Some of the best-trained ones perform all manner of dexterous tricks, much to the amusement of the great crowds. A good skater makes twelve miles an hour. Some who do not like skating have a curious sledge, resembling a ship, in which you may go twenty-four miles an hour. Is not that very wonderful? They fasten to the vessel a very strong piece of iron which cuts into the ice. It has a sail larger than that of a real vessel of the same size, so the wind propels it, and it is steered as though on water. This, however, is quite a dangerous amusement. They are often dashed against something and broken to pieces. Besides, some cannot endure cutting the air at such a speed. It is a grand sight to see all things like a fine panorama before you whilst travelling at lightning speed, in one of those singular sledges. In these they often go from Amsterdam to Saardam; this latter place is one of the nicest in Holland. The houses are wooden, and all nicely painted. The people are so neat that they will not permit a carriage to pass through their streets. Wealthy Dutch merchants reside here. Here Peter the Great once worked as a carpenter, to learn ship-building. Near by are two thousand windmills, and one for grinding coffee, and also sawmills, which saw thirty planks at a time. There is a story told which I think will amuse you. An ambassador wrote to the Emperor of Morocco, that during certain seasons all the rivers of the Netherlands were covered with something resembling sugar-candy, and which could bear horses and carriages, and that vast multitudes glided over these cakes like ostriches, with smooth irons fastened to their feet. The Emperor thought this so marvellous that he called him a story-teller. The people are very reckless; sometimes go gliding over the ice in sledges when it is really bending under their weight. RINGWOOD. [Illustration: QUEEN EMMA OF HOLLAND, AND PRINCESS WILHELMINA.] _Volume 13, Number 13._ Copyright, 1886, by D. LOTHROP & CO. _Jan. 30, 1886._ THE PANSY. [Illustration: THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.] WHERE I WENT, AND WHAT I SAW. [Illustration: I] STARTED from Walnut Hills. You may not find the name in your geographies, so I will just hint to you that it is one of the parlors of Cincinnati; _that_ you can find. Down Gilbert Avenue in a car which made good progress, notwithstanding its frequent stops to take on more people. "Who makes it go?" asked a wee girlie who was evidently taking her first ride of the kind. Sure enough! Who did? No horse or mule; no engine to be seen; no visible means of making that car slip over the road as it did. The child repeated her eager question: "Mamma, who makes it go? There isn't any horsie." "It is a cable car, my child," the mother answered, with a look of profound wisdom in her eyes. "What is a cable car, mamma?" "It is a car that goes without horses."