ithout words. If he is acceptable in the girl's
eyes she at once puts some more peat on the fire. He then knows that
all is well with him: the cake is cut, and Romance is king. But if the
fire is not replenished he must gather up his cake and return to his
home. A very favourite Dutch picture represents "The Cutting of the
Cake". I have heard that the Dutch wife takes her husband's left arm;
the Dutch fiancee her lover's right.

Monnickendam, on the shores of the Zuyder Zee, is now a desolate sleepy
spot; once it was one of the great towns of Holland, at the time when
The Hague was a village. I say Zuyder Zee, but strictly speaking it
is on the Gouwzee, the name of the straits between Monnickendam and
Marken. It is here, in winter, when the ice holds, that a fair is held,
to which come all Amsterdam on skates, to eat poffertjes and wafelen,

Monnickendam affords our first sight of what are called very
misleadingly the "Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee," meaning merely towns
which once were larger and busier. Monnickendam was sufficiently
important to fit out a fleet against the Spanish in 1573, under
Cornelius Dirckszoon (whose tomb we saw at Delft) and capture Bossu
in the battle of Hoorn.

To-day Monnickendam suggests nothing so little as a naval
engagement. People live there, it is true, but one sees very few of
them. Only in an old English market town on a hot day--such a town as
Petworth, for example, in Sussex--do you get such desertion and quiet
and imperturbability. Monnickendam has, however, a treasure that few
English towns can boast--its charming little stadhuis tower, one of
the prettiest in Holland, with a happy peal of bells, and mechanical
horses in action once an hour; while the tram line running right down
the main street periodically awakens the populace.

When last I visited Monnickendam it was by steam-tram; and at a little
half-way station, where it is necessary to wait for another tram,
our engine driver, stoker and guard were elaborately photographed
by an artist who seemed to be there for no other purpose. He placed
his tripod on the platform; grouped the officials; gave them--and
incidentally a score of heads protruding from the carriages--a
sufficient exposure, and was preparing another plate when an
incoming tram dashed up so unexpectedly as to cause him to jump,
and, in jumping, to overturn his tripod and precipitate the camera
under the carriage wheels. Now here was a tragedy worthy of seri