Kat talked about the
ice, and what fun they would have with their sleds on the canals when
winter came.

"I tell you what it is, Kat," said Kit; "I think we're big enough to
have skates. Hans Hite isn't much bigger than I am, and he had skates
last winter. I mean to ask Father this very day."

"Yah," said Kat--that is the way Dutch Twins always say yes--"Yah, and
let us be very good and help mother all we can. I think maybe they will
give skates to good Twins quite soon, even if we aren't very big
yet--not big enough to be called Christopher and Katrina."

Vrouw Vedder was heating water and getting out her scrubbing brushes,
so Kit and Kat knew that she was going to clean something.

"What are you going to scrub to-day, Mother?" asked Kit.

"I'm going to scrub the stable," said Vrouw Vedder. "It is getting too
cold for the cows to stay all night in the pastures. Father means to
bring Mevrouw Holstein in to-night, and I want her stable to be nice
and clean for her."

"We'll help you," said Kit and Kat very politely.

"Good children!" their mother said. "You may carry the brushes." So
they opened a door beside the fireplace, and walked right into the
stable.

The stable was really a part of the house. There were two stalls in the
stable. Vrouw Vedder took her pails of water and her brushes and began
to scrub. She scrubbed the walls, and the sides of the stalls, and the
floor. The Twins scrubbed, too, until they were tired; and the stable
was so clean, you would have liked to live there yourself.

"Let's play out here," said Kat. "Let's play house."

"All right," said Kit. "I'll be the father, and you be the mother."

"But who will be Twins?" said Kat.

"Let's get the ducklings," said Kit.

"They can be Twins, of course," said Kat. "They are, anyway."

So Kit ran out and brought in the ducklings. They were so tame they
always ran to Kit and Kat, when they saw them coming. They were almost
ducks now, they had grown so big.

"Let's give the Twins their dinner," said Kat. So she got some grain,
and they both sat down on a little box and held the ducks in their laps
and fed them from their hands. The ducks ate greedily.

"You have very bad manners," said Kat. "You will get your clothes all
dirty." She took two rags and tied them around the ducks' necks for
bibs. The ducks did not like bibs. They quacked.

"Now don't say anything like that," said Kat. "You must do just as you
are told and not spill your foo