and a boaster), said Brabo,
"and we ought to call him that, instead of Antigonus."

The Duke agreed. On a dark night, one thousand of his best men-at-arms
were marched with their banners, but with no drums or trumpets, or
anything that could make a noise and alarm the watchmen.

Reaching a wood full of big trees near the castle, they waited till
after midnight. All the dogs in the town and country, for five miles
around, were seized and put into barns, so as not to bark and wake the
giant up. They were given plenty to eat, so that they quickly fell
asleep and were perfectly quiet.

At the given signal, hundreds of men holding ship's masts, or tree
trunks, marched against the gates. They punched and pounded and at last
smashed the iron-bound timbers and rushed in. After overcoming the
garrison, they lighted candles, and unlocking the dungeons, went down
and set the poor half-starved captives free. Some of them pale, haggard
and thin as hop poles, could hardly stand. About the same time, the barn
doors where the dogs had been kept, were thrown open. In full cry, a
regiment of the animals, from puppies to hounds, were at once out,
barking, baying, and yelping, as if they knew what was going on and
wanted to see the fun.

But where was the giant? None of the captains could find him. Not one of
the prisoners or the garrison could tell where he had hid.

But Brabo knew that the big fellow, Antigonus, was not at all brave, but
really only a bully and a coward. So the lad was not afraid. Some of his
comrades outside helped him to set up a tall ladder against the wall.
Then, while all the watchers and men-at-arms inside, had gone away to
defend the gates, Brabo climbed into the castle, through a slit in the
thick wall. This had been cut out, like a window, for the bow-and-arrow
men, and was usually occupied by a sentinel. Sword in hand, Brabo made
for the giant's own room. Glaring at the youth, the big fellow seized
his club and brought it down with such force that it went through the
wooden floor. But Brabo dodged the blow and, in a trice, made a sweep
with his sword. Cutting off the giant's head, he threw it out the
window. It had hardly touched the ground, before the dogs arrived. One
of the largest of these ran away with the trophy and the big, hairy
noddle of the bully was never found again.

But the giant's huge hands! Ah, they were cut off by Brabo, who stood on
the very top of the highest tower, while all below looked up and
cheered. Brabo laid one big hand on top of the other, as the giant used
to do, when he cut off the hands of captains. He took first the right
hand and then the left hand and threw them, one at a time, into the
river.

A pretty sight now revealed the fact that the people knew what had been
going on and were proud of Brabo's valor. In a moment, every house in
Antwerp showed lighted candles, and the city was illuminated. Issuing
from the gates came a company of maidens. They were dressed in white,
but their leader was robed in yellow, red, and black, the colors of the
Brabant flag. They all sang in chorus the praises of Brabo their hero.

"Let us now drop the term of disgrace to the city--that of the
Hand-Throwing and give it a new name," said one of the leading men of
Antwerp.

"No," said the chief ruler, "let us rather keep the name, and, more than
ever, invite all peaceful ships to come again, 'an-'t-werf' (at the
wharf), as of old. Then, let the arms of Antwerp be two red hands above
a castle."

"Agreed," cried the citizens with a great shout. The Duke of Brabant
approved and gave new privileges to the city, on account of Brabo's
bravery. So, from high to low, all rejoiced to honor their hero, who
was richly rewarded.

After this, thousands of ships, from many countries, loaded or unloaded
their cargoes on the wharves, or sailed peacefully by. Antwerp excelled
all seaports and became very rich again. Her people loved their native
city so dearly, that they coined the proverb "All the world is a ring,
and Antwerp is the pearl set in it."

To this day, in the great square, rises the splendid bronze monument of
Brabo the Brave. The headless and handless hulk of the giant Antigonus
lies sprawling, while on his body rests Antwerp castle. Standing over
all, at the top, is Brabo high in air. He holds one of the hands of
Antigonus, which he is about to toss into the Scheldt River.

No people honor valor more than the Belgians. Themselves are to-day, as
of old, among the bravest.




THE FARM THAT RAN AWAY AND CAME BACK


There was once a Dutchman, who lived in the province called Drenthe.
Because there was a row of little trees on his farm, his name was Ryer
Van Boompjes; that is, Ryer of the Little Trees. After a while, he moved
to the shore of the Zuyder Zee and into Overijssel. Overijssel means
over the Ijssel River. There he bought a new farm, near the village of
Blokzyl. By dyking and pumping, certain wise men had changed ten acres,
of sand and heath, into pasture and land for plowing. They surrounded it
on three sides with canals. The fourth side fronted on the Zuyder Zee.
Then they advertised, in glowing language, the merits of the new land
and Ryer Van Boompjes bought it and paid for his real estate. He was as
proud as a popinjay of his island and he ruled over it like a Czar or a
Kaiser.

A few years before, Ryer had married a "queezel," as the Dutch call
either a nun, or a maid who is no longer young. At this date, when our
story begins, he had four blooming, but old-fashioned children, with
good appetites. They could eat cabbage and potatoes, rye bread and
cheese, by the half peck, and drink buttermilk by the quart. In
addition, Ryer owned four horses, six cows, two dogs, some roosters and
hens, a flock of geese, two dozen ducks, and a donkey.

Yet although Ryer was rich, as wealth is reckoned in Drenthe, whence he
had come, he was greedy for more. He skimped the food of his animals. So
much did he do this, that his neighbors declared that they had seen him
put green spectacles on his cows and the donkey. Then he mixed straws
and shavings with the hay to make the animals think they were eating
fresh grass.

When he ploughed, he drove his horses close to the edge next to the
water, so as to make use of every half inch of land. When sometimes bits
of fen land, from his neighbor's farms, got loose and floated on the
water, Ryer felt he was in luck. He would go out at night, grapple the
boggy stuff and fasten it to his own land.

After this had happened several times, and Ryer had added a half acre to
his holdings, his greed possessed him like a bad fairy. He began to
steal the land on the other side of the Zuyder Zee. In the course of
time, he became a regular land thief. Whenever he saw, or heard of, a
floating bit of territory, he rowed his boat after it by night. Before
morning, aided by wicked helpers, who shared in the plunder, and were in
his pay, he would have the bog attached to his own farm.

All this time, he hardly realized that his ill-gotten property, now
increased to twelve acres or more, was itself a very shaky bit of real
estate. In fact, it was not real at all. His wife one day told him so,
for she knew of her mean husband's trickery.

About this time, heavy rains fell, for many days, and without ceasing,
until all the region was reduced to pulp and the country seemed afloat.
The dykes appeared ready to burst. Thousands feared that the land had an
attack of the disease called val (fall) and that the soil would sink
under the waves as portions of the realm had done before, in days long
gone by.

Yet none of this impending trouble worried Ryer, whose greed grew by
what it fed upon. In fact, the first day the sun shone again, quickly
drying up parts of his farm, he had two horses harnessed up for work.
Then he drove them so near the edge of the ditch that plough, man, and
horses tumbled, and down they went, into the shiny mess of mud and
water.

At this moment, also, the water, from below the bottom of the Zuyder
Zee, welled up, in a great wave, like a mushroom, and the whole of
Ryer's soggy estate was on the point of breaking loose and seemed ready
to float away.

The stingy fellow, as he fell overboard, bumped his head so hard on the
plough beam, that he lay senseless for a half hour. He would certainly
have been drowned, had not Pete, his stout son, who was not far away,
and had seen the tumble, ran to the house, launched a boat and rowed
quickly to the spot, where he had last seen his father. Grabbing his
daddy by the collar, he hauled him, half dead, into the boat. Between
his bump and his fright, and the cold bath, old Ryer was a long time
coming to his wits. With filial piety, Pete kept on rubbing the paternal
hands and restoring the circulation.

All this, however, took a long time, even an hour or more. When his
father was able to sit up and talk, Pete started to row back to the
little wharf in front of his home.

But where was it,--the farm, with the house and fields? Whither had they
gone? Ryer was too mystified to get his bearings, but Pete knew the
points of the compass. Yet his father's farm was not there. He looked at
the shore of Overijssel, which he had left. Instead of the old, straight
lines of willow trees, with the church spire beyond, there was a hollow
and empty place. It looked as if a giant, as big as the world itself,
had bitten out a piece of land and swallowed it down. Dumbfounded,
father and son looked, the one at the other, but said nothing, for there
was nothing to say.

Meanwhile, what had become of the farm and "the Queezel," as the
neighbors still called her--that is, the mother with the children. These
good people soon saw that they were floating off somewhere. The mainland
was every moment receding further into the distance. In fact, the farm
was moving from Overijssel northward, towards Friesland. One by one, the
church spires of the village near by faded from sight.

But when the wind changed from south to west, they seemed as if on a
ship, with sails set, and to be making due west, for North Holland. The
younger children, so far from being afraid, clapped their hands in glee.
They thought it great fun to ferry across the big water, which they had
so long seen before their eyes. Their stingy father had never owned a
carriage, or allowed the horses to be ridden. He always made his family
walk to church. Whether it were to the sermon, in the morning, or to
hear the catechism expounded by the Domine, in the afternoon, all the
family had to tramp on their wooden shoes there and back.

As for the floating farm, the cows could not understand it. They mooed
piteously, while the donkey brayed loudly. At night, and day after day,
no one could attend properly to the animals, to see that they were fed
and given water. One always sees a big tub in the middle of a Dutch
pasture field. Neither ducks, nor geese, nor chickens minded it in the
least, but the thirsty cattle and horses, at the end of the first day,
had drunk the tub dry. None of the dumb brutes, even if they had not
been afraid of being drowned, could drink from the Zuyder Zee, for it
was chiefly sea water, that is, salt, or at least brackish.

