; and toddling creatures so
infinitesimal that one could not guess whether they would grow up male
or female. There were men, too, but not many young ones; and there were
plenty of chubby-faced boys.

As for the women and girls, they wore Heaven knows how many
petticoats--seven or eight at the minimum--and their figures went out
at the places where they should have gone in, and went in at the places
where they should have gone out. They were like the old-fashioned ladies
with panniers on each side; and those who could not afford enough
petticoats had padded out their own and their children's hips to supply
the right effect.

Some had black hoods with furry rolls round their rose-and-snow faces;
some heightened the brilliancy of their complexion by close-fitting caps
of white lace, according to their religion--whether they were of the
Catholic or Protestant faith; and the babies, in black hoods,
neck-handkerchiefs, and balloon-like black skirts reaching to their
feet, were the quaintest figures of all. The men and boys, in their
indigo blouses, were not living pictures like their female relatives,
save when, with bright blue yokes over their shoulders (from which swung
green, scarlet-lined pails, foaming with yellow cream), they returned
from milking blue-coated, black and white cows.

Unspoiled by the influx of strangers, the simple people thronged round
us, not for what they might get, but for what they could see. We were
quainter to them than they to us, and Tibe was as rare as a dragon. His
mistress was of opinion that they believed the noise of the motor (now
stilled) to have issued from his black velvet muzzle; and when we all,
including the tragic-faced, happy-hearted bulldog, got out to wander
past the rows of tiny houses in the village, they swarmed round him,
buzzed round him, whirled round him, to his confusion.

Escape seemed hopeless, when Nell and Phyllis had an inspiration. They
rushed in at the door of a miniature shop, with a few picture postcards
and sweets in glass jars displayed in a dark window. Three minutes later
they fought their way out through the crowd of strange dolls "come
alive," and, like a farmer sowing seed, strewed pink and white lozenges
over the heads of girls and boys.

Instantly the "clang of the wooden shoon" ceased. Down squatted the
children with the suddenness of collapsed umbrellas. There was a
scramble, and we seized the opportunity for flight. We had seen the
Zuider Zee;