The Further Adventures of O'Neill in Holland

That was just after Terence came back from Germany, wearied with waiti

mara see the Irish manuscripts he was so keen upon. Then, if you please, my brave Terence thought his duties were over,

ing, and he banged at my be

RTH SE

ous bicycle tour of yours. Hurry up with all those papers and pr

day. I'm not nearly ready yet. I've all the nouns from T to Z to learn yet; and it'll take me another week. Catch me l

till noon. He was then quite willing to fall in with my project of a long walk-fi

for the night. The sunset, magnificent though it was, could hardly banish the deep sleepiness that seized us. Terence, who was in better training than I, sat up smokin

UISITE

aves stood high on the sands. Every now and then a long, knife-like billow would slowly rise up for half-a-mile or so, poise itself for an instant, and then fall with a mighty flap, like a wall of slate. Away out towards the horizon the oc

four. Fired with the idea of having a tramp by that mysterious light, I went off and roused Terence-happily without te

NING

sympathy. No idiom, however, that I was acquainted with was equal to this strain: so I had recourse to the language of gesture and the display of coin

dence of good faith. It was a fussy business getting him to agree even to this, and in consequen

we were far away from the hotel. But th

fresh morning air. The scent of herbs and wild-flowers on the dunes greeted us when we took

SUMME

te became steel-blue-the steel-blue deepened into purple shading off into amethy

ot opposite Haarlem, then strike off east, do that city, and return by rail? Why not indeed? Huis-ter-Duin and its

own. After an other couple of hours' toil through the hot, loose sand we decided we had enough of the coast for the day, and followed a kind of winding path inland. This was a regular cart-track at first, and promised to lead us to some thriving village where we could have a rest. But it didn't. It twined round a score of scattered potatoe plots, and then came to an abrupt and ignominious end against a

N THE

es only a few miles broad at most, yet we climbed u

hile shimmery haze began to spread over the sky, and there came a sudden change. It got dark and cold; and the storm that had been threatening all day burst on us with fury. In two or three minutes we were drenched. T

OD FO

as ceasing; and there we shivered like aspens, till the truth dawned upon us that there was a faint sound

we were, we positively b

ren en band over the window-we demanded pointedly if we could get food. The youngish woman who ambled slowly to and fro behind

ei?" I

ven an eg

INARY

merrily hand in hand. They were evidently coming from school. Such bright blue eyes, such plump and rosy cheeks suggested that food was plentiful wherever they lived. There mus

I enquired politely of

zeker!" was the prompt reply

aker, perhaps, might be some very special and clever artist in pies and tarts and rich cake-and it was the humble, ordinary baker that we were in search o

OKEN S

hes to them with an interest and an animation that I hadn't expected. They led us rapidly half a mile a

, the nearer we approached provisions. We reached the baker's house breathless, and were

ed from a much needed siesta. I was sorry, but not surprised. Bakers are often that way, you know. They bake during the night, and sleep during the day. Thus they are rather dr

ologised with my best bow. "Het spijt mij ge

JE E

ted impatiently; "Waa

ent. "Nee. Ik heb geen rijtuig. Maar ma

haast bij?" She

rteously, "Veel haast. Wij

remark. In a moment or two she reappeared, f

most unreasonably irritable, and actually stamped her foot,

zoo goed zijn, twee boterhammetjes

e mirror, and turning round groaned

n, as politely as I could;

LD ZE

t jullie kinderen dat je nouw

I smiled again, and said deferentially: "Het heeft niets te beduiden. Wij moeten een

ed it prudent to offer her a bribe of some kind. The simples

her-"niets dan een kleinigheid. M

misunderstanding somewhere. Accordingly to remove all haziness I just indicated that she had failed to grasp my meaning. The idiom for this I fortunately

'T QUIT

g," I said heartily, "be

stentatiously, we noticed her springing in our direction and talking. It was the most fluent talk I had yet heard in Dutch. She did not hesitate

e and

de Terence asked me: "Wh

f the grammar. I believe I didn't use the right idiom. Y

should be vragen om. Still she made far too big

d had latched the gate behind us, I turne

UNDER DIF

jn niet tegen je opgewassen. Maar",-and here I sank my voice to a confidential whisper, to make

f that the exit was w