are happy for the
rest of the day.

St. Nicholas, you see, is much the same as Santa Claus, for whom
stockings are hung up in England.

About a fortnight after this comes December 21, dedicated to St.
Thomas, when Belgian children can play tricks on their parents in a
curious way. The game is to get your father or mother to leave the
house, and then lock the door and refuse to let them in till they have
promised to give you something. A child will say: "Mother, somebody
wants to speak to you in the garden." The mother goes out. Of course
there is nobody there; and when she comes back the child calls out:
"St. Thomas's Day! What will you give me to let you in?" So the mother
promises something, which is usually chocolate, with a piece of
_cramique_--a kind of bread with currants in it--and not till then is
the door opened. This, of course, is great fun for the children, who
always hope that their parents have forgotten what day it is, and so
will be easily tricked.

A week later is the Festival of SS. Innocents, or _Allerkinderendag_
(the day of all the children), as it is called in Flemish, which is
observed in memory of the slaughter of the children by Herod. On this
day Belgian children are supposed to change places with their parents,
wear their best clothes, and rule the household.

They can put on their parents' clothes, and go about the house making
as much noise as they like, teasing the servants and giving them
orders. The youngest girl has the privilege of telling the cook what
she is to prepare for dinner; and all the children may go out and walk
about dressed up as old people. This is not often seen now, though
poor children sometimes put on their parents' things, and beg from
door to door, calling themselves "the little fathers and mothers."

These winter festivals, when the children have so much liberty and get
so many presents, take the place in Belgium of the Christmas-trees and
parties you have in England.

CHAPTER XII

THE ARCHERS: GAMES PLAYED IN BELGIUM

Let us imagine we are taking a walk along some country road in
Flanders on a summer afternoon. There is a cinder-track for cyclists
on one side, and the lines of a district railway on the other. The
road between them is causeway, very hard, dusty, and hot to walk on.
But we can step on to the railway, and walk between the rails, or take
to the cycle-track. If a train comes up behind, the engine-driver will
whistle to give us warning