t our command; and yet the
father looks very weak--he certainly does. I MUST get work. If Mynheer
van Holp were back from Rotterdam, I could get plenty to do. But Master
Peter told me to let him know if he could do aught to serve us. I shall
go to him at once. Oh, if it were but summer!

All this time Hans was hastening toward the canal. Soon his skates were
on, and he was skimming rapidly toward the residence of Mynheer van
Holp.

"The father must have meat and wine at once," he muttered, "but how can
I earn the money in time to buy them today? There is no other way but to
go, as I PROMISED, to Master Peter. What would a gift of meat and wine
be to him? When the father is once fed, I can rush down to Amsterdam and
earn the morrow's supply."

Then came other thoughts--thoughts that made his heart thump heavily and
his cheeks burn with a new shame. It is BEGGING, to say the least. Not
one of the Brinkers has ever been a beggar. Shall I be the first? Shall
my poor father just coming back into life learn that his family has
asked for charity--he, always so wise and thrifty? "No," cried Hans
aloud, "better a thousand times to part with the watch."

I can at least borrow money on it, in Amsterdam! he thought, turning
around. That will be no disgrace. I can find work at once and get it
back again. Nay, perhaps I can even SPEAK TO THE FATHER ABOUT IT!

This last thought made the lad dance for joy. Why not, indeed, speak
to the father? He was a rational being now. He may wake, thought Hans,
quite bright and rested--may tell us the watch is of no consequence, to
sell it of course! And Hans almost flew over the ice.

A few moments more and the skates were again swinging from his arm. He
was running toward the cottage.

His mother met him at the door.

"Oh, Hans!" she cried, her face radiant with joy, "the young lady has
been here with her maid. She brought everything--meat, jelly, wine, and
bread--a whole basketful! Then the meester sent a man from town with
more wine and a fine bed and blankets for the father. Oh! he will get
well now. God bless them!"

"God bless them!" echoed Hans, and for the first time that day his eyes
filled with tears.

The Father's Return

That evening Raff Brinker felt so much better that he insisted upon
sitting up for a while on the rough high-backed chair by the fire. For a
few moments there was quite a commotion in the little cottage. Hans was
all-important on the occasion, f