ponge, or, as the English poet Butler called it--

"A land that rides at anchor, and is moored,
In which they do not live, but go aboard."

Persons are born, live, and die, and even have their gardens on
canal-boats. Farmhouses, with roofs like great slouched hats pulled over
their eyes, stand on wooden legs, with a tucked up sort of air, as if to
say, "We intend to keep dry if we can."

Even the horses wear a wide stool on each hoof to lift them out of the
mire.

It is a glorious country in summer for bare-footed girls and boys. Such
wadings! Such mimic ship sailing! Such rowing, fishing, and swimming!
Only think of a chain of puddles where one can launch chip boats all
day long, and never make a return trip!

But enough. A full recital would set all Young America rushing in a body
toward the Zuyder Zee.

* * * * *

Directions for Reading.--In reading the first line of page 187, there
will be a slight rising of the voice after each of the words,
_ditches', canals', ponds', rivers'_, and a slight falling of the voice
after _lakes'_.[11]

This rising or falling of the voice is called _inflection_, and may be
indicated as above.

Language Lesson.--What is the meaning of "Young America"?

[11] See paragraph 7.

* * * * *

LESSON XXXIX.

freight, _cargo; that which forms a load_.

convey'ance, _the act of carrying_.

jum'ble, _a number of things crowded together without order_.

bobbed, _cut off short_.

bewil'dering, _confusing_.

gild'ed, _covered with a thin, surface of gold_.

yoked, _joined together with harness_.

rare'ly, _not often_.

impris'oned, _shut up or confined, as in a prison_.

clat'tering, _making a loud noise_.

* * * * *

HOLLAND.

PART II.

Dutch cities seem, at first sight, to be a bewildering jumble of
houses, bridges, churches, and ships, sprouting into masts, steeples,
and trees. In some cities boats are hitched, like horses, to their
owners' door-posts, and receive their freight from the upper windows.

[Illustration]

Mothers scream to their children not to swing on the garden gate for
fear they may be drowned. Water roads are more frequent there than
common roads and railroads; water-fences, in the form of lazy green
ditches, inclose pleasure-ground, farm, and garden.

Sometimes fine green hedges are seen; but wooden fences, such