However, the fun of skating glides over all barriers of speech. Through this, Ben soon felt that he knew the boys well; and when Jacob (with a sprinkling of French and English for Ben's benefit) told of a grand project they had planned, his cousin could now and then put in a "ja," or a nod, in quite a familiar way. The project _was_ a grand one, and there was to be a fine opportunity for carrying it out; for, besides the allotted holiday of the Festival of Saint Nicholas, four extra days were to be allowed for a general cleaning of the schoolhouse. Jacob and Ben had obtained permission to go on a long skating journey--no less a one than from Broek to the Hague, the capital of Holland, a distance of nearly fifty miles![15] [Footnote 15: Throughout this narrative distances are given according to our standard, the English statute mile of 5280 ft. The Dutch mile is more than four times as long as ours.] "And now, boys," added Jacob, when he had told the plan, "who will go with us?" "I will! I will!" cried the boys eagerly. "And so will I!" ventured little Voostenwalbert. "Ha! ha!" laughed Jacob, holding his fat sides, and shaking his puffy cheeks, "_you_ go? Such a little fellow as you? Why, youngster, you haven't left off your pads yet!" Now in Holland very young children wear a thin, padded cushion around their heads, surmounted with a framework of whalebone and ribbon, to protect them in case of a fall; and it is the dividing line between babyhood and childhood when they leave it off. Voost had arrived at this dignity several years before; consequently Jacob's insult was rather too great for endurance. "Look out what you say!" he squeaked. "Lucky for you when you can leave off _your_ pads--you're padded all over!" "Ha! ha!" roared all the boys except Master Dobbs, who could not understand. "Ha! ha!"--and the good-natured Jacob laughed more than any. "It ish my fat--yaw--he say I bees pad mit fat!" he explained to Ben. So a vote was passed unanimously in favor of allowing the now popular Voost to join the party, if his parents would consent. "Good-night!" sang out the happy youngster, skating homeward with all his might. "Good-night!" "We can stop at Haarlem, Jacob, and show your cousin the big organ," said Peter van Holp, eagerly, "and at Leyden, too, where there's no end to the sights; and spend a day and night at the Hague, for my married sister, who lives there, will be delighted to see us; and the next morning we can start for home." "All right!" responded Jacob, who was not much of a talker. Ludwig had been regarding his brother with enthusiastic admiration. "Hurrah for you, Pete! It takes you to make plans! Mother'll be as full of it as we are when we tell her we can take her love direct to sister Van Gend. My! but it's cold," he added, "cold enough to take a fellow's head off his shoulders. We'd better go home."