Читать книгу: «Rollo in Holland», страница 7

The trekschuyt was a curious sort of boat. It was built like the Noah's ark made for children to play with; that is, it was a broad boat, with a house in it. The roof of the house, which formed the deck of the boat, was flat, and there were seats along the sides of it, and a railing behind them on the margin, to keep people from falling off. At each end of the house were two flights of steps, leading up to the roof or deck, and below them another flight, which led down to the little cabins below.

As soon as Rollo got on board, he first ran up on the deck. He sat down on the seat upon one side, and then, after looking about a moment, he ran over to the other side, and sat down there. Then he got up, and said that he was going below to look at the cabins.

Mr. George, all the time, stood quietly on the deck, looking at the canal, and at the country around. He could see the canal extending, in a winding direction, across the country; but the view of it was soon lost, as the winding of its course brought the dikes on the sides of it in the way so that they concealed the water. He could, however, trace its course for some distance, by the masts and sails of vessels which he saw at different distances rising among the green trees. Along the dike, on one side, was a high road, and on the other, a tow path. Different boats were coming and going in the part of the canal that was near. They were drawn by long and slender lines, that were fastened to a tall mast set up near the bows of the boat. Some were drawn by men, and some by horses.

Before the trekschuyt had gone far, after it commenced its voyage, a great ship was seen coming on the canal. She was coming from the Helder. It was a ship that had come from the West Indies, and was going to Amsterdam. The wind was contrary for her, and they could not use their sails, and so they were drawing her along by horses. There were two teams of horses, eight in each team. The view of these teams, walking along the tow path, with the immense ship following them in the canal, presented a very imposing spectacle.

The trekschuyt started before the Helder steamer; but it had not gone far before Rollo, who had now ascended to the deck again, saw her coming up behind very rapidly.

"I tell you what it is, uncle George," said he, "I wish you and I were on board that steamer, and were going along the whole length of the canal."

"So do I," said Mr. George.

"Could not we get on board?" asked Rollo.

"No," said Mr. George. "We cannot change our plan to-day very well. But now that we have found the way, we can come over here any morning we please, and take the Helder steamer."

"Let's come," said Rollo, eagerly. "Let's come to-morrow."

"We'll see about that," said Mr. George. "See, here comes a market boat."

"Yes," said Rollo. "The man is towing it, and his wife is steering."

"Now we will see how they pass," said Rollo.

There was no difficulty about passing, for as soon as the man who was towing the market boat found that the trekschuyt had come up to his line, he stopped suddenly, and the advance of his boat caused his line to drop into the water. The trekschuyt then sailed right over it. By this simple manœuvre, boats and vessels could pass each other very easily, and generally the manœuvre was executed in a prompt and very skilful manner. But once, when they were passing a boat, the woman who was steering it put the helm the wrong way, and though the captain of the trekschuyt, and also the husband of the woman, who was on the shore, shouted to her repeatedly in a loud and angry manner, she could not get it right again in time to avoid a collision. The trekschuyt gave the boat a dreadful bump as it went by. Fortunately, however, it did no harm, except to frighten the poor woman, and break their tow line.

After going on in this way for fifteen or twenty minutes along the canal, the trekschuyt arrived at its place of destination, and Mr. George and Rollo disembarked at a little village of very neat and pretty houses, built along the dike on one side of the canal.

Chapter X.
The Dairy Village

Mr. George and Rollo walked ashore in a very independent manner, having the commissioner to attend to the tickets. They went up to the top of the dike, and waited for the commissioner to come to them.

"While I am getting the carriage ready," said the commissioner, when he came, "perhaps you will like to take a walk on the bridge, where there is a very fine view. But first, perhaps, you will look at the carriage, and choose the one that you will like."

So saying, James led the way into a sort of stable, where there were a great many very nice and pretty carriages, arranged very snugly together. Mr. George was surprised to see so many. He asked James how it happened.

