Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates

ough she believed herself to be without any hope of her husband's improvement, had been made so happy at the prosp

d" did many things upon the ice, that caused the little maid to clasp her hands in solemn admiration.

, never very amiable, was in anything but a good humor. He had relieved himself by taunting young Schimmelpenninck who, being smaller than the others, kept meekly

crazy to think of it. Katrinka Flack and Rychie Korbes are furious at the very idea of racing with the girl; and

rl's meaning, "who doubts it? No fellow with a spark of manhood in him

led about

ou not to put words in other people's

at the prospect of a fight, and sure that, if it should come to blow

glad to turn to a weaker offender

e weasel! You skinny herring you, you li

eeling that he had fairly vanquished his foes, was restored to partial good humor. He, however, pruden

ld not distinguish his features at first; but as he was the stout

d Carl, "and there's some one with

on," cried Ludwig; "a streak

give the information, "that's his English cousin, and, oh! he's got such a funn

ts upon their skates, in a quiet way, as they talked; but now they stood still,

her out of breath-"Benjamin Dobbs. He's a

soon made up his mind that the Hollanders, notwithstan

that vrouw means wife, and ja, yes; and spoorweg, railway; kanaals, canals; stoomboot, steamboat; ophaalbruggen, drawbridges; buiten plasten, country seats; mynheer, "mister;" tweegevegt, duel or two-fights; koper, copper; zadel, saddle; but he could not make a sentence out of these, nor use the long list of phrases he had learned in his "Dutch dialogues." The topics of the latter were fine, but were never alluded to by the boys. Like the poor fellow who had learned in Ollendorf to ask in faultless

the boys well; and when Jacob (with a sprinkling of French and English for Ben's benefit) told of a grand

ng it out; for, besides the allotted holiday of the Festival of Saint Nicholas

ing journey-no less a one than from Broek to the Hague, th

ob, when he had told the p

ll!" cried th

ventured little

ing his puffy cheeks, "you go? Such a little fellow as y

and ribbon, to protect them in case of a fall; and it is the dividing line between babyhood and childhood when they leave it

. "Lucky for you when you can leave

obbs, who could not understand. "Ha! ha!"-and

say I bees pad mit fat

of allowing the now popular Voost to joi

happy youngster, skating

d-ni

at Leyden, too, where there's no end to the sights; and spend a day and night at the Hague, for my mar

ded Jacob, who was

ing his brother with e

e when we tell her we can take her love direct to sister Van Gend. My! but it's cold,"

e "double edge." "Great skating we should have by this time, if it was as warm as it was last December

night anyhow," said Ludwi

nd holding it toward the moonlight as well as

olas is about by this time, and I, for one, w

d off they started, shouting, singi

e Gretel

y joy sometimes

other, and Gretel had exclaimed, "Ah, Hans, how beautiful! how fine! to think that we b

observed it, but Hans knew its meaning too well. Gretel saw hi

ed our mother!" and Gretel ran after him

TNO

ding to our standard, the English statute mile of 5280 f