Good-bye, schipper!" shouted the boys, seizing their skates and leaping
from the deck one by one. "Many thanks to you!"

"Good-bye! good-b--Hold! Here! Stop! I want my coat."

Ben was carefully assisting his cousin over the side of the boat.

"What is the man shouting about? Oh, I know, you have his wrapper round
your shoulders."

"Dat ish true," answered Jacob, half jumping, half tumbling down upon
the framework, "dat ish vot make him sho heavy."

"Made YOU so heavy, you mean, Poot?"

"Ya, made you sho heavy--dat ish true," said Jacob innocently as he
worked himself free of the big wrapper. "Dere, now you hands it mit him,
straits way, and tells him I vos much tanks for dat."

"Ho! for an inn!" cried Peter as they stepped into the city. "Be brisk,
my fine fellows!"

Mynheer Kleef and His Bill of Fare

The boys soon found an unpretending establishment near the Breedstraat
(Broad Street) with a funnily painted lion over the door. This was the
Rood Leeuw or Red Lion, kept by one Huygens Kleef, a stout Dutchman with
short legs and a very long pipe.

By this time they were in a ravenous condition. The tiffin, taken at
Haarlem, had served only to give them an appetite, and this had been
heightened by their exercise and swift sail upon the canal.

"Come, mine host! Give us what you can!" cried Peter rather pompously.

"I can give you anything--everything," answered Mynheer Kleef,
performing a difficult bow.

"Well, give us sausage and pudding."

"Ah, mynheer, the sausage is all gone. There is no pudding."

"Salmagundi, then, and plenty of it."

"That is out also, young master."

"Eggs, and be quick."

"Winter eggs are VERY poor eating," answered the innkeeper, puckering
his lips and lifting his eyebrows.

"No eggs? Well--caviar."

The Dutchman raised his fat hands:

"Caviar! That is made of gold! Who has caviar to sell?"

Peter had sometimes eaten it at home; he knew that it was made of the
roes of the sturgeon and certain other large fish, but he had no idea of
its cost.

"Well, mine host, what have you?"

"What have I? Everything. I have rye bread, sauerkraut, potato salad,
and the fattest herring in Leyden."

"What do you say, boys?" asked the captain. "Will that do?"

"Yes," cried the famished youths, "if he'll only be quick."

Mynheer moved off like one walking in his sleep, but soon opened his
eyes wide at the miraculous manner in which his herring were made to
disappear. Nex