Occasionally this errant farm, that had thus broken loose, passed by
fishermen, who wondered at so much land thus adrift. Yet they feared to
hail, and go on board, lest the owners might think them intruding.
Others thought it none of their business, supposing some crazy fellow
was using his farm as a ship, to move his lands, goods and household,
and thus save expense. In some of the villages, the runaway farm was
descried from the tops of the church towers. Then, it furnished a
subject for chat and gossip, during three days, to the women, as they
milked the cows, or knitted stockings. To the men, also, while they
smoked, or drank their coffee, it was a lively topic.

"There were real people on it and a house and stables," said the sexton
of a church, who declared that he had seen this new sort of a flying
Dutchman. It was the usual sight--"cow, dog, and stork," and then he
quoted the old Dutch proverb.

At last, after several days, and when Ryer and his son were nearly
finished, with fatigue and fright, in trying to row their boat to catch
up with the runaway farm, they finally reached a village across the
Zuyder Zee, in North Holland, where rye bread and turnips satisfied
their hunger and they had waffles for dessert. Their small change went
quickly, and then the two men were at their wit's end to know what
further to do.

By this time, out on the floating farm, the mother and children were
wild with fear of starving. All the food for the cattle had been eaten
up, the dog had no meat, the cat no milk, and the stork had run out of
its supply of frogs. There was no sugar or coffee, and neither rye nor
currant-bread, or sliced sausage or wafer-thin cheese for any one; but
only potatoes and some barley grain. Happily, however, in drifting
within sight of the village of Osterbeek, the mother and the children
noticed that the east wind was freshening. Soon they descried the tops
of the church towers of North Holland. The smell of cows and cheese and
of burning peat fires from the chimneys made both animals and human
beings happy, as the wind blew the island westward to the village.

Curiously enough, this was the very place at which, by hard rowing, Ryer
and Pete had also arrived. Father and son were sitting in the hotel
parlor, with their eyes down on the sandy floor, wondering how they were
to pay for their next sandwich and coffee, for their money was all gone.

At that moment, a small boy clattered over the bricks in his klomps. He
kicked these off, at the door, and rushed into the room. He had on his
yellow baggy trousers and his hair, of the same color, was cut level
with his ears. Half out of breath, he announced the coming, afloat, of
what looked like a combination of farm and menagerie. A house, a woman,
some girls, a dog, a cat, and a stork were on it and afloat.

At once, old man Ryer, still stiff from his long, cold bath, hobbled
out, and Pete ran before him. Yes, it was mother, the children and all
the animals! For the first time in his life, the mean old sinner felt
his heart thumping, in grateful emotion, under his woolen jacket, with
its two gold buttons. Something like real religion had finally oozed out
from under his crusted soul.

A whole convoy of boys, fishermen, farmers, and a fat vrouw or two,
volunteered to go out and tow the runaway farm to the village wharf.
They succeeded in grappling the float and held it fast by ropes tied to
a horse post.

That night all were happy. The farm was made fast by another rope put
round the town pump. Then the villagers all went to bed. They were happy
in having rescued a runaway farm, and they expected a good "loon"
(reward) from the rich old Ryer, who, in the barroom, had talked big
about his wealth.

As for the Van Boompjes, in order to save a landlord's bill for beds,
they slept in their house, on board the farm, amid the lowing of their
cattle that called out, in their own way, for more fodder; while the
people in the village wondered at roosters crowing out on the water, and
evidently the barn-yard birds were frightened.

And so they were; for, before midnight, when all other creatures were
asleep, and not even a mouse was stirring on land, whether hard fast, or
floating, the west wind rose mightily and blew to a terrific gale.

In a moment, the tow lines, that held the vagrant farm to the village
pump and horse post, snapped. The Van Boompjes estate left the wharf and
was driven, at a furious rate, across the Zuyder Zee. For several hours,
like a ship under full sail, it was pushed westward by the wind. Yet so
soundly did all sleep, man and wife, children and hens, that none
awakened during this strange voyage. Even the roosters, after their
first concert, held in their voices.

Suddenly, and as straight as if steered by a skilled pilot, the Van
Boompjes farm, now an accomplished traveller, after its many adventures,
shot into its old place. This took place with such violence, that Ryer
Van Boompjes and his wife were both thrown out of bed. The cows were
knocked over in the stable. The dog barked, supposing some one had
kicked him. One old rooster, jostled off his perch, set up a tremendous
crowing, that brought some of the early risers out to rub their eyes and
see what was going on.

"Hemel en aard, bliksem en regen" (Heaven and earth, lightning and
rain), they cried, "the old farm is back in its place."

In fact, the Van Boompjes real estate was snugly fitted once more to the
mainland, and again in the niche it had left. It had struck so hard,
that a ridge of raised sod, five inches high, marked the place of
junction. At least twenty fishes and wriggling eels were smashed in the
collision.

From that day forth the conscience of Van Boompjes returned, and he
actually became an honest man. He sawed off, from time to time, portions
of his big farm, and returned them home, with money paid as interest, to
the owners. He found out all the mynheers, whose bits of land had
drifted off. He sent a tidy sum of gold to the village in North Holland,
where his farm had been moored, for a few hours. With a good conscience,
he went to church and worshipped. His action, at each of the two
collections, which Dutch folks always take up on Sundays, was noticed
and praised as a sure and public sign of the old sinner's true
repentance. When the deacons, with their white gloves on, poked under
his nose their black velvet bags, hung at the end of fishing poles, ten
feet long, this man, who had been for years a skinflint, dropped in a
silver coin each time.

On the farm, all the animals, from duck to stork, and from dog to ox,
now led happier lives. In the family, all declared that the behavior of
the farm and the wind of the Zuyder Zee had combined to make a new man
and a delightful father of old Van Boompjes. He lived long and happily
and died greatly lamented.




SANTA KLAAS AND BLACK PETE


Who is Santa Klaas? How did he get his name? Where does he live? Did you
ever see him?

These are questions, often asked of the storyteller, by little folks.

Before Santa Klaas came into the Netherlands, that is, to Belgium and
Holland, he was called by many names, in the different countries in
which he lived, and where he visited. Some people say he was born in
Myra, many hundred years ago before the Dutch had a dyke or a windmill,
or waffles, or wooden shoes. Others tell us how, in time of famine, the
good saint found the bodies of three little boys, pickled in a tub, at a
market for sale, and to be eaten up. They had been salted down to keep
till sold. The kind gentleman and saint, whose name was Nicholas,
restored these three children to life. It is said that once he lost his
temper, and struck with his fist a gentleman named Arius; but the
story-teller does not believe this, for he thinks it is a fib, made up
long afterward. How could a saint lose his temper so?

Another story they tell of this same Nicholas was this. There were three
lovely maidens, whose father had lost all his money. They wanted
husbands very badly, but had no money to buy fine clothes to get married
in. He took pity on both their future husbands and themselves. So he
came to the window, and left three bags of gold, one after the other.
Thus these three real girls all got real husbands, just as the novels
tell us of the imaginary ones. They lived happily ever afterward, and
never scolded their husbands.

By and by, men who were goldsmiths, bankers or pawnbrokers, made a sign
of these three bags of gold, in the shape of balls. Now they hang them
over their shop doors, two above one. This means "two to one, you will
never get it again"--when you put your ring, furs, or clothes, or watch,
or spoons, in pawn.

It is ridiculous how many stories they do tell of this good man,
Nicholas, who was said to be what they call a bishop, or inspector, who
goes around seeing that things are done properly in the churches. It was
because the Reverend Mr. Nicholas had to travel about a good deal, that
the sailors and travellers built temples and churches in his honor. To
travel, one must have a ship on the sea and a horse on the land, or a
reindeer up in the cold north; though now, it is said, he comes to
Holland in a steamship, and uses an automobile.

On Santa Klaas eve, each of the Dutch children sets out in the chimney
his wooden shoe. Into it, he puts a whisp of hay, to feed the
traveller's horse. When St. Nicholas first came to Holland, he arrived
in a sailing ship from Spain and rode on a horse. Now he arrives in a
big steamer, made of steel. Perhaps he will come in the future by
aeroplane. To fill all the shoes and stockings, the good saint must have
an animal to ride. Now the fast white horse, named Sleipnir, was ready
for him, and on Sleipnir's back he made his journeys.

How was Santa Klaas dressed?

His clothes were those of a bishop. He wore a red coat and his cap,
higher than a turban and called a mitre, was split along two sides and
pointed at the top. In his hands, he held a crozier, which was a staff
borrowed from shepherds, who tended sheep; and with the crozier he
helped the lambs over rough places; but the crozier of Santa Klaas was
tipped with gold. He had white hair and rosy cheeks. For an old man, he
was very active, but his heart and feelings never got to be one day
older than a boy's, for these began when mother love was born and
father's care was first in the world, but it never grows old.

When Santa Klaas travelled up north to Norway and into the icy cold
regions, where there were sleighs and reindeer, he changed his clothes.
Instead of his red robe, he wears a jacket, much shorter and trimmed
with ermine, white as snow. Taking off his mitre, he wears a cap of fur
also, and has laid aside his crozier. In the snow, wheels are no good,
and runners are the best for swift travel. So, instead of his white
horse and a wagon, he drives in a sleigh, drawn by two stags with large
horns. In every country, he puts into the children's stockings hung up,
or shoes set in the fireplace, something which they like. In Greenland,
for example, he gives the little folks seal blubber, and fish hooks. So
his presents are not the same in every country. However, for naughty
boys and girls everywhere, instead of filling shoes and stockings, he
may leave a switch, or pass them by empty.

When Santa Klaas travels, he always brings back good things. Now when he
first came to New Netherland in America, what did he find to take back
to Holland?

Well, it was here, on our continent, that he found corn, potatoes,
pumpkins, maple sugar, and something to put in pipes to smoke; besides
strange birds and animals, such as turkeys and raccoons, in addition to
many new flowers. What may be called a weed, like the mullein, for
example, is considered very pretty in Europe, where they did not have
such things. There it is called the American Velvet Plant, or the King's
Candlestick.