"O, there is a great deal of travelling on the roads about here," said James. "The country is very rich and populous, and the people of Amsterdam come out a great deal."

Some of the carriages were very elegant. One of these an hostler took out, and told Mr. George that he could have it if he chose. There was another which was much less elegant, but it was more open.

"Let us take the open one," said Rollo. "We can see so much better."

So they decided upon the open one; and then, while the hostlers were harnessing the horses, Mr. George and Rollo went forward to the bridge.

The bridge led over a branch canal, which here comes into the main canal. The road to it lay along the dike, and formed the street of a little village. It was paved with bricks placed edgewise, and was as neat as a parlor floor. The houses were all on one side. They were very small; but they were so neat and pretty, and the forms of them were so strange and queer, that they looked like play houses, or like a scene in fairy land, rather than like the real habitations of men.

There were pretty gardens by them, which extended down the slope of the dike. The slopes of the dikes are always very gradual, and very nice gardens can be made on them.

Mr. George and Rollo stood on the bridge, and looked up and down the canals on either side. They saw boats, with people in them, getting ready to set out on their voyages.

"I wonder where that canal leads to?" said Rollo.

"O, it goes off into the interior of the country, some where," said Mr. George. "The country is as full of canals as Massachusetts is of roads."

"I should like, very much," said Rollo, "to get on board that boat with that man, and go with him wherever he is going."

"So should I, if I knew Dutch," said Mr. George, "so that I could talk with him as we sailed along."

"How pretty it is all about here," said Rollo. "What a queer village,—built on a bank! And what a funny road! It looks like a play road."

The road, where it led through the village, did, indeed, present a very singular appearance. It was very narrow indeed, being barely wide enough for one carriage to pass, and leaving scarcely room on the side for a child to crowd up against the house, and let it go by. On the other side was a row of trees, with green grass beneath, covering the banks of the canal.

After Mr. George and Rollo had been standing a few minutes on the bridge they saw that the carriage was nearly ready. So they went back to the place and got in. The top of the carriage was turned entirely down, so that they could see about them in every direction as they rode along. James mounted on the box outside, with the driver.

"Now," said Rollo, in a tone of great satisfaction, "we will have a very first rate ride."

The carriage drove along through the little street, which has already been described. Rollo could reach his hand out and almost touch the houses as they rode by. There were little shops kept in some of the houses, and the things that were for sale were put up at the windows. They looked exactly as if children had arranged them for play.

After leaving the village the road turned and followed the dike of a branch canal. The views on every side were extremely beautiful. The canal was carried along between its two banks, high above the rest of the country, and here and there, at moderate distances from each other, wind mills were to be seen busy at work pumping up water from the drains in the fields, and pouring it into the canal. The fields were covered with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and here and there were parties of men mowing the grass or loading the new-made hay into boats, that lay floating in the small canals which bordered the fields.

In looking about over the country, there were wind mills to be seen in all directions, their long arms slowly revolving in the air, and interspersed among them were the masts and sails of sloops and schooners, that were sailing to and fro along the canals. As the water of these canals was often hidden from view by the dikes which bordered them, it seemed as if the ships and steamers were sailing on the land in the midst of green fields and trees, and smiling villages.

After going on in this way for an hour or more, the carriage approached the village which Mr. George and Rollo were going to see. The village lay on the borders of a canal, which was here quite broad, and as the road approached it on the other side of the canal, it was in full view for Mr. George and Rollo as the party approached it. The houses were close to the margin of the water. They were very neat and pretty, and were, most of them, painted green. Many of them had little canals by the side of them, like lanes of water leading into the rear of the houses, and the prettiest little porticoes, and trellises, and piazzas, and pavilions, and summer houses were seen in every part. The road went winding round a wide basin, and then, after crossing a bridge, the carriage stopped at an inn.

The inn was entirely outside of the village. The commissioner said that they must walk through the village, for there was no carriage road through it at all.

So Mr. George and Rollo dismounted, and the hostlers came out from the stable to unharness the horses.

