it is
poured out into the canals. If it weren't for the good old windmills
working away, who knows but the water would get the best of us some day
and cover up all our land!"

"Wouldn't the dykes keep out the sea?" asked Kit.

"Suppose the dykes should break!" said Father Vedder. "Even one little
break can let in lots of water. The dykes have to be watched day and
night all the time, and the least bit of a hole stopped up right away,
so it can't grow any bigger and let in the sea."

"Oh dear," Kat said, "what a leaky country!"

She ran near the mill and let the wind from the fans blow her hair and
the white wings on her cap.

As the great fans swung near the ground, Kit jumped up and caught hold
of one. It lifted him right off the ground as it swung around, and in a
minute he was dangling high in the air.

"Jump, jump, quick," shouted Father Vedder.

Kit let go and dropped to the ground just in time. In another minute he
would have been carried clear over.

As it was, he sat down very hard on the ground, and had to have the
dirt brushed off of his Sunday clothes.

"I am surprised at you," Father Vedder said, while he brushed him. "You
are too small to swing on windmills, and besides it is the Sabbath day.
Don't you ever do it again until you are big enough to be called
Christopher!"

Sitting down so hard in the dirt had hurt Kit a little bit, and scared
him a good deal, so he said, "No, father."

Then they walked all around the mill. They peeped inside a door which
was open, and saw the pumps working away.

"Yes," said Father Vedder, "it is nip and tuck between wind and water
in Holland. Let us sit down here on the canal bank, in the sunshine,
and I will tell you what hard work has to be done to keep this good
land of ours. And it is a good land! We should be thankful for it! Just
see the rich green meadows over there, with the cows grazing in them!"
Father Vedder pointed to the beautiful fields across the canal. "The
grass is so rich and fresh, that the cows here give more milk than any
other cows in the whole world!"

"That's what Mother says," said Kat.

"The Holland butter and cheese are famous everywhere," went on Father
Vedder; "and we have all the good milk we want to drink, besides. The
Dutch gardens, too, are the finest in the world."

"And ours is one of the best of Dutch gardens, isn't it, Father?" said
Kit.

"It's a very good garden," said Father Vedder, proudly. "No one can
raise bette