But, better than all, Santa Klaas found a negro boy, Pete, who became
one of the most faithful of his helpers. At Utrecht, in Holland, the
students of the University give, every year, a pageant representing
Santa Klaas on his white horse, with Black Pete, who is always on hand
and very busy. Black Pete's father brought peanuts from Africa to
America, and sometimes Santa Klaas drops a bagful of these, as a great
curiosity, into the shoes of the Dutch young folks.

Santa Klaas was kept very busy visiting the homes and the public schools
in New Netherland; for in these schools all the children, girls as well
as boys, and not boys only, received a free education. In later visits
he heard of Captain Kidd and his fellow pirates, who wore striped shirts
and red caps, and had pigtails of hair, tied in eel skins, and hanging
down their backs. These fellows wore earrings and stuck pistols in their
belts and daggers at their sides. Instead of getting their gold
honestly, and giving it to the poor, or making presents to the children,
the pirates robbed ships. Then, as 'twas said, they buried their
treasure. Lunatics and boys that read too many novels, have ever since
been digging in the land to find Captain Kidd's gold.

Santa Klaas does not like such people. Moreover, he was just as good to
the poor slaves, as to white children. So the colored people loved the
good saint also. Their pickaninnies always hung up their stockings on
the evening of December sixth.

Santa Klaas filled the souls of the people in New Netherland so full of
his own spirit, that now children all over the United States, and those
of Americans living in other countries, hang up their stockings and look
for a visit from him.

In Holland, Black Pete was very loyal and true to his master, carrying
not only the boxes and bundles of presents for the good children, but
also the switches for bad boys and girls. Between the piles of pretty
things to surprise good children, on one side, and the boxes of birch
and rattan, the straps and hard hair-brush backs for naughty youngsters,
Pete holds the horn of plenty. In this are dolls, boats, trumpets,
drums, balls, toy houses, flags, the animals in Noah's Ark, building
blocks, toy castles and battleships, story and picture books, little
locomotives, cars, trains, automobiles, aeroplanes, rocking horses,
windmills, besides cookies, candies, marbles, tops, fans, lace, and more
nice things than one can count.

Pete also takes care of the horse of Santa Klaas, named Sleipnir, which
goes so fast that, in our day, the torpedo and submarine U-boats are
named after him. This wonderful animal used to have eight feet, for
swiftness. That was when Woden rode him, but, in course of time, four of
his legs dropped off, so that the horse of Santa Klaas looks less like a
centipede and more like other horses. Whenever Santa Klaas walks, Pete
has to go on foot also, even though the chests full of presents for the
children are very heavy and Pete has to carry them.

Santa Klaas cares nothing about rich girls or poor girls, for all the
kinds of boys he knows about or thinks of are good boys and bad boys. A
youngster caught stealing jam out of the closet, or cookies from the
kitchen, or girls lifting lumps of sugar out of the sugar bowl, or
eating too much fudge, or that are mean, stingy, selfish, or have bad
tempers, are considered naughty and more worthy of the switch than of
presents. So are the boys who attend Sunday School for a few weeks
before Christmas, and then do not come any more till next December.
These Santa Klaas turns over to Pete, to be well thrashed.

[Illustration: Santa Klaas and Black Pete.]

In Holland, Pete still keeps on the old dress of the time of New
Netherland. He wears a short jacket, with wide striped trousers, in
several bright colors, shoes strapped on his feet, a red cap and a ruff
around his neck. Sometimes he catches bad boys, to put them in a bag for
a half hour, to scare them; or, he shuts them up in a dark closet, or
sends them to bed without any supper. Or, instead of allowing them
eleven buckwheat cakes at breakfast, he makes them stop at five. When
Santa Klaas leaves Holland to go back to Spain, or elsewhere, Pete takes
care of the nag Sleipnir, and hides himself until Santa Klaas comes
again next year.

The story-teller knows where Santa Klaas lives, but he won't tell.




THE GOBLINS TURNED TO STONE


When the cow came to Holland, the Dutch folks had more and better things
to eat. Fields of wheat and rye took the place of forests. Instead of
acorns and the meat of wild game, they now enjoyed milk and bread. The
youngsters made pets of the calves and all the family lived under one
roof. The cows had a happy time of it, because they were kept so clean,
fed well, milked regularly, and cared for in winter.

By and by the Dutch learned to make cheese and began to eat it every
day. They liked it, whether it was raw, cooked, toasted, sliced, or in
chunks, or served with other good things. Even the foxes and wild
creatures were very fond of the smell and taste of toasted cheese. They
came at night close to the houses, often stealing the cheese out of the
pantry. When a fox would not, or could not, be caught in a trap by any
other bait, a bit of cooked cheese would allure him so that he was
caught and his fur made use of.

When the people could not get meat, or fish, they had toasted bread and
cheese, which in Dutch is "geroostered brod met kaas." Then they
laughed, and named the new dish after whatever they pretended it was. It
was just the same, as when they called goodies, made out of flour and
sugar, "nuts," "fingers," "calves" and "lambs." Even grown folks love to
play and pretend things like children.

Soon, it became the fashion to have cheese parties. Men and women would
sit around the fire, by the hour, nibbling the toast that had melted
cheese poured over it. But after they had gone to bed, some of them
dreamed.

Now some dreams may be pleasant, but cheese-dreams were not usually of
this sort. The dreamer thought that a big she-horse had climbed upon the
bed and sat down upon his stomach. Once there, the beast grinned
hideously, snored, and pressed its hoofs down on the sleeper's breast,
so that he could not breathe or speak. The feeling was a horrible one;
but, just when the dreamer expected to choke, he seemed to jump off some
high place, and come down somewhere, very far off. Then the animal ran
away and the terrible dream was over.

This was called a nightmare, or in Dutch a "nacht merrie." "Nacht" means
night, and "merrie" a filly or a mare. In the dream, it was not a small
or a young horse, but always a big mare that squatted down on a man's
stomach.

In those days, instead of seeking for the trouble inside, or asking
whether there was any connection between nightmares and too hearty
eating of cheese, the Dutch fathers laid it all on the goblins.

The goblins, or sooty elves, that used to live in Holland, were ugly,
short fellows, very smart, quick in action and able to travel far in a
second. They were first cousins to the kabouters. They had big heads,
green eyes and split feet, like cows. They were so ugly, that they were
ordered to live under ground and never come out during the day. If they
did, they would be turned to stone.

The goblins had a bad reputation for mischief. They liked to have fun
with human beings. They would listen to the conversation of people and
then mock them by repeating the last word. That is the reason why echoes
were called "week klank," or dwarf's talk.

Because these goblins were short, they envied men their greater stature
and wanted to grow to the height of human beings. As they were not able
of themselves to do this, they often sneaked into a house and snatched a
child out of the cradle. In place of the stolen baby, one of their own
wizened children was laid. That was the reason why many a poor little
baby, that grew puny and thin, was called a "wiseel-kind," or
changeling. When the sick baby could not get well, and medicine or care
seemed to do no good, the mother thought that the goblins had taken away
her own child.

It was only the female goblins that would change themselves into night
mares and sit on the body of the dreamer. They usually came in through a
hole or a crack; but if that person in the house could plug up the hole,
or stop the crack, he could conquer the female goblin, and do what he
pleased with her. If a man wanted to, he could make her his wife. So
long as the hole was kept stopped up, by which the goblin entered, she
made a good wife. If this crack was left open, or if the plug dropped
out of the hole, the she-goblin was off and could never be found again.

The ruler of the goblins lived beneath the earth, as the king of the
underworld. His palace was made of gold and glittered with gems. He had
riches more than men could count. All the goblins and kabouters, who
worked in the mines and at the forges and anvils, making swords, spears,
bells, or jewels, obeyed him.

The most wonderful things about these dwarfs was the way in which they
made themselves invisible, so that men were able to see neither the
night mares nor the male goblins, while at their mischief. This was a
little red cap which every goblin possessed, and which he was careful
never to lose. The red cap acted like a snuffer on a candle, to put it
out, and while under it, no goblin could be seen by mortal eyes.

Now it happened that one night, as a dear old lady lay dying on her bed,
a middle-sized goblin, with his red cap on, came in through a crack into
the room, and stood at the foot of her bed. Just for mischief and to
frighten her by making himself visible, he took off his red cap.

When the old lady saw the imp, she cried out loudly:

"Go way, go way. Don't you know I belong to my Lord?"

But the goblin dwarf only laughed at her, with his green eyes.

Calling her daughter Alida, the old lady whispered in her ear:

"Bring me my wooden shoes."

Rising up in her bed, the old lady hurled the heavy klomps, one after
the other, at the goblin's head. At this, he started to get out through
the crack, and away, but before his body was half out, Alida snatched
his red cap away. Then she stuck a needle in his cloven foot that made
him howl with pain. Alida looked at the crack through which he escaped
and found it quite sooty.

Twirling the little red cap around on her forefinger, a brilliant
thought struck her. She went and told the men her plan, and they agreed
to it. This was to gather hundreds of farmers and townfolk, boys and men
together, on the next moonlight night, and round up all the goblins in
Drenthe. By pulling off their caps, and holding them till the sun rose,
when they would be petrified, the whole brood could be exterminated.

So, knowing that the goblin would come the next night, to steal back his
red cap, she left a note outside the crack, telling him to bring several
hundred goblins to the great moor, or veldt. There, at a certain hour
near midnight, he would find the red cap on a bush. With his companions,
he could celebrate the return of the cap. In exchange for this, she
asked the goblin to bring her a gold necklace.

