crossing the
ends behind our waists, and Nell said that it did not matter if we met
the whole world now. As we should not have to open our mouths to any
one, and betray our ignorance of Dutch, there would be nothing to show
that we were not Frisian girls.

The full moon was just coming up as we left the hotel, but when we had
turned two or three corners, and reached the streets where the Kermess
was going on, there was such a white blaze of electricity that the moon
and her pale light were swallowed up. In the dazzling illumination, the
booths and merry-go-rounds, and carousels, with their sparkling
decorations of tinsel, seemed to drip gold and silver; and the garlands
and trees and fountains of electric light scintillated like myriads of
diamonds.

There had been crowds in the afternoon, but now they were five times as
dense. The brilliant, open-air _cafes_ were crammed, and the band in
each one was playing a different air. Everybody was laughing, and
shouting and singing; the people had thrown away their Dutch reserve,
and even middle-aged men and women were enjoying themselves like
children.

I felt self-conscious and guilty at first, but it was such a gay scene
that nobody could help getting into the spirit of it; and just as Nell
had prophesied, there were plenty of Frisian girls about, in gold or
silver helmets, like ours, only nobody stared at them particularly, and
everybody did stare at us.

I remarked this to Nell, and the fact that no shawls of our sort were
being worn; but she laughed and said that if people stared we might as
well take it as a compliment; she flattered herself that we happened to
be looking our best.

It really was fun. We dared not buy anything on account of our foreign
accent; but we wandered from street to street, jostled by the crowd,
stopping in front of the gayest booths, and even going into a side-show
where a Javanese man was having fits to please the audience. Jonkheer
Brederode had refused to take us in the afternoon, when we had shown an
interest in the painting which advertised the Javanese creature; but,
after all, the fits were more exciting on canvas than they were inside
the hot, crowded tent, and some young soldiers stared at us so much that
we were glad to get out.

Next door was the most gorgeous _carousel_ I ever saw. It was spinning
round under a red plush roof, embroidered with gold and sparkling
crystals, and festooned with silver chains. To the strains of th