"Now, Rollo," said Mr. George, "we will go in and order a breakfast, and then we will take our walk through the village while it is getting ready."

"Yes," said Rollo. "I should like some breakfast very much."

"What shall we have?" asked Mr. George.

"What you like," replied Rollo. "You always get good breakfasts."

"Well," said Mr. George, "we will tell them the old story."

Just at this moment James came up to the door of the hotel where Mr. George and Rollo had been standing during this conversation.

"You may order breakfast for us, James," said Mr. George, "and let them have it ready for us when we get back from our walk."

"Yes, sir," said James. "And what will you have?"

"Biftek aux pommes,"⁷ said Mr. George, "and coffee. And let them give us some of their best cheese."

The commissioner went in to give the order.

"Uncle George," said Rollo, "I think you'll be known all through this country as the beefsteak and fried potato man."

Mr. George laughed.

"Well," said he. "There could not be a more agreeable idea than that to be associated with my memory."

The truth is, that both Mr. George and Rollo liked the biftek aux pommes better than almost any thing else that they could have, whether for breakfast or dinner.

After having given the order for the breakfast to a very nice and tidy-looking Dutch girl, whose forehead and temples were adorned with a profusion of golden ornaments, after the fashion of the young women of North Holland, the commissioner came back, and the whole party set out to walk through the village. There were no streets, properly so called, but only walks, about as wide as the gravel walks of a garden, which meandered about among the houses and yards, in a most extraordinary manner. There were beautiful views, from time to time, presented over the water of the canal on which the village was situated; and there were a great number of small canals which seemed to penetrate every where, with the prettiest little bridges over them, and landing steps, and bowers, and pavilions along the borders of them, and gayly-painted boats fastened at kitchen doors, and a thousand other such-like objects, characteristic of the intimate intermingling of land and water which prevails in this extraordinary country.

Every thing was, however, on so small a scale, and so scrupulously neat and pretty, that it looked more like a toy village than one built for the every-day residence of real men.

After walking on for about a quarter of a mile, the commissioner said that he would show them the interior of one of the dairy houses, where the cheeses were made,—for the business of this town was the making of cheeses from the milk of the cows that feed on the green polders that lie all around them.

"The stalls for the cows," said James, "are in the same house in which the family lives; but the cows are not kept there in summer, and so we shall find the stalls empty."

So saying, James turned aside up a little paved walk which led to the door of a very pretty looking house. He opened the door without any ceremony, and Mr. George and Rollo went in.

The door was near one end of the house, and it opened into a passage way which extended back through the whole depth of it. On one side was a row of stalls, or cribs, for the cows. On the other, were doors opening into the rooms used for the family. A very nice looking Dutch woman, who had apparently seen the party from her window, came out through this side door into the passage way, to welcome them when they came.

The stalls for the cows were all beautifully made, and they were painted and decorated in such an extraordinary manner, that no one could have imagined for what use they were intended. The floors for them were made of the glazed tiles so often used in Holland, and the partitions between them were nicely rubbed as bright as a lady's sideboard. The cribs, too, were now, in the absence of the cows, occupied with various little étagères, and sets of shelves, which were covered with fancy cups and saucers, china images, and curiosities of all sorts,—the Dutch housewives taking a special pride in the collection of such things.

The row of cribs was separated from the floor of the passage way by a sort of trench, about a foot and a half wide and ten inches deep, and outside this trench, and also within it, at the entrances to the cribs, were arrayed a great number of utensils employed in the work of the dairy, such as tubs, cans, cheese presses, moulds, and other such things. These were all beautifully made, and being mounted with brass, which had received the highest polish by constant rubbing, they gave to the whole aspect of the place an exceedingly gay and brilliant appearance.

Some of this apparatus was in use. There were tubs standing, with the curd or whey in them, and cheeses in press or in pickle, and various other indications that the establishment was a genuine one, and was then in active operation. The cheeses were of the round kind, so often seen for sale at the grocers' stores in Boston and New York. They looked like so many big cannon balls.

