Their grandmother is a dear little Dutch lady who lives down near the ocean. The children like to go and see her. [Illustration] THE DUTCH GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE Jan’s grandmother lives in a little pink and white house by the sea. You can hear the waves as they come up on the sandy shore. You can stand in grandmother’s garden and look away out over the sea. Sometimes the water looks bright and blue. Sometimes it looks deep and green. Sometimes it looks dark gray, and the waves have white caps of foam. The children call them the “Sea-King’s White Horses.” Grandmother’s house is very neat and clean. She has brick floors in her house. She covers her brick floors with clean white sand. Grandmother has a very old black table in her house. She has some old black chairs, too. She rubs them every day. They are always bright and shining. Grandmother loves to keep them so. Jan says he can see his face in the top of grandmother’s table. It is so shiny that it is like a looking-glass. Grandmother has a row of plates on her wall. They look like silver. She has some blue dishes, too. Katrina says that they are like her mother’s dishes. They have boats and windmills on them. Grandmother says they are Delft dishes. They were made in Delft. Delft is a city in Holland where they make beautiful dishes. THE CUCKOO CLOCK [Illustration] Jan’s grandmother has a clock. It is a beautiful clock. It is made of carved wood. It is made in the shape of a little house. There is a door in the house and there are windows. The weights that hang down look like big acorns. The numbers on the face of the clock are white. The hands are white, too. When it is time for the clock to strike, a little bell rings. The little door flies open. Out pops a dear little white bird. It is a cuckoo. It says “Cuckoo, cuckoo!” If it is three o’clock, it says “Cuckoo” three times. If it is six o’clock, it says “Cuckoo” six times. What hour does it say “Cuckoo” the most times? What name do we call that hour in the day-time? When does it say “Cuckoo” only once? Grandmother winds the cuckoo clock once a week. She winds it every Sunday morning. She winds it just before she goes to church. [Illustration] GRANDMOTHER’S DUTCH STOVE Grandmother has a large stove. It is not at all like our stoves. Our stoves are made of iron and are black. Grandmother’s Dutch stove is white. It is made of white porcelain. There are pretty colored pictures on grandmother’s stove. Jan and Katrina like to go to grandmother’s on a cold day and sit before her pretty stove. They take off their wooden shoes and get their toes warm. Grandmother sits beside the stove, too. She tells them pretty stories about the pictures on her stove. VISITING AT GRANDMOTHER’S Grandmother asked Jan and Katrina to come and visit her one day. She told them to bring their friends, Hilda, Kassie, Karl, and Bram with them. Hilda, Kassie, Karl, and Bram were all glad to go. So they dressed in their best.