The moonlight night came round and hundreds of the men of Drenthe
gathered together. They were armed with horseshoes, and with witch-hazel
and other plants, which are like poison to the sooty elves. They had
also bits of parchment covered with runes, a strange kind of writing,
and various charms which are supposed to be harmful to goblins. It was
agreed to move together in a circle towards the centre, where the lady
Alida was to hang the red cap upon a bush. Then, with a rush, the men
were to snatch off all the goblins' caps, pulling and grabbing, whether
they could see, or even feel anything, or not.

The placing of the red cap upon the bush in the centre, by the lady
Alida, was the signal.

So, when the great round-up narrowed to a small space, the men began to
grab, snatch and pull. Putting their hands out in the air, at the height
of about a yard from the ground, they hustled and pushed hard. In a few
minutes, hundreds of red caps were in their hands, and as many goblins
became visible. They were, indeed, an ugly host.

Yet hundreds of other goblins escaped, with their caps on, and were
still invisible. As they broke away in groups, however, they were seen,
for in each bunch was one or more visible fellow, because he was
capless. So the men divided into squads, to chase the imps a long
distance, even to many distant places. It was a most curious night
battle. Here could be seen groups of men in a tussle with the goblins,
many more of which, but by no means all, were made capless and visible.

[Illustration: AT THE FIRST LEVEL RAY THE GOBLINS WERE ALL TURNED TO STONE]

The racket kept up till the sky in the east was gray. Had all the
goblins run away, it would have been well with them. Hundreds of them
did, but the others were so anxious to help their fellows, or to get
back their own caps, fearing the disgrace of returning head bare to
their king, and getting a good scolding, that the sun suddenly rose on
them, before they knew it was day.

At the first level ray, the goblins were all turned to stone.

The treeless, desolate land, which, a moment before, was full of
struggling goblins and men, became as quiet as the blue sky above.
Nothing but some rounded rocks or stones, in groups, marked the spot
where the bloodless battle of imps and men had been fought.

There, these stones, big and little, lie to this day. Among the
buckwheat, and the potato blossoms of the summer, under the shadows and
clouds, and whispering breezes of autumn, or covered with the snows of
winter, they are seen on desolate heaths. Over some of them, oak trees,
centuries old, have grown. Others are near, or among, the farmers' grain
fields, or, not far from houses and barn-yards. The cows wander among
them, knowing nothing of their past. And the goblins come no more.




THE MOULDY PENNY


"Gold makes a woman penny-white," said the Dutch, in the days when
fairies were plentiful and often in their thoughts. What did the proverb
mean? Who ever saw a white penny?

Well, that was long ago, when pennies were white, because they were then
made of silver. Each one was worth a denary, which was a coin worth
about a shilling, or a quarter of a dollar.

As the Dutch had pounds, shillings and pence, before the English had
them, we see what _d_ in the signs Ł s. d. means, that is, a
denary, or a white penny, made of silver.

In the old days, before the Dutch had houses with glass windows or
clothes of cloth or linen, or hats or shoes, cows and horses, or butter
and cheese, they knew nothing of money and they cared less. Almost
everything, even the land, was owned in common by all. Their wants were
few. Whenever they needed anything from other countries they swapped or
bartered. In this way they traded salt for furs, or fish for iron. But
when they met with, or had to fight, another tribe that was stronger or
richer, or knew more than they did, they required other things, which
the forests and waters could not furnish. So, by and by, pedlars and
merchants came up from the south. They brought new and strange articles,
such as mirrors, jewelry, clothes, and pretty things, which the girls
and women wanted and had begged their daddies and husbands to get for
them. For the men, they brought iron tools and better weapons, improved
traps, to catch wild beasts, and wagons, with wheels that had spokes.
When regular trade began, it became necessary to have money of some
kind.

Then coins of gold, silver, and copper were seen in the towns and
villages, and even in the woods and on the heaths of Holland. Yet there
was a good deal that was strange and mysterious about these round,
shining bits of metal, called money.

"Money. What is money?" asked many a proud warrior disdainfully.

Then the wise men explained to the fighting men, that money was named
after Juno Moneta, a goddess in Rome. She told men that no one would
ever want for money who was honest and just. Then, by and by, the mint
was in her temple and money was coined there. Then, later, in Holland,
the word meant money, but many people, who wanted to get rich quickly,
worshipped her. In time, however, the word "gold" meant money in
general.

When a great ruler, named Charlemagne, conquered or made treaties with
our ancestors, he allowed them to have mints and to coin money. Then,
again, it seemed wonderful how the pedlars and the goldsmiths and the
men called Lombards--strange long-bearded men from the south, who came
among the Dutch--grew rich faster than the work people. They seemed to
amass gold simply by handling money.

When a man who knew what a silver penny would do, made a present of one
to his wife, her face lighted up with joy. So in time, the word "penny
white," meant the smiling face of a happy woman. Yet it was also noticed
that the more people had, the more they wanted. The girls and boys
quickly found that money would buy what the pedlars brought. In the
towns, shops sprang up, in which were many curious things, which tempted
people to buy.

Some tried to spend their money and keep it too--to eat their cake and
have it also--but they soon found that they could not do this. There
were still many foolish, as well as wise people, in the land, even
during the new time of money. A few saved their coins and were happy in
giving some to the poor and needy. Many fathers had what was called a
"sparpot," or home savings bank, and taught their children the right use
of money. It began to be the custom for people to have family names, so
that a girl was not merely the daughter of so-and-so, nor a boy the son
of a certain father. In the selection of names, those which had the word
"penny" in them proved to be very popular. To keep a coin in the little
home bank, without spending it, long enough for it to gather mould,
which it did easily in the damp climate of Holland, that is, to darken
and get a crust on it, was considered a great virtue in the owner. This
showed that the owner had a strong mind and power of self-control. So
the name "Schimmelpennig," or "mouldy penny," became honorable, because
such people were wise and often kind and good. They did not waste their
money, but made good use of it.

On the other hand, were some mean and stingy folks, who liked to hear
the coins jingle. Instead of wisely spending their cash, or trading with
it, they hoarded their coins; that is, they hid them away in a stocking,
or a purse, or in a jar, or a cracked cooking pot, that couldn't be
used. Often they put it away somewhere in the chimney, behind a loose
brick. Then, at night, when no one was looking, these miserly folks
counted, rubbed, jingled, and gloated over the shining coins and never
helped anybody. So there grew up three sorts of people, called the
thrifty, the spendthrifts, and the misers. These last were the meanest
and most disliked of all. Others, again, hid their money away, so as to
have some, when sick, or old, and they talked about it. No one found
fault with these, though some laughed and said "a penny in the savings
jar makes more noise than when it is full of gold." Even when folks got
married they were exhorted by the minister to save money, "so as to have
something to give to the poor."

Now when the fairies, that work down underground, heard that the Dutch
had learned the use of money, and had even built a mint to stamp the
metal, they held a feast to talk over what they should do to help or
harm. In any event, they wanted to have some fun with the mortals above
ground.

That has always been the way with kabouters. They are in for fun, first,
last, and always. So, with punches and hammers, they made counterfeit
money. Then, in league with the elves, they began also to delude misers
and make them believe that much money makes men happy.

A long time after the mint had been built, two kabouters met to talk
over their adventures.

"It is wonderful what fools these creatures called men are," said the
first one. "There's old Vrek. He has been hoarding coins for the last
fifty years. Now, he has a pile of gold in guilders and stivers, but
there's hardly anything of his old self left. His soul is as small as a
shrimp. I whispered to him not to let out his money in trade, but to
keep it shut up. His strong box is full to bursting, but what went into
the chest has oozed out of the man. He died, last night, and hardly
anybody considers him worth burying. Some one on the street to-day asked
what Vrek had left behind. The answer was 'Nothing--he took it all with
him, for he had so little to take.'"

"That's jolly," said the older kabouter, who was a wicked looking
fellow. "I'll get some fun out of this. To shrivel up souls will be my
business henceforth. There's nothing like this newfangled business of
getting money, that will do it so surely."

So this ugly old imp went "snooping" around, as the Dutch say, about
people who sneak and dodge in and out of places, to which they ought not
to go, and in houses where they should not be found. This imp's purpose
was to make men crazy on the subject of making money, when they tried,
as many of them did, to get rich quickly in mean ways. Sorry to tell,
the imp found a good many promising specimens to work upon, at his
business of making some wise men foolish. He taught them to take out of
their souls what they hoarded away. To such fellows, when they became
misers, he gave the name of "Schim," which means a shadow. It was
believed by some people that such shrivelled up wretches had no bowels.

Soon after this, a great meeting of kabouters was held, in the dark
realms below ground. Each one told what he had been doing on the earth.
After the little imps had reported, the chief kabouter, when his turn
came, cried out:

"I shall tell of three brothers, and what each one did with the first
silver penny he earned."

"Go on," they all cried.

"I've caught one schim young. He married a wife only last year, but he
won't give her one gulden a year to dress on. He skimps the table, pares
the cheese till the rind is as thin as paper, and makes her live on skim
milk and barley. Besides this, he won't help the poor with a stiver. I
saw him put away a bright and shining silver penny, fresh from the mint.
He hid coin and pocketbook in the bricks of a chimney. So I climbed down
from the roof, seized both and ran away. I smeared the purse with wax
and hid it in the thick rib of a boat, by the wharf. There the penny
will gather mould enough. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

At this, the little imps broke out into a titter that sounded like the
cackle of a hen trying to tell she had laid an egg.

"Good for you! Serves the old schim right," said a good kabouter, who
loved to help human beings. "Now, I'll tell you about his brother, who
has a wife and baby. He feeds and clothes them well, and takes good care
of his old mother.

"Almost every week he helps some poor little boy, or girl, that has no
mother or father. I heard him say he wished he could take care of poor
orphans. So, when he was asleep, at night, I whispered in his ear and
made him dream.

