r onions and cabbage and carrots than I can. And the Dutch
bulbs! Our tulips and hyacinths make the whole world bloom!"

"Holland is really the greatest country there is; isn't it?" said Kit.

"Well, not in point of size, perhaps," Father Vedder admitted; "but in
pluck, my boy, it is! Did you know that sometimes people call Holland
the Land of Pluck?"

"I don't see why," said Kat. "I'm Dutch, but I'm afraid of lots of
things! I'm afraid of spiders and of cross geese, and of falling into
the water!"

"You're a girl, if you are Dutch," said Kit. "Boys are always pluckier
than girls; aren't they, Father?"

"Really plucky people never boast," said Father Vedder.

Kit looked the other way and dug the toe of his shoe into the dirt. Kat
snuggled up to her Father and sniffed at Kit.

"So there, Kit!" was all she said.

"There's pluck enough to go round," said Father Vedder mildly, "and we
all need it boys and girls, and men and women too. It was pluck that
made Holland, and it's pluck that keeps her from slipping back into the
sea."

"How did pluck make Holland?" asked Kit.

"There wasn't any Holland in the first place," Father Vedder answered.
"There were only some marshes and some lands under water. But people
built a wall of earth around these flats; and then they pumped out the
water from the space inside the wall, and made canals through the land,
and drained it. And after all that work, we have our rich fields."

"How does pluck keep them?" asked Kat.

"The dykes have to be watched and mended all the time," said Father
Vedder. "And the windmills have to work and work, to keep the fields
drained. No one can be lazy in Holland. Each one has to work well for
what he gets. If Holland should grow lazy, she would soon be back again
in the Zuyder Zee! So, my children, you see you must learn well and
work hard. And that is all my sermon to-day."

"It is a better sermon than the Dominie will preach, I know," said Kat.

"Tut, tut! You must never say such things," said Father Vedder. He got
up and held out his hands to the Twins.

"Come! we must walk along, or we shall be late for church," he said.
"Here comes the Dominie now."

There indeed was the Dominie! Kit and Kat knew him well. No one else
dressed as he did. He wore a high silk hat, and long, black coat and
trousers, such as city people wear.

As he came along the road, all the people bowed respectfully; the
little boys took off their caps, and the little