Meanwhile, with many a vigorous puff and pull, the brother and sister, for such they were, seemed to be fastening something upon their feet--not skates, certainly, but clumsy pieces of wood narrowed and smoothed at their lower edge, and pierced with holes, through which were threaded strings of rawhide. These queer looking affairs had been made by the boy Hans. His mother was a poor peasant-woman, too poor to even think of such a thing as buying skates for her little ones. Rough as these were, they had afforded the children many a happy hour upon the ice; and now as with cold, red fingers our young Hollanders tugged at the strings--their solemn faces bending closely over their knees--no vision of impossible iron runners came to dull the satisfaction glowing within. In a moment the boy arose, and with a pompous swing of the arms, and a careless "come on, Gretel," glided easily across the canal. "Ah, Hans," called his sister plaintively, "this foot is not well yet. The strings hurt me on last Market day; and now I cannot bear them tied in the same place." "Tie them higher up, then," answered Hans, as without looking at her he performed a wonderful cat's-cradle step on the ice. "How can I? The string is too short." Giving vent to a good-natured Dutch whistle, the English of which was that girls were troublesome creatures, he steered toward her. "You are foolish to wear such shoes, Gretel, when you have a stout leather pair. Your klompen[1] would be better than these." [Footnote 1: Wooden Shoes.] "Why, Hans! Do you forget? The father threw my beautiful new shoes in the fire. Before I knew what he had done they were all curled up in the midst of the burning peat. I can skate with these, but not with my wooden ones.--Be careful now----" Hans had taken a string from his pocket. Humming a tune as he knelt beside her, he proceeded to fasten Gretel's skate with all the force of his strong young arm. "Oh! oh!" she cried, in real pain. With an impatient jerk Hans unwound the string. He would have cast it upon the ground in true big-brother style, had he not just then spied a tear trickling down his sister's cheek. "I'll fix it--never fear," he said, with sudden tenderness, "but we must be quick; the mother will need us soon." Then he glanced inquiringly about him, first at the ground, next at some bare willow branches above his head, and finally at the sky now gorgeous with streaks of blue, crimson and gold. Finding nothing in any of these localities to meet his need, his eye suddenly brightened as, with the air of a fellow who knew what he was about, he took off his cap and removing the tattered lining, adjusted it in a smooth pad over the top of Gretel's worn-out shoe. "Now," he cried triumphantly, at the same time arranging the strings as briskly as his benumbed fingers would allow, "can you bear some pulling?" Gretel drew up her lips as if to say "hurt away," but made no further response.