tains at
the windows, and this too adorable wall-bed is ready for her to hop
into, and dream the right dream again."

"He'd be mobbed by other Broekites, if he didn't keep things clean," I
answered. "You know, Broek-in-Waterland is supposed to be the cleanest
place in the Netherlands, which is something of a boast, isn't it? The
saying used to be that, if a leaf dropped off a tree, or a wisp of hay
off a passing cart, and one of the inhabitants saw it, he ran out of his
house and threw the dreadful thing into the canal."

"Let's scatter a few bits of paper," said Starr, "and see what would
happen."

"I'm afraid they're not as observant or energetic as they used to be. I
counted three straws on the bricks, coming up."

"What wouldn't I give to have lunch in this house, on that charming old
mahogany table, with those Delft plates and pewter mugs," sighed Miss
Rivers, her eyes traveling over the old furniture which, as she said,
seems to be ready and waiting till the wrong dream shall break.

"I'm going to take you to lunch somewhere else," I told her. "But you
can buy Delft plates and pewter mugs here for your own table, if you
like."

Then some exchange and barter did take place; although Nell said it
seemed cruel to buy anything and separate it from its old friends. One
ought to apologize to the things that were left for tearing their
companions away.

There was time to step into the nearest cheese factory, and to go on and
see the old church, I said, if they didn't mind lunching late. Of course
they did not; so we strolled into the show place of Broek, a large house
where cows live in neat bedrooms carpeted with something which resembles
grated cheese. The Chaperon suggested that, after all, it was nothing
but sawdust, and probably she was right; nevertheless each little
cubicle in the long row, with its curtained window and blue-white wall,
looked pretty enough for a fastidious human being. We should have
lingered looking at the cheeses and sniffing dairy smells, but suddenly
a tidal wave of tourists from an excursion steamer swept in, swamped us,
and swallowed Tibe. He was retrieved after a search, in the doorway of
the curiosity-shop, whither he had wisely returned to await his friends,
and we then went on past the meer with its deserted bandstand, to one
of the few lovable churches left in my country.

It is whitewashed and bare, but somehow, instead of making it grim, the
whiteness has given it a religio