"'Put away your coin where it won't get mouldy and show that a penny
that keeps moving is not like a rolling stone that gathers no moss.
Deliver it to the goldsmiths for interest and leave it in your will to
increase, until it becomes a great sum. Then, long after you are dead,
the money you have saved and left for the poor _weesies_ (orphans)
will build a house for them. It will furnish food and beds and pay for
nurses that will care for them, and good women who will be like mothers.
Other folks, seeing what you have done, will build orphan houses. Then
we shall have a Wees House (orphan asylum) in every town. No child,
without a father or mother, in all Holland, will have to cry for milk or
bread. Don't let your penny mould.'

"The third brother, named Spill-penny, woke up on the same morning, with
a headache. He remembered that he had spent his silver penny at the gin
house, buying drinks for a lot of worthless fellows like himself. He and
his wife, with little to eat, had to wear ragged clothes, and the baby
had not one toy to play with. When his wife gently chided him, he ran
out of the house in bad humor. Going to the tap room, he ordered a drink
of what we call 'Dutch courage,' that is, a glass of gin, and drank it
down. Then what do you think he did?"

"Tell us," cried the imps uproariously.

"He went into a clothing house, bought a suit of clothes, and had it
'charged.'"

"That's it. I've known others like him," said an old imp.

"Now it was kermiss day in the village, and all that afternoon and
evening this spendthrift was roystering with his fellow 'zuip zaks'
(boon companions). With them, it was 'always drunk, always dry.' Near
midnight, being too full of gin, he stumbled in the gutter, struck his
head on the curb, and fell down senseless.

"Her husband not coming home that night, the distracted wife went out
early in the morning. She found several men lying asleep on the
sidewalks or in the gutters. She turned each one over, just as she did
buckwheat cakes on the griddle, to see if this man or that was hers. At
last she discovered her worthless husband, but no shaking or pulling
could awake him. He was dead.

"Now there was a covetous undertaker in town, who carted away the
corpse, and then told the widow that she must spend much money on the
funeral, in order to have her husband buried properly; or else, the
tongues of the neighbors would wag. So the poor woman had to sell her
cow, the only thing she had, and was left poorer than ever. That was the
end of Spill-penny."

"A jolly story," cried the kabouters in chorus. "Served him right. Now
tell us about Vrek the miser. Go on."

"Well, the saying 'Much coin, much care,' is hardly true of him, for I
and my trusty helpers ran away with all he had. With his first silver
penny he began to hoard his money. He has been hunting for years for
that penny, but has not found it. It will be rather mouldy, should he
find it, but that he never will."

"Why not?" asked a young imp.

"For a good reason. He would not pay his boatmen their wages. So they
struck, and refused to work. When he tried to sail his own boat, it
toppled over and sunk, and Vrek was drowned. His wife was saved the
expenses of a funeral, for his carcass was never found, and the covetous
undertaker lost a job."

"What of the third one?" they asked.

"Oh, Mynheer Eerlyk, you mean? No harm can come to him. Everybody loves
him and he cares for the orphans. There will be no mouldy penny in his
house."

Then the meeting broke up. The good kabouters were happy. The bad ones,
the imps, were sorry to miss what they hoped would be a jolly story.

When a thousand years passed away and the age of newspapers and copper
pennies had come, there were no descendants of the two brothers
Spill-penny and Schim; but of Mynheer Eerlyk there were as many as the
years that had flown since he made a will. In this document, he ordered
that his money, in guilders of gold and pennies of silver, should remain
at compound interest for four hundred years. In time, the ever
increasing sum passed from the goldsmiths to the bankers, and kept on
growing enormously. At last this large fortune was spent in building
hundreds of homes for orphans.

According to his wish, each girl in the asylum dressed in clothes that
were of the colors on the city arms. In Amsterdam, for example, each
orphan child's frock is half red and half black, with white aprons, and
the linen and lace caps are very neat and becoming to their rosy faces.
In Friesland, where golden hair and apple blossom cheeks are so often
seen with the white lace and linen, some one has called the orphan girls
"Apples of gold in pictures of silver." Among the many glories of the
Netherlands is her care for the aged and the orphans.

One of the thirty generations of the Eerlyks read one day in the
newspaper:

"Last week, while digging a very deep canal, some workman struck his
pickaxe against timbers that were black with age, and nearly as hard as
stone. These, on being brought up, showed that they were the ribs of an
ancient boat. Learned men say that there was once a river here, which
long since dried up. All the pieces of the boat were recovered, and,
under the skilful hands of our ship carpenters, have been put together
and the whole vessel is now set up and on view in our museum."

"We'll go down to-morrow on our way home from school, and see the
curiosity," cried one of the Eerlyk boys, clapping his hands.

"Wait," said his father, "there's more in the story.

"To-day, the janitor of the museum, while examining a wide crack in one
of the ribs, which was covered with wax, picked this substance away. He
poked his finger in the crack, and finding something soft, pulled it
out. It was a rough leather purse, inside of which was a coin, mouldy
with age and dark as the wood. Even after cleaning it with acid, it was
hard to read what was stamped on it; but, strange to say, the face of
the coin had left its impression on the leather, which had been covered
with wax. From this, though the metal of the coin was black, and the
mould thick on the coin, what they saw showed that it was a silver penny
of the age of Charlemagne, or the ninth century."

"Charlemagne is French, father, but we call him Karel de Groot, or
Charles the Great."

"Yes, my son. Don't you hear Karel's Klok (the curfew) sounding? 'Tis
time for little folks to go to bed."




THE GOLDEN HELMET


For centuries, more than can be counted on the fingers of both hands,
the maidens and mothers of Friesland have worn a helmet of gold covering
the crown and back of their heads, and with golden rosettes at each ear.
It marks the Frisian girl or woman. She is thus known by this head-dress
as belonging to a glorious country, that has never been conquered and is
proudly called Free Frisia. It is a relic of the age of gold, when this
precious metal was used in a thousand forms, not seen to-day.

Of how and why the golden helmet is worn, this is the story:

In days gone by, when forests covered the land and bears and wolves were
plentiful, there were no churches in Friesland. The people were pagans
and all worshipped Woden, whom the Frisians called Fos-i-te'. Certain
trees were sacred to him. When a baby was ill, or grown people had a
disease, which medicine could not help, they laid the sick one at the
foot of the holy tree, hoping for health soon to come. But, should the
patient die under the tree, then the sorrowful friends were made glad,
if the leaves of the tree fell upon the corpse. It was death to any
person who touched the sacred tree with an axe, or made kindling wood,
even of its branches.

Now among the wild people of the north, who ate acorns and were clothed
in the skins of animals, there came, from the Christian lands of the
south, a singer with his harp. Invited to the royal court, he sang sweet
songs. To these the king's daughter listened with delight, until the
tears, first of sorrow and then of joy, rolled down her lovely cheeks.

This maiden was the pride of her father, because of her sweet temper and
willing spirit, while all the people boasted of her beauty. Her eyes
were of the color of a sky without clouds. No spring flower could equal
the pink and rose in her cheeks. Her lips were like the red coral, which
the ship men brought from distant shores. Her long tresses rivalled gold
in their glory. And, because her father worshipped Fos-i-té', the god of
justice, and his daughter was always so fair to all her playmates, he,
in his pride of her, gave her the name Fos-te-dí'-na, that is, the
darling of Fos-i-té', or the Lady of Justice.

[Illustration: WHICH WAS THE MORE GLORIOUS, HER LONG TRESSES OR THE
SHINING CROWN ABOVE.]

The singer from the south sang a new song, and when he played upon his
harp his music was apt to be soft and low; sometimes sad, even, and
often appealing. It was so much finer, and oh! so different, from what
the glee men and harpers in the king's court usually rendered for the
listening warriors. Instead of being about fighting and battle, or the
hunting of wolves and bears, of stags and the aurochs, it was of healing
the sick and helping the weak. In place of battles and the exploits of
war lords, in fighting and killing Danes, the harper's whole story was
of other things and about gentle people. He sang neither of war, nor of
the chase, nor of fighting gods, nor of the storm maidens, that carry up
to the sky, and into the hall of Woden, the souls of the slain on the
battlefield.

The singer sang of the loving Father in Heaven, who sent his dear Son to
earth to live and die, that men might be saved. He made music with voice
and instrument about love, and hope, and kindness to the sick and poor,
of charity to widows and to orphans, and about the delights of doing
good. He closed by telling the story of the crown of thorns, how wicked
men nailed this good prophet to a cross, and how, when tender-hearted
women wept, the Holy Teacher told them not to weep for him, but for
themselves and their children. This mighty lord of noble thoughts and
words lived what he taught. He showed greatness in the hour of death, by
first remembering his mother, and then by forgiving his enemies.

"What! forgive an enemy? Forgive even the Danes? What horrible doctrine
do we hear!" cried the men of war. "Let us kill this singer from the
south." And they beat their swords on their metal shields, till the
clangor was deafening. The great hall rang with echoes of the din, as if
for battle. The Druids, or pagan priests, even more angry, applauded the
action of the fighting men.

But Fos-te-dí-na rushed forward to shield the harper, and her long
golden hair covered him.

"No!" said the king to his warriors. "This man is my guest. I invited
him and he shall be safe here."

Sullen and bitter in their hearts, both priests and war men left the
hall, breathing out revenge and feeling bound to kill the singer. Soon
all were quiet in slumber, for the hour was late.

Why were the pagan followers of the king so angry with the singer?

The answer to this question is a story in itself.

Only three days before, a party of Christian Danes had been taken
prisoners in the forest. They had come, peaceably and without arms, into
the country; for they wanted to tell the Frisians about the new
religion, which they had themselves received. In the cold night air,
they had, unwittingly, cut off some of the dead branches of a tree
sacred to the god Fos-i-té to kindle a fire.

A spy, who had closely watched them, ran and told his chief. Now, the
Christian Danes were prisoners and would be given to the hungry wolves
to be torn to pieces. That was the law concerning sacrilege against the
trees of the gods.