After walking down the passage way that led by the side of cribs, and examining all these things in detail, the party returned to the door where they had come in, and then, turning to the left, went into the rooms of the house. The first room was the bedroom. The second was the parlor. These rooms were both completely crowded with antique looking furniture, among which were cabinets of Chinese ware, and ornaments of every kind; and all was in such a brilliant condition of nicety and polish, as made the spectacle wonderful to behold.

The bed was in a recess, shut up by doors. When the doors were opened the bed place looked precisely like a berth on board ship.

After looking at all these things as long as they wished, Mr. George and Rollo bade the woman good by, and James gave her half a guilder. The party then withdrew.

"Well, uncle George," said Rollo, "and what do you think of that?"

"I think it is a very extraordinary spectacle," said Mr. George. "And it is very curious to think how such a state of things has come about."

"And how has it come about?" asked Rollo.

"Why, here," replied Mr. George, "for a thousand years, for aught I know, the people have been living from generation to generation with no other employment than taking care of the cows that feed on the polders around, and making the milk into cheese. That is a business which requires neatness. Every kind of dairy business does. So that here is a place where a current was set towards neatness a thousand years ago, and it has been running ever since, and this is what it has come to."

Talking in this manner of what they had seen, Mr. George and Rollo returned to the inn, and there they found an excellent breakfast. They were waited upon at the table by the young woman who had so many golden ornaments in her hair; and besides the biftek aux pommes, and the coffee, and the hot milk, and the nice butter, there was the half of one of the round cheeses, such as they had seen in process of making at the dairy.

Chapter XI.
Conclusion

After finishing their breakfast, Mr. George and Rollo entered the carriage again, and returned by the same way that they came, for some miles towards Amsterdam, until they came to the place where the road turned off to go to Saandam. After proceeding for some distance upon one of the inland dikes, they came at length to the margin of the sea, and then for several miles the road lay along the great sea dike, which here defends the land from the ingress of the ocean.

"Ah," said Mr. George, as soon as they entered upon this portion of the road, "here we come to one of the great sea dikes. How glad I am."

"So am I," said Rollo. "I wanted to see one of the sea dikes."

"It is very much like the others," said Mr. George, "only it is much larger."

"Yes," said Rollo, "and see how it winds about along the shore."

In looking forward in the direction in which Rollo pointed, the dike could be traced for a long distance in its course, like an immense railroad embankment, winding in and out in a most remarkable manner, in conformity to the indentations of the shore. In one respect it differed from a railroad embankment, namely, in being bordered and overshadowed by avenues of immense trees, which showed how many ages ago the dike had been built. There is not a railroad embankment in the world that has been built long enough for such immense trees to have had time to grow.

The carriage road lay along the top of the dike, which was very broad, and the slopes of it, towards the water on one side, and towards the low meadow lands on the other, were very gradual. Men were at work every where along these slopes, cutting the second crop of grass, and making it into hay. Where the hay was ready to be got in, the men were at work loading it into boats that lay in the little canals that extend along the sides of the dike at the foot of the slopes.

Wind mills were to be seen every where, all about the horizon. As the road approached Saandam, these mills became more and more numerous.

"I mean to see if I can count them," said Rollo.

"You cannot count them, I am sure," said Mr. George.

Rollo began; but when he got up to a hundred, he gave up the undertaking in despair. Mr. George told him that he read in the guide book that there were four thousand wind mills in that region.

Some of these wind mills were very small indeed; and there were two or three which looked so "cunning," as Rollo said, that he wished very much that he had one of them to take with him to America.

The use of these very small wind mills was to pump up the water from some very limited tract of land, which, for some reason or other, happened to lie a few inches lower than the rest.

At last, after an infinite number of turnings and windings, by means of which every part of the surrounding country was brought in succession into view before Mr. George and Rollo as they sat in their carriage, they arrived at the town of Saandam.

