ccupied an hour or two; the young men
then set out to fish or perhaps to shoot birds, and the maidens
sat busily down to their work.... After the sultry hours had been
thus employed, the boys brought their tribute from the river....
After dinner they all set out together to gather wild
strawberries, or whatever fruit was in season; for it was
accounted a reproach to come home empty-handed...."

"The young parties, or some times the elder ones, who set out on
this woodland excursion had no fixed destination, ... when they
were tired of going on the ordinary road, they turned into the
bush, and wherever they saw an inhabited spot ... they went into
it with all the ease of intimacy.... The good people, not in the
least surprised at this intrusion, very calmly opened the
reserved apartments.... After sharing with each other their food,
dancing or any other amusement that struck their fancy succeeded.
They sauntered about the bounds in the evening, and returned by
moonlight...."

"In winter the river ... formed the principal road through the
country, and was the scene of all these amusements of skating and
sledge races common to the north of Europe. They used in great
parties to visit their friends at a distance, and having an
excellent and hearty breed of horses, flew from place to place
over the snow or ice in these sledges with incredible rapidity,
stopping a little while at every house they came to, where they
were always well received, whether acquainted with the owners or
not. The night never impeded these travellers, for the atmosphere
was so pure and serene, and the snow so reflected the moon and
starlight, that the nights exceeded the days in beauty."[215]

All this meant so much more for the growth of normal children and the
creation of a cheerful people than did the Puritan attendance at
executions and funerals. Those quaint old-time Dutch probably did not
love children any more dearly than did the New Englanders; but they
undoubtedly made more display of it than did the Puritans. "Orphans were
never neglected.... You never entered a house without meeting children.
Maidens, bachelors, and childless married people all adopted orphans,
and all treated them as if they were their own."[216]

Since we have mentioned such subjects as funerals and orphans, perhaps
it would not be out