Some of the Frisians had been to Rome, the Eternal City, and had there
learned, from the cruel Romans, how to build great enclosures, not of
stone but of wood. Here, on holidays, they gave their prisoners of war
to the wild beasts, for the amusement of thousands of the people. The
Frisians could get no lions or tigers, for these fierce brutes live in
hot countries; but they sent hundreds of hunters into the woods for many
miles around. These bold fellows drove the deer, bears, wolves, and the
aurochs within an ever narrowing circle towards the pits. Into these,
dug deep in the ground and covered with branches and leaves, the animals
fell down and were hauled out with ropes. The deer were kept for their
meat, but the bears and wolves were shut up, in pens, facing the great
enclosure. When maddened with hunger, these ravenous beasts of prey were
to be let loose on the Christian Danes. Several aurochs, made furious by
being goaded with pointed sticks, or pricked by spears, were to rush out
and trample the poor victims to death.

The heart of the beautiful Fos-te-dí-na, who had heard the songs of the
singer of faith in the one God and love for his creatures, was deeply
touched. She resolved to set the captives free. Being a king's daughter,
she was brave as a man. So, at midnight, calling a trusty maid-servant,
she, with a horn lantern, went out secretly to the prison pen. She
unbolted the door, and, in the name of their God and hers, she bade the
prisoners return to their native land.

How the wolves in their pen did roar, when, on the night breeze, they
sniffed the presence of a newcomer! They hoped for food, but got none.

The next morning, when the crowd assembled, but found that they were to
be cheated of their bloody sport, they raged and howled. Coming to the
king, they demanded his daughter's punishment. The pagan priests
declared that the gods had been insulted, and that their anger would
fall on the whole tribe, because of the injury done to their sacred
tree. The hunters swore they would invade the Danes' land and burn all
their churches.

Fos-te-dí-na was summoned before the council of the priests, who were to
decide on the punishment due her. Being a king's daughter, they could
not put her to death by throwing her to the wolves.

Even as the white-bearded high priest spoke, the beautiful girl heard
the fierce creatures howling, until her blood curdled, but she was brave
and would not recant.

In vain they threatened the maiden, and invoked the wrath of the gods
upon her. Bravely she declared that she would suffer, as her Lord did,
rather than deny him.

"So be it," cried the high priest. "Your own words are your sentence.
You shall wear a crown of thorns."

Fos-te-di'-na was dismissed. Then the old men sat long, in brooding over
what should be done. They feared the gods, but were afraid, also, to
provoke their ruler to wrath. They finally decided that the maiden's
life should be spared, but that for a whole day, from sunrise to sunset,
she should stand in the market-place, with a crown of sharp thorns
pressed down hard upon her head. The crowd should be allowed to revile
her for being a Christian and none be punished; but no vile language was
to be allowed, or stones or sticks were to be thrown at her.

Fos-te-di'-na refused to beg for mercy and bravely faced the ordeal. She
dressed herself in white garments, made from the does and fawns--free
creatures of the forest--and unbound her golden tresses. Then she walked
with a firm step to the centre of the market-place.

"Bring the thorn-crown for the blasphemer of Fos-i-té," cried the high
priest.

This given to him, the king's daughter kneeled, and the angry old man,
his eyes blazing like fire, pressed the sharp thorns slowly, down and
hard, upon the maiden's brow. Quickly the red blood trickled down over
her golden hair and face. Then in long, narrow lines of red, the drops
fell, until the crimson stains were seen over the back, front, and sides
of her white garments.

But without wincing, the brave girl stood up, and all day long, while
the crowd howled, in honor of their gods, and rough fellows jeered at
her, Fos-te-dí-na was silent and patient, like her Great Example.
Inwardly, she prayed the Father of all to pardon and forgive. There were
not a few who pitied the bleeding maiden wearing the cruel crown, that
drew the blood that stained her shining hair and once white clothing.

Years passed by and a great change came over land and people. The very
scars on Fos-te-dí-na's forehead softened the hearts of the people.
Thousands of them heard the words of the good missionaries. Churches
arose, on which was seen the shining cross. Idols were abolished and the
trees, once sacred to the old gods, were cut down. Meadows, rich with
cows, smiled where wolves had roamed. The changes, even in ten years,
were like those in a fairy tale. Best of all, a Christian prince from
the south, grandson of Charlemagne, fell in love with Fos-te-dí-na, now
queen of the country. He sought her hand, and won her heart, and the
date for the marriage was fixed. It was a great day for Free Frisia. The
wedding was to be in a new church, built on the very spot where
Fos-te-dí-na had stood, in pain and sorrow, when the crown of thorns was
pressed upon her brow.

On that morning, a bevy of pretty maidens, all dressed in white, came in
procession to the palace. One of them bore in her hands a golden crown,
with plates coming down over the forehead and temples. It was made in
such a way that, like a helmet, it completely covered and concealed the
scars of the sovereign lady. So Fos-te-dí-na was married, with the
golden helmet on her head. "But which," asked some, "was the more
glorious, her long tresses, floating down her back, or the shining crown
above it?" Few could be sure in making answer.

Instead of a choir singing hymns, the harper, who had once played in the
king's hall, now an older man, had been summoned, with his harp, to sing
in solo. In joyous spirits, he rendered into the sweet Frisian tongue,
two tributes in song to the crowned and glorified Lord of all.

One praised the young guest at the wedding at Cana, Friend of man, who
turned water into wine; the other, "The Great Captain of our Salvation,"
who, in full manly strength, suffered, thorn-crowned, for us all.

Then the solemn silence, that followed the song, was broken by the
bride's coming out of the church. Though by herself alone, without
adornment, Fos-te-dí-na was a vision of beauty. Her head-covering looked
so pretty, and the golden helmet was so becoming, that other maidens,
also, when betrothed, wished to wear it. It became the fashion-for
Christian brides, on their wedding days, to put on this glorified crown
of thorns.

All the jewelers approved of the new bridal head-dress, and in time this
golden ornament was worn in Friesland every day. Thus it has come to
pass that the Frisian helmet, which is the glorified crown of thorns,
is, in one form or another, worn even in our day. When Fos-te-dí-na's
first child, a boy, was born, the happy parents named him William, which
is only another word for Gild Helm. Out from this northern region, and
into all the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands, the custom spread.
In one way or another, one can discern, in the headdresses or costumes
of the Dutch and Flemish women, the relics of ancient history.

When Her Majesty, the Dutch Queen, visits the Frisians, in the old land
of the north, which her fathers held so dear, she, out of compliment to
Free Frisia, wears the ancient costume, surmounted by the golden helm.
Those who know the origin of the name Wilhelmina read in it the true
meaning, which is,

"The Sovereign Lady of the Golden Helm."




WHEN WHEAT WORKED WOE


Many a day has the story-teller wandered along the dykes, which overlook
the Zuyder Zee. Once there were fertile fields, and scores of towns,
where water now covers all. Then fleets of ships sailed on the bosom of
Lake Flevo, and in the river which ran into the sea. Bright and
beautiful cities dotted the shores, and church bells chimed merrily for
the bridal, or tolled in sympathy for the sorrowing. Many were the
festal days, because of the wealth, which the ships brought from lands
near and far.

But to-day the waters roll over the spot and "The Dead Cities of the
Zuyder Zee" are a proverb. Yet all are not dead, in one and the same
sense. Some lie far down under the waves, their very names forgotten,
because of the ocean's flood, which in one night, centuries ago, rushed
in to destroy. Others languished, because wealth came no longer in the
ships, and the seaports dried up. And one, because of a foolish woman,
instead of holding thousands of homes and people, is to-day only a
village nestling behind the dykes. It holds a few hundred people and
only a fragment of land remains of its once great area.

In the distant ages of ice and gravel, when the long and high glaciers
of Norway poked their cold noses into Friesland, Stavoren held the
shrine of Stavo, the storm-god. The people were very poor, but many
pilgrims came to worship at Stavo's altars. After the new religion came
into the land, wealth increased, because the ships traded with the warm
lands in the south. A great city sprang up, to which the counts of
Holland granted a charter, with privileges second to none. It was
written that Stavoren should have "the same freedom which a free city
enjoys from this side of the mountains (the Alps) to the sea."

Then there came an age of gold in Stavoren. People were so rich, that
the bolts and hinges and the keys and locks of their doors were made of
this precious yellow metal. In some of the houses, the parlor floor was
paved with ducats from Spain.

Now in this city lived a married couple, whose wealth came from the
ships. The man, a merchant, was a simple hearted and honest fellow, who
worked hard and was easily pleased.

But his wife was discontented, always peevish and never satisfied with
anything. Even her neighbors grew tired of her whining and complaints.
They declared that on her tombstone should be carved these words:

"_She wanted something else_"

Now on every voyage, made by the many ships he owned, the merchant
charged his captains to bring home something rare and fine, as a present
to his wife. Some pretty carving or picture, a roll of silk for a dress,
a lace collar, a bit of splendid tapestry, a shining jewel; or, it may
be, a singing bird, a strange animal for a pet, a barrel of fruit, or a
box of sweetmeats was sure to be brought. With such gifts, whether large
or small, the husband hoped to please his wife.

But in this good purpose, he could never succeed. So he began to think
that it was his own fault. Being only a man, he could not tell what a
woman wanted. So he resolved to try his own wits and tastes, to see if
he could meet his wife's desires.

One day, when one of his best captains was about to sail on a voyage to
the northeast, to Dantzig, which is almost as far as Russia, he inquired
of his bad-tempered vrouw what he should bring her.

"I want the best thing in the world," said she. "Now this time, do bring
it to me."

The merchant was now very happy. He told the captain to seek out and
bring back what he himself might think was the best thing on earth; but
to make sure, he must buy a cargo of wheat.

