In this Johnny certainly did succeed; but not much to his comfort, as the sequel will show. The first person he addressed, on approaching the house, was a little girl, who, when he spoke, stared at him in the greatest amazement, then rushed screaming into the house. This proceeding brought out several young men and women, to whom Johnny now addressed himself; but the only answer he obtained was a stare of astonishment similar to the child's, and then a general burst of laughter. At length one of the girls went into the house and brought out a jolly-looking elderly man, who, from certain parts of his dress, seemed to be in the seafaring way. "Vell, mine freend, vat you vant?" said this person, who spoke broken English--"vere you come from?" "I cam last frae Alloa," said Johnny, "and I want to ken, sir, if I'm onything near to Brechin?" "Preekin! Vere dat?" "'Od, I thocht everbody in Scotland kent that," said Johnny, smiling. "Ah! maybe Scotlan', mine freend, but no Hollands," replied he of the broken English. "I dinna ken whether they ken't it in Holland or no," said Johnny, "that's a country I'm no in the least acquaint wi'; but I'm sure it's weel aneuch kent in Scotland." "Ah! maybe Scotlan', but no Hollands, my freend," repeated the man, smiling in his turn; "but you vas in Hollands." "Never in my life," said Johnny, earnestly. "No, no," replied the man, impatiently, "you vas no in Hollands--but you vas in Hollands." Johnny could make nothing of this; but it was soon cleared up by the person adding, "You vas in Hollands _now_--dis moment." We will not even attempt to describe Johnny's amazement, horror, and consternation, on this announcement being made to him, for we feel how vain it would be, and how far short any idea we could convey would be of the reality. "Holland!" said Johnny. "Heaven hae a care o' me! Ye surely dinna mean to say that I'm in Holland the noo?" "To be sure I vas," said the Dutchman, smiling at Johnny's ludicrous perturbation. "Mine Got, did you not know you vas in Hollands? Vere you come from, in all de vorlds, you not know dat?" "I tell't ye already," replied Johnny, with a most rueful countenance, "that I cam last frae Alloa. But ye're surely no in earnest, freen," he added, in a desperate hope that it might, after all, be but a joke, "when ye say that I'm in Holland?" "Ah! sure earneest--no doubt--true," said the Dutchman, now laughing outright at Johnny's perplexity. As in the former case, we presume we need not be more explicit in saying that Johnny had actually been wrecked on the coast of Holland. "Weel, weel," said the Brechin voyager, with an air expressive of more calmness and resignation than might have been expected, "this does cowe the gowan! How, in Heaven's name, am I ever to fin' my way hame again? Little did I think I was ever to be landed this way amang savages."