Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates

she thought to herself, and she was not mistaken. This festival dress had been worn very seldom during the past ten years; before that time it had done good service, and had flourished at m

neath the trim bodice of blue homespun, and its reddish brown skirt bordered with black. The knitted woolen mitts, and the dainty cap showing

own golden tresses, fairly danced aroun

ow pretty you are! Look, Hans!

erfully, "just like a picture-only I don'

h, mother, how white your arm is where the mitt leaves off, whiter than mine, oh, ever so much

inker l

icker about the waist than a churn-dasher. And how do

. It's b-e-a-u-tiful! see

toward him with a start, something like a blush rising to her cheeks, a

e smile crept faintly back again), "don't stand gaping at m

, "you need many things.

you on purpose, or the work was-it's all

ed Gretel; "we'll race on the cana

ed to say-"Your spinning whee

make it

money. But you need feather

, if our stolen money would but come back on this bright Saint Nicholas'

terrupted Ha

urch, but it's no wrong to turn sometimes to the good Saint Nicholas. Tut! It's a likely story if one can't do that, without

her voice quickened and sharpened as it did now (it was often shar

ask of good Saint

s power to do such things, or else to brighten our wits that we might find it ourselves. Not

adly, "though you have almost pull

e," moaned the dame, "'hi

k the father could tell au

never hold the same belief in the matter two days. Mayhap the father paid it off for the

worth a quarter of

wd man up to the last moment. He was to

e from, I wonder," mutte

toward her husband, who sat staring blankly

for it again. Just as he opened his lips to say more, Broom Klatterboost came flying in with word that the dyke was in danger. Ah! the waters were terrible that holy Pinxter-week! My man, alack, caught up his tools and ran out. That was

er, in hours of sore need, take the watch from its hiding-place, ha

be nearer starving than this befor

now; for, after giving a heavy sigh, and filliping

y to keep it-many a one would have

it. Besides, the gentry are so hard on us poor folks that if they saw such a

ushed a

o say such a thing, mo

ink that the rest of his sentence was

oudly through her tear

ever part company with the watch. In his dying

r!" echoed Hans, "

hispered his mother, "

erdam. His mother had seldom spoken so familiarly with him. He fel

. For the father's sake, we will guard it always. The m

lap. "There is no chance! One thousand guilders! and all gone in a day! One thousand guilders-Oh! what ever did become of them? If th

said Hans, soothingly; "an

ded an old stocking and commenced again. Now that I look back, it seems that the money was up to the heel in a few sunny weeks. There was great pay in those days if a man was quick at engineer work. The stocking went on filling with copper and silver-aye, and gold. You may well open your eyes, Gretel. I used to laugh and tell the father it was not for poverty I wore my old gown;-and the stocking went on filling-so full that sometimes when I woke at night, I'd get up, soft and quiet, and go feel it in the moonlight. Then, on my knees, I would thank our Lord that my little ones could in time get good learning, and that the father might rest from labor in his old age. Sometim

king earnestly into her face. He ar

ever tried

dersto

d, oh! I tried then! I smoothed his hair, and whispered to him soft as a kitten, about the money-where it was-who had it? Alack! he would pick at my sleeve, and whisper gibberish till my blood ran cold. At last, while Gretel lay whiter than snow, and you

d her eye was so bright, that Hans, with a

ery quick and willing. Soon all will be prosperous with us again. Why, mother, Gretel and I woul

ows it," said