OUR little Dutch cousins have much in common with little American cousins, not so much perhaps with respect to present-day institutions and manners and customs, as with the survivals and traditions of other days, when the Dutch played so important a part in the founding of the new America. It was from Holland, too, from the little port of Delfshaven, that the Pilgrim Fathers first set sail for the New World, and by this fact alone Holland and America are bound together by another very strong link, though this time it was of English forging. No European country, save England, has the interest for the American reader or traveller that has "the little land of dikes and windmills," and there are many young Americans already familiar with the ways of their cousins from over the seas from the very fact that so many of them come to Holland to visit its fine picture-galleries, its famous and historic buildings, its tulip-gardens, and its picturesque streets and canals, which make it a paradise for artists. Our little Dutch cousins mingle gladly with their little American cousins, and the ties that bind make a bond which is, and always has been, inseverable. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. PIETER AND WILHELMINA 1 II. THE AMERICAN COUSIN 23 III. THE LAND OF DIKES AND WINDMILLS 34 IV. THE KERMIS 53 V. THE BICYCLE RIDE 63 VI. WHERE THE CHEESES COME FROM 81 List of Illustrations PAGE PIETER AND WILHELMINA _Frontispiece_ "'HOW OLD IS COUSIN THEODORE, MOTHER?' ASKED WILHELMINA" 27 "'I'M GOING TO SNAP-SHOT ONE OF THEM WITH MY CAMERA'" 48 AT THE KERMIS 61 ON THE ROAD TO DELFSHAVEN 66 "THE CHILDREN STOOD IN THE BOWS" 98 [Illustration: _Map of HOLLAND showing places mentioned in Our Little Dutch Cousin_] Our Little Dutch Cousin CHAPTER I. PIETER AND WILHELMINA WHAT do you think of a country where you can pick up sugar-plums along the road? Well, this was just what Pieter and Wilhelmina were going to do as, hand in hand, they flew up the road as fast as their little wooden shoes would let them, to meet a carriage which was rapidly approaching. Behind the carriage ran a crowd of children, laughing and tumbling over each other.