The skipper went on board, hoisted anchor and set sail. Using his man's
wits, he also decided that wheat, which makes bread, was the very thing
to be desired. In talking to his mates and sailors, they agreed with
him. Thus, all the men, in this matter, were of one mind, and the
captain dreamed only of jolly times when on shore. On other voyages,
when he had hunted around for curiosities to please the wife of the
boss, he had many and anxious thoughts; but now, he was care-free.

In Dantzig, all the ship's men had a good time, for the captain made
"goed koop" (a fine bargain). Then the vessel, richly loaded with grain,
turned its prow homeward. Arriving at Stavoren, the skipper reported to
the merchant, to tell him of much money made, of a sound cargo obtained,
of safe arrival, and, above all, plenty of what would please his wife;
for what on earth could be more valuable than wheat, which makes bread,
the staff of life?

At lunch time, when the merchant came home, his wife wanted to know what
made him look so joyful. Had he made "goed koop" that day?

Usually, at meal time, this quiet man hardly spoke two words an hour. To
tell the truth, he sometimes irritated his wife because of his silence,
but to-day he was voluble.

The man of wealth answered, "I have a joyful surprise for you. I cannot
tell you now. You must come with me and see."

After lunch, he took his wife on board the ship, giving a wink of his
eye to the skipper, who nodded to the sailors, and then the stout
fellows opened the hatches. There, loaded to the very deck, was the
precious grain. The merchant looked up, expecting to see and hear his
wife clap her hands with joy.

But the greedy woman turned her back on him, and flew into a rage.

"Throw it all overboard, into the water," she screamed. "You wretch, you
have deceived me."

The husband tried to calm her and explain that it was his thought to get
wheat, as the world's best gift, hoping thus to please her.

At that moment, some hungry beggars standing on the wharf, heard the
lady's loud voice, and falling on their knees cried to her:

"Please, madame, give us some of this wheat; we are starving."

"Yes, lady, and there are many poor in Stavoren, in spite of all its
gold," said the captain. "Why not divide this wheat among the needy, if
you are greatly disappointed? You will win praise for yourself. In the
name of God, forgive my boldness, and do as I ask. Then, on the next
voyage, I shall sail as far as China and will get you anything you ask!"

But the angry woman would listen to no one. She stayed on the ship,
urging on the sailors, with their shovels, until every kernel was cast
overboard.

"Never again will I try to please you," said her husband. "The hungry
will curse you, and you may yet suffer for food, because of this wilful
waste, which will make woful want. Even you will suffer."

She listened at first in silence, and then put her fingers in her ears
to hear no more. Proud of her riches, with her voice in a high key, she
shouted, "I ever want? What folly to say so! I am too rich." Then, to
show her contempt for such words, she slipped off a ring from her finger
and threw it into the waters of the harbor. Her husband almost died of
grief and shame, when he saw that it was her wedding ring, which she had
cast overboard.

"Hear you all! When that ring comes back to me, I shall be hungry and
not before," said she, loud enough to be heard on ship, wharf, and
street. Gathering up her skirts, she stepped upon the gangway, tripping
to the shore, and past the poor people, who looked at her in mingled
hate and fear. Then haughtily, she strode to her costly mansion.

Now to celebrate the expected new triumph and to show off her wealth and
luxury, with the numerous curiosities brought her from many lands, the
proud lady had already invited a score of guests. When they were all
seated, the first course of soup was served in silver dishes, which
every one admired. As the fish was about to be brought in, to be eaten
off golden plates, the butler begged the lady's permission to bring in
first, from the chief cook, something rare and wonderful, that he had
found in the mouth of the fish, which was waiting, already garnished, on
the big dish. Not dreaming what it might be, the hostess clapped her
hands in glee, saying to those at the table:

"Perhaps now, at last, I shall get what I have long waited for--the best
thing in the world."

"We shall all hope so," the guests responded in chorus.

But when the chief cook came into the banquet hall, and, bowing low,
held before his mistress a golden salver, with a finger ring on it, the
proud lady turned pale.

It was the very ring which, in her anger, she had tossed overboard the
day before. To add to her shame, she saw from the look of horror on
their faces, that the guests had recognized the fact that it was her
wedding token.

This was only the beginning of troubles. That night, her husband died of
grief and vexation. The next day, the warehouses, stored with valuable
merchandise of all sorts, were burned to the ground.

Before her husband had been decently buried, a great tempest blew down
from the north, and news came that four of his ships had been wrecked.
Their sailors hardly escaped with their lives, and both they and their
families in Stavoren were now clamoring for bread.

Even when she put on her weeds of grief, these did not protect the widow
from her late husband's creditors. She had to sell her house and all
that was in it, to satisfy them and pay her debts. She had even to pawn
her ring to the Lombards, the goldsmiths of the town, to buy money for
bread.

Now that she was poor, none of the former rich folks, who had come to
her grand dinners, would look at her. She had even to beg her bread on
the streets; for who wanted to help the woman who wasted wheat? She was
glad to go to the cow stalls, and eat what the cattle left. Before the
year ended, she was found dead in a stable, in rags and starvation. Thus
her miserable life ended. Without a funeral, but borne on a bier, by two
men, she was buried at the expense of the city, in the potter's field.

But even this was not the end of the fruits of her wickedness, for the
evil she did lived after her. It was found that, from some mysterious
cause, a sand bar was forming in the river. This prevented the ships
from coming up to the docks. With its trade stopped, the city grew
poorer every day. What was the matter?

By and by, at low tide, some fishermen saw a green field under the
surface of the harbor. It was not a garden of seaweed, for instead of
leaves whirling with the tide, there were stalks that stood up high. The
wheat had sprouted and taken root. In another month the tops of these
stalks were visible above the water. But in such soil as sand, the wheat
had reverted to its wild state. It was good for nothing, but only did
harm.

For, while producing no grain for food, it held together the sand, which
rolled down the river and had come all the way from the Alps to the
ocean. Of old, this went out to sea and kept the harbor scoured clean,
so that the ships came clear up to the wharves. Then, on many a morning,
a wealthy merchant, whose house was close to the docks, looked out of
his window to find the prows, of his richly laden ships, poked almost
into his bedroom, and he liked it. Venturesome boys even climbed from
their cots down the bowsprits, on to the deck of their fathers' vessels.
Of such sons, the fathers were proud, knowing that they would make brave
sailors and navigate spice ships from the Indies. It was because of her
brave mariners, that Stavoren had gained her glory and greatness, being
famed in all the land.

But now, within so short a time, the city's renown and wealth had faded
like a dream. By degrees, the population diminished, commerce became a
memory, and ships a curiosity. The people, that were left, had to eat
rye and barley bread, instead of wheat. Floods ruined the farmers and
washed away large parts of the town, so that dykes had to be built to
save what was left.

More terrible than all, the ocean waves rolled in and wiped out cities,
towns, and farms, sinking churches, convents, monasteries, warehouses,
wharves, and docks, in one common ruin, hidden far down below.

To this day the worthless wheat patch, that spoiled Stavoren, is called
"Vrouwen Zand," or the Lady's Sand. Instead of being the staff of life,
as Nature intended, the wheat, because of a power of evil greater than
that of a thousand wicked fairies, became the menace of death to ruin a
rich city.

No wonder the Dutch have a proverb, which might be thus translated:

  "Peevishness perverts wheat into weeds
  But a sweet temper turns a field into gold."




WHY THE STORK LOVES HOLLAND


Above all countries in Europe, this bird, wise in the head and long in
the legs, loves Holland. Flying all the way from Africa, the stork is at
home among dykes and windmills.

Storks are seen by the thousands in Holland and Friesland. Sometimes
they strut in the streets, not in the least frightened or disturbed.
They make their nests among the tiles and chimneys, on the red roofs of
the houses, and they rear their young even on the church towers.

If a man sets an old cart wheel flat on a tree-top, the storks accept
this, as an invitation to come and stay. At once they proceed, first of
all, to arrange their toilet, after their long flight. They do this,
even before they build their nest. You can see them, by the hour,
preening their feathers and combing their plumage, with their long
bills. Then, as solemnly as a boss mason, they set about gathering
sticks and hay for their house. They never seem to be in a hurry.

A stork lays on a bit of wood, and then goes at his toilet again,
looking around to see that other folks are busy. Year after year, a pair
of storks will use the same nest, rebuilding, or repairing it, each
spring time. The stork is a steady citizen and does not like to change.
Once treated well in one place, by the landlord, Mr. and Mrs. Stork keep
the same apartments and watch over the family cradle inside the house,
to see that it is always occupied by a baby. The return of the stork is,
in Holland, a household celebration.

Out in the fields, Mr. Stork is happy indeed, for Holland is the
paradise of frogs; so the gentleman of the red legs finds plenty to eat.
He takes his time for going to dinner, and rarely rushes for quick
lunch. After business hours in the morning, he lays his long beak among
his thick breast feathers, until it is quite hidden. Then, perched up in
the air on one long leg, like a stilt, he takes a nap, often for hours.

With the other leg crossed, he seems to be resting on the figure four
(4).

Towards evening he shakes out his wings, flaps them once or twice, and
takes a walk, but he is never in haste. Beginning his hunt, he soon has
enough frogs, mice, grubs, worms or insects to make a good meal. It is
because this bird feels so much at home, in town and country, making
part of the landscape, that we so associate together Holland and the
stork, as we usually do.

The Dutch proverb pictures the scene, which is so common. "In the same
field, the cow eats grass; the grayhound hunts the hare; and the stork
helps himself to the frogs." Indeed, if it were not for the stork,
Holland would, like old Egypt, in the time of Moses, be overrun with
frogs.

The Dutch call the stork by the sweet name "Ooijevaar," or the
treasure-bringer. Every spring time, the boys and girls, fathers and
mothers, shout welcome to the white bird from Egypt.

