ings exported from the
manufactories here, our skipper and his wife went sailing out of the
canals and along the edge of the sea or up the Rhine, the stockings all
mended, and the good woman not above giving a strong pull at the ropes.

To drive about the streets of Amsterdam is slow torture, so rough are
the pavings, so springless the carriages; but to roll along the smooth,
wide roads in the suburbs is delightful. Upon one side is a canal,
stagnant, lifeless, with a green weed growing upon its still surface,
which often for a long distance entirely hides the water; beyond the
canal are pleasant little gardens and a row of low, comfortable-looking
wooden houses with green doors. Before each door is a narrow bridge--a
neatly-painted plank with hand-rails--thrown over the canal, to be swung
around or raised like a drawbridge at night, making every man's house a
moated castle. We passed a fine zoological garden here upon the
outskirts of the city, a garden of animals that ranks next to the famous
one in London; but had no time to visit it, nor did we see any of the
charitable institutions in which Amsterdam excels.

"You know the pilgrim fathers?" said Emmie--whose family had preceded us
by a day or two--the night after our arrival. "O, yes; had not our whole
lives been straightened out after their maxims?" "Well, we've found the
house where it is said they held meetings before they embarked for
America. Wouldn't you like to see it?" Of course we would; in fact, it
would be showing no more than proper respect to our forefathers. So six
of us--women and girls--put ourselves under her guidance. We found a
narrow, dirty street, the dwellers in which stared after us curiously.
Between two old houses was an opening, hardly wide enough to be called
an alley, hardly narrow enough to be looked upon as a gutter. Into this
we crowded. "There; this is the house," said Emmie, laying her slight
fingers upon the old stone wall before us. It was quite bare, and devoid
of ornament or entrance, being evidently the back or side of a house.
Down from the peak of the gable looked a solitary window. A rude
balcony, holding a few plants, was below it, with freshly-washed clothes
hanging from its rail. We rolled our eyes, experienced a shiver that may
have been caused by awe or the damp chill of the spot, and came out to
find the narrow street half filled with staring men and women crowding
about the point of our disappearance, while from the u