"The Hollanders and Zealanders themselves, young lady!" Answered the captain, with justifiable pride. "For three hundred years and more, we have been conquering this country from the sea. Some time or other we may have to conquer it again from another power, who knows?" Who knew, indeed! Only, a few weeks ago I heard that in their contest for liberty with the cruel Spaniards, the Hollanders had cut these same dykes, and let in the salt sea on their grand farms and beautiful towns. Any one who has ever lived in Holland will understand what must have been their zeal for liberty to make them willing to let so much dirt into their houses. I hope with all my heart they may succeed, for if any people on earth have the right to their own country it is the Dutch. "When shall we be at Rotterdam?" asked my uncle. "Why, that is more than I can tell," was the answer, "but if all goes well, I hope we shall find ourselves at the Boomtzees to-morrow morning. You know, my friend, this is not a channel to be walked over blindfold." I could not help seeing that for myself as I observed how carefully our good captain watched the course of the vessel and how often he heaved the lead. I understood that the gale by disturbing the shifting sand and sandbanks had made the navigation more troublesome than usual. In fact, we were aground once, but our commander's seamanship and the rising tide soon took us off. At every possible interval, the men were busy cleaning and scraping, varnishing and painting, so that the ship began to assume quite a holiday appearance. I went to bed at last, but not to sleep, except by fits and snatches, awakened every moment by the welcome sounds of cocks crowing, cattle lowing, and the lovely music of church bells playing tunes before they struck the hour. At last, weariness conquered and I fell into a deep sleep, from which I was waked by my uncle's voice. "Come, my maid. Here we are at home. Hasten your preparations that we may go ashore." It did not seem much like home to me as I followed my uncle along the quay, having a line of ships on one side and a row of fine painted warehouses, and dwellings on the other. I felt more like somebody in a fantastic dream. Here was a warehouse where great foreign looking bales were being carried in, while in the window stood pots of flowers behind the clear glass. There, we met a group of what were evidently country women, who yet wore bands and headdresses of gold and silver, with great gold earrings dangling over their cheeks and bosoms. And again, two maid-servants in the same odd attire were cleaning the outside of a house, yea, scrubbing the very bricks, with as much zeal and apparent pleasure as my Lady Frances would have shown at her music.