The town consists of two streets, one on each embankment of a great canal. The streets are closely built up for many miles along the canal, but the town does not extend laterally at all, on account of the ground falling off immediately to very low polders.

After entering the street the commissioner left the carriage, in order that the horses might rest, and led Mr. George and Rollo on a walk through the prettiest part of the town. They walked about half a mile along the canal on one side, and then, crossing by a ferry, they came back on the other side.

In the course of this walk they went to see the hut where Peter the Great lived while he was in Holland engaged in studying ship building in the ship yards of Saandam. The hut itself was old and dilapidated; but it was covered and protected by a good, substantial building of brick, with open arches all around, which allowed the hut to be seen, while the roof and walls of the building protected it from the rain. The hut was situated in a very pretty little garden.

There were two rooms in the hut, and one of them—the one shown in the engraving—had a very curious-looking Dutch fireplace in one corner of it, and a ladder to go up to the loft above. The chairs were very curious indeed; the seats being three-cornered, and the back and arms being constructed in a very singular manner.

The walls of the rooms were perfectly covered, in every part, with the names of visitors, who had come from all countries to see the rooms. Besides these, there were a great many volumes of books filled with names. These books lay on a great table, which stood at one side of the room. There was one of the books which was not yet full, and this one lay open on the table, with a pen and ink near it, in order that fresh visitors, as fast as they came, might enter their names.

After looking at this cabin as long as they wished, and entering their names in the book, Mr. George and Rollo left the hut and returned through one of the main streets of the town to the place where they had left their carriage. The carriage was soon ready for them, and they set out to go back to Amsterdam.

They had a delightful drive back, going as they came, on the top of the great sea dike. On one side they could look off over a wide expanse of water, with boats, and steamers, and ships moving to and fro in every direction over it. On the other side they overlooked a still wider expanse of low and level green fields, intersected every where with canals of water and avenues of trees, and with a perfect forest of wind mills in the horizon.

As they were riding quietly along upon this dike on the return to Amsterdam, Rollo had the opportunity of imparting to Mr. George some valuable information in respect to Peter the Great.

"I am glad that I have had an opportunity to see the workshop of Peter the Great," said Mr. George. "It is very curious indeed. But I don't know much about Peter the Great. The first opportunity I get I mean to read an account of his life, and I advise you to do the same."

"I have read about him," said Rollo. "I found a book about him in a steamboat that we came in, and I read all about his coming to Holland."

"Then tell me about it," said Mr. George.

"Why, you see," said Rollo, "he was at war with the Turks, and he fought them and drove them off to the southward, until at last he came to the Sea of Asoph. Then he could not fight them any more, unless he could get some ships. So he made a law for all the great boyars of his kingdom, that every one of them must build or buy him a ship. What are boyars, uncle George?"

"Nobles," said Mr. George.

"I thought it must be something like that," replied Rollo.

"The old nobility of those Russian countries are called boyars," said Mr. George; "but I don't know why. Most of the common people are slaves to them."

"Well, at any rate," said Rollo, "he made a law that every one of them, or at least all that were rich enough, should build or buy him a ship; but they did not know how to build ships themselves, and so they were obliged to send to Holland for ship builders. They built more and better ships in Holland in those days than in any country in the world."

"Yes, I suppose so," said Mr. George.

"The boyars did not like it very well to be obliged to build these ships," continued Rollo. "And there was another thing that they disliked still more."

"What was that?" asked Mr. George.

"Why, the emperor made them send off their sons to be educated in different foreign countries," replied Rollo. "You see, in those days Russia was very little civilized, and Peter concluded that it would help to introduce civilization into the country, if the sons of the principal men went to other great cities for some years, to study sciences and arts. So he sent some of them to Paris, and some to Berlin, and some to Amsterdam, and some to Rome. But most of them did not like to go."

"That's strange," said Mr. George. "I should have thought they would have liked to go very much."

