o his ankles, and a jacket that buttoned with
big silver buttons. His trousers had pockets in them.

Kit and Kat both wore stockings, which Vrouw Vedder had knit, and their
best shoes of stout leather.

When they were all dressed, Vrouw Vedder stood them up side by side and
had them turn around slowly to be sure they were all right.

"Now see that you behave well in meeting," she said. "Sit up straight.
Look at the Dominie, and do not whisper."

"Yes, Mother," said Kit and Kat.

Then she tied a big apron over each of them and gave them each a bowl
of bread and milk. While they were eating it, Father Vedder went out
and looked at the pigs, and chickens, and ducks, and geese, and smoked
his pipe.

When he came in, Kit and Kat were quite ready. Vrouw Vedder had tied on
Kat's little white-winged cap, and put Kit's hat on. She kissed them
good-bye, and they were off, one on each side of Father Vedder, holding
tight to his hands.

Mother Vedder looked after them proudly, from the doorway. She did not
go to church that day.

They walked slowly along the roadway in the bright sunshine. Many of
their neighbors and friends, all dressed in their best, were walking to
church, too.

Father Vedder and Kit and Kat went a little out of their way, in order
to pass a large windmill that was swinging its arms around and creaking
out a kind of sleepy windmill song. This is the song it seemed to sing:

Around, and around, and around, I go,
Sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
I pump the water and grind the grain,
The marshy fields of the Lowlands, drain.
I harness the wind to turn my mill,
Around, and around, and around with a will!

Perhaps it was listening to the windmill song that made Kat say,

"Why do we have windmills, father?"

Kit and Kat said "Why?" every few steps on that walk. You see, they
didn't often have their father all to themselves, to ask questions of.

"Why, what a little Dutch girl," said Father Vedder, "not to know what
windmills are for! They pump the water out of the fields, to be sure!
Don't you know how wet the fields are sometimes? If we didn't keep
pumping the water out, they would be so wet we could not make gardens
at all."

"Does the wind pump the water?" asked Kat.

"Of course it does, goosie girl! and grinds the grain too. The wind
blows against the great arms and turns them round and round. That works
the pumps; and the pumps suck the water out of the fields, and