ways.--The pretty milk-carriers.--The
tea-gardens.--Preparations for the Sabbath.--An
English chapel.--"The Lord's barn."--From
Rotterdam to the Hague.--The queen's "House in the
Wood."--Pictures in private drawing-rooms.--The
bazaar.--An evening in a Dutch
tea-garden.--Amsterdam to a stranger.--The
"sights."--The Jews' quarter.--The family whose
home was upon the canals.--Out of the city.--The
pilgrims.

AT nine o'clock, the next morning, we left Antwerp for Rotterdam. Two
hours by rail brought us to a place with an unpronounceable name, ending
in "djk," where we were to take a steamer. How delightful, after the
dust and heat of the railway carriage, were the two hours that followed!
The day was charming, the passengers numerous, but scattered about the
clean, white deck, picturesquely, upon the little camp stools, drinking
brandy and water as a preventive to what seemed impossible, eating
fruit, reading, chatting, or pleased, like ourselves, with the panorama
before their eyes. In and out of the intricate passages to the sea we
steamed, the land and water all around us level as a floor; the only
sign of life the slow-revolving arms of the windmills, near and far,
with here and there a solitary mansion shut in by tall trees; or, as we
wound in and out among the islands fringed with green rushes, and waving
grasses that fairly came out into the water to meet us, and sailed up
the Meuse, the odd Dutch villages that had turned their backs to the
river, though their feet were still in the water over which hung rude
wooden balconies, or still ruder bay-windows, filled with pots of
flowers. This monotonous stretch of sea and land might grow tiresome
after a while, but there was something peculiarly restful in that sail
up the wide mouth of the river, beckoned on by the solemn arms of the
windmills.

When we reached Rotterdam, how strange it was to find, instead of a row
of houses across from our hotel, a wharf and a row of ships! Such a
great, comfortable room as awaited us! with deep, wide arm-chairs, a
heavy round table suggesting endless teas, and toast unlimited, and
everything else after the same hearty, substantial manner. There was no
paper upon the walls, but, in its place, paintings upon canvas. Delilah
sat over the mantel, with the head of the sleeping Samson in her lap,
and Rebekah and the thirsty camels were b