of little shoes outside the doors?

Every Saturday the children clean their shoes. But they do not shine
them as we do. They wash them with soap and water, and dry them at the
fire. If the sun shines, they hang them on a bush to dry. When they
are dry, they are almost as white as snow.

Winter is a very merry season in Holland. Then all the canals are
frozen, and there is great fun skating. Everybody has skates, even the
little children. And how merry and happy the boys and girls are,
skimming along on the ice!

[Illustration: Skating in Holland.]

The men and women go to market on skates. Those who do not wish to go
on skates go in sleds or chairs with runners on them. The chairs are
pushed by skaters.

But the best fun of all is on the ice boats. The ice boats have sails,
and can go very fast on the smooth ice.

The first day of skating every year is a holiday. There is no school
that day, and everybody goes out skating, or riding in sleds or ice
boats. How glad the boys and girls are when Skating Day comes! What
fun they have! And of course they have sleigh riding, for every family
has a sleigh. The sleighs are made like shells, or boats, or swans.
When the people go sleigh riding at night, they carry lighted torches.

The greatest holiday the Dutch have is Santa Claus's day. It is on
December 6. All the stores are made pretty on that day. Santa Claus
is in the windows. He is dressed in red with white fur, and rides a
large horse. The streets are crowded with boys and girls to see all
this. They have Santa Claus cakes, and gingerbread made like chairs
and tables and fishes and horses and many other things.

At night Santa Claus rides on the roofs of the houses, and drops nice
things down the chimneys for good children. And the boys and girls
leave their shoes near the fireplace for the things to drop in.

But they do not find many toys in their shoes, for Santa likes better
to give them cakes and money. The Dutch boys and girls have not many
toys, but they play for hours with their shoes. They use them for
boats, baskets, dishes, or beds for their dolls.

They have fine schools in Holland, and the boys and girls go to school
and learn the same things that we learn in our schools.

Some Dutch girls go to market to sell milk or cheese. They have
donkeys to carry the milk or cheese. Sometimes, the girls ride on the
donkeys' backs.

Some Dutch girls also go to market to sell frui