ttle tiny
holes. These once formed part of piles and sluice-gates, and they are
very memorable to the Dutch people, for they call to mind a terrible
danger which befell them once, and might do so again at any time. A
ship returning from the tropics brought with it, it is supposed,
some tiny little shell-fish, the _Teredo navalis_. These increased
and multiplied with marvellous rapidity, and swarmed the waters. One
day every inhabitant of the land was seized with terror, for it was
found that these little creatures had nearly eaten away the
sluice-gates of the dykes, and had it not been that night and day an
immense body of men worked with the energy of those who were trying
to save the lives of themselves and their wives and their little
ones, the sea, their great enemy, would have been let loose upon
them. "A worm," says the historian, "had made Holland tremble."

Once the dykes were cut and the country flooded purposely. It was
when Leyden was holding out against the Spaniards, led by Valdez. For
four months the people had been besieged, and at last provisions had
failed. But when Valdez summoned them to surrender, Vanderdoes, the
burgomaster, replied "that when provisions utterly failed, then they
would devour their left hands, reserving their right hands to defend
their liberty." One day, when the people were reduced almost to their
last extremity, a carrier pigeon was seen flying into the beleaguered
city, and it brought the joyful news that the Prince of Orange was
coming to their deliverance, having cut the dykes and flooded the
country in order that his flotilla of 200 boats laden with provision
might reach them. But the water did not rise high enough, the
flotilla got stranded, and the poor starving people could see the
supplies in the distance, but could not get at them, and it seemed so
hard to die of starvation with plenty of food in sight. At last
relief came in an unexpected way: the wind arose and a violent storm
drove in the flood through the broken dykes, and onward it poured
with increasing volume and power, sweeping away the cruel Spaniards,
and bearing the flotilla to the very gates of the city. It is no
wonder that in commemoration of this almost miraculous deliverance on
the 3rd October, 1574, the citizens hold an annual festival.

There is a story told all over Holland--and it has been retold in
almost all languages--of a boy, the son of a dykeman, who once saved
the country, but whose name, str