from the sea.

When a dyke has been built, then on the edge of it, a windmill is
erected, which works a pump, and as the windmill draws up the water
from the sea, it is discharged into a canal. These canals which flow
through all Holland in a network of winding ways, run to the sea, and
where they meet the sea, in the dykes, great oaken gates, called
sluices are placed across the entrance to the canals, to regulate the
amount of water which shall flow into the canals, from the sea. These
gates are in charge of men called _sluicers_ whose duty it is, when
water is needed, to open the gates more or less, according to the
amount of water required, and then to close them carefully at night, so
that too much water may not flow into the canals, overflow them, and
flood the whole country. Even the smallest child in Holland is brought
up with a keen knowledge of the grave importance of a sluicer's duty
and of the danger to the country if he should neglect it, and the men
chosen for that position are always those whose reputation for faithful
service is unchallenged.

Naturally, a country lying as Holland lies is very damp and misty, and
its entire surface is covered with the network of canals running
through the meadows to the sea. If you could stand on a hill and look
down on it, it would look like an enormous puzzle, consisting of
hundreds of small vivid green pieces cut apart by the canals and
decorated by the quaint red-roofed houses of which we have spoken.

Through all the canals flows the same water, and all of them are
connected with each other, and are so very wide in some places that
there is much traffic on them. Then, too, through miles of the green
fields flow the narrower canals, draining the pasturelands, and
everywhere one feels the nearness and the menace of the everlasting
sea, and the protection of the dykes rearing the huge bulwarks between
the peaceful country and its treacherous enemy.

And that brings us back again to Haarlem on that April day when the
quaint little town was gay with the red and yellow tulips and the air
sweet with the scent of hyacinths.

On that bright spring day a little boy whose name is said to have been
Peter, and whose father was a sluicer, had for his dinner some cakes of
which he was very fond, and which his mother had baked because she knew
how much Peter liked them.

Peter was a very unselfish boy, and whenever he had anything he liked,
his first thought always was to s