"At least their fathers did not like to send them," said Rollo; "perhaps on account of the expense; and some of the young men did not like to go. There was one that was sent to Venice, in order that he might see and learn every thing that he could there, that would be of advantage to his own country; but he was so cross about it that when he got to Venice he shut himself up in his house, and declared that he would not see or learn any thing at all."

"He was a very foolish fellow, I think," said Mr. George.

"Yes," said Rollo, "I think he was. But I've seen boys in school act just so. They get put out with the teacher for something or other, and then they won't try to understand the lesson."

"That is punishing themselves, and not the teacher," said Mr. George. "But go on about Peter."

"After a while," continued Rollo, "Peter concluded to make a journey himself. His plan was to go to all the most civilized countries, and into all the finest cities in Europe, and see what he could learn that would be of use in his own dominions. So he fitted out a grand expedition. He took a number of ambassadors, and generals, and great potentates of all kinds with him. These men were dressed in splendid uniforms, and travelled in great state, and had grand receptions in all the great towns that they came to. But Peter himself did nothing of the kind. He dressed plainly, like a common man, so that wherever he went he could ramble about at liberty, and see what he wanted to see in peace and quietness, while all the people were running after the procession of ambassadors and grandees."

"That was a good plan," said Mr. George.

"An excellent plan," rejoined Rollo. "In some of the seaports that he visited, he used to put on a sort of a pea jacket, such as the Dutch skippers wore, and go about in that, along the wharves and docks, and look at all the shipping.

"But he was most interested in going to Holland," continued Rollo, "for that was the country where they built the best ships. Besides, the first vessel that he ever saw happened to be a Dutch vessel. I forgot to tell you about that."

"Yes," replied Mr. George, "tell me now."

"Why, it was some years before this time," said Rollo,—"two or three I believe,—that he first saw a vessel. There was a country place with a handsome house and pleasure grounds, belonging to the royal family. I forget what the name of it was. But that is no matter. One time, after Peter came to the throne, he went out to this country place to spend a few days. He found on the grounds a sort of artificial winding canal or pond, with pretty trees on the banks of it. On this canal was a yacht, which had been built in Holland and brought there, for the people to sail in when they came to that palace. The yacht had not been used much, and was lying neglected at the wharf. But Peter immediately had it put in order, and took a sail in it, and he liked it very much indeed."

"Was it the first vessel that he ever saw?" asked Mr. George.

"Yes," said Rollo, "I believe it was; or at least it was the first that he ever particularly noticed. He liked sailing in it, and then, besides, there was one of his officers there, who had travelled in other countries in Europe where people had ships and navies, and he told Peter what great advantages they gained from them, not only in carrying goods from place to place, but in transporting armies, and fighting their enemies at sea.

"Peter thought a great deal about this, and when he went back to Moscow, which was then the capital, he inquired and found that there were some people from Holland there. He asked them if they knew how to build ships. Some of them said they did. Then he asked them if they could not build him some small vessels, just like the Dutch ships of war. They said they could. So he made a bargain with them, and they built him several.

"Do you know how many?" asked Mr. George.

"Not exactly," replied Rollo. "There were several small vessels, and I remember that there were four frigates, and each frigate had four guns. I don't suppose the guns were very large."

"Four guns is a very small armament for a frigate," said Mr. George.

"Yes," replied Rollo, "very small indeed. But you see, Peter did not want them for real service, but only for models, as it were."

"And what did he do with them, when they were done?" asked Mr. George.

"They were launched into a lake there was in that part of the country," said Rollo, "and there the emperor used to sail about in them, and have sham fights.

"But all this, you must understand," continued Rollo, "took place two or three years before Peter drove the Turks off from the southern part of his empire, so as to get to the sea. And it was not till then that he began to have real ships built of large size. And now, when he was going to Holland, he of course remembered the old Dutch yacht which he had on his pleasure grounds, and the small frigates which they had built him, and the large ones too, which they had built for the boyars, and he felt a great interest in going to see the ship yards. He determined that while he was in Holland he would spend as much time as he could in learning all about ship building.