"What do you bring me?" is their question or thought.

If the bird deserts its old home on their roof, the family is in grief,
thinking it has lost its luck; but if Daddy Stork, with Mrs. Stork's
approval, chooses a new place for their nest, there is more rejoicing in
that house, than if money had been found. "Where there are nestlings on
the roof, there will be babies in the house," is what the Dutch say; for
both are welcome.

To tell why the stork loves Holland, we must go back to the Africa of a
million years ago. Then, we shall ask the Dutch fairies how they
succeeded in making the new land, in the west, so popular in the stork
world. For what reason did the wise birds emigrate to the cold country a
thousand miles away? They were so regular and punctual, that a great
prophet wrote:

"Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times."

Ages ago, there were camels and caravans in Africa, but there was no
Holland, for the land was still under the waves. In India, also, the
stork was an old bird, that waded in the pools and kept the frogs from
croaking in terms of the multiplication table. Sometimes the stork
population increased too fast and some went hungry for food; for, the
proverb tells us that a stork "died while waiting for the ocean to dry,
hoping to get a supply of dried fish."

When on the coast of the North Sea, the Land of a Million Islands was
made, the frog emigrants were there first. They poured in so fast, that
it seemed a question as to who should own the country-frogs or men. Some
were very big, as if ambitious to be bulls. They croaked so loud, that
they drowned out the fairy music, and made the night hideous with their
noises. The snakes spoiled the country for the little birds, while the
toads seemed to think that the salt ocean had been kept out, and the
land made, especially for them.

The Dutch fairies were disgusted at the way these reptiles behaved, for
they could not enjoy themselves, as in the old days. If they went to
dance in the meadow, on moonlight nights, they always found a big
bullfrog sitting in their ring, mocking them with its bellowing. So when
they heard about the storks in Africa, and what hearty appetites they
had, for the various wrigglers, crawlers, jumpers and splashers in the
waters, they resolved to invite them, in a body, to Holland.

The Dutch fairies knew nothing of the habits of the bird and scarcely
imagined how such a creature might look, but they heard many pleasant
things about the stork's good character. The wise bird had an excellent
reputation, not only for being kind to its young, but also for attending
to the wants of its parents, when they were old. It was even said that
in some countries the stork was the symbol for filial piety.

So the fairies of all the Netherlands despatched a delegation to Egypt
and a congress of storks was called to consider this invitation to go
west. Messengers were at once sent to all the red-legged birds, among
the bulrushes of the Nile, or that lived on the roofs of the temples, or
that perched on the pyramids, or dwelt on the top of old columns, or
that stood in rows along the eaves of the town houses. The town birds
gained their living by acting as street cleaners, but the river birds
made their meals chiefly on fish, frogs, and mice.

The invitation was discussed in stork meeting, and it was unanimously
accepted; except by some old grannies and grandpops that feared in the
strange land they would not be well fed. On a second motion, it was
agreed that only the strongest birds should attempt the flight. Those
afraid, or too weak to go, must stay behind and attend to the old folks.
Such a rattle of mandibles was never heard in Egypt before, as when this
stork meeting adjourned.

Now when storks travel, they go in flocks. Thousands of them left Egypt
together. High in the air, with their broad wings spread and their long
legs stretched out behind them, they covered Europe in a few hours. Then
they scattered all over the marshy lands of the new country. It was
agreed that each pair was to find its own home. When the cold autumn
should come, they were to assemble again for flight to Egypt.

It was a new sight for the fairies, the frogs and the men, to look over
the landscape and see these snow white strangers. They were so pretty to
look at, while promenading over the meadows, wading in the ponds and
ditches, or standing silently by the river banks. Soon, however, these
foreign birds were very unpopular in bullfrog land, and as for the
snakes, they thought that Holland would be ruined by these hungry
strangers. On the other hand, it was good news, in fairy-land, that all
fairies could dance safely on their meadow rings, for the bullfrogs were
now afraid to venture in the grass, lest they should be gobbled up, for
the frogs could not hide from the storks. The new birds could poke their
big bills so far into the mud-holes, that no frog, or snake, big or
little, was safe. The stork's red legs were so long, and the birds could
wade in such deep water, that hundreds of frogs were soon eaten up, and
there were many widows and orphans in the ponds and puddles.

When the fairies got more acquainted with their new guests, and saw how
they behaved, they nearly died of laughing. They were not surprised at
their diet, or eating habits, but they soon discovered that the storks
were not song birds. Instead of having voices, they seemed to talk to
each other by clattering their long jaws, or snapping their mandibles
together. Their snowy plumage--all being white but their wing
feathers--was admired, was envied, and their long bright colored legs
were a wonder. At first the fairies thought their guests wore red
stockings and they thought how heavy must be the laundry work on wash
days; for in Holland, everything must be clean.

Of all creatures on earth, as the fairies thought, the funniest was seen
when Mr. Stork was in love. To attract and please his lady love, he made
the most grotesque gestures. He would leap up from the ground and move
with a hop, skip, and jump. Then he spread out his wings, as if to hug
his beloved. Then he danced around her, as if he were filled with wine.
All the time he made the best music he knew how, by clattering his
mandibles together. He intended this performance for a sort of love
ditty, or serenade. The whole program was more amusing than anything
that an ape, goat, or donkey could get up. How the fairies did laugh!

Yet the fairies were very grateful to the storks for ridding their
meadows of so much vermin. How these delicate looking, snow white and
graceful creatures could put so many snails, snakes, tadpoles, and toads
into their stomachs and turn them into snow white feathers, wonderful
wings and long legs, as red as a rose, was a mystery to them. It seemed
more wonderful than anything which they could do, but as fairies have no
stomachs and do not eat, this whole matter of digestion was a mystery to
them.

Besides the terror and gloom in the frog world, every reptile winced and
squirmed, when he heard of this new enemy. All crawlers, creepers, and
jumpers had so long imagined that the land was theirs and had been made
solely for their benefit! Nor did they know how to conquer the storks.
The frog daddies could do nothing, and the frog mothers were every
moment afraid to let either the tadpoles or froggies go out of their
sight. They worried lest they should see their babies caught up in a
pair of long, bony jaws, as sharp as scissors, there to wriggle and
crow, until their darlings disappeared within the monster.

One anecdote of the many that were long told in the old Dutch frog ponds
was this: showing into what clangers curiosity may lead youngsters. We
put it in quotation marks to show that it was told as a true story, and
not printed in a book, or made up.

"A tadpole often teased its froggy mother to let it go and see a red
pole, of which it had heard from a traveller. Mrs. Frog would not at
first let her son go, but promised that as soon as the tadpole lost his
tail, and his flippers had turned into fore legs, and his hind quarters
had properly sprouted, so that he could hop out of danger, he might then
venture on his travels. She warned him, however, not to go too near to
that curious red pole, of which he had heard. Nobody as yet found out
just what this red thing, standing in the water, was; but danger was
suspected by old heads, and all little froggies were warned to be
careful and keep away. In reality, the red stick was the leg of a stork,
sound asleep, for it was taking its usual afternoon nap. The frogs on
the bank, and those in the pool that held their noses above water, to
get their breath, had never before seen anything like this red stilt, or
its cross pole; for no bird of this sort had ever before flown into
their neighborhood. They never suspected that it was a stork, with its
legs shaped like the figure four (4). Indeed, they knew nothing of its
long bill, that could open and shut like a trap, catching a frog or
snake, and swallowing it in a moment.

"Unfortunately for this uneducated young frog, that had never travelled
from home, it now went too near the red pole, and, to show how brave it
was, rubbed its nose against the queer thing. Suddenly the horrible
creature, that had only been asleep, woke up and snapped its jaws. In a
moment, a wriggling froggy disappeared from sight into the stomach of a
monster, that had two red legs, instead of one. At the sight of such
gluttony, there was an awful splash, for a whole row of frogs had jumped
from the bank into the pool. After this, it was evident that Holland was
not to belong entirely to the frogs."

As for the human beings, they were so happy over the war with the vermin
and the victory of the storks, that they made this bird their pride and
joy. They heaped honors upon the stork as the savior of their country.
They placed boxes on the roofs of their houses for these birds to nest
in. All the old cart wheels in the land were hunted up. They sawed off
the willow trees a few feet above the ground, and set the wheels in
flat, which the storks used as their parlors and dressing rooms.

As for the knights, they placed the figure of the stork on their
shields, banners, and coats of arms, while citizens made this bird
prominent on their city seals. The capital of the country, The Hague,
was dedicated to this bird, and, for all time, a pond was dug within the
city limits, where storks were fed and cared for at the public expense.
Even to-day, many a good story, illustrating the tender affection of The
Hague storks for their young, is told and enjoyed as an example to Dutch
mothers to be the best in the world.

Out in the country at large, in any of the eleven provinces, whenever
they drained a swamp, or pumped out a pond to make a village, it was not
looked upon as a part of Holland, unless there were storks. Even in the
new wild places they planted stakes on the pumped out dry land, called
polders. On the top of these sticks were laid as invitations for the
stork families to come and live with the people. Along the roads they
stuck posts for storks' nests. It became a custom with farmers, when the
storks came back, to kill the fatted calf, or lamb, and leave the refuse
meat out in the fields for a feast to these bird visitors. A score of
Dutch proverbs exist, all of them complimentary to the bird that loves
babies and cradles.

Last of all, the Dutch children, even in the reign of Queen Wilhelmina,
made letter carriers of their friends the treasure-bringers. Tying tiny
slips of paper to their red legs, they sent messages, in autumn, to the
boys and girls in the old land of the sphinx and pyramids, of Moses, and
the children of Israel. In the spring time, the children's return
messages were received in the country which bids eternal welcome to the
bird named the Bringer of Blessings.

This is why the storks love Holland.


HET EINDE





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by William Elliot Griffis

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