ehind our bed curtains. From
the wide windows we watched the loading and unloading of the ships,
while the song of the sailors came in on the evening breeze, and with
it, we half-fancied, the odor of sandal-wood and spices from the East
Indiamen anchored across the way. Our hotel was upon the Boompjes, the
quay that borders the river; but through nearly all the streets flow the
canals, deep enough to float large ships. You can appreciate the
advantage of sailing a ship to the very door of one's warehouse, as you
might drive a cart up to unload; and you can imagine, perhaps, the
peculiar appearance of the city, with its mingled masts and chimneys,
its irregular, but by no means picturesque, houses, and the inhabitants
equally at home upon water or land. Among the women of the lower classes
may still be seen some national peculiarities in dress, shown
principally in the startling ornaments--twisted gold wire horns, and
balls, and rings of mammoth size thrust out from their caps just above
their ears. Whether their bare red arms would come under the head of
dress, might be questioned; but a national peculiarity they certainly
were, and unlike anything ever seen before in the way of human flesh.
Was that painfully deep magenta hue nature or art? We could never tell.
There were some very pretty faces among the girls carrying milk about
the city in bright brass cans, or in pails suspended from a yoke over
their shoulders--faces of one type, round, red-cheeked, blue-eyed, with
the mouth called rosebud by poets, and bewitching little brown noses of
an upward tendency. As they all wore clean purple calico gowns, and had
each a small white cap on their heads, the resemblance among them was
rather striking. These caps left the whole top of the head exposed to
the sun. Only an iron-clad, fire-proof brain could endure it, I am sure.

Not a beggar did we see anywhere in Holland. The people seemed
thoroughly industrious and thrifty. A gentleman connected with the civil
service there--an agreeable, cultivated man, who had been half over the
world, written a book or two, and parted his hair in the middle--gave
the people credit for all these, with many more good qualities, and
added, "They are the simplest minded people in the world. Why, would you
believe it, one of the canal bridges was run into and broken down, the
other day,--a fortnight ago,--and it has been town talk ever since. No
two men meet upon the street without, 'Have you he