bridges; the locks; the various costumes; and, strangest of all, shops
and dwellings crouching close to the fronts of the churches, sending
their long, disproportionate chimneys far upward along the sacred walls.

If he looked up, he saw tall, leaning houses, seeming to pierce the sky
with their shining roofs. If he looked down, there was the queer street,
without crossing or curb--nothing to separate the cobblestone pavement
from the footpath of brick--and if he rested his eyes halfway, he saw
complicated little mirrors (spionnen) fastened upon the outside of
nearly every window, so arranged that the inmates of the houses could
observe all that was going on in the street or inspect whoever might be
knocking at the door, without being seen themselves.

Sometimes a dogcart, heaped with wooden ware, passed him; then a donkey
bearing a pair of panniers filled with crockery or glass; then a sled
driven over the bare cobblestones (the runners kept greased with a
dripping oil rag so that it might run easily); and then, perhaps, a
showy but clumsy family carriage, drawn by the brownest of Flanders
horses, swinging the whitest of snowy tails.

The city was in full festival array. Every shop was gorgeous in honor of
Saint Nicholas. Captain Peter was forced, more than once, to order his
men away from the tempting show windows, where everything that is, has
been, or can be, thought of in the way of toys was displayed. Holland is
famous for this branch of manufacture. Every possible thing is copied in
miniature for the benefit of the little ones; the intricate mechanical
toys that a Dutch youngster tumbles about in stolid unconcern would
create a stir in our patent office. Ben laughed outright at some of the
mimic fishing boats. They were so heavy and stumpy, so like the queer
craft that he had seen about Rotterdam. The tiny trekschuiten, however,
only a foot or two long, and fitted out, complete, made his heart ache.
He so longed to buy one at once for his little brother in England.
He had no money to spare, for with true Dutch prudence, the party had
agreed to take with them merely the sum required for each boy's expenses
and to consign the purse to Peter for safekeeping. Consequently Master
Ben concluded to devote all his energies to sight-seeing and to think as
seldom as possible of little Robby.

He made a hasty call at the Marine school and envied the sailor students
their full-rigged brig and their sleeping berths swung ov